Traveling & Training in Quebec City, Part 2: The Clubs

Hey all!

I hope you enjoyed part one of my traveling and training in Quebec city that I posted recently. I was picture heavy of all the sites in the city I saw and some good places to go for food and drink, complete with links to most of them. Check it out here if you haven't already.

Before I talk about training I must first tell you about the hospitality when visiting. I swear every time I practiced I met someone new who was interested in my blog and journey, welcoming me to their club and telling me I'm always welcome. A few even offered me a place to stay or some help planning the journey, one even telling me about his friends and family in Morocco! It's pretty easy to say I'll be heading back during my journey across Canada to kick off Panda's Odyssey. Now it's time for the clubs! No, not those clubs, I mean the Jiu-Jitsu clubs.

Yan, one of the many new friends I made on this trip, offered to at least find me a place to crash next time I'm in town, he's a good man. I wish I was able to take pics with each person who bought a patch, offered me a place to crash next time, or offered to help me out setting up the Odyssey. Quebec is full of awesome people.

First off, there are other clubs around the area that I didn't get the chance to check out, mostly because of traveling restraints. This is by no means a complete list, only some stories of where I trained. By all means, check out other clubs if you can and get back to me on how it was, i would be interested in hearing your stories.

As usual, I made sure to look places up and see what ones where in the area of where I would be staying and even how long it would be using public transit to get to them. I also sent them an e-mail or Facebook message fully detailing who I am, my purpose and length of stay. I always make sure to be look ahead and set up some sort of conversation first so I'm not a complete surprise drop in.
 
Yoseikan Jiu-Jitsu   

It looks like a small office space on the outside, but let me tell you, it's quite the dojo on the inside.

The first place I was able to get out to train at was a Japanese Jiu-Jitsu dojo called Yoseikan Jiu-Jitsu. Finding their place was pretty easy, it was just down the street a few blocks, and they have a corner spot so seeing their signs was easy enough. When I first got there no one had shown up yet so I was hanging out on the street, nothing new with this scenario, and from the outside it looked like a small office space. Once others showed up and Sensei Dominic Toupin opened the place up I could see it was much bigger than I originally thought. The 'office space' I could see from the outside was really just the front lobby, the main area was behind, looking like it was once a garage turned into mat space. There were all sorts of picture frames of different martial arts masters and old posters of katas all along the walls. The tatami mats were worn, but still in great condition, you could tell many hours of training were spent on these mats, which I find pretty cool, reminds me of my old dojo I trained in during high school. I had the feeling of both a traditional dojo and newer, open concept martial arts club. It's hard to explain and my pictures don't do it justice but I felt comfortable on the mats pretty quick.

Much bigger than an I first thought.

More of the dojo, every wall had something.

I was excited to train with Yoseikan because I don't usually get the chance to train in another Japanese style Jiu-Jitsu when I travel. Checking out their website I was very interested in their style, Aikibudo, a style similar to some combat Judo styles I've seen before. In any case, after a brief e-mail exchange I was welcomed to come train with them and was very happy that I did. The classes were an hour and a half long and they were always pretty busy, either with very active warm ups or various randori (sparring), be it stand, ground, or even with weapons, or just constant drilling. The randori I was particularly happy for, as I first started in a randori heavy Japanese Jiu-jitsu style, after training in boxing, and I'm happy to spare with good people when ever I can. They did not disappoint. It was great to be exchanging some punches, kicks, throws and even knife strikes all in good fun. The techniques taught were great, no nonsense, self defense techniques that I was happy to learn and share with my fellow classmates when I get back to class.  They were also very open to sharing knowledge from our differing lineage during randori. We would routinely have ground sparring at the end of class, it was a lot of fun, rolling with a club from a Japanese Jiu-Jitsu lineage. It was very similar to rolling with the Judo guys in Japan, very old school feel with all emphasis on traditional positions, yet again my half guard game saved me from being completely smashed.

Me with Sensei Dominic Toupin, who welcomed me into his dojo, thank you so much, Sir! (Yes, I'm wearing a white belt, forgot my orange belt that night)

The best thing about training with these guys was how welcoming they were, even to someone who primarily does BJJ, although I do have an orange belt in a Japanese style it's not in their style and not my main focus. That's what I love about traveling and training, finding a place like this where we can learn from each other, share knowledge and just be open to other styles. I loved their techniques and fighting styles, and I believe they loved my grappling style. I think we both had an edge in our own strength, them being more stand oriented and me more ground oriented, but more importantly, we respected each other for that. Great group of people I am happy to have met and made friends with, I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

My last class with the Yoseikan guys before heading back, they're a lot of fun!

