Traveling and Competitions
Old Havana
February 11, 2012 | 
Author Old Havana is changing. Old dilapidated buildings are getting some paint. Other public works projects are in the process of construction. There are more tourists here than I have ever seen. Cuba still has a long way to go to resemble anything of what it probably looked like 60 years ago, but things slowly are changing.
Things are still hard for people. Most of them make about 15 dollars a month. That’s right 15 dollars a month. Despite the challenges that they face they are amazing athletes, artists, and musicians. The people that succeed here aren’t the ones that have been blessed with a bounty of resources. The people that succeed here are the ones that try to do the best with the hand that they have been dealt. They can’t wait for someone to come save them because someone will never come.
In the United States right now, there are a lot of people that are waiting for someone to save them. A lot of people think that the United States government should do more to help the people. They want big government to save them instead of asking “What can I do to help save myself and my family?”
It is my humble opinion that the people that live in a free country, but think that socialism or communism would work better for everyone should take a trip to a country that has that form of government. I think that most people would quickly change their minds. If you live in the United States, be very grateful that you were born there. We have been extremely blessed to have the opportunity to live in the land of opportunity.
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Tags: Justin Ruiz, Old Havana, olympic wrestling | 
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I Thought I Could Swim
I have always felt like I was a decent swimmer. However, adding a couple elements of difficulty has made me realize I could definitely use some more practice.
The ocean is right behind our hotel as in probably only 100 yards away. I love watching the waves come in and out, it is so relaxing. The other day I wanted to get in the water to swim and look at the fish. I even bought a mask so that I could get a good look and not lose my contact lenses in the water. The challenge to getting in the water is a bunch of very sharp black coral. Then with the breaking waves, as small as they are, it makes it difficult getting into the water without getting cut up a little bit.
I made my decent to the water and as a wave came up I jumped forward to fully submerge myself. Unfortunately, there was a row of coral in the water that I didn’t see. As I landed I felt the coral scraping my body, but I kept scrambling forward to get into the water where it would be deep enough to get off of the sharp coral. I finally made it into the water and was able to start swimming around.
I swam around for a little bit looking at the ocean floor watching the little fish swimming about. I was pretty proud of myself for finally making it into the water. I needed some air so I popped up for a bit, but as I surfaced and breathed in a nice gulp of air, I was hit with a wave and I swallowed a mouthful of cold salty water. I coughed a little,regained my composure, and tried to enjoy the ocean once again. I eventually came up for air again and swallowed some more water. It wasn’t fun. I looked back at the shore and determined that the ocean had pulled me out farther into the water. I wasn’t comfortable being that far away from the shore so I started paddling back to the relative safety of the sharp coral. The waves now were helping me accelerate towards the shore. I soon realized that my exiting the water would likely be as painful as was my entrance. I gritted my teeth and did my best to get out of the water with as little damage as possible. Fortunately I did make it out of the water with only minor cuts to my hands,feet, and chest. One thing I had gained was a renewed respect of the ocean and a determination to become a better swimmer. I have the mask now anyway, and I might as well use it.
Here are a couple small lessons I picked up from my experience.
1) Know your opponent.
2) Play to your strengths and not your weaknesses.
3) Know when to get out of a bad situation.
I haven’t given up on the ocean, but the next time it will be on a sandy beach with less waves and hopefully less wind. No need to try to be Jacques Cousteau, I still have some wrestling to do.
Posted in Traveling and Competitions | Tags: Havana cuba, I thought I could swim, Justin Ruiz | No Comments »
Estoy En Habana
Estoy en Habana. I made it to Cuba safely and I am glad to be here. My heart always goes out to these people because they face some tough times, but despite the economic hardship they face, they are some of the nicest most hospitable people that you could meet. Whenever I come here, I think about the two years that I spent in Chile as a missionary and I remember walking a lot and interacting with some amazing people.
Today is a pretty light day for training and acclimation then tomorrow and Friday we will be practicing. Saturday I weigh in and compete the next day. There are some other teams here from Europe as well not to mention the always tough Cuban team. I am looking forward to the competition.
