One of my best instructors, who taught brutal chokes, joint locks, and take downs, always emphasized the importance of safety and partner etiquette. He used to say, “We take good care of our toys.”
Today’s post by Jose Gilgado discusses how to design an environment that is safe, respectful, and supportive of proper training. See the end of the article for more information about the author.
Continue reading “Guest Writer: How to Design a Safe Environment in Martial Arts Academies”
About this time six years ago at age 41, I tore my right ACL and ended up having two surgeries to correct it. Eventually I got back to taekwondo, but it took a lot of physical, mental, and emotional perseverance. Injuries, big or small, are a part of most athlete’s lives, especially as we age. To stay fit and strong and do the things we love, there are things we need to consider and be mindful of as we train or recover. This article from Emma Grace Brown includes mindset and practical tips for dealing with injuries in your 30s, 40s, or 50s.
Adult martial artists face a different reality than teenagers and young competitors. Whether you train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, judo, Muay Thai, karate, taekwondo, or another discipline, the way you manage injuries in your 30s, 40s, and 50s plays a major role in determining how long you’ll stay on the mat. A sore shoulder ignored today can become a chronic limitation years later, while a properly managed knee injury may eventually become little more than another chapter in your training journey.
Article by Dana Brown, Guest Writer
Martial arts practitioners who train hard while juggling work, family, and recovery often hit the same wall: more sessions don’t automatically bring better results. When soreness lingers, focus slips, and motivation dips, the issue is rarely a lack of grit, it’s usually head-to-toe health falling behind training demands. Small, consistent daily wellness routines create the foundation for training performance enhancement by supporting joints, energy, immunity, and mood. The goal is simple: practical holistic health strategies that protect physical and mental well-being every day.
Y’all ready to clutch your pearls?
Let me clarify–I stopped going to training classes at the end of December and have decided not to go back for an indefinite amount of time.
It’s taken several months and a few coaching sessions from my coworkers, also fellow trained coaches, to process my complicated feelings around this. The short version is, I wasn’t having fun anymore, I didn’t look forward to going to class, and I was starting to resent giving up time that I could be using to do something else.
The more complicated version is–this was part of the fallout of the extreme burnout I experienced in 2025.
When regular contributor Emma Grace Brown sent me her article about avoiding burnout, I thought, “What perfect timing!” I’m currently on a hiatus from taekwondo because I am, in fact, burned out. There were many other life-related factors that led to my decision at the end of last year to take a few months off, which I may explore in a future blog post. For now, it’s the right thing for me, and I will return to what I love eventually. I’m going to take Emma’s words to heart and think about how I can approach my training differently when I return.
I was recently approached by the team at Parana Sports Industries requesting to submit a guest article. The topic they pitched was intriguing: mistakes to avoid in taekwondo conditioning. Over my nearly 15 years of practicing taekwondo, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and as I get older, those become more costly to avoid. Whether you’re an aging martial artist like me or a spring chicken, proper training and care for your body will make you less prone to injuries and ensure you can practice for a lifetime.
If you want to submit a guest article for Little Black Belt, please review the guest writer guidelines here.
Continue reading “Guest Writer: 5 Training Mistakes to Avoid in Taekwondo Conditioning”
Thanks to conversations with my boss and a counselor about my severe burnout, several days off here and there for rest and rejuvenation, hormones starting to regulate so my suspected peri-menopausal symptoms aren’t as bad, and more days of actual honest to God decent sleep…I’m feeling better than I was when I wrote my last post.
But I’m not out of the woods yet.
I’ve been wanting to write an article for a while about burnout. The irony isn’t lost on me that it’s taken me over a month to get thoughts to screen because I’ve been “too busy.”
The first time the thought for the article crossed my mind I was at home, having taken Good Friday, April 18, off after a very busy week of work and two full days of being in a training program. I’d also been dealing with severe insomnia, which I attributed to peri-menopausal weirdness but realize in hindsight was exacerbated by stress and burnout. I’d hoped to spend that Friday doing something fun or spending time on one or more of my hobbies, but because I was so exhausted, I spent the day napping on the couch while I waited for the HVAC guy to show up to install a part and do the biannual check-up since that was the only free time I’d had all month.
I was too burned out to write an article about burnout.
Continue reading “If You’re Happy but You’re Burned Out, Clap Your Hands”
When Dr. Antti Rintanen (The Internet Doctor) contacted me about a contributing a guest post offering a physician’s perspective on the benefits of martial arts, I jumped at the chance…well, hopped, being mindful of my current Achilles tendon issue. Something we all could use help improving is our posture. In this article, Dr. Rintanen focuses on how your martial arts practice can improve your posture and in turn, other health concerns. There’s even a five-minute martial arts-inspired posture routine at the end you can try today.
This article is not a substitute for treatment from a licensed medical professional. If you would like to contribute a martial arts-related post, please see the guest writer guidelines here.
By Dr. Antti Rintanen, MD, MSc
In today’s world, poor posture has quietly become a modern epidemic. Hours spent hunched over screens, commuting, and sitting at desks have made forward head posture, rounded shoulders, and anterior pelvic tilt the new normal. As a medical doctor—and a lifelong martial arts practitioner—I’ve seen firsthand how movement habits can either restore or degrade the body’s natural alignment.
I wasn’t sure I was going to fit into my hogu (chest guard) before I went to my first sparring class in four years.