ONRA:December17th,2009

Hafa Adai,

Congratulations to IAN Lujan who, at only 16years old, had become the MuyThainternational Association amateur 140lb. champion witha first round TKO voictory  in Las Vegas on December 4th. Hats are off and glasses are raised for the Guam chapter of the Carlson Gracie Jiujitsu Academy for taking the team trophy in successful The 4thAnnual Shoyoroll All Island Jiujitsu Tournament this past weekend.

TrenchWarz11 Redemption will be this Friday. Spike 22’s Justin’The Shocker”Cruz and  Undisputed PXC Heavyweight Champion Roque Martinez have returned  to Tokyo to compete in Deep Cage Impactat the DifferAriake Hall in Japan whileGuams youth will be on deck for our support this weekend in the All Island High School Wrestling Championships8am starting .at the George Washington High School this Saturday

Its interesting how significant the role that high school wrestling has played int he roles of Guam’s current fluorishing comeptitive martial arts environment. Melchor Manibusan, ,ZacRapadas,Maria Dunn, Eric Sian—how many other names in high school wrestling have we seen in the headlines of some of the biggest achievements of Guam combat sports in days past? How many more of these names will we see in the days to come?Even though wrestling doesn not publicly claim itself as martial art, it commonly offers and cultivates alot of the core skills and ethics required in the ever evolving talent that come with modernized Martial Arts competition and the true ultimate proving ground that we know as life..

Like any martial art,;collegiate, freestyle, or greco-roman wrestling offers a wide array of techniquesin dealing with different positions and combative situations. Competitive Wrestling, in general seems to also offer arguably the most physically demanding condtioning programs among other combat sports.Hardly ever in a wreslting practice, do we see efforts towards the conservation of energy or of steady pacing. really, even at its lower levels, the ill conditioned are left behind or forced to conform to the masses that  fall into the category of some of the finest tuned sportsmen and women in all of athletics.

But despite what wrestling or martial arts might have tons to offer in field-tested technique and science-defying feats of strength and stamina,  maybe the greatest gift that combat sport and martial art brings to the table is mental toughness.

When the going gets tough the tough should get going and that is a theme that hopefully our wrestlers will take not only into competition this weekend but out of the mat and into  their lives.

even in days prior to the UFC or BJJ, Martial arts seems to have always been a hit on Guam. Now however, with the newly revised technique in combat sports, with its strong emphasis on athleticism and proper nutrition— we are seeing in our islands the most formidable hand -to-hand fighters in our history of great fighters.

Proud for the moment , but not so necessarily, because there is so much more to our people than our chances of being recognized as the toughest, most unrelenting people int he world. Just as important should be the ability and the pursuit of the ability to weave this authority responsibly.

And just as valuable, should be the understanding that the abuse of such an authority is only a road to darker days .

Valuable is the gift of mental toughness but half-empty is this gift if we forget that the ability to be the hardest of the hard is made exponentially more valuable of knowing that opportunity also arises in also trying to understand the how and the when it is right to be soft. And then again  these things dont just happen overnight. I would assume thats what trainings for.

Thanks for dropping by.