Our hotel is amazing and the food is great. The tourists do get pretty good treatment here. If I walk out on the balcony of my hotel room there is the ocean right outside. If it were a sandy beach below I don’t think that things could get much better other than if I was able to have my family here with me too. The beach is sharp rocks which to me serve as a little deterrent to get in the ocean as much as I would like to.
I will keep these posts short because of the cost of the wifi here. $50 for 8 hours and that was a deal compared to the regular $10 an hour. At least there is wifi, an I’m grateful for that.
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Airport Security
I arrived home late this past Thursday night. It took me 30 hours to get from my hotel in Instanbul, Turkey to my apartment in Orem, Utah. You might be thinking, “Wow. 30 hours is a really long time to travel.”, but if you look throughout the course of history, it used to take a whole lot longer to travel the world. I can’t imagine how tough it would be to have to do it driving to the east coast, jumping in a boat, and then driving some more after you get to Europe. Walking would be even worse so I can’t really complain much about the length of my journey. It’s all in your perspective. If you’re grateful for things, your life gets better. When you whine, cry, and complain, it only gets worse. So let’s look at one thing that people love to complain about, airport security.
I have been in airports hundreds of times with all of the traveling that I have done in my lifetime. I have been through a lot of security checks, and things have changed considerably in the last decade. Take out your laptop, take off your shoes, put your liquids in a plastic bag, walk through this x-ray machine. Excuse me, walk through this x-ray machine? I am generally very compliant with most things in most situations. I follow rules, at times too much. However, one thing that I do not like to do is go through the x-ray machines that they have at the airport. It isn’t that I am paranoid about people at the airport seeing the images of what my body looks like. That doesn’t bother me. I wrestle in a skin tight singlet to compete in, and I don’t know how many people have seen me naked throughout all of the locker rooms that I have been in throughout the world. My x-ray paranoia really just came about by chance when I was watching my bag go through the x-ray machine.
I have noticed that a lot of the x-ray machines that are at the airport are made by Rapiscan. There is a little warning printed on the top of the opening of the machine where the conveyor belt feeds into. It says not to insert any part of your body into the machine because of the x-rays that are blasted through there. I was looking at the warning thinking, “Of course I am not going to put any part of my body in this. It’s an x-ray machine. Do you think I walk around in a lead superman suit all day long so that I can go sticking my body parts in an x-ray machine? Of course not.” As I was finishing that thought I looked at the full body scanner that people were walking into to get scanned. I noticed that that particular piece of equipment was also made by the same company Rapiscan. Then I started to think about the little warning label that I had just read, and my little brain fired up and said, “Justin, I think that we may have a problem. That equipment is made by the same company that was just telling us not to stick any body parts in it, and now they want us to walk right into a bigger x-ray machine. Sorry, not going to happen.” Since then I started opting out of the x-ray portion of the TSA screening and I prefer the pat down.
I have to be honest that since I have started getting the pat down, it has definitely made trips a little bit more interesting. Sometimes when you request a pat down, the TSA agent looks really nervous, like I am trying to hide something from him. It’s like they think I am requesting the pat down to appear like I have nothing to hide, but then really I do. It makes me laugh.
During my layover in Houston from this last trip that I went on, I left the airport to catch a bite to eat with a friend and former high school team mate. When I came back to the airport and was going through security, they wanted to send me through the x-ray. I opted out, and I asked for the pat down instead. The TSA agent was like, “Are you sure you want the pat down? We don’t show the images of your body anymore.” I told her that wasn’t the problem and that I would still like the pat down. I had to wait a minute until another agent was available to give me the pat down, but then he came over, gave me the pat down, and put the little swab cloth on the machine that detects explosives. The machine went off, which really surprised me, so the agent said that they would need to give me another pat down. Another agent came over and escorted me to the private screening area where they would be doing the pat down. Once again the agents seemed nervous as they explained to me how they would be doing the pat down and how they would be going over sensitive areas with the backs of their hands. I kind of feel bad for them because they probably feel creepy having to grope people all day.
