Regina SK Canada: Sweepscience and Complete MMA

Hello from Regina Saskatchewan Canada!

Getting here was a bit of a pain. I had originally bought my ticket to leave at midnight from Edmonton and show up at Regina at 10 in the morning, with a transfer at Saskatoon. The transfer ended up being the problem. For those of you not in Canada, this country is huge and spans over several time zones, and when daylight savings comes around it gets a little confusing who switches to what time. Apparently the bus company's online ticket system doesn't have this taken into account. When I first bought the ticket I was set to transfer over to a bus at a station in a different time zone than the one I left, which for part the year, the part when I bought the tickets in advance, this works out. But now, with daylight savings time changing the time zones that doesn't work. Apparently only one time zone, where my bus would be starting, changes while the other stays the same time, making it so that the bus now shows up too late to make the transfer. Annoying and confusing right? Why don't they change the bus to leave an hour earlier to make the transfer? Why doesn't the transferring bus leave an hour later? Why doesn't the online system take these things into account? Lots of questions could be asked but it doesn't help any.

My view driving through Saskatchewan, the prairies are very flat..

I arrive at the Edmonton bus station and get told this fact and that I now will have to wait for 5 hours in Saskatoon for the next bus and that I wouldn't get in until 4 in the evening, which would pretty much make me have to make it to class. More annoying added to an already annoying and inconvenient situation. As it happens there was a way around it. When I got into the station, ready to wait out my 5 hour layover, very tired from not a good night's rest on the bus (you figure everyone would be looking to sleep on an over night bus, some people figured it was a party bus) I was informed of a bus that shows up in half an hour and with another transfer to a third bus I could be in Regina by 1:15 in the afternoon. It would be a longer bus ride than the one going straight to Regina later but I'd get there way sooner. It was a no brainer. I jumped on the early bus and, being a quiet ride this time, made up for lost sleep and was ready to hit class when I pulled into Regina.

The bus station in Saskatoon had the original Capcom VS Marvel, which is awesome, but I was too tired to bother playing it. If I had to stay there for the full 5 hrs I would probably have my name on the scoreboard!  

Regina BJJ - SweepScience

The club that got back to me with a place to stay, which Dylan trains at, is also the newest club in town, SweepScience. I was really looking forward to meeting Coach John and thank him for connecting me to Dylan to make it possible to have a place to stay in Regina, and first day in town I got in early enough to head to class that night and do exactly that. SweepScience is hidden pretty well, as of right now there's no sign on the space to let you know it's a BJJ club inside and it's tucked away in the industrial area. The only thing giving it away is Google Maps and the address on their website. I'm sure they'll have a sign up soon enough but trust me either way it's worth finding.  The club on the inside is all white and grey, with a lobby in the front and a change room on the side before an entrance to the mats on the left. The lobby has a half wall so parents can watch the kids class from the lobby, and the staff can watch the front door from the mats. Coach John, who is a gifted long limbed brown belt, runs a relaxed class with the focus being on reps and drills rather than conditioning exercises to warm up. The class is designed for everyone to get maximum reps in, with a timer set for 5 minutes for each partner to run the technique over before switching. The techniques all follow a common position so you get lots of work on a position and become comfortable working from there. When we rolled we did starting in the position we were going over so there's a situational awareness to work into rolling while trying to execute, or defend, the techniques we drilled.

The SweepScience guys, minus Dylan the host that day. I really should have got a pic with him.

Rolling was chill and a lot of fun with everyone, I managed to get a round with Coach John and his sweeps and set ups were really smooth, I was clearly playing into all his setups. I got a real peaceful sense of Jiu-Jitsu harmony on the mats there. Everyone was great to talk to at SweepScience and seemed really interested in my journey and were always up to asking questions and talking about it. One day after class a few of us, Coach John and Simon, a student who is from Wales and is also a black belt in Karate, went for sushi and hung out. We talked all about martial arts stuff, etiquette on the mats, when visiting, places I've been to and should visit, the differences and similarities between different martial arts and of course movies. It was a great time, I love these hang outs with Jiu-Jitsu people after class I've been having, so many great people and amazing conversations.  
   

Coach John. Was a blast training with him.

Complete MMA

The front door, the club is in the basement. 

Complete MMA is the other gym I decided to visit in Regina. Being a Nova Uniao affiliate they have connections to Xtreme Couture in Toronto, which my friend Mariya trains at and I visit every time I'm in town. With the fun times I have training with Wagnney Fabianno and his club in Toronto I had to visit Complete as well. I e-mailed them and spoke the coach Prof. AJ Scales and told him all about my journey and when I planned on coming to visit. I made it out a Friday evening gi class and a weekend no gi open mat and both times I was greeted warmly. The gym itself is in a basement space and has a old school boxing gym feel to it when you first walk in. It's long and narrow with a front desk greeting you and then a weights area behind it. A cage wall separates the weights area from the mats and on the right side of the space there's the office, change room and washrooms. There were some heavy bags and a wrestling dummy on the side, what I assume is for the MMA and kickboxing classes. The mats are a bit worn, lots of drilling and rolling has gone on in there over the time. It was a good space for Jiu-Jitsu.

At class Friday night, during rolling session. 

Class was cool with some techniques and transitions from having a self belt locked in. Afterwards we had some rolls and they were decent, I was fearing they might be beasts on the mats being a competition club, and an MMA club at that, and maybe I'd get run through, has it happens everyone was a lot of fun with some spirited but not too aggressive rolls. Aggressive rolling is something I'd like to keep to a minimum, for now anyways. Anyways, everyone seemed happy to have me and class was great. Lots of rolling was had and at the no gi open mat there were a few black belts who were happy to show me some cool techniques after catching me in them a few times. I wrote a few of them down afterwards, and I've have to remember to try them rolling at another no gi class again.

Another pic from class.

Even though I wasn't able to make it out to one of Prof. AJ's classes I was luck enough to meet him on Friday night. He welcomed me to his club and we spoke about my journey and where I was heading to next, it was a short but good talk. We took a picture together and swapped patches, I got both a Complete MMA patch and a Nova Uniao Canada patch, as a patch collector it was a score. I made a few new friends, learned some tricks and even was on a live feed to China at some point, one of the students likes to show his friends and family and other Jiu-Jitsu people in China how he trains, apparently he has quite the following, it was a good time training there.

