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| Looks like I showed in Winnipeg just in time... |
There was no adventure getting to Winnipeg on the bus this time, thankfully. It was an easy bus ride in and Dave, who I would be staying with, found me without a problem. We hit up a grocery store and Dave welcomed me to Winnipeg with a Nuburger and we were off to his house.
Dave and Family, My Hosts
Dave and I met through a training friend, his brother Kevin, who has recently moved away to the USA. Kevin is a great guy who was always there for anyone and even drove me to the airport once really early in the morning. It goes without saying that Dave was just as kind and caring as his brother and looked out for me the whole I time stayed at his place. I actually never knew Dave before showing up in Winnipeg, having only spoke a handful of times via e-mail, but we hit it off as soon as we met. During most the week I saw Dave more in the evenings than anything, as he had work during the day and I was embracing a later morning start to my day. Each time we would end the day off with a great chat about Jiu-Jitsu and life and him asking me all sorts of questions about my journey and how I got to where I am, doing what I am doing. It was rather flattering knowing someone has a genuine interest in your life because it seems like a comic book to them. Dave was jealous I'm 'living the Jiu-Jitsu dream' and like many others, he's following me, 'living vicariously though me' and my stories. He and his wife Helena were always making sure I was fed and properly warm for the snow storm that hit Winnipeg right after I showed up. Thanks so much Dave and Helena for looking after me and making my stay so pleasant!
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| My buddy Dave! Thanks for the rolls and all the great hospitality! |
While I was talking to Dave to set up this stay he passed on word to his instructor of my travels and my blog site, which apparently the Prof. also really liked. With Dave doing all the leg work for me I had a club already knowing of Panda's Odyssey and awaiting me to come train with them. It's really cool when that happens and everything all falls into place for you. If I run into people like Dave only once in a while on this journey it's still going to to be amazing. We made it out to an open mat at one point and had a few rolls, I could tell from looking at him that Dave is a big strong guy, and as soon as we starting rolling I could tell he wasn't a 'lowly white belt' as he had described himself before. He had a good technically strong game, no flash or wild speed to make up for anything lacking, just a strong slow grind game. He put me in side control and, given his physical strength to back up the technique, I knew I was beat when he went for the Americana. Even though we were rolling light I could tell with the control he was on his way to being a blue belt, and sure enough shortly after I left Winnipeg the club had a seminar and Dave was promoted to blue belt, congratulations Dave on a job well done!
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| Dave and his family at the belt grading, congratulations Dave! |
Visiting Family
During the week I mostly just hit up the noon time classes since I had family to meet up with the one evening there were Jiu-Jitsu classes (other evenings it was women's, drill or competition classes, which I wasn't feeling up to). It was too bad I couldn't make it out to the evening class, but I hadn't seen these family members in years, not as long as my cousin Karen in Edmonton mind you but still long. It has been probably 7 years since seeing my cousin Scott and maybe a few years less seeing my Aunt Jan and Uncle Roger. These relatives, along with my cousin Paul who I also haven't seen in 11 years and unfortunately wasn't able to meet up with during this journey, make up the rest of cousin Karen's family, in case you were keeping track. I never got to see this branch of the family often since they lived out west my whole life, and Canada is a very large country to get around in. So with all this in mind I really couldn't say no to a night out to dinner to catch up with them and not end up being the cold hearted asshole nephew of the family. In all seriousness it was great being able to see them all again. I was looking forward to it and was happy that my Aunt and Uncle so happened to be visiting town the same time I was so we could do this.
