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Greetings From St. John’s Newfoundland!

Back on George Street!

During my stay in St John’s when I was in college George Street, the world renown street known for having the most bars crammed into a little stretch of road, was a usual hangout spot for the weekends, and sometimes the week nights too (Thursday’s 3 for 5 anyone?). As the partying life is behind me now I didn’t feel the need to spend much time down there, but I couldn’t help but visit it one evening. You see even if you don’t drink, there is something about the street, the young party goers running wild on the streets, the pubs filled with locals singing along to the live bands playing all the hits, that’s fun to at be part of. There’s something there for almost everyone. One pub that a few others from school and I would frequent was Shamrock City. There’s not another bar like it, the people that go there all looking for 2 things, 2 cold drinks and good tunes. The bar has live bands every night and you be can sure at some point most the bar will be singing and dancing along with them. It’s a fun atmosphere and I spent many a weekend there. It was fun to check out whichever local band was playing that night and watch everyone have a great time and reminisce about the old days, but without my usual friends the nostalgia wore off pretty quick.  After walking around the street to see what has changed since I was last there, which wasn’t much, I was done walking down memory lane and called it a night. My priorities have changed since I was last there, I don’t care about drinking and pubs and staying out late watching the college kids get into fights and the end of the night, although part of me does find that hilariously entertaining. I care about training and gyms now, creating memories with conversations fueled by Jiu-Jitsu, not alcohol. It was still fun to check out, I recommend it, especially if you like a pint of 2 and take in the local scene.

Staying With Carla…Kind of…

Carla and I met when I was training in St John’s during college. She was quite shy and timid, intimidated by the nature of the aggressive sport, but still eager to learn. I remember training with her and she barely said a word to me at first, which is funny now considering how much we have kept in contact with one another and become great pen pals. Although I met her from training together Carla doesn’t train Jiu-Jitsu anymore, instead she now has found a love for fitness training and competing in fitness competitions. I applaud her for the dedication she has and the transformation she has had with this new found passion. After I left St John’s and moved to the west coast her and we kept in touch online, following each others passions and transformations, me becoming obsessed with Jiu-Jitsu and planning out the Odyssey and her body building and setting competing goals. One day Carla sent me a message asking if I had a place for St john’s I did not, in fact I had overlooked St John’s while contacting other cities where I knew no one, so I happily accepted her offer to let me stay at her place.

We set up when I’d be flying in to St john’s and Carla was at the airport to pick me up, she even had a stocked the fridge and picked up a brand new air mattress for my stay. I was looking forward to having nightly conversations of my journey or her training regime, catching up on the times, things that go on when staying with a dear friend, but as it happens Carla was hardly ever home, busy with her own career and life I was practically left alone with a house full food. It was both great and disappointing at the same time, haha. Although I had the place to myself for most the stay we did actually hang out at some point and catch up on everything, and it really a great visit, thank you for everything Carla, you went way above and beyond looking after me!    

Mike Foley’s Academy  

I’ve always known that there are other clubs in St. John’s, all run by brothers, The Foley’s, each having their own place, as far as I know, but I’ve never made it out to any of them or met them before. This time around I decided to change that and drop by one night for a class. It worked perfectly with the schedule, one night there weren’t classes going on with Mike and his club so I made my way over to Mike Foley’s Academy. I got a bit turned around getting there and ended up a few minutes late, which I absolutely hate doing. They were already half way through their warm up when I walked in so I quickly changed and jumped in.

The place is on the second floor of a building and built in a ‘L’ shape with both corridor being long and narrow. The whole class was set up as a chain, starting with one move and adding to it, so that in the end it was a series of counters to each other, all starting with a failed shoot in. The people at Foley’s gym were all friendly, in fact I trained with a blue belt who is a big BJJ Globetrotter fan and so absolutely loved my story of traveling. in between drills he would ask questions about traveling and going to different clubs and how I set it up etc. I was happy to answer him. After class a few other students started asking questions and next I knew we were having a big Jiu-Jitsu philosophy discussion in the parking lot. It’s funny how conversations can break out anywhere. I wish I had more to write but I only stopped by for the one class and wasn’t able to take any pictures. I will say the students and staff were very welcoming and it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in town.