What they told me next sort of shocked and confused me. The agent said that on top of the regular pat down that they would be doing three horizontal and three vertical swipes over my crotch area. I tried not to laugh because I really thought that the situation was a little ridiculous. I guess that if you are planning on hiding an explosive that you are going to try to conceal it with your man parts? How did they come to that conclusion? Was it just a random idea to start swiping people’s crotches or is there some research that says, “Yes. People are more likely to hide explosives near their genitals.”? Either way they gave me the pat down and the swipes. The results came back negative, obviously, and I was on my way with another interesting story to tell people about. And all because one day I paid a little bit of attention to what was going on around me.
Posted in Traveling and Competitions | Tags: airport security, greco roman wrestling, Justin Ruiz, olympic wrestling | No Comments »
The 2011 Greco Roman Wrestling World Championships
My experience this year at the world championships wasn’t what I had envisioned. I felt great leading up to the tournament. I was well rested, confident in my training and ability to win, and I was having fun wrestling. Unfortunately the day of competition I wasn’t able to do what I needed to do to win the matches to allow me to have a winning wrestling tournament. I lost first round to Sweden’s Jimmy Lidberg. He made it to the finals which pulled me back into the tournament. Then, in the wrestle backs, I beat Tunisia, and I lost my next match before the medal round to Belarus. It was disappointing, but I was able to glean a few lessons on what I will do next time in my preparation for my competitions.
1) The first lesson is to not change too many things right before or at the competition. When you are doing something at the elite level, you are always looking for things to do that will help you to gain an advantage. I got some advice that I really took to heart and tried to apply. I am not saying that it wasn’t good advice, but the time of implementation was not ideal. I was really focusing on trying to wear my opponents down to get them tired, but the way I was going about it was not ideal for me. I spent too much time hanging on my opponents head trying to wear him down instead of making more attacks at an angle. When an opponent makes attempts to defend themselves, that is when they get tired not when you bang on their head. If you are able to bang the head and make combinations out of it into an attack, that is when you will be successful.
2) I needed to trust myself more. Again I take 100% responsibility for my training, competition, wins, and losses so I am not saying that I lost because of what other people did. In the matches that I lost, I didn’t stick to what I usually try. I will usually try to go for a gut wrench and later try to combine it with a lift. Many times the gut wrench can work as a great set up to the lift. However, at this tournament the corner was telling me to lift. Instead of testing my gut wrench first and then going to my lift, I went straight to the lift, and the attempts weren’t solid enough to produce any points. Perhaps I might still not have scored even if I did try to gut wrench first, but in the very least I wouldn’t be wondering later if it would have made a difference or not. So make sure to stick with your style and your game plan. Changing things in the heat of the moment is not always a good idea, but hey then again sometimes improvisation is what pays huge dividends.
3) Don’t rush things. A lot of things can happen with a few seconds on the clock, and it is crucial to take the time to use every one of those seconds effectively. I tried a lift in my match against Belarus, my back was up against the wall, and I needed to score or I would lose the period anyway. I lifted him, but as I rushed the throw, I got countered and lost the period. If I would have taken a split second to readjust the throw might have worked, or it might have failed, but once again I wouldn’t be thinking about it afterwards. I also saw some photos of that match, and my opponent clearly hit me with a leg foul. If I would have thought for a second after the failed attempt, I could have challenged the call. That at least would have given the officials the opportunity to review the action and determine if it was a leg foul or not.
So the tournament didn’t go as well as I had hoped and planned, but sometimes that is the nature of competition. I have plans to move forward, and I have concrete things to improve. When you win you party, and when you lose you ponder. I want the pondering now to pay off with some partying in the future.
Ten Years Ago
Ten years ago I was wrestling at the University of Nebraska, and I was lifting weights in the morning at the Bob Devaney sports arena. It was the same building where our wrestling room was, and it was the same place that we wrestled most of our meets in. The radio was on tuned to some sort of rock station, and while the radio hosts were talking, they suddenly focused on the topic that a plane had flown into one of the world trade center builidings. From how they first mentioned it, it sounded like a small private plane had hit the towers, and they were wondering how someone could have been so stupid as to fly into a large building in Manhattan. I finished my workout, showered, and went over to the athlete’s center to have breakfast at the cafeteria. When I arrived, that is when I realized how serious the situation really was, and I watched with everyone else as the two towers eventually came down. I was in shock and disbelief that something like that could happen on American soil. I tried to go through the motions of the rest of my day.
