An art of passion and power

By Aiden R

The sound of impact from sparring pads echoes through the gym as Jay Auen and his wife, Gina, coach their students in the art of striking. The speaker emits a mixed assortment of music, old and new, funk and rock.

Coach Jay turns to oversee the grappling feats of some of his older students, walking them step by step on how to get out of a bad position. Jay Auen is a five-time world champion of karate and mixed martial arts, and owns a mixed martial arts dojo, All Sport Mixed Martial Arts, in which he teaches kickboxing and jiu jitsu. 

Coach Jay: “I’ve started since the 8th grade. I’ve just finished my career of professional motocross racing. I raced for Team Green Kawasaki. I was a professional motocross racer and my dad said it was getting too expensive, ‘cause it really was, and he said to me to look for another sport because this one costs too much. Then I thought, ‘Ah, man, I really like this Bruce Lee guy. He’s really cool, man. I love everything about Bruce Lee.’ So I went to the closest dojo and signed up.”

Coach Jay remembers his ambitions and what his ultimate goal was when he started teaching.

Coach Jay: “Before, I wanted to open up a school. I didn’t want to open up as just a black belt; I wanted to be a world champion, so before I wanted to teach anybody, I wanted to be the best. So I went and did that 5 times. I won 5 world championships. After I won my first world championship, I decided I wanted to open up my gym. I said, ‘Okay, now I’m ready.’ Instead of advertising ‘I’m a black belt,’ I was able to say ‘I’m a world champion black belt, come train with me.’”

The students have nothing but good things to say about the environment, and some have ambitions that include competition.

Nouel Toma is an apprentice of Jay’s, who is currently undertaking a journey of his own for the title of world champion. 

Nouel: “I’m blessed to have him as a coach. There are other coaches out there that are great coaches, but Jay is… one out of a billion. He was a blessing, for sure, but yeah, he’s always been there for me. He’s always been real, legit, and because of him, I didn’t want to give up—I never wanted to give up in the first place, but he always told me, ‘you either win or you learn.’ So we always took the losses as a learning curve, and we just get better, man.”

He also appreciates the atmosphere of the others in the gym and credits it to being one of the reasons he’s still going.

Nouel: “I just like fighting in general, and I do want to be professional soon, and that’s why I’m still here, man. I love this place. I’ve learned a lot from Ryan, I’ve learned a lot from Jay and Gina, I’ve learned a lot from other training partners, so that’s why I’m still here. I need to stay healthy.”

However, one does not need to be a full-blown champion or aspiring champion for it to be useful to them. Sometimes people simply want to learn self-defense or get into shape. All Sport Mixed Martial Arts is open to anyone, regardless of their needs or goals.

Coach Jay: “Not everyone has to compete. Some people just do it to learn some self-defense, maybe to do some exercise, get in shape, so goals are different for everybody. I understand that my goals are a little extreme; even Nouel’s goals are a little extreme. Ryan and everybody else, they’re just here to work out and have fun, but it’s nice to have someone around that gets extreme because we all get behind them and try to help them reach their goal.”

Ryan is another student who has been going to All Sport for about 27 years now since he was 9. He expresses how martial arts helps him from day to day.

Ryan: “It’s a family-friendly environment. Jay’s got a good attitude, and so does Gina. Usually most of the other people you train with do too. Not a hostile environment. Always willing to teach you new stuff, and if you’re doing something wrong, they’ll correct you.”

He also appreciates how sparring and working out serves him as an outlet for any stress he has from work and outside forces.

Ryan: “Bad day at work, you come and train, get tired, [you] usually don’t care about whatever else that’s been going on. Train hard.”

Studies show that exercise in general is greatly beneficial for the wellbeing of practitioners, whether it be mentally, physically, or internally. According to the informational fitness blog and article website, exerciseright.com, mixed martial arts, and even martial arts in general, can greatly benefit and train the mind, confidence and self-esteem, reflexes, as well as let off excess stress and strengthen respiratory organs through activity. It also allows you to grow and even consciously train your quick thinking and problem-solving skills when developing strategies in brief intervals of time during sparring.

14-year-old Rosie Frasier has been practicing martial arts for almost two years now at All Sport, and marvels at how much she feels she’s improved since she first started, crediting the coaches and mentors. 

Rosie: “I think [the dojo and practicing martial arts] helped me with my confidence and self esteem. I really love Nouel. Add that in there. But he’s actually really taught me. He’s like, a really good coach, and Logan’s good too. I appreciate them both.”

Coach Jay Auen has many stories he hopes to eventually tell of his adventures on his way to get where he is. 

Coach Jay: “I’ve led a life that’s not boring. Definitely not boring. It’s full of excitement. I have two jobs: I drive Uber, Lyft, and I do martial arts. But to me, this isn’t even a job. This is like my home—this is where I come to just do what I want to do. I’d do it for free, to be honest with you. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I have. When Nouell couldn’t pay for classes, I let him come for like a year or two for free. Of course, it’s nice to have money, but that wasn’t my goal. If I won the lottery someday, I’d be down here still, because it’s my passion. Martial arts is my passion.”

Jay knows martial arts is him. He’s accomplished what he wants to accomplish, and now he’s looking to help others find and achieve what they want as well, whatever it takes.

From the Warrior Times, this is Aiden Ranin.