Flipping Out : Kids Get With the Program, Free Judo From Ray Tinaza

Barefoot and clad in a white gi, Ray Tinaza flipped a couple of kids flat on their backs. When one got up, Tinaza gently grabbed his arm and slammed him to the ground again.

The point Tinaza was trying to make to the judo students at the Stonehurst Recreation Center is that you have to be quick, alert and sharp at all times.

The alternative is getting the wind knocked out of you.

“There has to be constant moving,” Tinaza said to the attentive students, also clad in gis. “You gotta be fast, real fast too.”

For nine years Tinaza, 51, has volunteered his time to teach youths from low income families the martial art he grew up loving. Three times a week they meet in an old rock hut that years ago was a cavalry fort.

The windows are covered with anti-theft bars and the wood floor is squeaky and worn. There’s a fireplace on one end with an American flag above it.

When Tinaza started the program at Stonehurst in 1986, only six students signed up. Now 153 youths ages 5 to 19 participate in the program, which is open to anyone who is interested.

“We started off with a $1,000 donation from the Olympic League fund and that wasn’t even enough for the mats,” Tinaza said. “So I put in some of my own money.”

It’s still a low-budget operation that requires fund raising and, as Tinaza puts it, “collecting lots of aluminum cans.” The facility, donated by the Stonehurst Recreation Center, is far from high-tech and the mats need to be replaced.

But none of these things has kept Tinaza’s students from advancing. Several compete nationally and seven have qualified for the United States Judo Incorporated U.S. Junior Nationals in Austin, Tex., early next month.

Christine Carrera, 19, will represent the U.S. at the Junior Pan American Games in Ecuador next month. She also will compete in the U.S. Olympic Festival and the USJI U.S. Open.

Carrera, 5 feet and 106 pounds, was third at the Senior Nationals in Indianapolis this year.

“My sister and I have been coming here for about six years and we love it,” Carrera said. “I’ve traveled and met so many people and I see how this really helps kids because it gives them something good to do that’s also fun.”

Carrera’s sister, Yvonne, placed third at the USJI Scholastic championships in Florida this year and recently returned from a 10-day judo training session in Japan.

Yvonne, 16, won age-division junior national titles in Arizona at 14 and in Hawaii at 15.

“I hated judo at first,” Yvonne said. “I don’t know why, I just didn’t like it. Then I started doing good and winning and I started to really like it.”

A lot of that has to do with Tinaza, an easygoing guy with a great sense of humor.

Tinaza, who studied judo in Japan, is a sixth-degree black belt (there are 10 degrees) with more than 10 titles. In the early 1960s he was the Air Force champion in his weight division (162 pounds) and was Florida state champion.

Tinaza grew up in a rough East L.A. neighborhood so his father insisted on an extracurricular activity to keep him out of trouble.

“I could have gotten involved with gangs,” said the 5-8 Tinaza, a veteran of the Vietnam War. “They maybe weren’t as bad as they are today, but they were there waiting for young kids.”

In addition to teaching judo, Tinaza charts his students’ academic progress. You don’t do well in school, you can’t participate.

“All the kids that stay improve their grades,” Tinaza said. “I had a kid recently that started off with a minus 1.0 GPA and now he’s at 3.8.

“Judo includes a lot of discipline. They start to feel better about themselves and they begin to improve in all areas.”

Tinaza plans to flip kids until he can’t do it anymore.