Prof. AJ Scales and I, he's a big guy, kinda glad I didn't meet him on the mats haha. 

Dylan The Host

This is another story about the Jiu-Jitsu community being awesome. Regina was one of the last places I was still looking for a place to stay and not having many friends from the area or any in Regina at this time it didn't look like I was going to have any luck. I sent out a last attempt e-mail at the two gyms I was looking to train at and luckily one of them responded that one of their students would be wiling to host me. That's awesome! I didn't hear back from the club or from Dylan until 2 weeks out when I asked for his number so I could text him. We spoke a little and everything was good, and the night before and day of traveling I kept in contact with him to let him know the whole debacle with the bus tickets. As I was coming into town it occurred to me we've never met, and we're not on social media together so we have no idea what each other looks like. I gave him a brief description of "I should be easy to see with my greenish backpack and leather jacket" which seemed to work. We met in the station, had a short chat, mostly me thanking him for letting me stay at his place and him asking about my travels and telling me about his experience training. Dylan took me back to his place, set me up in the spare room and showed me around his house, the basement has mats down and a small gym set up, excellent for stretching out in. After a good shower to wash the dirty 'I spent the night on a bus' feeling off, a quick run to the grocery store and a few mins to relax we were off to my first BJJ class in Regina.

Dylan and I sat down and had an interview before I caught the bus out of town for Winnipeg. It was cool to sit down with someone who has only been training for a year to hear what impact and changes it has made on his life already and what goals he has at this stage in the journey. Check it out below:

If the video doesn't work head over to the Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel and watch it there. Maybe like a few of my interview and subscribe to my channel too, thanks!

Shana and POW

I was first introduced to Shana from my friend in Toronto, Mariya, and quickly learned that she is not only a hard working Jiu-jitsuero with a busy personal life but also runs a women's self defense course named Power Our Women, or POW. Following her on Facebook I became intrigued and decided to do an interview with her. Unfortunately our schedules didn't match and I wasn't able to meet her on the mats or do a video interview. But since she has a great story of showing that women too can excel in a physical and male dominated sport and also how important it is to give back to the community. Here's my interview with her via e-mail.

Panda's Odyssey: Thank you Shana for tkaing the time to do this for me, I know you're busy. Let's start with your training, can you tell me your martial arts experience and how you got into BJJ?

Shana: I am a blue belt and have been training for the past 6 years in mixed martial arts. Mostly Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. I started BJJ to gain self defence and a healthy life, bored of the usual treadmill run and weight lifting. My first day learning BJJ I was hooked, I learned an Americana and RNC (rear naked choke), very empowering. I lost 30 lbs in one year of BJJ training and most importantly Jiu-Jitsu helped me make some positive changes for my life and family.

PO: Wow that's impressive! Way to jump right in and make the changes! Some people train for self defence, some train for exercise or purely to compete. What is your main focus when you're training?

S: It depends, I do it for all three! BJJ is a good foundation for any fighter or person in competition and life. I highly recommend BJJ for self defence because many fights will go to the ground and you will like to know what to do on your back! If you do BJJ for exercise, you will get results and wont notice you are working out because you are enjoying yourself and learning while working out your body.

PO: Great points! I agree full heartedly! So you run a woman's self defence course called POW, right? Can you tell me more about it? How did it come around to be? 

S: Power Our Women has a mission to help women and girls see the power they already have within themselves. I am not someone giving them anything, I just see an opportunity to share what martial arts and self defence has done for me. Women are strong and powerful, our communities will be a better place with confident women and girls. We teach self defence, bully management, goal setting, balance in nutrition and fitness. 

PO: That's awesome, I love seeing self defense course like that! Have you found it hard to get people out to the courses? Do you find its hard to get the word out? Or are people generally interested? 

S: We have great interest and amazing feedback with the workshops we deliver. All our instructors are certified and have experience working with people. We pride ourselves in what we can do for others and it is so rewarding to see how confident they after a day with POW!

PO: Nice! Getting women involved in martial arts is a big accomplishment, that's great hearing all the positive feedback, I hope it continues to grow and get more women involved! 

Being a woman in a male dominated sport what has kept you training? What tips can you give to those women thinking of training or just starting now? 

S: Being a woman in a male dominated sport is definitely empowering, if you can get passed looking at them as sweaty stinky men, you will learn so much! All the men in the gym have generally been respectful and encouraging. It really matters what gym you choose to be apart of because this will be your family, you will help each other grow. If they don’t help you grow and are inappropriate, find a different gym! My word would be- Jiu-Jitsu will be tough, every roll will be different, that’s how you grow AND Stay humble, we all start as a white belt.

PO: Great advice! Do you have any role models that you look to for inspiration for BJJ? 

S: My team mates. My family. Nova Uniao. 

PO: Nice, thank you so much for doing this, you are a great inspiration to women starting out in martial arts and I look forward to watching you and POW grow! 

I hope you liked the interview, I think it's utterly important to have a safe pro-women environment to help show women what they can do so we can grow together. Martial arts is not just a male thing, and I hope this interview showed that. As usual it would have been nice to have more time but then it would take forever to see the world as I've set out to do. 

And then it was time to take off for my next destination, Winnipeg Manitoba Canada!

Until next time, see you all on the mats!

OSSS!

Edmonton AB Canada: Lots Done In Little Time

Greetings From Edmonton!

My stay here was pretty short, but I managed to get in quite a bit of training. It's funny because I didn't feel rushed at all but looking back as I write this I realize I got a lot done. I made it out to an open mat session with Prof. Eduardo Telles, hit up classes at the Hayabusa Training Centre, Arashi-Do Martial Arts South and met up with Prof. Curt Malin for a class at Method BJJ before grabbing the bus for Regina that night. That sounds a lot more tiring than it felt. Unfortunately I couldn't find the time to sit down and do a video interview before leaving but I did manage to do a Q&A online with Curt that I've posted below for you reading pleasure.

I headed north in Alberta towards Edmonton...and found winter.

