Rather than take a bus or train or any of the local city transit to make the short ride from Toronto to Hamilton (they're like an hour's drive apart) my brother, working out in that area, drive me into to town in the morning. Of course it wasn't a nice sunny morning to drive in, no it was a dark, grey, sky and roads filled with giant snow flakes morning. It wasn't near as bad at the snow storm we drove in last winter but it was a shitty drive out of the city all the same. This does make me wonder if maybe the two of us driving in a terrible snow fall is becoming a winter tradition. Once we made it out of Toronto it got better and Jeff was able to drop me off downtown Hamilton no problem. We said our farewells as this would be the last I saw him for a while now and I was off to meet up with my host for the next few days, Zach. Thank you for the ride, going to miss you bro!
My Host In Hamilton, Zach
My host for Hamilton I starting talking to online a long time ago, back when I first started planning everything out and was still just getting the basic outline for this whole concept down. Zach has been a big fan of my blog ever since we first started talking and instantly welcomed me to his place. Being that he was one of the first supporters of this journey I was looking forward to finally meeting him. After my brother dropped me off I waited at a coffee shop until Zach was done work and able to come get me, which was only about half an hour. We talked about my journey experiences and Zach's own experiences going to the BJJ Globetrotters camp, something I haven't done yet but hope to do one day, as Zach drove around town, showed me some sites and told me the history of the city. For living next to Hamilton for 10 years when I was in Toronto, I really didn't know much of Hamilton other than the steel mills, and as Zach pointed out, I didn't know much about them either.
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| Not the best picture but you can tell someone is hooked on Jiu-Jitsu when they have mats in the basement and put nails up on the rafters to hang their gis off of. |
After driving around we made out way to his place I got settled in to the cool set up he made for me in his office room, we weren't at his place for long though, there was a noon time class for us to get to and my first class at Joslin's MMA. After class, and after most the classes during the few days I spent with Zach, he would bring me out to one of the many restaurants in town. One time it was tacos, another it was burgers, one evening we met with his family and had Thai food, another time we met with Cory of the Gi Hive and had amazing ribs. All these places were awesome, if there's one thing Zach new it was where to eat in Hamilton!
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| Ribs! Was so good! |
The whole time I spent with Zach we trained at the club he trains at, Joslin's MMA and hit both the noon time classes and evening classes. We were getting about 3 hours of training time in a day and it was great! In between classes, we would talk about all sorts of things, training philosophies, different experiences training abroad at different gyms, our favourite movies, work and life in general. It was a great time chatting and hanging out and making a close friend. Zach really took care of me on my stay there and I know I always have a place to go to in Hamilton. Thanks for everything Zach, next time foods on me!
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| Zach the man himself, thanks for everything, buddy! |
Joslin's MMA
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| One of the mats in Joslin's |
Originally Zach had an idea of traveling around and hitting different clubs up in the area, we could even go down into Buffalo and train at a club just on the other side of the boarder. I really liked the idea, but I also had been waiting to train at Joslin's for a long time and was really looking forward to meeting Jeff Joslin. We decided instead just to hit every class at the gym we could in the time I was in town, and I am happy we did, because every class I met new people and made new friends, some people I had been talking to online for a while, and some had just heard of me and were looking to meet me. This was a first, people looking to meet me? As it happens, when I decided to get back into martial arts 6 years ago I was in college in St. John's Newfoundland and found a club, St. John's BJJ and Judo. I trained there until I was posted to Victoria BC where I found Fierce Studio. While in St. John's I trained under Mike Samson who is a student of Jeff Joslin. So as I was on my way to Hamilton, both Zach and Mike posted in the gym's Facebook group about me coming to train with them while I passed through on the Odyssey. This apparently piqued the interest of a number of students who came looking for me. It was a weird but cool feeling meeting people like this.
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| Warming up before class, the other mat area in the club. In the back on the right is a cage was well. |
Joslin's has a lot of history, the club is in it's 50th year of not just existing but being in the same building! Jeff Joslin told me of how he grew up above the the gym in their apartment back when his dad ran the gym as a kickboxing club. The walls are all full of posters for fight events, newspaper clippings and trophies. There's two large mat areas and lots of wall space between the two of them, and they're all full. Like I said, lots of history.
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| Old photos and new articles of Jeff Joslin and his dad, Rick Joslin, who started the gym. |
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| One of the many walls covered in memories of this gym. |
I can say just about every class was different, even if we were training the same techniques, the varying students in each class always gave a different vibe, always positive of course, and each instructor taught differently. In the end each class there was already some hard rolls and good times on the mats. Jeff was working on single leg take downs, other instructors were working open guard passing, or leg lock defenses. Lots of information was being shown that week and I loved every minute of it. Every class I made at least one new friend, and got crushed by them. They were a great team, full of positive energy. It was a great time training with them. Zach and I were hitting 2 classes a day, which although tiring I found a lot of fun. Zach, who was using this to launch his 'new year, new training regime' on the other hand was just about dead by the final class. I'm sure he'll admit, it was worth it!
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| Rolling with Jason, a friend who always knows the guys out in Newfoundland. |
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| Forget if this is from rolling or drilling something in class. either way, good times. |
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| Cory Dunne of The Gi Hive. |
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| What a good class! |
Jeff Joslin
Like I said I had been waiting some time to finally meet Jeff Joslin a I was not disappointed! Jeff was such a nice guy and was happy to have me visit and do the interview with me. His classes were pretty cool, Jeff has a different style than most people. It's hard to pinpoint what's different about it but my guess is his kickboxing and MMA background add a different look into his Jiu-Jitsu. Rolling with him was crazy, I wish we could have rolled more! Jeff moves in a different way than what I'm used to, shutting down my usual moves and catching with submissions I don't regularly see, like the reverse armbar, from usual angles. We talked about it after rolling and he told me he has a few moves he gets all the time because people not being used to it. The best I can describe it is like an old school newaza flair to modern grappling.
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| What a nice guy, thanks for having me Jeff! |
One day After class I set up my gear in one of the mats spaces and we did an interview together. It was cool hearing of Jeff's upbringing around martial arts and how he finally got into it full time. We talked about his time in the UFC and using that experience to run his time now, after retiring from MMA. I could feel the passion he has for the art, it's in his blood, that gym is his home and the students are his family.
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After a full 4 days with Zach training at Jeff Joslin's that was it for Hamilton and it was time to head to Niagara Falls for a slower pace and some site seeing!
Until next time, see you on the mats!
OSSS!!
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