Change can be a scary thing. This past Spring, I bought a townhouse and began to live on my own for the first time in my life. Admittedly, I was intimidated initially by this life change, but despite this change, not much else in my life was different. I still Continue Reading
Inspiration
Why ‘Good Enough” Really Isn’t Good Enough
There have been many times where I would either be doing house chores, working on a certain project, or even practicing my martial skills and will say, “that’s good enough” and then move on to the next task or activity. I’m certain I’m not alone in this sentiment, and it Continue Reading
Teach Like Your Training Depends on It
We constantly hear the importance of teaching as we become more advanced in our martial arts journey. Some may struggle to grasp the importance of this and may even have some resistance to this thinking that if they are spending so much of their time teaching, how will they have Continue Reading
Don’t Forget to Celebrate
A while back a friend and I were competing at a tournament. After my friend’s round, I congratulated them on their performance. This person immediately started criticizing themselves and listing all of the ways they could have done better. I reminded them, celebrate your wins today, tomorrow is when you Continue Reading
Mentally Recovering from Injury
A while back I wrote a post about strength and conditioning and avoiding injury. (Link here). And I had said that my own recovery story was for another day. Well here we are. The fact is that I have tried to sit down and write this article so many times. Continue Reading
Opportunities: Rise to the Occasion
When I was in high school band, a few members of the wind ensembles were borrowed to play with the string ensembles to make a full orchestra. If there was a certain member that was playing in the full orchestra was absent, someone else would need to step in for Continue Reading
What You Value in Others
I have a lot of great friends that I’ve met through training and our association. I’ve mentioned in previous articles that the connections you make in martial arts are different from regular everyday interactions; you have to have a certain level of trust and respect to let someone punch and Continue Reading
Is Insecurity Holding You Back?
This past weekend, I had the privilege of sharing some knowledge of jump kicking with some youth black belts at our regional black belt camp. It was a great time; I really enjoy the opportunity to dive deep into certain martial arts topics and proverbially, Preach to the Choir sharing Continue Reading
Ask for Help
I don’t know why, but it’s always been extremely hard for me to speak up about how I feel or what I need, or even just talk about myself in general. I’ve mentioned my struggles with mental health before, so I’m guessing it’s a winning combination of that plus my Continue Reading
What Your Stance Says About You
Anyone who has ever trained alongside me or taken a class taught by me, knows that I value stances a lot. While stances are a crucial fundamental and having a good foundation is critical for the development of good technique, that is not totally why I emphasize stances. I emphasize Continue Reading