Open Mat with Eduardo Telles

When I was planning on coming to Edmonton it was based on two things: 1. To see my cousin Karen, who I haven't seen in over 10 years, and stay with her family. 2. To meet up with Prof. Curt Malin, who I had met earlier this summer when he dropped by my gym and showed us some cool stuff from the turtle position. As I was Talking to Prof. Curt he had told me that his professor, Prof. Eduardo Telles, would in town to throw on a seminar and have an open mat before he left. I wasn't able to make it to his seminar, and it really wouldn't have fit in my budget anyways, but I did manage to get into town in time for the open mat. My cousin and her daughters met me at the bus station, where our long overdue family reunion was short lived as she drove me straight to the open mat. We would have the evening to chat and catch up on life, now was the time to get to meet a man who's made quite the name for himself, with creating moves from what is usually thought as one of the worst positions. If you're unfamiliar with Eduardo Telles look up the 'Telles Turtle Guard', you'll be happy you did. The open mat was held at The Little Sweatshop out on the east end of Edmonton. It's a a loft style set up with the mats being on top of the offices and bathrooms you see when you first walk in, over looking the wide open area on the main floor. The mat area itself is actually quite large and with the different punching bags and equipment sitting at the back I could see they also held MMA or kickboxing here. I wish I was able make it out to classes there as I seemed like a good group to train with. The open mat was full of great guys all laughing and having a good time, I had clearly walked in on a close knit bunch of people. I had a few rolls with some of them, all no gi, and the talent on the mats was incredible. Before the rolls, when I first showed up, Curt Malin welcomed me and introduced me to a few of the others there, including Prof. Telles, and we talked a little while I stretched out from being on the bus all morning. Once I had a few rolls down it was time for me to roll with the man himself. Prof. Eduardo Telles is really athletically gifted and pretty much danced around me the whole time, which I totally expected. It was actually a lot of fun, my mind was blown most the time, I simply did not know what or how he was doing what he was doing. Curt later said it was fun watching the Panda vs the Turtle, I laughed, it was more like watching a baby panda vs a Ninja Turtle! Great times were had, and friendships were made, and with Curt's help, the rest of my short stay was sorted out for training. Thank you Curt for inviting me out to the open mat and thank you Prof. Telles, Sir, for the experience of rolling with you!

This man is a beast, Prof. Eduardo Telles, OSS!

Hayabusa Training Centre

This is a pretty big gym!

Monday I decided it would be a good day to make it up to the Hayabusa Training Centre, where a friend of a friend trains and had invited me out. Jamie is a friend of Travis, who I met when the Lizard BJJ Invermere group made it out to the summer Jiu-Jitsu camp. Just another example of Jiu-Jitsu making the world smaller. The gym is up on the north end of Edmonton, St. Albert actually. The area the gym is in is like entire district for fitness, when I was walking up to the training centre I noticed 3 other buildings around it that were running fitness classes at the same time. I read the signs on the buildings, one seemed to be for dance, another for crossfit, and the third therapeutic massage and yoga. I guess a building for Jiu-jitsu and grappling and combative arts seemed suiting to be in this area. The gym itself was as I expected from a place with the Hayabusa name on it, full of Hayabusa gear at the front desk and very nicely laid out. The main floor was an open concept with a large mat area for the classes with a ledge on one side and one wall being glass for all sorts of viewers. There was also a second floor that overlooked the main floor and had a smaller mat space and other workout equipment.

Met up with Jamie, he's tall, thanks for slouching to fit in this pic! hahah 

I found Jamie easy enough and he showed me around and introduced me to a few people, including the coach, Prof. Luke Harris. Classes are were big, not only in number but size too, Prof. Luke wasn't the only big guy in class, there were some guys that dwarfed me. After some good warm up drills and some drilling we ended up splitting into groups by weight class and of course I was the shortest in my group of giants. We did a takedown drill where two people start in an attempted single leg scenario, with the object being to either finish, reverse, or stop the takedown. The winner stays in the circle and we rotate. Prof. Luke displayed some slick Judo easily taking everyone down from either scenario, the attacker or defender. One big white belt, who wrestles and power lifts, picked all 240 lbs of me up effortlessly and then set me down on the mats like a wee baby. I was so surprised by his power all I could do was laugh.
Class ended with some positional rolling and take down drills, Jamie and I were paired up. We started in guard, great for his lankly body, horrible for my stubby limbed one, hahah. It was aggressive but fun, unfortunately my calf cramped up during the roll so I couldn't finish the last take down drilling rounds or stay for the no gi class. With it so early in my trip, and the first night dropping by a club, I didn't want to chance anything. The cramp didn't hinder the fun had or the great people I met that night, it's too bad I didn't have more time with them, something I'm finding I'm saying far too often during this journey.

Prof. Luke Harris, such a nice guy off the mats, such a killer on the mats!

Arashi-Do Martial Arts South

After the adventure the night before of finding out that the buses that got me to Hayabusa stopped before classes ended resulting with me Ubering it to bus station in town I could get the rest of the way back to my cousin's place it was nice to be able to walk to the club I was visiting this time. The Arashi-Do South Edmonton club is one of five in Edmonton and 17 in the province of Alberta. Apparently this particular club has special meaning to those I met. The club was in a building in an industrial area of town, and was laid out with there being a lobby with martial arts gear for both the Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai classes they ran. Also in the lobby were chairs so you could watch the classes as the wall had a big viewing glass in it. most likely for parents watching the kids classes more than anything else. The mat space was a long rectangle with heavy bags in a line cutting it half and curtains that could be pulled out to make it two separate mats. There was lots of posters and pictures on the walls showing the long history of the club.

The two mats of the Arashi-Do South Dojo, good space.

I decided to go to this club not only because it was close to my cousin's but also because Peko, who I had met during the open mat with Eduardo Telles, also trained there. Peko is purple belt on that cusp of getting his brown and seemed quite interested in talking Jiu-Jitsu theory of how best to train or etiquette when traveling and training at other gyms. Important aspects to the way of life Jiu-Jitsu instills rather than just the techniques. As I'm always up for conversation we got along great. The rest of the students that I met or Peko introduced me to were happy to have me visit and asked me all sorts of questions about my journey, something I'm getting used to while on this trip.