St John’s BJJ and Judo

I first went to St John’s BJJ and Judo because I saw a poster for them in the school. I figured with me on course for the Canadian Navy I was on a stable schedule that left the evenings open, it was the perfect opportunity to get back into martial arts. I was not wrong. The training helped center me and get me through college. When it was time for me to leave for the West Coast they alerted me to Fierce Studio, where I now call home, and the rest is history. When I returned I was really looking forward to seeing the old friends I had made, Mike, Dave, Jimmy, Blair, Brian, the small group of regulars that made the core club when I trained there. Seeing all them again was like stepping back in time. It was great feeling.

The club had moved a few times since I first met them, now it was out by the mall in a renovated industrial space turned into a martial arts club. The new space is bigger than the old one I remember that was a rented room at a gym. This place is simple, washrooms to the left when you walk in, change rooms to the right, and the rest of the space is covered by a big square mat space on a floating floor. It’s perfect for the Jiu-Jitsu and Judo clubs that train there.  

The club had expanded since I left. I kept in contact on Facebook and seeing the increasing membership over the years I was eager to meet everyone. It always great to see both old faces you remember and new faces to meet, it shows both the members staying and the club growing. A club that’s been around for a long time but only has white and blue belts raises questions, as does a club with no white belts. Mike and guys are good people, I happy the club is growing and succeeding.

The first night I came back Mike was busy with work, as it’s not his usual night, it was Blair’s night to teach Judo. Blair has been teaching and training Judo for years and years, he’s an older fellow and he’s not up for endless rolling with the young guys, in fact I think I’ve only rolled with him once. I remember it now, we were in class and it was time to roll, everyone else had paired up and Blair looks at me and asks “Robert, would you like to have a match?” I was surprised as this is usually when he would sit back and watch, so I eagerly accepted. We start, on our knees, and Blair instantly grabs traditional Judo grips, gets me off balance and next thing I know I’m in scarf hold, or Kesa-Gatame and I’m being crushed by the pressure and control he has of me. I try fighting to get out but I can’t move and finally I have to verbal tap from the pressure. “Not bad for an Old guy, eh?” he says and goes and sits and watches the rest of the class. The thing took maybe  a minute. So anyways, first night back to St John’s and Blair is teaching his Judo class, showing me all these little details to off balance your opponent and how to better enter the throw, all these little details that make sure a big difference. I watch and listen intently, because it’s those details that so easily humbled me those years ago.

The rest of the week the classes were BJJ, with my last class with them being no gi. It was great seeing and training with everyone. One class a few of us went out for food afterwards and caught up on life. Another day Mike and I grabbed coffee and talked Jiu-Jitsu philosophy for what was probably an hour or 2 before he had to get back to work. The small things like that, the off the mats times, make all the on the mat times more fun. You’re not just training with a club, you’re training with a group of friends. It felt like I had been away for so long yet only yesterday with them. Thanks Mike and all the rest of the club, it was a lot of fun seeing you all again and training together, the perfect last stop in Canada.

Interview With Mike Samson 

After one of the classes Mike and I sat down and did an interview. Talked about all sorts of things and it wasn’t until after I had uploaded the video to edit it that I realized we had spent an hour talking away! It was some good conversation going on, talking about Mike’s martial arts journey and coming to the point of running his own club. We also covered the work that has gone into keeping the club going, changing places and finding a black belt to be training under. It’s a great insight into the steps and trials involved in going from student to coach.

If the video doesn’t load you can watch it by heading over to the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel and watching it there. Make sure to show some love and like, share, comment and subscribe please!

That’s it for St. John’s Newfoundland, and Canada in general! Before I knew it I was on a plane for London and Finally get to see Europe and start the European Odyssey!

Until next time, see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

Buy Panda’s Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.

