Petawawa Ontario Canada: Holidays with Friends, Family and Evolution BJJ

Greetings From Petawawa Ontario!

I finally made it home! At this time I was a little under 2 months into my trip and it had been quite the ordeal getting across Ontario on the buses. Getting from Sudbury to Petawawa wasn't near as bad as getting to Sudbury from Thunder bay, but weather was still affecting the buses getting to Sudbury so we left 3 hrs late. I had my good childhood friend Jay pick me up from the bus station so my mom wouldn't have to get up early, after a quick chat catching up and a hot chocolate Jay dropped me off and we set to meet up later on. It was still early when I got in to my Mom's, she was still in bed, and I was still pretty tired so I dropped my bags and passed out on my bed. Apparently my Mom and Step Dad thought I was going to be getting in the next day so when I got up and came out they were surprised "You're here already!?" I'm glad I didn't get her to pick me up from the bus stop or I'd be waiting a while.  

Home for the Holidays!

It was good to be back home in Petawawa. Not that I had been away for very long, I was back in the summer, and I've often gone a year or more between visits. It was good to be back in a familiar place, with family and friends, and it will be the last time until this journey is done so a rest for the holidays at the old stomping grounds was very suiting. You'll notice I don't have a lot of pictures for this article, other than from training, no site seeing or snapping nice views. I spent a lot for the time seeing friends and family and decided to just relax. I really should have taken a picture or two with the family during Christmas though. To be honest this article will be shorter than most, there's really not a lot to say about hanging out with friends and family during the holidays other than it was great to catch up and see everyone and I'll miss you all while I'm out traveling.
I will add that I did manage to update the 'tour gi' which holds my collection of patches from different clubs I've been to. It now rests in a closet at my mom's waiting to be updated again when this is all over. I also have another old gi I retired last year waiting to be covered in patches I've collected. If any or you out there are from a club I've visited and you don't see your patch on here, I love collecting and have been trading my Panda patch with people for club patches, if you're interested send me a line!
 

The front, the most decorated but still I think I only have half the clubs I've been to on here at best 

Old patches on the back, our club's logo and Kieth Owen's patches have both changed since these, but I like keeping them, the second gi to fill up have the updated patches on it.

Even filling up the pants, I've yet to put anything on the back but all in time.

Training with Evolution BJJ Petawawa

I have written about training with the Evolution BJJ Petawawa guys before, but every time I visit it's almost like a new club. Sure the faces are the same and Prof. Steven Burgess and I get into a lengthy discussion about combat arts and self defense but there's always new people I'm meeting and the level of everyone is always way ahead of our last meeting.  Either way, I always love training with them and and writing about how there's an awesome Jiu-Jitsu club in my home town!

A good class shot of all who showed up for open mat one day.

This time around, like usual, there were not scheduled classes, given the holidays, but we did have daily open mat sessions. depending on the day we had anywhere from 5 or 6 guys to a dozen or more on the mats, and they were all looking to work off those turkey dinners, or create an appetite for one. The rolls were tough, there a really strong team, and so I was mostly on defense, or tapping, but it was all in good fun. One sign of a close team is after every session we'd sit around and chat for a while. It's their belief some of the best things get brought up or shown when you're sitting around on the mats after some good rolls and processing where you got caught or how you caught someone, or trouble shooting a technique you were trying, or just chatting Jiu-Jitsu philosophy. I totally agree with this idea, it's fun and you learn some great stuff. It's also the basis of how I like to conduct my interviews, in a relaxed informal conversation after class. Needless to say we might have been done rolling after an hour but it was always half an hour or more before we left. Some great conversations were had after those tough rolls!

An open mat session.

Prof. Burgess showing a technique after rolling.

Another good day for rolling.

One day after the open mat Prof. Burgess decided it would be a good time to hand out stripes to those who ah missed the big testing date earlier the month before. I was happy to be there to see some friends who truly deserved them get striped for their work work. Here's some pics from that day.

Thom receiving a long overdue stripe.   

Another well earned stripe. 

Kevin got a few well earned stripes that day!

The day of UFC 206, Prof. Steven Burgess made it a special day, getting members from other Evolution BJJ clubs like Ottawa, Gatineau, Kingston, Trenton, and I think even Barrie, all of which hours away, to come in for a long open mat session before meeting up to watch the sporting event that night. It was a great day, tons of people on the mats, great rolls, I learned a lot that day too! There were some top jiu-jitsueros on the mats that day, including some black belts, like Prof. Daniel Guillemette who I will be seeing again shortly when I'm in Ottawa.

Mats were packed that day, everyone coming from all over to join in.

Lots of matches going on. 

Group shot of all who showed up that day.

Then the night came and it was all good laughs while watching some great fights. Ronda Rousey did not do well that night, and we all had a long conversations about her, some backing her but fearing for her before the fight, some cheering on the champ Amanda Nunes and of course discussions of the aftermath. The rest of the card was also good and being in of skilled martial artists there were a lot of great commentary that was actually productive, which is a nice change from hearing people saying the dumbest things at the bars watching these events. I will say this, for being a guy who doesn't watch the fights a lot, as he professes, Mr. Burgess think I called every match pretty much in the first few seconds of each fight. He really does have a uncanny sense of combative awareness and calculation. I picture his mind being like those fight scenes in the Sherlock Holmes movies.        

Prof. Steven Burgess

After one of open mat sessions I sat down with Prof. Burgess to have one of our great conversations video taped as an interview. I always really enjoy talking to him and listening to all his great knowledge, insight and advice he has, so I was really looking forward to it and expected a great and long interview. And that is what I got, except that about half way through my camera turned off and I lost of few minutes, no noticing right away, before resuming. It ends up I had forgotten to clear the interviews as I load them onto my computer and online and the memory card was full. After a quick fix we resumed, but when it came time to load the two videos on I came across another problem. Editing a video in YouTube Video Editor only allows you to make videos that are under an hour in length, and in total this interview would be an hour and 5 minutes. not wanting to cut anything out I made 2 parts, with explanations on the start and end.  And so I have a 2 part interview below for you to watch, the first introducing Prof. Burgess and talking about how he got started in martial arts and getting his 3 black belts he has, as well as the weaknesses he sees now a days in sport Jiu-Jitsu and Judo, among other topics. In the second video we talk about the Combatives Grappling Championship tournament he has been spearheading for going on 5 years now, how that's been growing and helping the military members training and also how it helps not only with those serving in the military, police, security, first responders, and security but also how it helps with PTSD. It was a very fun and interesting interview full of great stuff and I hope you like both parts!

Here's part 1:

And here's part 2:

IF the videos don't load you can head over to the Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel and watch Part 1 and Part 2 there. Give some love with some likes and comments, maybe even subscribe too, please!

If you like reading these stories and watching these interviews sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account and help support me on my journey!

After celebrating Christmas with my family, and New Years' with friends it was time to head to Toronto where my brother has been all this time. I have about 5 clubs set up to train at and countless friends to see, if I can arrange it. Toronto will be in 2 parts with hopefully some great interviews.

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