Peko, thanks fro everything, I enjoyed our talks. 

Class was fun, we had Prof. Lane come in to teach, apparently he teaches at another club but the usual instructor was away. Prof. Lane told us of his starting out this club and the history of it, which was pretty cool, I always like hearing about the history of clubs, knowing your roots gives you more pride in your work I find. After working some cool lapel attacks  and sweeps I rolled with a few students, and Peko of course. The rolls were pretty relaxed, no one was being overly aggressive, acting like it's a gold medal match. after rolling I answered more questions while I changed and said my good-byes, the students who were all very interested in how I set this journey up or where I've trained before. It was a good night of relaxed Jiu-Jitsu and friend making, reminding myself how awesome this journey really is.

Hanging Out with My Cousin

During the days or evenings before or after class I was at my cousin's place, mostly on my computer typing my blogs about Calgary up or setting up my schedule and plans for Regina, but we did get an afternoon where we hung out and went to the West Edmonton Mall. If you don't know the West Edmonton Mall is fairly large mall that, back when it was first built was the biggest in Canada, and one of the top in North America. It was an amusement park, complete with roller-coasters, a pirate ship with sea lion shows, a movie theater and about a thousand over stores in it. I've never been, only ever hearing about it, so cousin Karen brought me out and we roamed the mall one day.

The mall a wave pool and a skating rink, which reminds me of 'Encino Man' (It's a movie, look it up!)

The mall also has a pirate ship! I wanted to board it but we can't anything fun on it.

The amusement park in the mall, roller-coaster rides and mini-putt, pretty much anything you could want at a park.  

It was early and places were just opening as we walked around so it wasn't over-crowded yet with holiday shoppers or kids. It was a fun time, catching up and filling each other in on the past 10 years. This is one cool aspect I hadn't even thought about until after planning out my trip, catching up with family. I don't know if I've written this before but my family is spread out across Canada and a lot of them I haven't seen in years, like Karen, and doing this journey is giving me a chance to visit a lot of them. I look forward to visiting more of the family while I'm on the road across Canada! Thank you Karen for everything, fort letting me stay at your place with your family, for taking care of me and showing me around the city and of course feeding me some good food! Love you Cuz!

Me and my cousin Karen!

Thanks fro everything Karen and Rob!

Method BJJ

Method BJJ is where Prof. Curt Malin trains out of and on my last night in town before catching my midnight bus to Regina Curt picked me and my gear up and brought me out to the club. Unfortunately Curt couldn't stay for class but he introduced me to Prof. Andrew Gummer, who runs Method BJJ and the rest of the class before taking off. Method BJJ is a smaller club in a strip mall, the logo of an octopus made entirely of knotted other BJJ belts is really cool and it's the first thing you see on the window. Inside there's a little space to sit on the few chairs or put you shoes on the shoe rack, then the rest of the room is mat space, with the bathrooms in the back. Prof. Andrew is a chill guy and his teaching is really top level for what movements are going on. He has, as I saw on the wall, body movement certificates from Agatsu in Montreal. If you didn't know Agatsu are top notch body motion experts working with all kinds of people from athletes to circus gymnasts. with that education, explaining doing a knee slide pass was much more than just a knee slide, there were some cool points from the night, warm up included, that I've had to write down.

It's a small club,m the learning was huge!

After drilling some cool guard passing drills we got into rolling but unfortunately I hurt my hip. The partner was doing as we were practicing in class, and he did the move great, it just so happens my legs aren't as flexible as was required for the pass, luckily it wasn't anything serious but I couldn't roll for the rest of the night. After class I was chatting about my journey with the class when Prof. Andrew offered me a ride up to the bus station, awesome, that's an hour of using city transit with all my gear I don't have to deal with. he also gave me some good tips for stretching out me hips so it doesn't lock up too bad on the bus ride, and they worked out pretty good as I haven't had to miss any classes or sit out any so far. Thanks Prof. Andrew for having me on your mats and all the cool tips and ride! and Thanks again Prof. Curt for introducing me to cool people and bringing me to your training grounds in Edmonton!  

Prof. Andrew and the class that night!

Prof. Curt Malin

Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture with Curt when I visited Edmonton, so here's the pics I have from when he visited us in Victoria BC this summer.

Prof. Curt and I met earlier this summer when he visited my school and taught us some cool techniques from turtle guard position. He told us about where he teaches and trains and told us to come out if we're ever in the area. Being on my journey I figured I'd take him up on the offer and get an interview with him while I'm there. Curt has a cool story of finding the black belt for his game and learning under him and also being able to do the awesome task of teaching BJJ in school!

Panda's Odyssey: Hello Sir, let's start with telling us about your martial arts history, how did you get into BJJ?

Curt Malin: I got into martial arts because I grew up watching martial arts movies! I couldn't participate though as I was very focused on hockey and didn't have time to train in other sports. Unfortunately I was forced to medically retire from hockey so at 26 years old I finally made my way into a dojo. BJJ made the most sense as the concussion threat was so low and I liked that you didn't need to be big and strong to become skilled within the art.

PO: That's the essence of Jiu-Jitsu, small defeating big, that's too bad about the hockey but it's amazing where paths lead us.
I understand you teach a kids BJJ program, can you tell me more about that? How did it come around and how did you get it started?

CM: My program is very unique, I have the best teaching job of any teacher anywhere! I teach at Donnan School in Edmonton which is in the Edmonton Public Schools catchment. Donnan is a sport designate school, our schedule is set up so that we only teach the core subjects during academic time which in turn frees up Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 1-3:20 pm for the sport programs. In my first year I taught within the hockey program and taught some BJJ after school to my principal and colleagues. My principal at the time loved BJJ and decided we needed a BJJ Program at the school too! After 6 months of meetings, e-mails and demonstrations, Edmonton Public gave us the green light to go ahead! 9 years later we're here.

PO: That is amazing! I hope it catches and more schools take note from your program and develop one for themselves. More martial arts in schools I think would be great. So tell me, do you find your experience of years in Jiu-Jitsu having the patience and problem solving skills to get to your black belt helps teach the kids or does your experience in teaching kids help with your way to teach BJJ?

