FokaiProductDevelopment:TheBeast.v1.
May 11, 2012 by admin
Filed under Product Development, ProductDevelopment, Special Forces
Took apart a couple bags and brought it together for the first step in materialing an idea and product.
TheOlympicStandard:
May 5, 2012 by admin
Filed under FokaiAthletics, Onra
TheBigIdea is Now GlobalPhenomenon
by:NealKranz
Editor’s note: This weekly column looks at the global phenomenon of multi-country, multi-sport events or Games and their wide-ranging effect on the world of sport and beyond.
The vision of organizing a multi-country, multi-sport event in different locations every four years became a reality more than 100 years ago with the staging of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.
Since that time the idea has spread across the globe and numerous organizations have taken to staging their own versions of “The Games,” creating an explosion of opportunities for athletes to compete for their countries.
Yet, where in the world did the driving force and idea behind all of this activity begin? Maybe not quite where you would think.
If you said Greece, you were at least on the right continent, but a little east of correct. The idea of staging a multi-county, multi-sport event came from the studies of a French aristocrat by the name of Pierre de Coubertin. As a young man he traveled to England and saw how the schools there valued a combination of physical education and traditional studies. From there he began thinking of ways to promote the educational and humanistic values he saw developed through sport.
At some point, lightning struck (excuse the Zeus reference) and his mind connected the pageantry, values and power of the ancient Olympic Games with the modern need for a single, repeatable event to promote international sport, and the idea for the modern Olympic Games was born.
It was not easy
Of course, the transition from idea to actual event was not an easy process. Pierre de Coubertin had to convince a lot of people that such an undertaking was worth their time, not to mention money. It may seem ridiculous now, but most people were skeptical that countries would even bother sending athletes to other countries just to play “Games.”
Still, a group of like-minded people joined de Coubertin and formed the International Olympic Committee in 1894 in Paris and began preparing to organize the first modern Olympic Games. When the athletes entered the stadium in Athens, Greece, for the opening ceremonies in 1896, there was no way they could have known the impact they would have on the history of world sport.
Billions of fans
Little more than 100 years later, hundreds of thousands of athletes and billions of fans have taken part in either the Olympic Games or other multi-country Games based on the Olympic format. Billions of dollars are spent annually on the promoting and staging of these Games and they are a great source of international pride for the individuals and countries involved. In short, the Games have become a truly global phenomenon that is still going strong.
With the spectacle of the opening ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympic Games less than 100 days away, it is fitting to pause a moment and consider just how big a single idea can become. Truly amazing.
See you next time, when I will look at the opportunities and challenges the spread of various types of “Games” has brought about.
Neal Kranz has been a teacher, athlete and coach on Guam for more than 20 years. He competed at the 1996 Olympics in wrestling and has a master’s degree in Olympic sports organization management.
UnlockingTheDoors:MyFather’sHands
2 Days ago after attending a Bikram yoga class in Kuta Bali, i was distraught to discover that my keys were missing from the bag that i normally place them in between the twenty steps it takes from the motorbike parking to the front door of the Bikram Yoga Studio…
About 2hours later after calling all the unified forces to retrieve the keys we had discovered that 2 young parking lot servicemen had found them in the parking lot an hour prior–(i apparently missed my bag when throwing them in).
Later on that day, after doing a sunset surf on my way to the same motorbike i had decided to buy a Nasi Bunkus (Bali food for 40cents!) and mysteriously lost track of those same darn keys in between the 20 steps from the FoodStand to the mototorbike..AGAIN 2young (different) servicemen had found the keys bringing relief to a head that was self-slapped several times for the mishaps…
When i was a kid my father had a tendency to lose his keys and i was always the bloodhound who had a skill-from-above for finding the hidden treasures but at 37years old for whatever reason if there was a world championships in losing keys i would be its version of KellySlater.
I had a “lucky” set of keys from 2002-2004 and in ABSOLUTE BELIEF IN THE POWERS OF VOODOO MAGIC that i would bring with me everywhere, would set them in waters of epic surf, splash blood on them from several wounds sustained in failed attempts of downhill snakeboarding, set them into the soils and sands of epic parties and beach bbqs, place them in between the handshakes with friends and family, etc..
My father passed away on the morning of May 8th of 2004 training for the CocosCrossing in attempts to raise funds to donate for the renovations of the library of his high school alma mater. On the day of his funeral in front of the coffin that had inside one-half of the effort that brought me to life, i had (almost reluctantly) made the decision to place these keys in my father’s hands hoping, trusting, and having faith that they would be in safe keeping…thinkingthat would be the end to to the voodoo ceremonies and starting anew would be a large task because NOTHING could ever replace the energy of all that had gone into those keys…or so i thought.