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Hello, friends. Today I would like to write about the journey. But not about the usual route to any country. Not about a specific gym. And about traveling to BJJ itself. Maybe this post does not correspond to the blog topics a little. But I would like to share my story, how I came to BJJ, how I made the most important journey in my life. And if at least one person will help change his way of life, then all this will be written knowingly.
I will not paint how I was born, made pi-pi in panties and ate porridge from a bottle with a pacifier.) How he studied at school, how he was a difficult child and had problems with the police. Life was beating with a key and more often, on the head.)) It’s good that I met my love early and married at age 19. After a year and a half, I had a son. Lived a quiet family life, went to work, raised his son. He is already 23 years old.) He opened a small business for clearing private ponds. In general, I led a quiet life, and gradually began to turn into a small but very thick boar.)) With the growth of 168 cm, I began to weigh 85 kg. He drank a lot of beer and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. Very much began to disturb health. Obesity and sedentary lifestyle began to give negative results. Constantly worried about the pressure, headaches and it was bad with the stomach. The tablets drank with handfuls and gradually began to turn into a ruin. Or rather, I became a wreck. I even could not tie my shoelaces on my shoes, my wife did it and was like a nanny to me.) And the worst thing, life has become gray. There were almost no emotions. Monotony, dullness and everyday life. I had never, at all, any relation to sports. Generally full of darkness. My perspective was a heart attack at a fairly young age. So I lived until I was 42 years old. My only achievement was, I was 40 years old, quit smoking. It became a little easier to breathe, but due to the fact that I was very fat, very little changed in my health.
And then I decided to try running in the morning in the nearest park. The first jog turned into hell. His eyes darkened, he sweated with a stream, his lungs burned, and his heart flew from his chest. It was difficult, I thought I would die, but I could not see in the next world, I still did not need anyone, and God decided that it was too early for me to die and directed me to run further.)) In short, after the first run I survived. So the week went on. I gradually got used to it, although I did not run long distances. And then on business, I was in Kiev, in the capital. I myself live in Kherson. I went there for a couple of days. Near the place where I stopped, there was nowhere to run. And I did not want to interrupt the runs and again lead an immobile lifestyle and return to the past. After all, it was so difficult to take the first step, and if I stopped, the second I probably would not have done.

And then I was advised to go to the gym BJJ, that would replace the jogging, while I’m in Kiev. They said that there are also good loads, that you can come at any age and it’s very cool. About such combat, I had never heard before, and all my knowledge of Brazil was reduced to carnivals and capoeira. BJJ, I represented something the same, a mixture of samba and waving my feet.))) But I decided to go.
Guys, it was love at first sight !!! I got to training for Valentin Varenikov, a purple belt. It was cool!!! It was super!!! It was the cosmos !!! They accepted me very warmly and friendly. The training is very interesting, everyone laughs and smiles. Physically it was hard, but it was worth it !!! And while I was in Kiev, I went there.
Returned to Kherson and it turned out that in my city, there is no gym, where they teach BJJ. Disappointment was not the limit. And I decided to rent a small room. Persuaded his son who also did not go in for sports at that time. We shot a very small room, that would be together with my son, after work, in the evening to study for myself. They began to look at the techniques on the Internet and, to the best of their ability and understanding, began to study them. Everything was very clumsy in our performance. But it was! Little by little it began to work out. And we
There was a goal, interest and first emotions. Then, slowly, people began to join us, who were also interested in BJJ. I somehow unexpectedly turned into a coach.))) We decided to play with my son at the tournament. We lost. But, we got excited! I dropped out of business. For the family, it was a shock. Nobody thought that my morning runs would lead so far.))) And I concentrated on BJJ.
Our hall now, there is not yet two years. We are all white belts. They themselves developed a strategy for training and chose the style in which we will fight. And I’m proud of it. Children began to lead us to trainings. Even the girls came to us.) And we to the surprise of many, even began to give results !!! My son is already a champion of Ukraine and winner of many regional tournaments, all children and girls are winners of different tournaments. And I’m in my old age, I already have a dozen medals.))
At the moment, I’m 44 years old. Having dropped out of business, I lost money. But!!! I bought much more !!! I became a coach, I got health and forgot what a hospital is. I was 85 kg with a height of 168 cm. And now my weight is 57 kg. And I feel fine. And most importantly, what I purchased. This is EMOTION !!! Life was filled with colors. I got a lot of friends. And when your pupil wins the tournament, it’s impossible to convey in words.
Not everything is measured in money. There are things that can not be bought, for any money. This is HEALTH, FRIENDSHIP, EMOTION !!!
I am grateful to ju-jitsu that it has changed my life so abruptly. Do not be afraid of change. It’s never too late to start. Discard all doubts and go to the gym. Do Jiu-Jitsu. And believe me, your life will change for the better.
P.S. Running in the morning, I did not quit. Now, every morning, I run 7 km.
Everyone has a lot of happiness! And more BJJ.)

I’m up to BJJ’s classes and now.

While staying at Coco beach I asked about Tamarindo and I got the feeling it was kind of touristy town where people go to party, something that doesn’t really intrigue me for this trip. I decided to go there anyway because supposedly there were 3 or 4 BJJ clubs there.

When I arrived my thoughts were confirmed. There wasn’t much to do, the beach wasn’t very nice but lots of tourist and my hostel had lots of party kids who were on their last days of spring break. Thanks to Ron Jarman, who was a huge help, I managed to find 3 gyms in the area with morning, noon and evening classes! I would be able to train more then I could handle. 

