By: Joseph Carlo Herrera and Alexia Krause for The Carlo Chronicles.
Fresh off a centennial celebration, I have yet another insightful and intriguing edition of the blog on the way today. As I mentioned before, I have been looking for other writers that are willing to participate in a collaboration with me here on the site, the whole purpose of composing joint-projects is simply to expand the market value and general entertainment of the site. If you can remember our latest guest was fourteen year old Rayne Aguilar, she came here and put up a very fun and point filled segment about bad ass names; sighting ten specific names that are unique and somehow related to modern culture. From what I understand, the readers really enjoyed it, according to the national standings on Top Blogs.ph, the hits really piled on after it's release.I decided to come off the 100th blog with a bang, so in today's edition, we have yet another guest joining us for this first segment. I am quite pumped to give the introduction because this writer has some impressive experience locked in, so I guess I should no longer delay it.
Readers, it gives me great excitement to open the floor for a 27 year old professional sports and fitness writer from Long Island, New York in the USA. She has been writing semi-professionally for the past three years and is currently maintaining a sports website called Your Source 4 Sports. She has a true enthusiasm for writing articles related to mixed martial arts (MMA) and fitness. As a result, she recently landed a gig with MMA Industries- retailers of highly popular MMA clothing and MMA shirts. With them, she now blogs about the latest trends in MMA equipment and continues to provide her readers with the latest news in the MMA universe. I have personally seen a number of her works, and from what I have taken in, I think you guys will really feel how passionate she is about her compositions, not only are you informed regarding the topic she delivers, but you also take away some insight and new ideas afterward. The segment she has for us today is quite an eye-opening discussion, all my fellow teenagers reading this can really learn a couple of things from her segment, so I don't want to get in the way any longer. With that, I am very happy to present on The Carlo Chronicles, our second all-time guest, Alexia Krause.
Alexia Krause for The Carlo Chronicles © All rights reserved.
Teens growing up in troubled neighborhoods often find themselves drawn into seedy situations against their will. Whether it is peer pressure, or a feeling of despair for the future, many of today's youth fall prey to the allures of gangs, violence, and drugs. One of the most effective ways to circumvent this calamity is by making sure these kids stay active in after-school programs.
One of the best activities for children and teens to participate in are the fitness programs held in their schools or local gyms. There are neighborhood fitness centers like these all across the nation. Their success stories never cease to inspire. Whether it is boxing, basketball, or badminton, studies have shown that after-school activities dramatically lower incidence rates of violence and crime amongst teens.
Programs like ones organized by Horace Bryant at the Fourth Street Youth Boxing Gym in Minnesota are perfect examples of the preventative power of these clubs. Bryant saw the trouble that teens in his neighborhood were getting in to, and wanted to make a difference. That's why he coordinated his youth outreach program with the owners of his local gym.
Take a look at the case of a young man named Chris Watson. Chris was involved in trouble with the law ever since he was 14 years old. He had been arrested multiple times, dropped out of school in 2007, and was even charged with a felony. Watson stated that he would have likely continued down the bleak path he was on if it weren't for his local boxing program.
"I just had nothing to do back in the day; I wasn't working," Watson said. "I had so many friends I didn't know what to do with and they were always doing something illegal or something fun. Ever since I met Horace, going to the gym is what I look forward to everyday. I can't wait to get off work and go boxing." Bryant not only helped Watson with his training, but also helped him get a job. Chris is now studying to complete his GED, and hopes to someday inspire kids the way that Bryant inspired him and saved him from the streets.
Gyms and stories like this exist all over the nation. It is incredibly important to support programs like these. These organizations improve the lives of the children enrolled in it, while at the same time decreasing rates of crime and violence in their surrounding neighborhoods. Unfortunately, due to the recent recession, much of the funding to these programs via state and federal grants has been slashed. Often times these gyms depend on donations to purchase MMA gloves to help them prepare for matches. That is why it is so vital to recognize how crucial these programs are to our communities around the nation, and the world.
Alexia Krause for The Carlo Chronicles © All rights reserved.
