SAN ANTONIO – A fight can be lost before it ever begins.
At Takedown City Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu Academy, young athletes are learning to win the fight — before the fight — inside their own minds.
“I can’t wrestle with a bad mind, because then I lose,” Madison junior wrestler Cordelia Martinez said, “and I don’t like to lose.”
“In the past, my mindset wasn’t the strongest, and I constantly had doubts about beating my opponents,” wrestler and jiu-jitsu practitioner Ava Cabalona, 13, said.
Danielle Walker, the academy’s owner and head coach, is an eight-time jiu-jitsu world champion.
The academy is the largest of its kind in San Antonio and has a large number of female wrestlers.
Most recently, nine seniors from the academy committed to wrestle at the collegiate level.
“Hard practices build wrestlers, and not only that, we’re always there,” Walker told KSAT. “We talk after practice. We talk about journaling. We talk about certain things to work on our mindset.”
Whether you’re Walker or 10-year-old Jacinto Jaden Hernandez, the most important battle is the one with your emotions.
“When you’re nervous, it’s your gut being excited,” Hernandez said. “It really helped me to get out there to be No. 1.”
“I found a mindset coach. I started reading more mindset books. I started working on my mental toughness and my confidence,” Walker said. “I think that turned something in my brain.”
Before anyone steps onto the mat for one of the most intense and grueling sports, the work at the academy begins with a pen and paper.
“I’ve been journaling a lot more,” Martinez said. “It’s taking my feelings from my negative thoughts and turning them into more of my goals.”
The athletes at the academy are mastering what most people spend a lifetime trying to understand.
“I was very happy, because after that, I would win gold medal after gold medal,” Cabalona said. “And I feel like I finally got the hang of my mindset.”
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