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!   

Vancouver BC Canada Part 1: True North Jiu-Jitsu and My Host

Greetings from Vancouver!

I will never tire of this view, every time I go to or come from the Sunshine Coast.

I'm half way through my stay here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and things are going great! With all the different clubs I'm visiting and the interviews I'm doing I figured I would break the Vancouver post into two segments. I'll probably do this a for a number of cities I visit, this way I can make smaller more usual posts and spread out all the videos. I've also decided to space the posts out and publish one a week, rather then every time I write it up, which would put me at 3 this week. So going forth, Monday will be my target release day.

The Host, Rodrigo

This is actually my first stay with someone I didn't already know, either from training with them, as a friend or family. We only really met maybe a month ago on Facebook after Kyoshi Seamark asked around at his Vancouver dojo if anyone would be wiling to host me for the few days I'm in town. Being a great guy, Rodrigo offered me a place to stay, and has been making me feel right at home. Rodrigo trains Kokodo and is one of Kyoshi Seamark's longest students, having first started training with him in the late 90's. It was really cool to sit down and talk with Rodrigo the first night at his place and listen to the progression of the Sadohana Dojo and all the changes and different students he has seen over the years. Rodrigo is a very laid back, easy going guy and he's lived in the same place for a number of years, fixing and adding to it over time to really make it his home for his family. The place has a warm welcoming feel and it makes me feel like I'm visiting a relative. The family happened to be visiting back home in Costa Rica for most of my stay, making my visit timed perfectly for a quiet place or me not having to worry disturbing anyone at night when I come back late or just stay up typing up my experiences. Although when they did come home I felt guilty for stealing his son's bed for the time I was there, he had no problem with it though, being happy to help a guest. It's also cool that Rodrigo's place is just a few blocks away from the dojo as well, so it was easy enough just to walk over when I made it to class. One night after training all us, myself, Rodrigo and his kids, went out for dinner and a movie, they took me to a sushi place they frequent to and ordered a bunch of things I've never tired before. Since, I'm on this journey of a lifetime I told myself I'd try new things, might as well start now! Apparently eel isn't that bad after all. I've been treated so well staying with Rodrigo and his family these days I really feel blessed to have such great friends to make this possible. Thank you for all your hospitality, Rodrigo I don't think I can ever repay you!

Finally got a picture with Rodrigo before leaving. Thank you for everything, Sir, such an awesome host! 

True North Jiu-Jitsu Academy

They're stretching before class, I'm over here taking selfies, #BJJgoals

 The newly named True North Jiu-Jitsu Academy was, until recently, a Ribeiro affiliate school. Deciding to branch out on his own, Prof. Giacomo Zanini, the head instructor and owner of the academy, made the name change on go along with his new endeavors. Over the past year I've heard from many of my Jiu-Jitsu peers and mentors to drop by Prof. Giacomo's if I had the chance. After looking at the different school schedules it was decided, Wednesday evening would be the one and only time I could make it out to finally meet Prof. Giacomo and check out his class. I've kept in contact with the Professor for the last while, with always an intent for making it to his place for a class for two when in town. Earlier Wednesday I contacted him and asked if he would be up for doing an interview about BJJ with me, and graciously he accepted. Excited I packed my things and made my way through rush hour traffic on the city transit to Prof. Giacomo's club, located just outside Vancouver in Coquitlam. Once I got there I realized it was going to an intermediate class. Prof. Giacomo has broken his classes into 3 sections, beginner, intermediate, and advanced, with the beginners working primarily on movements rather than submissions, and it gradually getting more complex until the advanced classes which work more submissions and transitions. I was happy to in the intermediate class as the Professor is known for his fundamental movement drills and I could always use help in that department.

Class photo at True North, love the lineage on the wall!

The class was mostly white belts and had a very relaxed feel to it. That was one thing I noticed from the start, the welcoming vibe the club had, I felt very comfortable walking in for the first time and meeting everyone. Before class Prof. Giacomo introduced me and had me give a short explanation of my journey and it's purpose, which was fun. It's always funny to see people's reactions when I tell them about Panda's Odyssey and my intentions, I know, this is a crazy idea. Once class started we did a lot of drills with partners, the drills were very creative with incorporating all sorts of hip movement drills in with self defense scenarios. Without even rolling it was a good work out for me. Watching Giacomo teach was impressive, you easily see the passion he has for Jiu-Jitsu as he taught. His eyes lit up and his voice was louder, and he was excited to show every little detail. The signs of a man truly dedicated to the art. It was a privilege to be in his class. After class we took a group picture and the Professor and I sat down and did an interview together. In the interview we go over about his epic journey from young IBJJF World's competitor in Brazil to eventually finding his way to Vancouver BC Canada, as well as his thoughts on training goals for beginners and how to fight the 'Blue Belt Blues'. Check out the video below:      

In case the video doesn't work for you, the link for it on my YouTube channel is HERE. (Subscribe to the channel why you're at it please!)