Very informative article and I for one, was actually able to experience this first hand. Not much people know about this, but when I was around 12-13 years old, I used to train over at a nearby gym called The Elorde Sports Center. I used to go through a boxing program where I would train as much as my 12 year old body would permit me. At the time I took it very seriously, I was very determined to follow the rules and regimen I was given. If we were classmates back in the fifth grade, then you might remember how much I wanted to make a career out of boxing, I would go spar a couple bouts, we'd set up personal bets at a hundred pesos, since that's what we kids had. I really had my heart set onto boxing and there was a time when I turned thirteen, I seriously considered applying for the amateurs. I even had a whole concept picked out; I chose to go by the moniker "The Killer K-9", and thanks to some effort, my dad was finally able to have my apparel produced. It was all black and gold with my name on it.
Little did I know, those dreams would soon painfully go out the window; I suffered a fracture on a finger in my right hand, it took about a month or two to get it back in shape, it went through full recovery. When I deemed it time to go back to the ring, I realized that after about ten minutes on the mitts, I started feeling an agonizing pain that I just couldn't push through. I couldn't go on with a permanently damaged hand. According to my trainer, the straight right hand was the best punch I had. It was over.
Despite the terrible end to my story, having boxing as a mindset other than school really helped mold me as a person. It taught me things that I never would've learned had I not tied up my gloves and threw some jabs. I picked up valuable morals and virtues to live by as a person, and my knowledge of the sport also gives me an advantage today, as I report and write articles about it on The Bleacher Report. Boxing will always be a part of me and it was an undertaking that I can never forget.
Once more, I would like to thank Alexia for that inspired segment, I hope that she was able to enlighten some of you who might be looking for an extra-curricular activity to spend your free time on, of course if you would like to see more of Alexia's work, you can check out her blog Your Source 4 Sports, or you can even search for her on Google or Yahoo, just type down "Alexia Krause" and you will see a number of sites wherein she has written reports and articles. If you would like to get started with some equipment shopping, you can visit her company's website MMA Industries. On behalf of all the readers, the blog would like to thank Alexia for lending us some of her time in order to get this message out, I'm sure everyone would be very open to seeing her here again anytime in the future. Finally, if you are a writer looking to get some of your work out, expand your market, build up your name, please feel free to drop me a line! All you need to do is follow these three steps. Keep in mind that all collaborations are free, it's all for the purpose of expanding exposure for both involved parties.
Moving on from that, I think it's really a great thing to have the guest come out first, you see how that gets the rhythm going early on and makes my job a bit easier, all I have to to now is to close out strong.
The BET Awards are only two weeks away. For the people who are unfamiliar about what this is, BET stands for Black Entertainment Television. It is when members of the black community honor exceptional entertainers in different categories. Obviously, even if you don't know what this is about, you could guess who the common nominees would be. Included in the ceremony are stars like; Kobe Bryant, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, LeBron James, Denzel Washington, Justin Bieber... wait, what!? Justin Bieber!? There must be some mistake, let me double check the official nominations. Oh dear, it's no mistake people, Justin Bieber is in fact nominated for a BET, Best Young Artist of the year. I am kind of surprised this because as I reviewed the nominations, there are only two people who aren't African American that were nominated, and those two are this chipmunk, I mean, kid and the lovely Selena Gomez. See I'm not wondering why the committee or whoever chooses the nominees decided to put Selena Gomez down on the list because she is smoking hot. Now there is no rule that holds back non-African American nominations, but come on people, Justin Bieber? He is the last person I would expect to be nominated for a BET. I am an Asian, so maybe I'm not the best person to give my opinion on this issue, it's good thing that late night funny man Jimmy Kimmel did a couple interviews with African Americans for his show to find out what they think about the whole scenario; here's what they had to say.
From that video, I absolutely understand their reactions because, I for one cannot comprehend how the heck he got in there. So looking at the current polls, Kobe and LeBron are head-to-head for the top spot in Sportsman of the year, Selena Gomez who totally deserves to be nominated in anything has a huge lead and the biggest surprise of all is, Justin Bieber has a 57% lead over Young Money! Young Money! Can you believe that? Little chipmunk just keeps finding new ways to surprise us.
I'll close this out by saying what that nice African American fellow said in the video, "That's bulls**t!". Uh oh, here comes the Belieber hatemail, wait don't send it yet! (Turns on full SPAM guards) Okay flood me crazy girls, I'm ready.