BJJ Quebec

BJJ Quebec, hidden in this Muay Thai club that looks like the MMA version of Apollo Creed's place in Rocky III.

The BJJ club I spent most my time at in Quebec City was BJJ Quebec, it's a bit out of the way, especially if you are like me, staying right in down town by the river and only using public transit. It's also hidden in a Muay Thai club that totally reminded me of Apollo Creed's place Rocky ends up training at in Rocky III. In fact, watching the Muay Thai classes I wished I had more time to train and had a chance to jump into one of them, I would probably regret it afterwards and feel dead but it would be a cool experience. The BJJ mats were up top in caged loft, over looking the main area training area. Depending on the schedule the BJJ guys sometimes also trained in the main area if it was open. It's a cool set up, and feels pretty badass when you're up top doing drills or king of mat round as a bunch of lethal looking guys and girls are kicking the crap out of the bags down below.

The cage, definitely a badass feel to training in it.

Watching the Muay Thai in the main training area, again, badass feel to it all.

Getting to the club wasn't so bad, it wasn't as close as some clubs, but unlike some of the other clubs a bus went right by them, making it easier than others to get to. I was talking to the club on Facebook before coming to town and they were very accepting, which is always great, and by the look of their website they were some serious Brazilian Top Team affiliate competitors so I knew to expect a tough class. Tough class indeed, Prof. Louis Bérubé likes to jump right in and start drilling. He adds on more to each drill, making it a chain of moves, for half an hour or so before working on techniques, all involving the base moves he had you warm up on during the starting drills. I liked the pace and energy of his classes, fast paced but not so fast that you're feeling like you're in a fitness class rather than a Jiu-Jitsu class. Then the last half hour (classes are 90 mins) or so was for rolling, and man were these guys tough. 

Prof. Guy, who also teaches some of the classes, and some of the guys from BJJ Quebec.

I figured I would run into the aggressive and competitive nature of the French Canadians that we all know and love (if you're unfamiliar, look up hockey) during this visit but they were also very fit, running circles around me. After class one day I'm talking to one of the students and he tells me that he, along with half the guys there, are in the military, Van Doos to be exact (check out Royal 22e Regiment to fully understand) then it all made sense, it was in their blood to smash people! Either way, I had a great time training with them, I feel like every time I showed up to class I made new friends. In fact I've had several people from both clubs add me on Facebook, interested in following me on my journey. I was an awesome feeling, just like in Japan, bridging the language barrier to train together and find new friendships. I look forward to training with these guys in the future, after reading my blog of the guys even offered to help me find a couch to crash on next time I'm in town. We'll be keeping in touch and once the Canadian portion of Panda's Odyssey gets under way we'll work something out and hopefully I'll have stories of training in Old Quebec again.

Prof. Louis Bérubé and more of the awesome BJJ Quebec team in a serious pose.

The fun pose.

The pose where everyone jumps me, why does this always happen?

Sampa BJJ 

I was only able to make it out to Sampa BJJ once due to scheduling conflicts, also mapping conflicts. Google Maps gave me bad info and I ended up on the wrong side the highway with no way to make it to class on time the first I attempted to attend class there. Anyways, I had a fun time when I did make it out there. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the place or people I trained there with but they were very welcoming, and very helpful when talking online and setting up when I could make it out to class and how. The place is in a strip mall and has a really nice lay out, I saw an interesting class where parents and kids trained together, like a father/mother and son/daughter type of class, very cool. I wish I had a better schedule so that I could have trained there more to get to meet more of the Sampa students. Those I did get to meet were nice people, welcoming and supportive of me visiting them while I travel and train. The classes there were fun, lots of drilling, good chains and strong rolling at the end. They had a lot of strong looking competitors, I'm sure I would have had a great time being the nail while rolling with all of them. If you're visiting Quebec City check them out, maybe you'll have better luck than I did making to their classes.

That's it for now, now to get back to working on planning the Canadian portion of Panda's Odyssey out, after all, there's only 6 months to go before it kicks off! You can help get journey started by buying a Panda's Odyssey Patch, see you all on the mats!