So I show up to the first class, no one is there. I go to the second class at another gym, the trainer was out of town. Finally the 3rd try of the day I show up to Tamarindo Fitness and there is a class of 5 people. I got right into it with them and got good rolls and drills, just happy I got to finally train. The next day I was gonna wake up early for a 7 o’clock class so I went early to sleep, of course the only person who wasn’t partying. At 5 o’clock I wake up to the rest of the room arriving from partying and thought to myself how differnet experience I was having from them. 

So I show up at 7 in front of a gym called Hero Academy, my little nerd heart was exploding from happiness being able to train at a gym with that name. The trainer, Rome Za, shows up and the class starts. The training was really good, the atmosphere was so relaxed and good wipes. Afterwards we get talking about movement training, techniques and everything else which was off topic. In the end I realized I had met a really interesting person who is trying spread as much positivity in the world which I can’t help but respect from the bottom of my heart. Here is their website and Facebook for anybody who is interested in dropping by. 

For the evening I decided to do one more class but ended up showing up to another gym with another no show. At the end I spent 3 days in Tamarindo lying around the hostel waiting for training which did not go as planned. It did however force me to embrace the Pura Vida lifestyle which I’m starting to get the hang of.

Greetings from Fredericton New Brunswick Canada…kind of…

I made it to Fredericton easy enough, there were a few bus transfers over the night and I didn’t get much sleep but I still made it to the destination on time and without any real problems, which is the important part. Originally when I booked the tickets I didn’t look at the map that closely and booked the bus from Montreal. I then booked a train from Quebec City back to Montreal to catch the bus, with a 4 hour layover, even though the two stations are side by side. Also, the bus goes up to Ste Foy on it’s way to Fredericton, which is just outside Quecbec City, and 10-15 minute drive from my friend’s place. So rather than spend the whole day backtracking, I threw out the train ticket to Montreal and the bus ticket to Ste Foy, they were non-refundable, and caught the bus that night, saving me half the total time on a bus and/or train. I’ve been looking closer now with my planning transit routes.

On the road again.

Catching up with Friends

It has been 15 years since I last saw Aaron and Danielle, who I stayed with while in Fredericton, I was still in highs school and they had joined the military and been posted out. With social media so common place in our lives now a days we met up on Facebook and when I started planning out where to go and stay I sent Aaron a message. Next you know we’re sitting in a car with his family reminiscing about the good ole good in high school and talking about where everyone is now a days. They had set me my very own room in the basement, well almost, I shared it with the cat, who had decided I’m her new best friend. I spent a good deal of my time sitting in the front room working on blogs and planning things for the UK, when they were home we talked about all sorts of things, like my journey and life leading up to it or what they had been up to in the past 15 years, at one point Aaron brought the fact he and Danielle had a discussion of what we’d talk about, being that we hadn’t seen, or spoke much, in 15 years. Aaron had made the comment that it’d be just like picking up where we left off, like it was yesterday. He was right. It’s something we’ve noted about the people we grew up with back home, we can not see or speak or one another for years on end, show up one night and continue on like those years a part never happened. A true sign of real friendship, although it did make me miss a few old friends I haven’t talked to in years.

Leila sent me some American Girl Guide Cookies! They were so good!

Another friend I hadn’t seen since high school was Greg, he and I were in the same classes for the first half or so of school, and had met up a few times during the Christmas get-together at the bar back home. We had kept in contact online and he had even offered me a place to stay, but I had already made plans with Aaron. we met up for lunch one day and grabbed some food at a local diner. Since I last saw Greg he had released from the military and was now sporting a huge red beard, suitable enough to have a spot on the TV show ‘Mountain Men’ and shaved, or lost, the curly hair I remembered him having in highschool. As we talked caught up on life and talked about all sorts of things he brought up something that is dear to him, volunteer work he does with an organization set to help soldiers with PTSD with medicinal cannabis, called Marijuana For Trauma. It’s something I also believe in and think should be more widely accepted to help out our men and women that serve us. I in turn told him about al the accounts of those who have done Jiu-Jitsu helping them deal with PTSD and the different programs I’ve seen out there for teaching soldiers to cope through Jiu-Jitsu. We both agreed, if more people did Jiu-Jitsu and smoked weed there’d be a lot less problems, and a lot more happy people in the world. Seriously though, I believe both medicinal cannabis and Jiu-Jitsu therapy can help cure, or deal with, a lot of problems we are facing today.

