Training in any martial art can have a whole array of benefits. Besides the technical skills, students learn self-discipline, mental strength and quick reactions.
Fortunately, few of us are forced to put those skills to use outside of a controlled competitive arena.
However, one heroic high school wrestler in New Mexico was called upon to use his best moves last week to prevent an attempted kidnapping.
Canaan Bower, 16, had stopped to fill up the tank in his car at a gas station convenience store in Doña Ana.
As Bower walked into the store to pay, he spotted Daniel Beltran Arroyo, 21, attacking a mother of three children and attempting to take her kids. Bower immediately leapt onto Arroyo and wrestled him to the ground.
The teenager then body-slammed the would-be kidnapper, using his weight to pin the creep to the ground until cops arrived, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.
Arroyo was arrested and charged with one count of kidnapping, four counts of battery, two counts of assault and two counts of child abuse.
The mother told authorities that she got off at a bus stop with her children, ages 9, 2 and 1, and was waiting for an Uber driver to arrive when a man grabbed her 2-year-old child and demanded the woman turn over her children.
Witnesses told authorities Arroyo punched the woman and others who tried to intervene before the woman was able to rush inside the store with her children. Witnesses said the attacker followed, continuing his demands.
Bower, who is a junior at Mayfield High School, won the District 3-5A championship in the 285-pound (129-kilogram) heavyweight division on Feb. 16, and later competed at the state tournament.
“You fear for your own child’s safety in that situation,” his father Troy Bower said. “You don’t know if this guy’s maybe got a gun or a knife — you don’t know what this guy’s capable of.”
However, he said he was confident his son would do the right thing and succeed.
There’s no indication in police reports that Arroyo knew the mother or her children.
 | DONA ANA, NEW MEXICO |
|---|---|
| Location: | 220 miles south of Albuquerque |
| Population: | 1,211 |
| Median Household Income: | $39,114 |
| Quirky Fact: | Doña Ana is a Spanish name meaning “Madam Anna” and was given in honor of a Spanish matron |