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!!