After the funeral, i was having a conversation with my mother and we were talking about dreams of my father after his passing. In the only dream i had at the time i had seen him in the mirror but with his faced cracking with wrinkles fromt he anxieties of difficulties only to find out that two days before the funeral my mother had seen that same version of his face however this time it was in because he was in a cage and screaming for somebody to let him out…
it’s amazing how things have a way of falling into place. Even in dark days–God is everywhere and i am glad that although i may continue to lose my keys til the day i crossover..my favorite keys and the keys that truly count are forver in the right place..int he right hands.
GodIsReal and VoodooMagic forLife.
1008&GoodVibrations
FokaiAmphibiousDivision:22ndAnnualCocosCrossing
May 1, 2012 by admin
Filed under Events, GuamWatermen'sClub
Check it out. for the first time in GuamHistory–the Cocos Crossing is gonna have a special 5.5mile distance course to CocosAND back.
exhaustthebody.proceedthemind.cultivatethespirit.
Fokai,66Degrees&Spiderman
April 27, 2012 by admin
Filed under FokaiCombatUNit, Special Forces
66Degrees broadcasting coverage of Jesse”Spiderman”Taitano’s last fight in Japan MMA competiton
13n144e.MorningGlory
April 9, 2012 by admin
Filed under GuamWatermen'sClub
A small window into the BigParadise that is much more than where America’sDay begins…
FokaiHawaii:CrazyMikeSpeaketh!
April 1, 2012 by admin
Filed under Familia, FokaiCombatUNit, FokaiHawaii
In this exclusive video interview brought to you by OpenMatRadio.com, Mike Fowler shares his thoughts on several controversial topics in grappling today. For more information of Mike check out www.mikefowlertv.com
GoodVibrations:HafaAdai&Aloha
March 30, 2012 by admin
Filed under 1008, FokaiHawaii
In November of last year ago i took a visit to Hawaii and snapped this picture of guy who mightve been older than the bunch but was absolutely KILLING it on an SUP..Never knew who he was(Still dont). The picture was such a telltale photo of Hawaii…older dude, on a stand up paddle, just into take off…We dug the photo so much that we actually made our frst standup paddle shirt out of it.
March 29th,2012 almost six months later…i paddle out to Pops for amorning session..ai swim about 3oyards in to retrieve my board after a failed takeoff and this same guy retrieves my paddle and brings it to me with nothing but Aloha.. and proceeds to the lineup where he continued to SHRED..and I still dont know who he is.
What goes around defintiely does come around…gonna have to find a way to get this guy a tanktop that he likely doesnt even know exists.
Small World, Good Vibrations, Hafa Adai &Aloha
Onra:March15th,2012
Hafa adai.
First of all, the column has been a few weeks overdue and a sincere apology to the handful of you who spare a piece of your valuable time to share in the good intention that is rooted in between the lines of these words of babble. The Pacific Daily News has been kind enough to give Guam’s competitive and non-competitive martial arts a voice and truthfully — in particular these past few weeks — the island’s achievements really have a lot to speak of.
Among other things:
Our neighbors in Saipan are rising from the ashes of misfortune as the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands’ major headquarters for mixed martial arts development was set afire by a-yet-to-be-identified arsonist on Feb. 8. Saipan’s premiere fight training center was down but not out as Trench Tech’s Purebred Saipan is already back up and running in its new location on the seventh floor of the Marianas Business Plaza. Contact Cuki Alvarez on Facebook for further details if you want to help with the resurrection of Saipan’s ongoing campaign for positive mixed martial arts representation.
A standing ovation for PXC 30 and the Rise for Japan. What a great example of Guam’s embrace of mixed martial arts in conscious effect for the greater good.
Guam continues to succeed in U.S. jiu-jitsu competition. Great job for Guam’s Gerson Atoigue for taking gold in the adult brown-belt division at the Seventh Arizona Open & Arnold Classic 2012 and good work again for Mike Carbullido, taking first place in the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials for the adult purple-belt 202-pound division.
Props for Universal Alliance’s Jon Tuck, who fought well in his chance at one of the 16 slots of The Ultimate Fighter’s Season 15. Despite breaking a toe in the middle of the fight, great job fighting forward valiantly, letting the watching world know that Guam will fight strong to make its way forward into the upper tiers of world MMA.
