Last week I decided it was time to start making my columns more relatable to a college audience. Recently my colleague Emily Markanich has been writing about the benefits of individual and guided meditation. I’m going to steal a page from her book and talk about why practicing martial arts is extremely beneficial for the mind and body. I started practicing Tae Kwon Do when I was six years old, earning my black belt four years later at the age of 10. After taking a few years off to pursue other sports, I started back at age 14, this time training in Hapkido, Krav Maga, kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Two more black belts later, I never stopped training for more than a few months at a time. Practicing martial arts as a child helped me with my self-esteem, confidence, the ability to perform under pressure and diligence. After all, working to get a black belt in most martial arts takes about the same amount of time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree, and in some arts ­like Brazilian jiu-jitsu­— the time it takes to earn a Ph.D. As a teenager, it taught me patience, to control my anger and other emotions, to know when is the right time to fight versus when is the right time to stand down and that sometimes standing down is the noble thing to do. On a physical level, martial arts increases flexibility, keeps weight in check and will boost your stamina like nothing else. And there is a different martial art to meet every desire. For those who simply want to learn how to defend themselves, arts like Krav Maga teach basic attacks based on natural body motions to quickly dispatch one or multiple adversaries. For those who like competition and want to put their skills to the test, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and submission grappling all translate well to sports such as mixed martial arts. Luckily for UK students, there are several martial arts clubs on campus and multiple martial arts gyms in the local Lexington area; where students can start training for the very first time, or dust off skills from their youth. And practicing martial arts in no way makes one more violent. I have participated in dozens of fights in martial arts competitions everywhere from Florida to Ireland and yet I have never been in a fight at school, in a bar or anywhere else. There is no limit to what one can gain from practicing martial arts. As stand up comedian and lifelong martial artist Joe Rogan puts it, “Martial arts is a vehicle for developing your human potential.” Cheyene Miller is the managing editor for the Kentucky Kernel. [email protected]