I made my way over to where my aunt and uncle were staying after a noon time class and was wondering what would we talk about? Would they be interested in my past career in the Canadian military? Do we like the same shows? Do they even even watch TV? Certainly they won't be interested in Jiu-Jitsu talk so I'll have to think about something. I don't know if I'm crazy but there must someone else out there who goes through this 'what do we talk about?' phase when about to meet relatives you haven't seen in a long time. Anyways, once I showed up and told them about my journey so far and my intentions for it Uncle Roger and I turned to talking about engineering and I quickly realized we had a lot more in common than I thought. It was great catching up with them before dinner. We took a taxi and met up with my cousin and his wife at a really nice restaurant, it was great seeing Scott and Jade again, and it for once not be at a bar as he's on tour with his band passing through Toronto. It's too bad we couldn't hang out more and have them get to show me a bit more of the town, but schedule aside, the weather that week really wasn't permitting a lot of site seeing. Dinner and conversation was top notch, we all had a blast chatting the night away and eating good food. I felt bad ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, striplion steak, since Aunt Jan was buying, but how can you pass up a steak?! Thanks Aunt Jan! Earlier in the evening Uncle Roger gave me a donation for the journey and I was incredibly thankful, I was a pleasant surprise and it's helped me out lately, plus every little bit helps me save my money for Europe and Asia, Thank you Uncle Roger! After dinner on my bus ride back to Dave's I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if Canada wasn't so big, then I'd be able to see my family members more often.
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| I totally forgot to take a picture with the family, but here's a cool pic of the Assiniboine River through Winnipeg, slowly freezing over. |
Gracie Humaita Winnipeg
The Gracie Humaita Winnipeg was easy enough to get to despite all the snow dropping on Winnipeg, making transit a bit of a pain to navigate through. The lobby when you walk inside is currently being renovated as they work on switching spaces in the building, but the main area was still set up the same as I've in pictures. It's a big open space with the mats on a false floating floor and there was a couch and lockers and doors to the change rooms down the one side. It's a nice big open space and there's room for a lot of people on the mats, not that that matters as we all end up beside one another anyways (Rickson's Law of Attraction: Two or more matches rolling on a mat space of any size will inevitably run into one another). The classes were good, a 15 minute warm up that had me a little more tired than I'd like (I'd like to blame the weather and change of air for being so out of breath and lungs feeling burnt out but excuses are a dime a dozen) then some good drilling techniques before situational rolling. Situational rolling is something new to me that I'm getting used to, I'm starting to really like it though. Situational rolling is a good tool for playing with different positions, rather than just wait for them or try and bait to get into those positions during normal rolling time. We trained some good sweeps and chains during my time there and all the rolls with everyone were great.
The team there is very skilled and technical and some of my usual defenses did not work with them, so I'll be looking to find ways to fill those holes, which is something I imagine will be happening throughout this trip, always looking for new ways to not get beat up.
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| The Gracie Humaita Winnipeg before class. |
I hit up a no gi class one evening, the only evening class I could make it out to, and it was a lot of fun, I don't train a lot of no gi so everything is always new to me and I really like learning in unfamiliar areas to help out the overall game. The no gi classes at Gracie Humaita Winnipeg are run by Mile (pronounced Mee-le) Krnic, he's a tall guy with great sense of humour that keeps you really interested in the class. We worked some great takedown stuff and rolling afterwards with everyone was just like during gi, fun rolls with some technically strong people. Coach Mile and I talked after class and he really liked my journey I'm on and complimented me about being a gentle player and not crushing smaller students. During the rolling portion I ended up rolling with a younger girl who was at first pretty intimidated by me, but after I gave her my back to sink a rear naked choke she open up and we had a fun roll with me defending her attacks. By the way, for your information, children have smaller forearms and can sink rear naked chokes in really well!
Prof. Daniel Cobb
When I first met Prof. Daniel Cobb, the head instructor, I was greeted with "You're the traveling blogger, right?" Well yes I am! Prof. Daniel is a cool guy with very approachable demeanor and great attitude on the mats, several times we would chat for a bit, I could see he loves to talk about the art and how much it means to him to have the proper attitude in his gym, and in life in general. After class one day I was able to shoot a video with the Prof. and talk about his Jiu-Jitsu journey and the environment he looks to create at his gym. You'll notice I added a forward video correcting me messing up the introduction, I totally messed up which province I was in and almost messed up his name, so I made a video to add on and correct that. Have a laugh and enjoy!
here's the link to the video at the Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel in case the video doesn't load here. Have a watch and please subscribe to the channel.
That's it for this week's issue, off to Thunder Bay Ontario next!
Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!
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