NATIONAL Academy of Sports Medicine personal trainer Jerry Diaz will compete in the 2023 WKO Shinkyokushinkai Karate Guam championship on Saturday, April 29, on Guam.
Diaz, who is participating in his first professional karate competition, will see action in the senior men open weight division (ages 40 and older).
“It is a daunting and nerve-racking thought to compete against experienced competitors from other WKO chapters,” he said. “This is the very reason why consistent training is important, and why it includes balanced strength conditioning, skills and technique enhancement, rest and nutrition. We have to be prepared for the unexpected.”
Diaz is a blue belt and could face a brown or black belter in the first round.
His goal is to move up the medal rounds on the same day, depending on how many competitors are available for the division.
“The purpose of this competition is self-growth,” he said. “I want to improve and experience the current World Karate Organization competition rules, event planning, and event organization and to share what I’ll learn with our youth and other community members so they can safely learn karate.”
Besides Diaz, his mentor or sensei, Danny Banez, will also represent the CNMI in the Guam competition which will be followed by a day-long seminar on April 30 to review the skills performed during the competition and learn techniques for improvement.
Diaz said it was in September 2022 when he began studying Kyokushin under Danny Banez, a 7th Dan Black Belter whose Watanabe Dojo is located in Chalan Piao.
Kyokushin is a style of full-contact karate founded in 1964 by Masutatsu Oyama in Japan. “Kyokushin” means “the ultimate truth” in Japanese, and the style emphasizes the development of physical and mental strength, discipline, and a never-give-up attitude.
“I’ve always been intrigued by martial arts,” Diaz said. “My experience, so far, includes coaching, managing, and training [mixed martial arts fighter] Kelvin ‘The Big Hit’ Fitial in Saipan, Guam, and Australia. In the process, I became the only certified boxing coach in the CNMI.”
Diaz said he wanted to “learn the proper way of karate so I can share its techniques with my clients and anyone interested in learning the discipline, attitude, and mindset of a martial artist.”
He said Banez supported his goal and has a similar vision as well.
“As a certified personal trainer and boxing coach, I’ve always been intrigued with movement patterns and the human body’s biomechanics,” Diaz said. “Karate opens the doors to traditional and modern self-defense techniques that can be practiced without competing physically with another individual. A karate practitioner can easily use bodyweight as a fitness training approach to move in various angles that challenge an individual’s speed, power, agility, balance, endurance, and will.”
He said “adding this martial art to my repertoire of training techniques has allowed me to help the youth and other community members build self-confidence and self-discipline while showing respect to one another.”
But Diaz’s biggest inspiration is his family. He has been training his wife and daughters in self-defense so they can protect themselves and learn to respond appropriately to any crisis without over or under reacting.
Diaz said karate and other martial arts must be approached with patience and seriousness. “An individual can easily get injured or harm others without proper guidance from a master,” he added.
For professional fitness inquiries, contact Jerry Diaz through Instagram at @BBJ_Athletics or Facebook.
Sensei Danny Banez and Jerry Diaz practice karate techniques at the Kyokushinkai Karate Dojo.
