Last Thursday I had a great clinic at Kearns High School in Utah. Thanks Coach Linnel and all of those wrestlers who attended. I was really happy with how hard all of the kids worked and paid attention. It made for a great day and was honestly one of the highlights for my week. It would be great to be doing clinics everyday and being able to be around the kids more often. One of the things I stressed again to the kids is to set goals and work to achieve them. There really is no better way to success than through using the goal formula.

I am attempting to keep regular weekly posts on this site, and as part of that I will be including a tip of the week. Most of the tips will have to deal with wrestling, however, at times the content may be applicable to other areas of life. This week’s tip is on the power of focus.

Since August I have been working with hydrovac trucks that serve the unique purpose of hydro-excavation or digging with water. The truck comes equipped with a pressure washer and a vacuum. The pressure washer cuts through the earth and exposes gas and other utility lines while the vacuum sucks the debris away. If the hose to the pressure washer pump has no special fitting on the end, the flow that comes from the hose looks about double what you would expect to come from an ordinary garden hose. The water won’t do much except wash away the very top layer of dust and dirt and make some mud. However, when the dig wand is attached to the end of the hose the water is forced through a tip with an opening about the circumfrence of a paper clip. Water shoots out of this tip up to 4,500 pounds per square inch of pressure and enables the stream to slice through earth, sandstone, some shale rocks, and even two by fours! In both scenarios the pump was exerting equal force at equal rpms, but the difference that the tip of the dig wand made was applying focused intensity to a stream of water. By also applying focused intensity to the efforts that we make in our lives we can become much more effective. By focusing on a few specific areas of interest or necessity we can go from average to exceptional. This applies to many activities in life, but we can especially apply this to our wrestling. When we go to practice instead of doing just a little bit of everything, let’s focus on one move that day that we want to do perfectly. By setting daily goals and acting on them with focused intensity we’ll see a great positive result. We will improve our skils dramatically, and we will see our dreams materialize. Let’s focus on doing whatever it takes to improve ourselves. We know what to do so let’s do it. Fight for your dreams!

Last Thursday I did a clinic at Syracuse high school. There was a good turnout of kids, and they worked hard from start to finish. I would like to thank all of them for attending as well as Coach Brown for putting it all together. It is so much fun to be able to share what I have learned over the years with other kids who have similar dreams and goals as I did when I was their age. Who knows, maybe one of those kids might someday be a world or olympic champion.

One of the things that I shared with the kids that I think is the most important thing that I can share with them is that of goal setting. I told them that if there was one thing that they should get out of the clinic was that it is never too early or late to set goals and that they need to write them down. Without a clear direction or purpose how can you expect any kind of desirable result? Too many people spend too much time without direction and without purpose. Just think how much easier it is to make a trip if you know where it is that you want to go! Can you imagine boarding an airplane that didn’t have a destination set. Would you pay money to get onboard and then say “Well, I guess wherever this takes me will be just as good a place as any other.”? Of course you wouldn’t so why would you want to do that with your life? Take the time to sit down and figure out what it is that you really want, what it is going to take to get it, and then start working on getting it done. It is a simple process, it might even sound easy, but unfortunately it is also easy not to take action. Therein lies the struggle. Good luck to you and may you be successful in deciding what it is that you really want out of life and achieving it. Thank you for your support and Fight For Your Dreams!

Last night I had the opportunity to do a wrestling clinic in Big Piney, Wyoming for a group of great young wrestlers. It is always so exciting for me to be around young wrestlers and to be able to see all of the enthusiasm that they have for the sport. When I am around kids like that it makes me want to get back on the mat like never before. I would like to thank all of the wrestlers who came as well as the parents for providing their kids with the opportunity to go to the clinic. I really do appreciate it so much.

One of the things that I talked to the kids about last night was about setting goals. I let them know that even as young as they are they can set some goals for the future. I am personally amazed at the power of a well thought out, specific, written down goal. It seems as if the moment that you write it down on paper and commit to it that you dramatically improve your odds of success. Even if you don’t succeed the first time, you can always re-evaluate what you are doing and what it is that you want and set a new target deadline for your goal. My wife and I had set the goal to be in a position to be able to move back to Colorado Springs in February so that I can start training full time again for the Olympics. However, after evaluating where we are, we are shooting to be back in Colorado by the end of September. It is a little longer than we would like, but we are going to make it happen! There is no doubt in my mind that I will be once again training and working toward becoming an Olympic Champion. I will find a way to make it work.