It was great to stay with and hang out with Aaron and Danielle, thanks to much for taking care of me, feeding and even giving me drives around town! Also, thanks Greg for the pizza, it was great to catch up with you, too. Until next time guys!    

The Snow Storm..

the snow storm. I tried going for pizza. I make it to the corner store. what you don’t see is the tractor clearing out the intersection of snow 30 feet away from me. The lights were green, but no one could see, luckily no one was driving either.

As I was staying in Fredericton at Aaron and Danielle’s word that a huge snow storm was coming in was going around, and each day was dumping a lot of snow, but intermittently, and it wasn’t quite enough to stop me from training (Thanks Aaron for the rides!), or my bus to Moncton, although we were an hour late. But once I got to Moncton the snow came down hard! I believe it was a total of more than 8 feet of snow that dropped in a period of 24 hours. The entire east coast of Canada was shut down, businesses were closed, and I was trapped in the hostel I was staying in. With the weather as bad as it was I was unable to train at all, in fact this section will cover my stay in Moncton, which is why I grouped it in with Fredericton. Other than a run through the blizzard to the corner store I only made it out once while visiting the town, I walked to the movie theater and watched Lego Batman and John Wick 2, both were great movies and well worth the long walk, but it would have been nice to train as well.  

Chocolate river. It’s level with the top during high tide, right now it just looks like a icy muddy pit.

The hostel I was staying in was pretty nice and cozy, feeling more like a bed and breakfast. It was a big house turned into a hostel, with one co-ed room of 8 bunks. There were 2 guys who were staying long term, paying rent, and an Vietnamese woman, Mary, who was from Vancouver and had a boyfriend who trained BJJ, we talked on Skype once for a few minutes once to see which friends we had in common, showing that the world is indeed a small one. Mary was only staying a short while and was on her way to Vietnam to see her parents, and her flight left just before the blizzard hit us, lucky for her. She had a book, like a diary, but filled with all the places she’d been to, travel brochures and local currency taped to the pages and notes about getting around or ways to save money or sights to see for each place. It was a pretty awesome book to look through. She had been to Tokyo before and we talked about how great it was and what sights we each had seen. It was a fun time of conversing with other hostelers and and backpackers.

The hostel staff having fun with the weather.

Through this conversation I told the guys of my blog and my journey so far and intentions for Europe and Asia. I guess there is a journalist for a local paper that likes to come by and cover stories of the interesting people that stop by at the hostel, one of the guys had told her about me and my journey, she wanted to do an article on me and interview me for the paper. I never heard from her again before I left, I figured the storm put a stop to our intended interview, oh well, it would have been cool but I guess it’ll have to wait for another time. Luckily the roads were cleared in time for my bus to Halifax, and only one destination was ruined.

The snowbank behind me is actually over 7 feet tall. When I got into the town in Moncton it was barely up to me knees. That’s a lot of snow in 3 days!

Synergy BJJ

Back when I was training in Quebec while I was on course for work for a month last year I posted about my experiences training at BJJ Quebec with Prof. Louis Berube. I got some responses on Reddit telling to check out some other BTT clubs in Canada and Synergy BJJ in Fredericton New Brunswick was one of them. Another one was Victory BJJ in Moncton but the snow storm cancelled that visit. I e-mailed the club soon after getting the referral on Reddit and talked to Melyssa about dropping by, which was no problem, and we kept in contact as I planned out the Canadian Odyssey.

The brave few that made it out to class on a snowy night.

The first night I made it out to the club neither Melyssa or Dana, the head instructor, were in for class but I did get to meet a few members of the club, who were all welcoming, during the no gi class. The next night both Dana and Melyssa were there and I was able to introduce myself and thank them for welcoming me. Dana seemed genuinely interested in my blog and journey and had even been reading it before class, unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about it and never found time to set up an interview. The club is in a gym, but it’s not your usual gym, it’s a dynamic conditioning center, or cross fit gym if you will, what ever you call it it was a great training atmosphere. There was a stretch of fake grass for pulling sleds and flipping tires, squat racks and other equipment on either side, with the mat space being in the back corner. Each time I showed up to class there would be music blaring and people working away at all the stations of the gym, they had a good set of dedicated gym rats, but every night, at 8pm I think it was, everyone would suddenly be done working out and leave, with the Jiu-Jitsu club being the only ones left in the gym.