Obligatory post interview selfie with Prof. Giacomo. 

During the video you can here the sounds of people being thrown and see the camera shake a little. While chatting we were watching two students work on their Judo throws, and given and awesome floating floor that the club has there it was pretty impressive. I can see doing Judo on those mats being really fun!

Close up on the class photo, everyone's so serious, lots of pride. 

So that's in for now. The next post will have my experiences for rest of my stay here in Vancouver, and what ever I get up to, and will cover the other clubs I plan on visiting: The Sadohana Dojo Vancouver, and a club recently referred to me, Champions Martial Arts Academy.

Until next time, see you all on the mats!
Osss!

Finally On The Road!

It has begun!!

Panda's Odyssey has officially started and I am currently hanging out in my first stop on the Canadian Odyssey list: Gibsons BC Canada!

All my gear I'm bringing. yeah, it's a lot.

The bags I'm using. Everything actually fits too!

Let me first fill you in on my last week preparations before telling you all about my great experiences hanging out with my good friends at the Sadohana Dojo in Gibsons. Last week (7-11 November) was my last week in Victoria BC Canada. I had the moving company coming in to pack my place, little time to clean the apartment for the landlords inspection, the last paperwork to finish for release from the military and also the last few days to say goodbye to all my friends on the island, and especially with the club. Amazingly, it all went off without any problems. The moving company was quick to pack and load all my belongings, giving extra time to clean the apartment, enough for the landlord to approve my vacating the apartment without any extra costs for repair. The paperwork for my release was promptly finished and as of Wednesday morning I was a civilian again. Continuing from the weekend I had more board game and movie nights with friends, where all sorts of great times were had. And I had my last classes at the club, with both Tuesday and Wednesday ending with me running the gauntlet and rolling with every member on the mats. Tuesday it was only for 20 or so seconds with each person but with almost 30 people showing up, Wednesday it was about a minute with each of the dozen or so people, mostly the bigger and more advanced students showing up this time. Both nights I was exhausted and sore and also extremely happy to roll with everyone one last time. Coach filmed it live on Facebook and a lot of people watched me get my beatings, good times!

The very last selfie taken at the club, my last walk out.

But all good times come to an end and I finally had to say my farewells, it was tough. With every hug and good-bye it felt like I was leaving a part of me behind. The club, Fierce Studio, has become my family. I have found a place where I am truly accepted and finally feel like I belong. I have become the person I am, doing what I'm about to do, because of them. I will miss each and every one while on this journey. But also, I can't wait to see them all again at the end, after my travels and learning what I pick up on the way, to bringing it back to them and seeing how they've all grown as well. Like a year long training camp before the tournament between friends.

All the Fierce Family I could get pics with, there's tons I missed. I miss you all! 

During my final weeks of rolling and saying good-bye to everyone I received some very heart felt gifts. A card full of well wishes and farewells from all my friends and co-workers in the military. A photo album of me and friends over the time we spent together training and hanging out...with each picture being captioned with a threat or being of me getting beat up by them, as was our usually way spending time together. A farewell card with a very touching story of my influence helping them feel comfortable when first joining our classes. A hand fan with a cool inspiring quote for my journey. And the most recent one, figurine of a panda to bring along on with me. These mementos I will cherish always. It really hit home, they amplified the praises and well wishes I was receiving from everyone and as I look at them now I'm reminded of the love back the club. It's overwhelming at times to be honest. Thinking of the people who have told me how much they love following me on any of my social media outlets (look up Panda's Odyssey practically anywhere and you're find me) and how my actions effect them is a weird feeling. I'm sure I've said it before but I never thought this journey would impact anyone else but myself. I am deeply touched.

The photo album Angel and Geoff made for me, reminding me of all the good times we had.

A very cool fan I received, I believe the quote reads "when walking in snow make sure to not make a messy path, as you are creating the trail for those behind you" awesome.