This spring and summer I will holding some clinics to help prepare young wrestlers for their freestyle and greco seasons. I will also be holding a summer camp in June. As soon as I have more details finalized I will be posting them either on my blog or on the schedule section of the website. I also have some t-shirts that I finally had printed and will be selling on the website. Feel free to email me to let me know if you would like to purchase one. They are $20 each and we can get you whatever size that you would like whether it be an adult size or a youth size. Thank you everyone who has helped support me up to this point. I wish you the best, and remember to keep on fighting for your dreams!

Here is a youtube video that is full of greco highlights from the 2008 Olympic Games. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36oSF8vNd0A

Well as you may have noticed, I have not posted on the blog for quite awhile.  The last time that I blogged was before the Olympic Trials this past summer. 

When I wrote that, I was so excited and so confident for the trials. I couldn’t wait to compete and make an Olympic team, one of the dreams that I have had for years.  However, I lost at the Olympic Trials. I came so close to winning the Olympic Trials, and in the last few seconds of my last match there the opportunity to represent the United States of America in the Olympic Games in front of the world in Beijing, China slipped through my fingers. Honestly it is hard for me to put into words the emotions that I felt during that time. I think that in the moment I was in a state of shock, disbelief, and extreme and utter sadness. I had dedicated so many years of my life to focused training to achieve that one goal that I have had for so long. It really, really, really hurt, and it hurt so badly.  When I went into practice after the trials was even more difficult ecause I saw the wrestler who beat me whom I had defeated so many times before in ompetition and in practice for years. It was like having a knife turned in my stomach day after day. The hurt did not subside with the passing of a day or a week or even a month. In fact it seemed as if things went from bad to worse. I had no job and was broke, my wife and I lost a baby (it would have been our first), and a family member of my wife’s passed away. It just seemed as life was kicking me again and again when I already felt horrible.

Finally, however, it seemed as if there was a bright spot that opened up. A good job opportunity came about in place Wyoming. My wife and I would have to move from Colorado Springs to make it work, and wrestling would have to be put on hold. I was excited that I would be able to provide for my family, but sad that I would need to put wrestling on the back burner. We moved to Evanston and I went to work. The first days were extremely challenging waking up at three a.m. to get ready for work and then not returning home until nine at night sometimes working all through the night. The hours provided me an opportunity to start to make some financial progress, but my wrestling training was zero. I kind of forgot about wrestling and just kept on working. It was easier to just give it up and to move on with my life. I was starting to plan my future with my job. I would work for years, have some kids, and just bury what happened at the Olympic Trials. In all honesty, I was ready to give up wrestling entirely and move on.

However, moving on is a funny thing. There are some things that just trigger something that is so engrained and so deep in your soul that you just can’t ignore it. One morning that I had off from work I was online and I started watching some wrestling video. I came across this video

As I watched the video I broke down and started sobbing. All of the pain and emotion came back. My heart was being ripped out. My wife held me and just let me cry, in fact I think that she was used to it by now. However, it was in that moment that I decided that I would come back to wrestling and that it didn’t matter how long it would take or what I would have to do, but I would put myself in a situation where I could move back to Colorado Springs and start training again to not only make an Olympic team but to win the Olympic Games. I cannot live my life wondering what could of happened if I gave it another shot. I can’t live as a quitter. I realize that I failed before, but I am human and sometimes we fail. But, just because I failed does not mean that I will give up. I will
succeed!

So here I am. I am still working in Wyoming, but I am trying to mount any resources that I have to raise the funds so that I can train for another Olympic cycle. I am working at my job, I am setting up camps and clinics, and I am looking for sponsors to support my dream. There are so many people that have helped me in the past and I am so grateful for that. Nothing that I accomplished in the past would have been possible if it weren’t for those people who helped me. Thank you for your support, and if you can help in anyway or know of someone who can I would greatly appreciate it. I am coming up with a sponsor package and t-shirt design for all of those interested. My goal is to be back in Colorado by
February 16^th of this year so that I can train for and compete in the World Team Trials and World Championships this year, but it all depends on the success of my fundraising efforts. It may take longer, but regardless of when it happens, it will happen. Once again thank you for you support. Keep checking back for updates.

