Warrior Spirit: Alphy Gutierrez and Team Kool Katz

Before I begin todays interview I want you to think about what martial arts has done for you and how it has impacted your life.

Having access to a fun physical activity, building self confidence, self defense or just having an after school program to keep you out of trouble are just some of the many benefits of Martial arts for children. But not all families can afford martial arts lessons for their kids.  Unfortunately more often than not the families that need those services the most, are the ones that can't afford them. Brazilian jiujitsu has a lot of good things going for it as a martial art and a sport, but one of its greatest obstacles is that its one of the most expensive marital arts out there. Alphy Gutierrez has created a non profit BJJ school to help the youth of his community and spread the art.




When did you start Jiu Jitsu and what got you into it? I started Jiu Jitsu back in 07' when I was a 7th grader in Middle school. As a kid growing up I guess you could say I didn't know how to control my anger or emotions. One day a close buddy if mine introduced me to Jiu Jitsu and explaned how I can use that feeling and accomplish something on the mat. And I have been hooked ever since.

When Did you first come up with the idea of a non profit BJJ gym? How about the name Team Kool Katz? At the time if being introduced to bjj I was living in Fox Lake, IL. I was never the wealthiest but I defiantly have family supporters that helped me throughout my life. At the time there was not many bjj gyms near me an if there was they were $100+ a month to train an there was no way I was getting that. Shortly after looking I found a gym that was actually located in my town for a great price. The next day I signed up after three months on training everyday at RFO under Daniel Wanderley who is now at Rufosport. Unfortunately the actually owner a blue belt named randy Fredrick Otto did not make the payments on the building and the sheriffs came an shut down my gym. I was devistaed. Than one day my uncle came home with two big blue Folding mats and said "we don't need a team, we are making our own" for a while we competing under independent or no team but we got tired of that and came up with the name Team Kool Katz at a Indiana tournament C3. And that's how it started What does having a non proffit BJJ gym give your community? There is not much to do in my town you usually are in sports or whatever hobby you do if not you are most likely goofing off getting in trouble and putting your nose in things you shouldn't . With that being said my gym offers kids a place to get away from. All that whatever it may be family problems, friend problems. Ect whatever it may be I just want the best for the kids . What is your proudest martial arts moment? My proudest moment would have to be the time that my Non Profit BJJ Gym took 9th out of 45+ notorious teams!

If you want to find out more about this awesome cause you can find the teams facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TeamKoolKatz

The Sacred Stone: Martial Arts and Your life

Its interesting to hear others experience with martial artists as its so varied from person to person. It ranges wildly from sport to tradition, from daycare alternative to self defense. Everyone enters the circle of martial arts for a different reason and gets different things from it. I personally came to it for self defense and stayed for the sport aspect. My father did taekwondo as an attempt to bond with my brother and when my brother stopped showing up my father stayed as a means to get fit and have a social life.

There are almost flavors for martial arts that are seemingly custom tailored to catch people who have certain tastes. Most Judo clubs are for all intensive purposes solely sport dojos and focused on tournaments and competing under the fixed rules. Karate is seen as a great way to teach your kids respect and have fun. Kravmaga forgoes all the pop and circumstance of belts, and focuses almost solely on self defense and "Street" encounters. There are cardio kickboxing classes whos primary goal is fitness and sometimes tout self defense. These are gross overs simplifications and I am ignoring a lot of the nuances for the sake of brevity but for the most part certain styles do have stigma and branding associated with their flavor of cool aid.

Despite all these differences and flavors of kool aid, the one underlying theme I find in martial arts is the common thread of devotion and sometimes fanaticism it can seem to instill in its participates. To the non initiated its just some hobby or everything is "karate" or "kung fu" But to those who do experience martial arts and stick with it it becomes something special.  I find this especially true amongst novices who its "clicked" for. I find nothing is as loud and and happy to talk about its new martial art as a newly minted lower belt. And there is nothing wrong with that! Its good. Many of the people who I know who participate in martial arts consider it a pretty significant point in their life till it no longer is.  If you gym only costs 100$ a month you are paying around $1200 a year to participate and that adds up pretty fast as far as hobbies go once you add in gas, gear, and tournaments. 

So what is it that makes martial arts such a large part of many peoples lives? Why do so many people flock to certain styles over others? How big of a deal is your marital arts practice to you?

Gay bashing in Tennessee: It could have been me (Graphic)

Photo Courtesy of David Keck

When I posted an article discussing the assault of David Keck on facebook it was soon shared by a close friend  with the the comment "I've made a drunken pass at a straight guy before. This could have been me." and thats the brutal truth. It could have been him, it could have been me. In a time where gay marriage is now legal in over half the united states its easy to make the mistake that we are in the promised lands for the LGBTQ community and that the days of being physically attacked for being different are over. But the sad truth is that it isn't. 

The highlights from the article are: "Wilder is quoted in a police report telling officers he had hit Keck "several times" after David came on to him sexually at the apartments." The attack was so brutal that Keck is suffering memory loss from the savage beating he took at the hands of Wilder in addition to beating up keck Wilder took 100$ cash and his car. "Wilder told them he was afraid he'd killed Keck."

I got into martial arts because of getting gay bashed in highschool and its a pretty world shattering experience no matter how bad the physical damage and It can leave you emotionally messed up even longer than the physical injuries. I didn't leave my house for a long time and I'm still afraid of being in crowded areas by myself and was incapable of Public displays of affection without becoming an nervous wreck. I'm lucky that my incidents have never been as close to fatal as Davids and my thoughts and prayers are out to him in this difficult time. 

Despite Tennessee having laws and regulations making targeting someone specifically because of their sexual orientation a hate crime, its looking like the prosecution won't be seeking to bolster the charge and will be treating it as if it was any other crime. I find this troubling because of Wilder's confession. If he hadn't said it was because Keck "came onto him" then I'd be willing to hear an argument but because even the attacker openly admits to there being a motive based on sexuality and thats what these laws are meant to punish and discourage they should be used. The only glimmer of light in this tragic story is that because of the stealing of the car and cash by Wilder they charge is currently at aggravated robbery.

I get that hate crime stuff is a touchy subject and a hot button issue but so is beating someone near death because they make drunk pass at you. I've read a lot of comments online in forums including the subreddit for Knoxville that argue against it so I wan to make a case to others of the public. Do you really think that the man would have beaten a woman near death and stolen her car if she made a pass at him and he wasn't interested? These statutes to protect members of the LGBTQ community are toothless and token gestures if our representatives don't have the balls to stand up and use them.



Disclaimer: This blog post is based on the following article and is under the assumption that everything posted there is fact as of 11/6/2014.
Article http://www.local8now.com/home/headlines/Knoxville-police-investigate-beating-281507291.html