To mix things up a bit, we’ve decided to add new specialized skills classes to our schedule. These classes will give students the opportunity to add some variety to their training, while learning specific topics in more detail. Originally we were thinking about making one of them a sparring skills class and the other ground grappling skills, but we’ve decided instead to leave the choice up to the students. We’re letting the students vote by telling us their order of preference for the following topics: sparring skills, ground grappling skills, joint manipulation or throws/takedowns. Whichever two are chosen, we’ll be teaching on Mondays and Wednesdays, 6:15-7:15 for 2 months after which we’ll change the topics.

These classes are as much for us, the instructors, as it is for our students. It helps us to go into specific topics in more depth than we get to do in our day-to-day classes, helping us explore our martial art more deeply while also letting us practice skill-specific teaching. It’s also fun for us to teach from a slightly different angle than our usual classes. We’re both really looking forward to teaching these classes. (more…)

Tags: dojo news

I just finished reading a great book, Slowing Down To The Speed Of Life. I found it had really useful tips for helping to establish a more peaceful, simpler, happier life. It also gave me some great insights that apply for martial arts training, which I’d like to share. The main premise behind the book is that we spend all our time in one of two mental modes, the analytical/processing mode or the free-flowing mode. Both modes have their purposes, and this is apparent when you consider their usage in martial arts training and application.

Analytical/Processing Mode

This mode is most useful for learning new skills and concepts. It allows you to deliberately think through each step and consciously learn a physical technique. When you first learn a joint lock, throw, or other martial arts technique, the instructor breaks it down into steps to make it easier to follow along, and offers corrections along the way for you to process and analyze, so you better understand the fundamentals of the technique. As you practice in this mode, you’ll often find that the technique feels slow and chunky, especially ones requiring fine motor skills. This could also be thought of as the conscious mind. (more…)

Tags: book review | martial arts teaching | martial arts training modalities

Yes, the title of this blog post says it all. I managed to tear a huge whole in the rear end of my new Century gi pants while I performed a Ganseki Otoshi during our guest instructor class with Andy Dobie Sensei of Jitsu Canda. It’s not like they’re cheap pants either. They’re the 10-oz cotton pants, so the material is reasonably robust. As you can see from our goofy class photo, the tear in my pants was big enough for me to fit my face through it. The hole was huge!

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Tags: torn martial arts uniform

When I first founded our dojo, I wanted to establish a brand that expressed the true nature of what we offer. We are what I call a “modern traditional” style of Japanese Jiu-jitsu with a Canadian influence. We don’t have current links to Japan, nor do we have a heavy Japanese influence, but we do uphold many of the original ideals.

The logo I created was inspired by Hokusai Katsushika’s painting, ”The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’ created in the 1830s (seen here on the left). It symbolizes how something as soft and flexible as water can generate great power, as with the ideals of Jiu-jitsu. It is also styled to be a yin-yang, symbolizing the ‘give and take’ embodied in eastern martial arts training and philosophy. The orange used in combination with our logo symbolizes the setting sun of the west coast, alluding to the Canadian influence of our style. (more…)

Tags: dojo brand identity

We’ve been working very hard to get the dojo in a more finished state over the past month. It’s coming together nicely with only a few finishing touches left to do this week. We’re motivated to get it all done though so the place looks awesome for this Saturday’s grand opening party.

There will be cake, candy sushi (handmade by me), Rock Band and other games. We’ll also be holding a draw for gift certificates and dojo swag for those who RSVP (either on Facebook or by email to [email protected]). The party is open to the public, Sat. Mar. 31, 7:00-8:30pm, so come over and check out our new dojo if you’re in the area. Check out the Facebook event page. (more…)

Tags: open house | party

We were asked to review, Revenge, which is a Jason Steed novel by Mark A. Cooper because they thought it would appeal to martial artists. There was a catch however, it’s juvenile fiction, so it’s targeted at 9-year-olds and up.

Take down a ruthless criminal gang – from the inside.
Rescue the ambassador’s kidnapped daughter.
Capture a traitor.

No problem.

If that sounds like it could be the plot of a bad action movie, well then you’ve pretty much nailed Revenge, except this book might actually have more action. By page 69 our 11-year old protagonist has been in 3 fights, involved in 2 murders, a torture scene and one of his school yard chums has committed suicide. (more…)

This past weekend, we spent 2 full days working on moving into our dojo’s new home. On day 1, we arrived early on Sat. morning to get organized with Kevin Holter, our project manager for the sprung floor and all other construction projects. Complete with detailed blue prints and cardboard templates, the guys got to work on gluing foam springs to the bottom layer of plywood of our sprung floor, while Kevin was busy cutting up the wood pieces for the second layer and edges.

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Tags: dojo set-up | martial arts sprung floor | sprung floor

This weekend we are moving into our new location at 140-12811 Clarke Place in Richmond BC. It’s an exciting time for us as it is our first location that we have had complete autonomy over. It is a vast improvement over our last location, with 50% more training space, bigger changing rooms, even a lounge in which parents will be able to watch their children train by video camera in our new martial arts classes for kids 9+. (more…)

Tags: martial arts sprung floor

This year’s Canadian Jiu-jitsu Union Winter camp was an awesome success. It was held on Feb. 4-5 in Sunshine Valley RV Resort just outside of Hope, BC. It featured some of the highest ranking instructors in Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu, including, Ed Hiscoe Hanshi (9th Dan), Steve Hiscoe Shihan (8th Dan), Allen St. John Sensei (6th Dan), Phil Wiebe Sensei (3rd Dan), and me, a humble 4th Dan. (more…)

Tags: canadian jiu-jitsu union | martial arts conferences

Almost every martial artist has a list of favourite martial arts movies that they have a soft spot for, ones that excite and inspire them in their training, or psyche themselves up for an upcoming test or competition. I have my own top 5 list that I will share with you here (in no particular order). Bear in mind that these are not necessarily movies with the best fight scenes (I’d have to make a separate list for that), but ones that I actually enjoy watching from start to finish.

Tags: martial arts movies