The day passed and I was again watching the news watching the aftermath of the horrific events. The one thing that sticks with me is seeing the many people who had missing family members and friends with cardboard signs and pictures trying to locate them with the help of the news. I couldn’t help but think how I would be feeling at that moment if my family or friends had gone missing. There was no way that I could possibly understand what those people were experiencing at that time, but I know that I hurt inside and started to cry. I remember thinking about my two brothers who were serving LDS missions at the time. One was in Puerto Rico, the other one was in the Dominican Republic. I prayed for both of them to be safe. I prayed for the people who had lost someone in the terrorist attacks, and I prayed that those people who weren’t found yet could somehow still be alive. I prayed because that is all that I felt that I could do.
Now ten years later, I think about the lives lost and how I felt watching all of those people in search of their loved ones. I would like to think that there is some healing that has taken place, but I imagine that there is still an emptiness that I cannot truly comprehend. Now with two children of my own, just the thought of losing one of them scares me to death. Once when my oldest daughter was still a baby, I ran some errands with her in the back seat. My wife usually always had her, but I had taken her for a little ride. It was supposed to be fun. I got out of the car locked the doors and walked into Walgreen’s to fill a prescription. I came out shortly after, and I saw my daughter fast asleep in her car seat. I had left her in the back the whole time without even remembering that she was with me. In that moment I thought of how both of our lives and my wife’s could have changed in the blink of an eye if something had happened to her. I felt horrible and scared that something could have happened, but I was also relieved that nothing did. I can’t imagine the pain that would come from losing a child. I hope that is something that I never have to deal with.
I am very far away from the United States. I am in Turkey. I am getting ready to wrestle in the world championships. I weigh in today, and I wrestle tomorrow. I wish that somehow wrestling could fix things. I wish that somehow wrestling could heal all of the broken hearts that resulted from that tragedy a decade ago. I know that it can’t, but I would like it to at least help a little bit. I want to win for America. I want to win for my wife and kids back home. I want to win for me. I want to win.
Posted in Traveling and Competitions | Tags: 9/11, greco roman wrestling, Justin Ruiz, olympic wrestling, world championships | No Comments »
First Day In Istanbul
The team made it to Istanbul without any problems. We left our hotel in Komotini this morning a little after 8 a.m. and we arrived to our hotel in Istanbul around 2:30 p.m. Fortunately for me I was able to sleep a little bit on the long bus ride. I don’t think that the drive would have taken as long if it weren’t for the need to stop at customs leaving Greece and entering Turkey. To be honest with you I have definitely had worse bus rides. Near the end of the trip we figured out that the bus was equipped with a dvd player, and someone threw in a movie. Too bad we hadn’t realized that we had dvd capability sooner.
We are staying at the Wow hotel in Istanbul. You might be thinking “Really the name of the hotel is Wow?” Yes the name of the hotel is Wow. I must admit I am impressed with this place. The rooms are clean and pretty modern. We have internet access in our room, but we have only one ethernet port and no wifi. I am sure glad that I remembered to pack an ethernet cable before I left home. Otherwise these next few days could be pretty long ones. They have a nice workout facility and sauna right here in the hotel, and as far as I can tell the food is good. They have a couple of palm trees planted right in the middle of the lobby, which is something that is new to me, but I can dig it.
There are just a couple more days until I get to weigh in, and then one more after that until I can wrestle. Waiting is the one part of wrestling that nobody really teaches you about. You go to practice every day, and you work on technique, strength, conditioning, mental toughness, etc.. But, there really is no way that you prepare for waiting other than waiting. Then it all comes down to how you can control your thoughts leading up to the competition or being able to put your thoughts on hold and focus on other things so you don’t wear yourself out before the competition. My personal strategy is to try to stay as loose as possible leading up into a competition. One of the benefits of having my family travel with me when I am in the U.S. is that it gives me a chance to relax and play with my kids. In fact at the 2010 world team trials in Council Bluffs, my family and I went to the zoo in Omaha on the day of weigh ins to do something fun. It was hot enough out that I was able to lose some weight walking around, and I had a good time. Hopefully they have something here in the city that would be interesting to see tomorrow.
