Field Journal

Essays from the mat.

A quarterly collection of short pieces, transcripts, and notebook fragments from coaches, traveling competitors, and longtime students.

Issue VII · Spring 2026

On the long warm-up.

An argument for spending twenty minutes drilling shrimping before a single round of sparring. By Hannah Choi, a brown belt from Park Slope.

Issue VII

The unnamed referee, part three.

The third of a recurring series of interviews with a referee who has officiated at amateur tournaments across the Northeast since 1996.

Issue VI · Winter 2025

What the white belt remembers.

A short essay on the strange clarity of the first six months.

Issue VI

Notebook from Lisbon.

Eleven days at a small academy in the Alfama, written in a series of café entries.

Issue V · Autumn 2025

On coaching children.

How to teach a positional concept to a seven-year-old who has just lost a tooth.

Issue V

A short defense of drilling.

Against the modern fashion for situational sparring alone.

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