QCP #024 | Martin Jay Ruiz | Roll, Fall, Get Up: The Way of Wrestling and Skating

GUEST BIO
Martin Jay Ruiz is someone that found his way on a skateboard and later on to the wrestling mat as a troubled youth. At an early age, he found the blank canvases of the skate deck and the wrestling mat to be the wide-open spaces that allowed his soul the room for infinite expansion. To this day, his heart never lost its passion for the two mediums.

He came from the streets of Santa Maria, California, pulled to the magnetic energy of San Francisco – a pilgrimage for skaters because of its steep, long, concrete hills that can send one bombing down a dance between weightlessness and death.

As a former collegiate wrestler for SF State, he became the wrestling coach for Lowell High School, one of the most prestigious public high schools in the United States. Under his tutelage, he’s coached both boys and girls to multiple state championships. Martin also coaches wrestling to adults at Fight Culture Gym in Daly City; he earned his Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is still an active competitor at thirty-three.

 

EPISODE NOTES

• Segment 1
  • brush with a murderer
  • benefits of learning self-defense | Combat sports
  • working with a moving company
  • what you find inside other people’s homes
  • biggest takeaways from working at a moving company
  • Martin Bio + Background
  • Injury stories (ankle + leg)
    • boneless skate move
    • Bones Brigade
    • mental and physical recovery from injuries
• Segment 2
  • Dealing with anxiety and depression through wrestling and skating
  • mental and physical support during injury
  • Injury Stories (shoulder)
    • Dolores Park Hill Bombing
  • GX 1000
  • High School Wrestling
  • Santa Maria Gangland
  • How Martin developed mental toughness
  • Chasing the flow state
• Segment 3
  • undefeated as a senior
  • tournament stories
    • handling losses
  • Coach Lars Jensen, SF State Wrestling
  • Moving to SF | College Wrestling Career Experience
  • Mauricio Wright
  • Collegiate Wrestling Practice Structure
• Segment 4
  • Collegiate vs High School Wrestling
  • How skateboarding helped mentally for wrestling
    • the power of repetition
  • the prototypical wrestling personality
  • Depletion in relation to stress and trauma
    • “cleansing yourself”
  • How to hold attention in the practice room
    • coaching high schoolers
  • Goal Structuring
  • Coaching a state champ
• Segment 5
  • where did you learn how to restructure goals?
  • 7 habits of highly effective people
  • the joys of coaching
  • anxiety and depression from childhood trauma
  • finding a therapist
  • Where does your work ethic come from?
  • intrinsic value, motivation
  • What is your coaching philosophy?
  • Differences between coaching boys and girls
  • How to coach someone who is unmotivated
• Segment 6
  • how do you deal with when your best is not enough?
  • coaching strategy/ practice structure
  • Jiu Jitsu vs Wrestling Training
  • West Coast Wrestling
  • Evolution of wrestling
  • Fight Culture, Daly City
  • what is it like to bomb a hill in sf