CM: I think a lifetime of being an athlete affected the way I teach classes and then the formal teaching in the University Ed program refined my pedagogy and my teaching methodologies. I try to plan lessons that fit together into a larger unit plan so my students retain what their learning through building foundations and finding continuity in the techniques.

PO: That's cool, seems so logical to connect the two as you have done.
For learning Jiu-Jitsu you went about it in a interesting manner, can you explain how and why you made your way to Prof. Eduardo Telles to train under him? What drew you to his style?

CM: At purple belt I was beginning to develop my own style, it was very 1/2 guard focused and I was training a lot. I began training more with Andrew Gummer who was very skilled at passing and my 1/2 guard wasn't slowing him down! I started to turn to turtle as it was easier to defend than the bottom of side out knee on belly or mount. I began looking for resources and naturally found Eduardo Telles. I loved his style and the more I practiced and learned the more I appreciated his skill level competing at the world level and winning with turtle guard. I got to the point where I needed to train with him so he could answer questions and help me troubleshoot spots where I was getting stuck. When he opened his school in San Diego, a city where I have family, it made it easy to go train with him. After meeting him and getting to know him as a person I knew I wanted myself and my students affiliated with him and his team.

PO: Nice! I know many people who are big fans of certain BJJ athletes online and follow all their videos, but you making your way to train under him is another level of commitment.
So you train with Prof. Andrew Gummer, how did find Method BJJ and decide to train with him? Your styles are very different but complementary.

CM: Andrew and I have always been on the same team. We didn't start training together (under Arashi-Do Behring) until we were brown belts. He's been my main training partner and teaching partner now for 6 years! We are good for each other because of how different our games are, how differently we think and see Jiu-Jitsu. It helps further our learning and teaching as we can help the other see what's missing or where gaps could be.

PO: I see, the classic favourite training partner scenario, very cool. Well thank you, Sir, so much for answering these questions for me! It's very cool to learn your story and see how you've used your gifts for the community, getting to teach Jiu-Jitsu in school. It's too bad we couldn't do it in person!

Hope you enjoyed the written interview, I will try to get them whenever I find someone who has a story I think should be told but can't meet up with them to do a video.

That's it for this issue, I'm off to Regina Saskatchewan now!

Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

Calgary AB Canada Part 2: Lizard BJJ, Kokodo Calgary and Gracie Humaita Calgary

Calgary Part 2!

My stay in Calgary is over, it's been great and I have made a lot of new friends, but it's time to move on. Now to Edmonton to visit a cousin I haven't seen in many years! But before those adventures begin let's finish off with the last three clubs I trained at in Calgary.

Kokodo Calgary

I had almost completely forgotten that there was a small Kokodo group in Calgary but luckily I remembered and set up a night to go meet and train with them. The class, a small group met at Tim's, the Sempai who runs the Kokodo Calgary study group, where he has a training area complete with mats. The members were all great and we all got along well and the class itself was fun, self defense applications of classic Kokodo techniques. The true Jiu-Jitsu spirit was afterwards, when a few of us went out for drinks and nachos. Tim had set me up with one of his students, John, to be my ride that night for class. After class Tim, John and myself jumped into John's car and head for a pub, where we talked about all things martial arts related, and then as we demolished a plate of nachos, got into sharing our love for cheesy action movies of the 80's and 90's. It was a good night of martial arts geekery. Fun times! Unfortunately it was too much fun and I forgot to take pics of both the study and the night out. I really need to get better at remembering to document my adventures.

Gracie Humaita Calgary or Inflight Fitness

The Gracie Humaita, or Inflight Fitness since the club is inside a fitness center, wasn't originally on the list of clubs to visit, but as it is a small world it ends up that a friend of my cousin, who i'm visiting next in Edmonton, trains at this club. So after a quick introduction online through my cousin Karen, Paula and I become friends arranging to meet and train together. Showing the world is even smaller than you think, John, who I had just met the night before in Kokodo, also trains at this club.

My new friends, Paula and John. Was great meeting you guys and thanks for the training!

Inflight fitness has a very calming feel to it, it's hard to explain what it is about the place but it has a very peaceful feeling being there, even while rolling with ambitious students. The gym is in a shopping plaza and from the first step inside you see its spotless and I don't know if it was recently renovated but it has a very new look. Prof. Jeff James (or JJ), one half of the power couple that run Inflight, greeted me at the front desk and made me feel really welcomed, when I told him about my journey he seemed genuinely interested. Prof. JJ is a cool and laid back black belt with some very slick moves that emphasize the classic Gracie Jiu-Jitsu of leverage and technique over strength and speed. For the first half of the night, the foundations class, we went over some nice details for retaining the back position as well as setting up chokes from there and other positions. Everything was very simple but the key was all in the small details, I love those kinds of classes, light bulbs went off in my head. The second half of the night was open mat and I rolled with almost everyone. Some really fun matches were had, with some great back and forth action. I rolled with Prof. JJ and it was very humbling, making me feel like a brand new white belt all over again. I chatted with a few students after class and it was cool to see the camaraderie and sense of family they had. I could feel the love for the art on the mats that night, one day I will take up JJ's offer and return for a visit.    

Prof. JJ, thank you for welcoming to your club, it was a good time!

Lizard BJJ

Waiting outside Lizard BJJ.

I first heard of Lizard BJJ from Alex Muñoz, a black belt in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu from Costa Rica who somehow moved to Invermere BC and runs the Lizard Jiu-Jitsu club there. I met Alex at the last summer Jiu-Jitsu camp and after telling him about my journey I was planning he told me of Lizard BJJ Calgary and Prof. Francisco 'Chico Lagarto' Azevedo. I had been in contact with Prof. Chico since the summer and he had always been very welcoming, and with connections to the Invermere club (An old friend and former teammate trains with them, which is how I met Alex at the summer camp) hitting his club up when I visited Calgary was a must. When I first showed up the kids class was running and it was full of parents, who I later realized half were students too. I greeted by everyone and they were all interested in my story, it was a good friendly environment. As I was warming up stretching and talking to a few students before class I noticed they kept coming in. The club is not a large club, it's in small strip mall and you might miss it driving by, but the classes are packed, easily over 20 students showed up to train. We were pretty tight fitting as we drilled during class, doing over some great details for guard retention and half guard sweeps. When it came to rolling after class it was the same, bumping into one another or the walls while almost getting that sweep, pass or submission, only to have the obstacles stop you, but still lots of fun was had. This, you might think is not fun or could be dangerous, but to me, and I'm sure many others, these is the sign of a club that in it's 2 years of existing is rapidly growing and needs a new place. That is a great sign for the Jiu-Jitsu community.