Some gifts from Gibsons, a panda figurine and their new club patch, thanks guys!

So with so many people watching me and me now without a home or a job there's no turning back.

First stop: Gibsons!

Everything packed and on my way out of the hotel i was staying at while my apartment got packed up.

A sunny day on the waters, good sign to a the start of this journey! 

Although the trek over to Gibsons from the island took a while everything went off without any problem and I was once again welcomed with open arms by the Sunshine Coast, staying with my good friend and Jiu-Jitsu brother Yoshi. camping out again in Yoshi's 'Man cave' in the garage is quite the treat and a great first stop and place to relax from all the action of last week. I made the joke later in the stay that I've set the bar too high starting at his place. The Sadohana Dojo is a smaller club but very close knit with highly driven students who together have pushed each other to develop their games very well. It's always a pleasure to train with them, whether it be me visiting them in Gibsons or them coming to visit us in Victoria. I have tried to roll with each one, and with most, more than once, and it's great to see how our games have progressed. In the always growing and changing sport of Jiu-Jitsu it's never the same roll twice, especially when there are months in between each roll. In the end it's still the same outcome: Fun!

Getting crushed during the Gibsons gauntlet.

Another gauntlet match with a Jiu-Jitsu brother.

Saturday morning there is a unique class run by Yoshi that has the first half of it as a conditioning class for BJJ. It's a non-stop workout of short time intervals of all different kinds of movement drills. In the end you have a good sweat on, or, if you're like me and not used to the class, you're pretty tired by the end of it. It's a great workout and I don't know where Yoshi got the sets of drills or how he came across them all but two things are certain: 1. I'm glad they don't do it every class or I'd be dead before the week was out, and 2. After 6 weeks of doing these Saturday classes I'm sure anyone would see an improvement in their Jiu-Jitsu game.

Yoshi, crushing me, I'm pretty sure I survived, but there's no pic of that...of course, haha!

Saturday night we got together and watched history unfold in the tremendously stacked UFC 205 event that saw Connor McGregor become the first ever world champion in two weight classes at the same time. It was a night filled with stories, laughs and excitement, reminding how great a bunch of guys they were and how perfect this was for the first stop of Panda's Odyssey.

The Viking VS The Panda...you win this time Marcel...this time.

Monday saw my last class with the Sunshine Coast guys who all decided to follow suit with the good-byes Fierce Studio did and have their own gauntlet with me. They're all a bunch of savvy beasts and I wish I could say I held them off but I'd be lying. Great times were had rolling with them all nonetheless, I will miss these guys.

Group shot with Sadohana Dojo Gibsons, love these guys! 

Yoshi, I owe him so much for taking care of me!

Marcel the Viking, going to miss you!

Jason, the BJJ coach, glad we got to catch up, next time I'll see you on the mats!

Kyoshi Michael Seamark, always a blast!

Kokodo Jujutsu

There was a Kokodo Jujutsu class Monday night as well. If you're unfamiliar with Kokodo it's a style of Japanese Jujutsu that excels in controlling techniques, primarily wrist locks. I've heard it described before as the art of manipulating the spine through the wrists. I just call it Black Magic. There is also a pressure point aspect to it all and in the higher ranks the syllabus includes Shiatsu as well.

A proper Kokodo picture with Kyoshi, again, his teachings are amazing!

The Kokodo classes are taught by the head instructor Kyoshi Michael Seamark, who runs the Sadohana Dojo Gibsons as well as the Sadohana Dojo in Vancouver, my next stop. Kyoshi is a very high rank, in fact Mr. Seamark holds the highest rank directly under the founder Soke Irie Yasuhiro and is the head representitive for North and South America. To better explain Kokodo, I sat down with Kyoshi Seamark after class Monday, here's the interview:

Here's the link to my YouTube channel (subscribe to it!) in case the video doesn't work: Kyoshi Seamark Interview

Some Kokodo with Yoshi

More Kokodo

Yoshi's turn at applying the technique, or rather, my turn to feel it.

After Monday's classes it was time to pack up my gear and get ready for traveling to my next stop, just next door in Vancouver BC Canada! I said my good-byes to the guys at the club, thanked Yoshi and his family for all their hospitality in letting me stay with them and looking after me again and then I was off, spending day in city traffic.

One last picture together, thank you for everything my Jiu-Jitsu brother!

Hope you enjoyed, I'll have my next post soon!

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