Fight for your dreams,

Justin

Tomorrow it will be two weeks out from the Olympic Trials. I am so excited to compete in Vegas. I have spent many years of life in preparation for this upcoming event. I feel blessed in the fact that I have been able to do something that I love, and also that I have dared to dream. In today’s mostly negative society, people do not give themselves the opportunity to dare to dream. Obviously dreaming is not enough. There must be hours of toil and labor in order to make a dream become a reality. However, I am very grateful that I have had friends and associations who have encouraged and supported me to help me reach my dream. Regardless of what happens in two weeks at the Olympic Trials I am grateful for the opportunity to dream. But what happens in two weeks is still just the beginning of things to come. This next event is a step to take me to the next level to compete on the world’s largest sports stage, the Olympics in

I am working on my dream, and I love it. I hope that you are giving yourself a chance to dream. Believe that you can achieve! Believe that you can succeed! Give yourself the gift of hope, and don’t let yourself give up on that dream because someone wants to discourage you. Think about that next time someone else shares their dream with you. What are you going to do? Are you going to tell them all the reasons why they can’t do it? Or are you going to tell them, “You know what? I believe in you. I think that you can succeed. Let me know how I can support you in your decision.” Imagine how that could affect your relationship with that person! I am sure that it would probably surprise them because most people are told many times in their life that they can’t do something. By helping and encouraging that person think about the boost that you just gave them personally, not even to mention the strength that you just gave to your relationship. If your friend follows through or not, that is on them, but you have the opportunity to possibly be part of the turning point in that person’s life. Constructive criticism has it’s place, but at least encourage someone to take action. If it doesn’t work obviously they will have to evaluate how to make it work, and that is when suggestion is useful.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes. The first was written in an article by Jim Rohn, “I will climb the mountain. They’ve told me it’s too high, it’s too far, it’s too steep, it’s too rocky, it’s too difficult. But it’s my mountain! I will climb it. You’ll soon see me waving from the top or you’ll never see me, because unless I reach the peak, I’m not coming back.” Another one is by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

May you be well. Good luck with your dreams. I wish you the best.

The Olympic Trials are just a few short weeks away. I am so excited to be preparing for the Olympic Games in Beijing, China! It is hard to describe the feeling that there is right now in preparation for the Olympic Games. There is just an excitement in the air that is energizing everyone that is involved with the Olympics. I am very grateful for all the help and support that I have received to help me be living my dream. I cannot wait until I get the chance to compete in Las Vegas, Nevada!

I have been staying busy with training, fixing up our house, doing some work on the side, and trying to get organized with some fund raising. Last month, I won the US Nationals, and in doing so I am qualified for the finals of the Olympic Trials. It was my fifth US title and it was a great experience. Shortly after the nationals, I went to Chicago for a team building summit for team USA. It was a great experience to be able to listen to some of the keynote speakers as well as mingling with and getting to know some of the athletes that will be on team USA for their sports.

One of the most beneficial pieces of information that I pulled away from the event was to practice like it is competition and to compete like it is practice. Peter Vidmar, a 1984 Gold medalist gymnast, shared his experience of how at the end of every practice that he would pretend that he was doing the routine for the Gold at the Olympics and how that would motivate him. He said that if he nailed his routine that he would be on top of the world and he could go home and say, “I just won the Olympics.” If he didn’t do as well as he wanted, then that served as motivation for him to keep improving and to get it next time. I have been applying that into my own wrestling, and it has made a huge difference in my training. I feel so motivated and energized when I visualize myself wrestling for Olympic Gold. It is amazing!

Good luck to everyone. Love the game, improve daily, and enjoy the process!

How embarrassing!, originally uploaded by jbar2008.

This is one of my dogs. His name is Newton and this is a picture of him in some type of baby play device. One of my sisters in law was playing with him and this is what she did. It is emasculating enough to have two small white dogs but when someone does this to them it is another low blow to my masculinity. Well I guess that I should look on the bright side. It could be worse. I could have been the one in the jeep.