Lose the battle; win the war?

Sometime's it's ok to make mistakes. That's the great thing about fencing, it's not actually for real. Last night I was fencing a chap who I will probably encounter in an upcoming competition. I hadn't fenced him for over a year and decided to treat it as a recce mission. I ended up losing 10-2 but learnt a lot. Obviously if life had been at stake I would have been in trouble but I was content to lose the fight and contemplate my mistakes so that I could learn from them.
The real problem with mistakes is if we get stuck on them and are unable to move past them. If it is at all possible it is better to let them go and get on with the next lunge, hit, fight etc. There's no point in kicking yourself over these things at any point. I suppose if I had been a Samurai sword master I would have retreated to a mountain cave (with scenic waterfall of course) where I could have contemplated my defeat and licked my metaphorical wounds. As it is , I had to content myself with a drive across the fens to Peterborough!