No gi class getting some rolls in.

Classes were welcoming and casual at Synergy, we started with some warm up drills then moved into techniques, adding to a chain of moves as the night went on. I wasn’t able to do everything as I had hurt my elbow when in Quebec, so using my one arm was quite restricted for most my time there, I only rolled one night and quickly regretted it the next day, remembering to let me body rest and heal and take days off is going to be the biggest and hardest thing for me to deal with while on this Odyssey. One the bright side I for the first time ever was able to do a set of berimbolos between a standing partner’s legs, it was during warm up one night, they took to time to get me to learn the proper movements and get them down right. Now you can be thinking “That’s not a big deal” or “Who can’t do berimbolos at 4 strip blue belt?!” or even “Who cares about berimbolos?!” I could go on about not caring for them because it doesn’t fit into my game style or what ever but really I’ve always had problems with them because of my shape, apparently being round makes rolling upside down harder, and so I never really cared for them. I will say though, weather for the use of berimbolos or not, they are great for drilling to really get to learn body movement, and because that class I feel I have a higher sense of my body movement, or lack of in some cases.

Dana Teaching class.

One class Dana decided to put us on Facebook live and gave me a mini interview so I could make a shout out for the blog and the journey, It was a fun ‘Panda Sighting’ to make on the spot, which is what I’ve been calling any pictures or videos of me showing up on other club’s or people’s social media accounts while on the Odyssey. I have the feeling there are going to be a lot more ‘Panda Sightings’ in the future. In fact if you have videos or pictures of me visiting your club let me know, I have a Dropbox folder to collect all the ‘Panda Sightings’ once I get a bunch I’ll see about putting together a photo album on the site.

After having fun hanging out with old friends and making new ones at Synergy BJJ…and then get stuck in a blizzard in Moncton…it was time to Head to Hailifax Nova Scotia and meet up with another old friend of mine Michael McCoag, who I met when I first joined the Canadian Navy and hadn’t seen in 5 yrs.

It’s either an At-St walker and the rebel base on Hoth is being attacked by the Empire, or it’s a wind mill and I’m on my way to the east coast on a snowy day.

Until next time, see you on the mats!

OSSS!!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

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After my incredible week in El Salvador I flew over to Nicaragua to truly start my backpacking experience. No safety net from a pre-paid organized camp where I don’t have to think about anything except enjoy. I had already did some research online about BJJ in Nicaragua and found out that there wasn’t much of it. I do admit that I did not ask anybody in the Globetrotters community for tips on it and I kinda decided that my Nicaragua trip was gonna be mainly touristy. While staying my one night in Managua, not really an interesting city I did see 2 MMA gyms with probably some BJJ but didn’t have time to investigate further.

Met some great people along the way.

Did a photoshoot in a middle of a lake.

So I spent about 2 weeks in Nicaragua, I enjoyed my stay there to the fullest, touristing around and travelling with other backpackers and for my last weekend I had worked my way down south to a town called San Juan del Sur, close to the border of Costa Rica. I planned to stay there only 2 nights.

So now I was already missing BJJ so much that I wanted to head straight into Costa Rica and train. One night while planning there was someone who commented on my status in the Globetrotters Facebook group talking about BJJ in Nicaragua and that there was this guy called Jacked Jitsu on Fb coaching in San Juan. I was leaving the next day and already planned everything from that, checked out his Fb but left it at that.

San Juan del Sur, surfing and party town.

That day I go surfing, saw this guy with a Yin&yang tattoo that looks so familiar. Came back to the hostel looked up Jacked Jitsu and what do you know that was him! Now I’m too curious and I have to stay one more night and check out his training. Shot him a pm and got an open invitation.

So next day I show up there and this super buff guy, the trainer, real name Eric, that greats me and we talk for a bit and I realise that this guy knows his stuff. The training confirmed that, he was one of the best guys I’ve seen! We rolled, he stayed passive until he apparently got bored and submitted me. These two other people join late in the training and are both black belts staying at Eric house and helping him train for the worlds. I roll with the woman, Cindy, Gracie black belt if I understood it correctly. She had such an unique style to her and it was an awesome roll. Showed me her signature sweep that I already started using in my game.

To make this long story short, that surprise training was one of the best ones I’ve done and I’m so happy that I decided to go for it! Really teaches you to grap the opportunities that come your way and don’t be to fixed in what you are doing.

ps. My phone/camera was out of battery and I was without a charger for 2 days. So I completely failed on pictures from that gym.