Good luck to Joey Lopez and Maria Dunn, who are in Morocco to compete in the continental qualifier for the London 2012 Olympic Games March 16-18. We are endlessly looking forward to seeing our island’s grapplers in the world’s greatest sporting event.
Magnificent 17
Ava and Alexandria Aflague, Laralei and Jayronne Gandaoli, Stevie, David and Ambrosio Shimizu, William and Thomas Ludwig, Ralph Gutierrez, Johanna and Ayden Duenas, Brian Roberto, Justin Untalan, Gi’anne Mantanane, Rayjon Umadhay and Adriano Cruz are 17 names worth remembering from the Purebred/Lloyd Irvin Jiu-Jitsu Academy for the countless hours of training, the priceless accounts of sacrifice and the thousands of miles of traveling to California for Feb. 19′s Pan Kids Jiu-Jitsu Championships.
In an effort to cement their victory from last year’s tournament that turned eyes of attention from all around the jiu-jitsu world toward this tiny dot in the Pacific, they finished in a close second place to team CheckMat (who was accompanied by Universal Alliance’s Ethan Flores of Guam). Just a hair’s margin away from becoming the event’s defending champions, Team Lloyd Irvin walked away from its 2012 venture to and through the Pan Kids Jiu-Jitsu Championships with more virtue than they had asked for.
Just a day before the Pan Kids tournament the representatives from Guam decided to pay a visit to the Gracie Museum in the newly located Gracie Academy in Torrance, Calif. There, to everyone’s surprise and thanks to super-perfect timing, they were happily greeted by the legendary Rorion Gracie, who was kind enough to spontaneously offer a personal and very elaborate tour of Gracie jiu-jitsu’s history, personally dialogue different details that shared true and memorable stories of the days-of-old Gracie Challenge and outline the steps that led to the inevitable creation of the UFC.
After hearing of the hurdles that his father Helio endured to create Gracie jiu-jitsu, the hosted tour was a priceless experience and a lifetime highlight that in itself made the trip vastly more than worthwhile.
The past couple weeks we’ve been in touch with all kinds of Mariana Island martial arts headline stories. Off-island jiu-jitsu success, MMA for benefits, our fighters on national TV, etc. It’s amazing the stories we are able to tell truthfully through these many ventures of self-improvement.
Recognizing that a martial arts headline or cover story in the past seemed more exotic, and few and far between, now it seems that virtually every week we are given a highlight-worthy public feature and broadcast. It’s success story after success story, competition after competition, ambition after ambition. Guam’s occasional MMA or jiu-jitsu headline that used to make a sound on this mere 32-mile-long island has now become a frequency that is resounding positively all over the planet.
Pushing for success
Our guys and gals are putting in real work. Our athletes are competing in the greatest events, they are training with the world’s best and even outside of competing, they are going above and beyond to join in the push for the success of fighting sports and competitive martial arts. We have been supported with hard work and sacrifice; we are blessed with ambition and direction. As a result, we are increasingly inspired with the panoramic view of massive opportunity. Guam is leading the way to put the Mariana Islands in good light throughout the extending landscape of combat sport. It’s really inspiring to see our island, our people and our neighbors in the Marianas reaping its benefits. Byproducts of our love for the game have escorted our island recognizably and honorably throughout the many corners of its increasingly complex and diverse industry.
Martial arts has done, is doing and will be doing a great service for the islands even if for any reason we should become the most unaccomplished competitors in the world.
Watching Dana White, Dominic Cruz and Urijah Faber give Jon Tuck props on national TV, seeing our Pan Kids competitors hosted by Rorion Gracie, hosting celebrities and legends at 13 degrees North 144 degrees East firmly illustrates that our efforts through competitive martial arts have blazed the way for a path toward greatness for the Mariana Islands.
In this ridiculously competitive sport we’re definitely not the best in the world nor are we pretending to be, and we are light years away from perfect, but you can’t argue that martial arts and competitive martial arts on Guam in many ways is something done properly.
After reading comments on Facebook to see our athletes and martial artists rise above discipline and/or gym affiliation to show their support for our brothers in battle around the world, it’s obvious that in a venture of (among other things) learning how to defend ourselves, we, at least and in large, have learned to fight for the honor of our islands, something far greater than any single person, discipline or gym. And in this small part of an even bigger picture, the growing numbers of fighters and fans around the world will agree that our islands are definitely something worth fighting for.
For her honor always.
Thanks for dropping by.
ForLife:DestinyAnderson
Hearing no evil with the FokaiFamilia…
