There are warriors, and then there are warriors with a glove. There are athletes, and then there are athletes with grace. Kylee Perez, star second baseman and undisputed Senior leader of the historically vaunted UCLA Bruins Women’s Softball team, is both a warrior with a glove and an athlete with grace. For Kylee Perez, glove and grace go hand in hand.

In unadulterated sports speak, Kylee Nicole Perez is an absolute stud. Her high school and collegiate careers are a cornucopia of leadership, championship success and achievement—scholastic and athletic. Not only did she earn Scholar Athlete awards all four years at Alhambra High School in Martinez, California, she lettered in both baseball and basketball, was Most Valuable Player for three straight seasons, helped her team to four Diablo Foothill Athletic League titles and ended her high school career with a gaudy .590 hitting percentage, 42 homers, 139 RBI and 71 steals. Pretty average, right? Wrong! Way wrong!

General George Patton was one of the most iconic military leaders in history. And what do “White Tie and Tails” have to do with this vaunted martial leader?

I always believe in being prepared, even when I’m dressed in white tie and tails.

In other words, “No matter where I am or how I’m dressed, I’m always prepared to fight.”

From a personal standpoint, are we prepared to such a level? When we go to a movie, are we prepared to confront an assailant? When we’re driving on the road, shopping in the mall, going to our kids athletic event, visiting a loved one in the hospital, getting groceries at the corner store or a cup of coffee at the neighborhood coffee vendor, enjoying the fun at an amusement park, are we constantly alert to the potential of trouble in some capacity? Yes? No?

During its highly successful competitive era, Kiado-Ryu Martial Arts and the Karate Institute of America utilized the following mantra for motivation. It certainly worked. The KIA was so successful that a mother, whose children studied in another karate system, stopped Ken “Ramjet” Rogers (now Anderson) as he walked through the tournament crowd. She said, quite frankly, “You’re going to win.” Ramjet asked why. She retorted, “Because people with that patch always win!”

One doesn’t normally think of Buddha in a martial arts manner. Yet, his following quote harmonizes perfectly with the heart of martial arts philosophy, which is ultimately not about beating up other people but conquering oneself.

William Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest dramatist of the English language and the most quoted author of all time. His “This Above All” quotation from Hamlet (Act 1, scene 3, lines 78-82) gives great advice regarding one’s character and wholeness, i.e., being true to one’s self, for if we are true to ourselves we can never be false, fake or phony to anyone.

As martial artists, not just people, we must learn to be true to who we are. Martial arts is as much a process of self-discovery as it is a regimen of warriorhood. In fact, knowing who we are will make us a better warrior, for we will know our weakness and our strengths, allowing us to strengthen the former and enhance the latter while remaining balanced in the process.