On to something that is more in my area of expertise, the biggest stage in all of basketball is set for another all-time classic Finals match-up between my Los Angeles Lakers and the ever hated Boston Celtics. The series begins on June 3rd, which is this Tuesday for me, and Wednesday for the people who have a chance to watch it in the arena.
As a Laker fan, I'm absolutely cannot wait for my team to crush the scumbags that took away that 2008 NBA Championship from them. I can still remember the terrible feeling I had in my stomach as I watched the game withering down to the final seconds with the Boston Celtics leading by more than thirty points. I didn't know whether to break something or flat out cry. That was the season when the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to aide Paul Pierce's campaign. In turn, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchack completed a mid-season blockbuster trade sending Pau Gasol into the glorious confines of the Staples Center. The Lakers performed at the highest level since the departure of Shaquille O'neal back in 2004, the two teams met in the finals, renewing an age old rivalry which began in 1950's. Confidence soon turned into worry as the Lakers found themselves undermanned with the crucial knee injury of supposedly starting center, Andrew Bynum. The Boston Three-Party ended the series in six games, winning the final game by a decisive 39 points.
Since then, the Lakers were able to climb back to the top, the tables turned in 2009 when Kevin Garnett suffered a season ending injury while Andrew Bynum returned to the Lakers' line up in the nick of time for the postseason. With the Lakers in good condition, they parried away the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic in five games.
As good the whole revenge thing sounds, I can't help but be a little disappointed in the Orlando Magic, the team that I concluded to win the Eastern Conference. If you go ahead and review the bracket I calculated before the playoffs began, I had a perfect prediction rate in the Eastern Conference. Teams were eliminated exactly as I said they would be, and if I could just say, that's pretty impressive by anybody's standards. My 100% conference would soon go down the drain thanks to Dwight Howard who couldn't hold off a bunch of grandpas, yes, I'm talking about you Rasheed Wallace.
So because my bracket is now only 50% complete with the Lakers winning in the Western Conference, I feel that it's best for me to give a preview on how I believe the series will turn out.
The Lakers are going to come into the series gunning, they will likely win the first game keeping in mind that they have secured the 2-3-2 homecourt advantage. This series build is very biased towards the higher seeded team because if they do win the first two games at home, all they have to do is take one of three road games and they'll get two opportunities to win the final game back at home. Looking at the match-ups, things are leaning toward the Lakers' way. Think about the starters; Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol down low against a slightly shorter Kevin Garnett, Kobe who's guard would be desirably be Paul Pierce only has to deal with a less agile Ray Allen, thanks to the addition of Ron Artest who can neutralize Paul Pierce. The only starter advantage the Celtics have is the point guard spot, Rajon Rondo on Derek Fisher, but I don't think Rajon Rondo can play all 48 minutes of every game in the series, he has to deal with backup guards Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown. The Lakers also have a deeper bench mob, this is solidified by DJ Mbenga being the last person on the bench. Mathematically, the teams are pretty evenly matched with a regular season spread of 0.5 between their two contests. Boston took the first game 87-86 whilst Kobe's clutch shot gave the second to Los Angeles 90-89. It's going to be a very tough series, no doubt about it. But I hereby predict the Lakers winning the series in six games, 4-2.
I will have to wrap this up right here, but do not worry, my next blog is in the work alongside my magazine feature which I will announce on there as well. I would like to give recognition too all the kids from other countries who just finished school this week, I know it was a very tough year but you guys are free! I just wish I could say the same for myself and the kids here, in two weeks, we'll be back in our miserably vandalized desks. If you want more news and discussion about the NBA Finals, what place better to hear it from than The Lakeshow Express, 24/7 NBA Finals coverage delivered straight to your browser. In case that's not enough for you, rising sportswriters await you at The Bleacher Report, where you can find stories from a wide variation of perspectives. For all of the twitter folk who want to follow someone new, you can follow Alexia's company and of course yours truly; @MMAIndustries and @CarloHerrera in respective order.
Are you a deranged Belieber? Fanmail? Intrigued by Alexia's story? Predictions for the Finals series? Mail to; thecarlochronicles@yahoo.com
