Martial Arts

Martial arts were another popular topic over the last year. Here are our top ten martial arts articles from 2012, written by coaches and athletes from a variety of disciplines.

With apologies to the Beastie Boys. It’s time to hang up my Athlete Journal hat and try on one with maybe a bit more punching and kicking.

Time for an attitude adjustment. Time to get out of the post-tournament-loss dark place and remember why I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu...and myself.

I competed at Worlds on Saturday and I lost. I’m not happy with how I competed because I feel I regressed to old habits. I’m not taking any opportunity for growth or looking for the lesson.

Worlds start today and I compete tomorrow, but I'm thinking about what I'm going to do after it's over. To spoil myself. Here are my five things I plan to do and my justification of each.

This week the struggle is dealing with life and feeling prepared for the Mundial (world championship) at the same time. So I'm thinking about the Girl Scout motto...and their cookies.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Now comes the time to apply this to myself and my training.

If your favorite thing to do in your downtime is walk around in your home dressed like the Hamburglar and watch Yo Gabba Gabba, embrace that sh*t. I'm making the most of my training downtime.

When preparing for competition, today looks a lot like yesterday, and tomorrow will be more of the same. It’s the recipe for success, but it’s not exactly sexy.

I took some time off training to give myself a break, both physically and mentally, before winding back up to prepare for the Mundial. Now I've got five weeks and a list of things to fine tune.

Being philosophical is tiring, especially on top of jet-lag. But I had a great experience in Abu Dhabi, which I'm going to use to make me a better grappler. Plus, I have a clean bill of health!