It's packed in Lizard BJJ! So much action on the mats!

I returned for the Saturday morning open mat, which was a fun time rolling with all Chico's students and even getting a few rounds with him. One thing that happened, and seems to be a bit of re-occurring trend, is during open mats or rolling time I end up being quizzed by the white belts on anything they can get from me. It's like the Calgary white belts are all ravenous hungry Jiu-Jitsu zombies wanting to feed on the goodness of my Jiu-Jitsu brains. This is great to see so many people hungry to learn what they can but I don't see myself as a person of vast knowledge, so I only hope what little information I gave them helped in some way. Rolling with everyone was a good time, no one was out rein-act the IBJJF World's finals, so some great flo-rolling was had. Afterwards I sat down with Prof. Chico and we had an interview together that, although a bit shorter than my usual interviews, covered some great stuff. I chose to cover his experiences moving to Canada and starting a school here, one of the newest schools in Calgary at that, rather than his training and competing, although he had some great stories about using Jiu-Jitsu in some self defense scenarios. Check it out below:

It was an interesting interview and some of students from open mat stayed around to listen, with one in particular commenting on how cool it was to hear these background stories about his instructor, 'questions I'd never think to ask' as he put it. That's a pretty cool compliment to my interview, I think.      

Staying at a Hostel

Since my bus to Edmonton was leaving so early in the morning and I was staying on the other side of town and Rachelle was unable to drive me in, I had the options of getting up at 4 in the morning, paying a lot of money for a taxi, or spending half as much as the taxi to stay downtown in a hostel. So it was pretty easy to figure out, I would be staying in a hostel downtown. It would be the first time in a hostel for this journey. I was kind of excited to for the experience but at the same time I also wanted to make sure I got a good night's sleep for the bus ride up to Edmonton since I would be going straight to an open mat when I got into town.
I got into the hostel without any problem and found my bed easy enough. I met a man, whose name escapes me, who was in the same room, it was room of 6 beds, and when he saw my backpack he instantly sat up "you backpacking? Where you going?" I told him my story and my plans for the journey. He thought it was a cool idea and told me about his own backpacking journey, apparently he had be traveling around the world for the past eight months. He had just headed to Canada after traveling all over Eastern Europe where he feel down a mountain and hurt himself in Bulgaria. He had some great stories and good traveling advise for me too. It was definitely worth the cost of staying at the hostel to talk to him, and traveling German and an older man who I forget where he was from. I took advantage of the cheap laundry and washed my clothes so that I wouldn't be showing up with a pack full of dirty laundry to my cousin's and while it washed I hung out in the common room while typing some of this post up. While sitting in the common room there was a British girl who was loudly telling a few people all the differences between where she grew up and Toronto, where she had lived the past few years. It was amusing.
I packed my bags to be ready for the bus that night and stored my backpack out in the front storage, so that I wouldn't wake my roommates when I left early in the morning. I was all set and ready to have a good night's rest, except the guy I spoke to earlier was still on a European time zone and liked to leave to smoke a lot, and with his feet still bandaged from his fall in Bulgaria he made a lot of noise shuffling around and bumping into things every time he left the room. I think he was up until 4 making it difficult to sleep much. Hopefully I would have the bus up to get some much needed sleep.      

My bags are packed and it's off to the next stop: Edmonton!

Well that's it for this issue, and that's all for Calgary, for me anyways, tons more schools to see in the area if I had the time. I hope you enjoyed!
Next stop Edmonton Alberta!

Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

Calgary AB Canada Part 1: Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, BJJ Fightclub and My Hosts

Greetings from Calgary!

The bus from Vancouver to Calgary is longest ride I've ever been on, remarkably it went well and nothing crazy happened. I didn't get a great amount of sleep but better than I expected. I will say this though, it was a shame that the windows were dirty and it was night time most of the way, there were some great views I missed.

Best picture I could take of the Banff National Park ski mountains. 

The Hosts

I was lucky to find Rachelle and Steve through friends. After a change in plans my original host and good friend had to leave Calgary for work and it seemed like I would be staying in a hostel during my time in the city. I'm not apposed to hostels, I'm actually looking to forward to it, but doing so as least as possible in Canada, in order to save money for Europe and Asia, is ideal. So when a friend of one of my teammates volunteered to help me out I was relived and overjoyed! Steve and Rachelle have been so kind and helpful, even driving me across town to the clubs I'm visiting, and I am ever thankful for their hospitality. This is proof of paying it forward, Rachelle offered to help me, a person she's never met before, purely to repay Kelly, my teammate Mike's wife, for all the kindness and help she has received knowing Kelly through the years. Proof that there are good people out there, that being kind to one an other does work and make a better world. Save all the hate for your favourite TV show characters making bad decisions each week and save all the aggression for choking one another out on the mats. If nothing else, if I needed any more proof, which I don't, this has made me a firm believer that paying it forward does work. Thanks so much for your kindness Rachelle and Steve!

My host Rachelle, unfortunately Steve was off to work before I could get a picture with him. Thanks guys for everything! 

Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu

My first day in town I had class to get to, in fact I have lined up a class with a different club almost every day I'm in town and certainly I look to train every day I'm here. The first club to hit up was the Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu club that's held in the Deer Run Community Centre in the South East Calgary neighborhood of Deer Ridge. As I have not found a page exclusively for this club that is working and up to date I linked the Hiscoe Jiu-Jitsu page as Ed Hiscoe is the head of Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu. Any Questions about contacting the club in Calgary either the community or the Hiscoe Jiu-Jitsu page will be able to help you out. Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu is all about self defense and practicality, protect yourself and get out alive. I, having a Japanese Jiu-Jitsu background, love watching self defense techniques. Watching the small details they implement when defending from the usual popular methods of attacking (grabbing and punching, haymakers, headlocks etc.) is just as interesting as watching every club show me their little details to pulling off the classic armbar for BJJ. The class is lead my Sensei Quincy Jones, who I met this year at a summer Jiu-Jitsu seminar camp. Also, a friend who I've met before in past camps, Ian, trains there and it was to see and train with him again. I like Sensei Quincy's style of teaching and techniques, he mixes lots of the other styles he trains in, such as kickboxing, with the Jiu-jitsu. He also explains a lot about the history of the move and over time why aspects of it either don't work anymore or still hold up. Sensei Quincy is a quiet person but he drops a lot of knowledge in his classes so if you're a martial arts nerd like myself you get hooked and really pay attention to not miss anything.