When I walked into the lobby downstairs I saw a booth set up with information on the tournament. Wrestling is pretty popular here is Turkey so I am expecting a great turnout to the competition. On one of the banners that they had set up advertising the tournament, they had written “The lions of the wrestling mat.” I had never heard of that before, but I like the sound of it. Have you ever seen lions fight on nature shows on tv or youtube? They are pretty intense. One year when the U.S. nationals were in Las Vegas, my wife and I went and saw a movie about lions at an Imax theater. The movie was pretty good, and I had a new found respect for the “king of the jungle” (even though they live on open plains). With this being the world championships and everyone looking to qualify for the Olympic Games, I am sure there will be some epic battles between all of these “lions of the wrestling mat”.
Another Day In Komotini
Here is another video from my experience in Komotini.
Updates From The US World Team In Komotini, Greece
So I have some good news and some bad news that come with this post, but let me start with the good news. Training has been going well, and I am feeling pretty good about the upcoming tournament. My weight is where it should be, I am healthy, and I am looking forward towards competing next Monday. This summer has been a long grueling one with a lot of time away from home and family, and I would really like to see the sacrifices that I have made pay off in this tournament. As a whole I feel like our team feels pretty confident in their ability to perform well at the world championships, and I think that everyone has made some extra effort to ensure that they have managed their weight correctly this year. I think cutting weight is one of the things that can make wrestling quite a challenge, however, it is also one of the aspects of the sport that helps to develop self discipline. So I guess that all you can say is that it is what it is, accept it, and keep getting ready for that scale so that you can compete.
The facilities that we have been training at have everything that we need. There are three full size wrestling mats, and a sauna. That is pretty much all that we need right now. We have been doing short intense goes and as of yesterday, we are at the point where the practices are open now. I like the open workouts because it gives each athlete the opportunity to fine tune what he thinks he needs to be ready for the upcoming competition. We have all been training so hard in preparation for this that there really isn’t a whole lot more that can be done between now and the next couple of days so the focus has been weight management, relaxing, and getting mentally prepared for the world championships.
With the down time that we have had in between practices I have been filling my time with reading, the internet, and talking with my family on skype. When I first started traveling on these international trips, there wasn’t a whole lot of easily available internet access that would allow me to keep in touch with everyone back home. I remember spending so much money on phone cards to call my wife, and now with the advancement of technology, it has been really easy to get in touch with my wife and two daughters back home. My youngest is ten months, and she is starting to stand up on her own. We will see if she takes her first steps before I make it back from the world championships. If she knew why her daddy was out of town, I am sure that she would understand. This year is a big year.
The year before the Olympics is always a special one because there is an even greater sense of urgency and intensity at these big tournaments. Everyone is pushing hard to qualify their weight class for the Olympics, and this tournament is one that you can get the weight class qualified. If you finish in the top 6, your weight class is qualified for next year’s Olympic Games in London, England. That helps take some pressure off of you for the start of next year with some of the other Olympic qualifying tournaments. Anybody that qualifies their weight class here can start preparing for the Olympic trials knowing that the U.S. will have an opportunity to send someone to wrestle at that weight.
Well I know that I told you that I had good news and bad news. I updated you on the good news, so now here is the bad news. Unfortunately, one of our teammates, Jake Fisher, broke his foot in one of our training sessions. He will not be competing in the world championships this year. I feel bad for him because I know how hard he has worked and how much he has sacrificed to make another world team and have the opportunity to represent the U.S. We will miss him competing with us this year, but I am confident that whoever takes his place will represent the country and the weight class well. Jake also wrestles for the New York Athletic Club as I do, and it is especially difficult to see him not being able to compete this year. I wish him a speedy recovery, and I hope to see him back competing again soon.
Justin Ruiz and the US world team in Komotini, Greece
Here is some video from my trip so far in Komotini, Greece. Keep checking back for more updates.
Posted in Traveling and Competitions | Tags: greco roman wrestling, Justin Ruiz, komotini greece, olympic wrestling, wrestling camp | No Comments »