A Great Honor

This past weekend, I was an attendee at a martial arts seminar hosted by Martial Arts USA. As part of the formalities at the opening ceremony, several awards were given out. My student, Sarah, was awarded "Martial Artist of the Year."

Here is a link to Sarah's blog post about same.
I suggest adding her blog to your reading list, really enlightening and entertaining stuff!

When the call went out back in March, soliciting MAUSA Instructors for input on Martial Artist of the Year (as well as some other awards), this was my reply:

"From the Usagi Dojo,

 

I’d like to nominate for Martial Artist of the Year, our own Sarah Caum.

Sarah started training jiu-jitsu in spring of 2011. She subsequently was forced to take a 4-month hiatus for the 3rd trimester of her pregnancy and the birth of her son, James. She returned in fall of 2011.

 

2012 was her breakout year. Sarah competed in 4 tournaments and won a collective 6 medals -

2 Gold

2 Silver

2 Bronze

 

Sarah racked up this record against primarily Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stylists, despite the fact that she did not practice BJJ until later in 2012 – and then only as a supplement, and only for a few weeks. Sarah won the majority of her matches via submission. All of her submissions, save one, were gained via the juji gatame arm lock – the one exception being sankaku jime (triangle choke).

 

Sarah also proved to have a voracious appetite for learning new material. She progressed from a beginner (10th kyu) up to 5th kyu (Blue Belt) in 2012. She was made Sempai (assistant instructor) of the kids’ class at the Usagi Dojo due to this appetite for knowledge.

 

Due to her progress on the mat in several areas, Sarah was sponsored by an apparel company – Fight-2-Night. She also was featured in an article and pictorial in a magazine devoted to women martial artists.  Sarah was also tabbed to assist in a martial arts seminar at John Kennedy Martial Arts in Appomattox, VA to wrap up the year."