Watching my friends Ian teaching the kids class.

This class was special, Sensei Quincy decided to treat us all to working weapon defenses, which I love. I quickly saw how rusty I had become over years of not keeping up on some of my weapon defenses but it just made it all more fun to re-learn, like re-reading your favourite book. We worked some great techniques against sticks and knives, incorporating some grappling moves I knew, but were now different with a weapon in the mix. It's all about adapting to overcome, with a few minor adjustments the old moves work in the new setting. The night ended with me in the middle of a circle while three black belts took turns stabbing me with plastic knife, which may not sound like it but it was a lot of fun! Thanks to the Can-Ryu Calgary club and Sensei Quincy for showing me a wonderful class!      

All the black belts at class. Sensei Quincy on my right, with Sensei Ian behind him.

BJJ Fightclub

Outside BJJ Fightclub.

I set out to finally meet Sensei Alex Roque, who holds a black belt in not only Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but also in Shotokan Karate. It's been some time I've been hearing good things from our head instructor and other teammates who have made it out to Sensei Alex's club, and finally I was able to drop by. When talking to Senesei about Panda's Odyssey and my journey through Calgary he accepted me with open arms to his club and agreed to do an interview with me too! I met Alex at the club early before any classes had started, BJJ Fightclub is in an industrial area of town, by the airport, and it is a good sized gym, with a wall of kicking bags for the kickboxing classes that are run there, with change areas and even a weights area in the back. In the interview he tells me of some pretty badass stories of starting out in Canada as the first BJJ club in Calgary and his training in Brazil during the hayday of dojo storming, check it out below.

If the video doesn't work on here, head to the Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel, and while you're there, check out past videos, give them some love and subscribe to my channel, Thanks!

Sensei Alex, thanks for having me and doing the interview!

After the interview I stayed for both classes, one a fundamentals class drilling the curriculum and the second a class more aimed at competitions. The first class was great, good warm up, easy drilling, learning cool little details to help make familiar techniques stronger. The second class, which was 2 hours long, absolutely destroyed me. Not to make any excuses, I am fully aware of my short comings with athleticism but I didn't expect the conditioning portion of class to burn me out as bad as it did and I had no energy for rolling at the end of class. The drilling was great, going over some cool back escapes and attacks, I really liked the different details to the moves Sensei Alex was showing, a lot of them were the same as I've seen before but there was always something I would catch that I was a little different, making it all new again. I had a lot to write down after class. Then came the last half hour of class, rolling where some how some of his students were still full of energy and just ran circles around, or over, me. One even did another 15-20 mins of drilling and exercise after class! His students were pretty strong and didn't let up on me, I mostly tried to defend and in a lot of cases failed. If I were to have an ego I'd be pissed that a white belt tapped me, a senior blue belt, but that's not the case. These guys were beasts, maybe if I had the same gas tank as them I would be able to hold my own, but that's my problem to deal with and they shouldn't have bring it down for me. I was talking with Alex after class and mentioned his students being tough and he explained, they have to be, there's a tournament coming up and they can't risk rolling light to prepare for it. Made sense. In the end everyone there was very welcoming, kind and respectful. I had a blast being made into a puddle by the end of the night and left tired, sore and happy.

Inside the club before classes started.

That's it for this post, next time I have another 3 clubs to tell you about to end off my visit to Calgary!

The Calgary Tower downtown Calgary.

Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!

Vancouver BC Canada Part 2: Sadohana Dojo and Champions Martial Arts Academy

Vancouver Part 2!

My stay in Vancouver is over and I'm now about to be on my way to Calgary Alberta Canada next. Looking forward to the really long bus ride through the mountains over night...no, not really...but Calgary is looking to be a lot of fun!

Sadohana Dojo

Last I left off I had just visited True north Jiu-Jitsu and done an interview with Prof. Giacomo Zanini. Fun times! The very next night I was going to Kyoshi's Seamark's HQ dojo, the Sadohana Dojo Vancouver. The dojo has been being Kokodo Jujutsu and Shaitsu from the beginning but within the last two years started adding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to their classes. I had never been to this dojo before and only seen pictures, it was exciting to finally be in the space and a part of the classes. Right from the first step inside you can tell a lot of work has gone into the place to make it not just be but also feel like a proper place of martial arts. One student told me that someone described it as "not just a club but a shrine to martial arts" I think that suits it perfectly. There is a front lobby with tapestries and statues that greet you when you walk in. Once you walk into the tatami area and see the rice paper walls separating the change rooms from the main training area and the mounted pictures, curriculum posters and, of course, a rack of weapons, you get the feeling it is a lot more than just a matted area for training some moves. There exists a lot of pride and and honour in the lineage in this dojo.

View from the entrance to the tatami room. Not in the picture is the rice paper wall on the right.

First up was the BJJ class, which as expected was a smaller class but still a good class of drilling a set of sweeps that chained together. I knew most the sweeps but some of the details were different from the way the instructor was executing them, which I always like to see. To me it's not about learning new moves all the time, it's about seeing how everyone else executes the same, or similar, moves so that I can get all these different details down to make the technique even stronger. For instance, having different grips and learning how to use them in a way to execute the same move helps hone in on that fact that the same technique is there and you don't always need to go for the same collar or sleeve grip. This is what I look forward to while traveling, not finding some end all be all sweep or submission, finding all the little details about the tools I already have.

A good friend, Tim, who bounces between Gibsons and Vancouver, finally managed a picture with him, even if it is poor quality.

After BJJ was the Kokodo class, and most stayed for both, with some new arrivals for Kokodo. The class was fun, starting with a good warm up stretch and some break falling before getting to the self defense aspect of Kokodo, parrying a punch, moving and applying controlling techniques, to give a general idea. I'm a big fan of self defense and love classes like this. It was also an aspect of Kokodo I don't often see in my limited history of training in the art, being used to more stationary wrist controls from grabs rather than attacks. One thing I like about Kokodo is that it's very calming and at the same time such a powerful art. Kyoshi Seamark has given the definition of 'white lightning' no pain or stress until the moment of applying the technique when it feels like all the nerves are screaming, and then when you let go it's right back to a calmness again. You don't get that with BJJ, even in the most relaxed class you're are still working the whole body in a slow cardio and yoga-like circuit and feel the workout to some degree in the end of a BJJ class. With a Kokodo class you usually end up with sore wrists from the technique applied over and over but I find the mind is more tired than the body. What ever the case some great details were picked up and a great night was had. After class I thanked everyone for their hospitality and took some pictures with a few before leaving. Unfortunately this was the one class I could make to the dojo on this trip. I will have to come back one day.

Shihan Tyler, a friend I've always seen at the seminars, and who instructed the Kokodo class. It was a pleasure to be in his class. He's also a really good purple belt in BJJ!

Champions Martial Arts Academy

Champions was not part of my plan, but as I'm noticing plans tend to change. It was my last night in Gibsons when I was told about Champions and Sean Lindsay, a purple belt of Prof. Giacomo and one of the teachers at True North Jiu-jitsu, also taught at Champions and that they were a great bunch of guys to go meet. Having a lot of faith of the opinions of the Gibsons crew I looked up Sean and the club as soon as I got into Vancouver, and in short re-arranging of things I was set to hit up a third club while in town and make a second interview. Champions is mostly a kickboxing place, with two mats that are constantly full of people training on the main floor. The BJJ mat is tucked away downstairs but is surprisingly big for a school that doesn't mainly focus on Jiu-Jitsu, and as I found out later has a strong list of regulars that there.

The BJJ mats, there's also bench behind me.

Love this proverb!

I hadn't met anyone from Champions beforehand and other than Sean I hadn't spoke to anyone either, so for lack of a better description I was going in 'dark', just hoping to make friends on the way. As it happens Prof. Giacomo had belt promotions the night before, Champions and affiliated with True North, and mentioned me being on my travels, so the club had a brief introduction to me before I ever showed up! The first night I made it to Champions was a Friday, which is only open mat. There were 5 of us in total, and we had a blast. They were very welcoming and no one was out for blood to crush the new guy, which is always nice to see. After the rolls we were chatting and I told them all about my journey I'm on and some of my stories from past journeys like when I was in Tokyo. I had them pretty amazed with my tales and at that point I realized I've done some pretty awesome things already.

Rolling hour Friday night.

The Friday night crew, I look so small in this pic.

The next day, Saturday, I went back for the noon time class, it was set to be a special one as it was Sean's 30th birthday and everyone was getting ready to throw him in the shark tank. Each person would have a short match with Sean to celebrate his birthday while everyone else would be rolling normal matches during the time. This made for a lot of co-ordination and switching in and out. Mike Morris, another purple belt and teacher at Champions who I met the night before, had it all down without any problem. He managed to keep two timers going, set up who was next for Sean and still get matches in for himself all at the same time. On top of this he was a really caring guy welcoming me into the club and showering me with praise for my trip, another great guy I've had the pleasure of meeting and making friends. Job well done Mike and thanks for all the support!

Rolling during Sean's birthday shark tank. He's in the front.

After a good session of rolling and putting Sean through the birthday shark tank class was over, with a few people still getting in some rolls while I talked to everyone, answering their many questions about my journey. Eventually Sean and I were able to sit down and have an interview. I was very honoured for him to take the time out of his birthday celebrations and speak with me. Going in I really only had two questions: 'How did you start BJJ?' and 'What does BJJ mean to you?' And from the start I could see that was all I needed to get Sean to share with us how passionate he is about the art, teaching, training, all of it. We spoke a bit about teaching kids and advice to parents and even about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Through all of it I could see Sean is very passionate about the art and all his answers come straight from the heart. Check out the interview below!

If the video doesn't work here's the link to the Panda's Odyssey Youtube Channel (Subscribe to it and follow along!)

I totally forgot to take a picture with the class and with Sean, but I did get a good shot of him surviving the shark tank while everyone else rolls on in the background.

After the interview Sean, myself and a few others from the club jumped on the sea-train (a small ferry that connects North Vancouver, where we were, across the bay to downtown) and headed downtown where Sean took us to a nice coffee shop and we talked about Jiu-Jitsu some more. To be honest, we were talking to whole way to the shop and if Sean didn't already have plans, birthday and all, we probably could have talked for another hour or more. I love meeting people like that, the art of conversation among friends is so under appreciated these days. Thank you Sean for an awesome interview and great conversation, I'm glad we finally got to meet!

Sean gave me a Champions patch as a gift, awesome, thanks! I'm going to have a nice collection of patches to sew up by the time I get to my parents place for the holidays! 

Vancouver

Here are some pictures I took while walking around the area I was staying in. In my travels I almost forgot how beautiful Vancouver and the West Coast is, after being here for so long you start to take it for granted. I could easily spend a day running around taking pictures of this place and still not be able get it all. Anyways, so I'm walking back to the house one day and notice the mountains are all snow capped. Being a chilly day the mountains must've all been frosted over. The image was pretty neat to see, but also a reminder that over those mountains waits colder weather that my thin hoodie won't protect me from. Good thing I brought a heavier hoodie and my leather jacket for just such an occasion.

I also thought it was worth mentioning that the whole time I was staying next to an amusement park, which given the time of year was closed for the session. Although I couldn't get any pictures of it, at night it would look eerie with silhouettes of the rides in the dark night time glow. Too many horror movies have that back drop, if a neighbors dog ran in there I'd tell them just to wait til tomorrow, because it's just not worth taking that chance.

That's it for my Vancouver adventures, now off to Calgary where, if everything works out, I'll be hitting as many as five different clubs!

Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!