(20 Questions)
1. (Brief Bio)
a. Where are you from?
Labrador city, NL
b. When not doing BJJ, what do you do?
I work for an iron ore mine, IOC. I am an instrumentation tech/ electrician. I'm really into carpentry, built my own off grid cabin on a lake in the woods. That's where my wife and I spend most weekends.
2. When and why did you start training in BJJ?
I started Karate as a kid, and ended up getting a black belt at 16, then switched to Tae Kwan Do and got to a blue belt before going to university in St. John's, NL.
My father and I used to watch the first UFC's so I was familiar with BJJ. Actually, when I first saw Royce Gracie beat all these world champion stand up fighters, I was devastated. I started questioning the effectiveness of all the stand up martial arts alone without any ground game. I had a huge interest in it back then but growing up in a small town I never had access to anything like BJJ.
After 2 years of university, I saw a poster for BJJ classes and I was super pumped about it so I showed up. So, I believe it was September 2004 I started.
3. Do you train in any other martial arts?
Karate (Black belt)
Tae Kwan Do (Blue Belt)
4. When did you receive your black belt and can you describe how you felt when you received it? Did you face any hurdles or setbacks?
I only just received my Black Belt in November 2022.
I received my Blue Belt in 2006 but In 2007 I finished school and got a job back home in Labrador City. Of course there wasn't any BJJ in my town so I had to start up my own gym.
I was a blue belt and just started my little academy and I never paid affiliation fees so I went 6 years as a blue belt. Just training and not travelling or even getting anyone up for seminars who could promote me.
I had to go to St. John's, NL for a few weeks for training for work, and I ended up getting promoted to purple belt by Wagnney Fabiano and Leo Santos. Then we had the discussion about the affiliation going forward.
2 years Later I went back to St. John's for a seminar with Wendell Alexander from Brazil and I was promoted to Brown Belt.
The way everything worked out with the timing of seminars and training camps, it was 4 years and then I spoke with Wagnney Fabiano (My head Professor) and he said 'this is your year, stay sharp" and then a month later COVID 19 came on the scene and I went another 3 years without seeing any of the guys who would promote me.
November of 2022, Leo santos came to Canada to do seminars with all the affiliations so He was here for a few days and promoted me!
Because I was told a few years earlier that "this is your year", I knew that I was probably going to be promoted but I was definitely super happy when it finally did happen.
5. Belt lineage?
Mitsuyo Maeda > Luiz França > Oswaldo Fadda > Sebastião Ricardo > Wendell Alexander / Andre Pederneiras > Wagnney Fabiano / Leo Santos > Kyle Pawlett
6. Where do you train now? Other past locations?
Work out World has been Lab City BJJ's home since the beginning.
It's the local gym here.
7. Competition history? Are still you still competing?
- Abu Dhabi Pro, Montreal, 2012??
- Abaya in Nova Scotia 2016?
- IBJJF Pans, Irvine, California 2017
- IBJJF World Masters, 2018
Haven't competed since then.
8. Do you teach/coach and what does a good teacher mean to you?
I am the head coach at our academy.
A good teacher has patience, most importantly. Students don't learn at the same pace so you definitely have to be patient.
9. Preference GI or NO GI? Why?
Gi has been my preference since I can remember.
Always put more emphasis on gi training simply because that's the competitions I used to
go to most.
10. How often do you train now versus when you began your BJJ journeyÉ
I actually train more the past 5 years than I did in the beginning.
3-4 days a week. I was only training 2 days a week when I started.
11. Advice you would give to your white belt self from yourself now?
Compete more for sure.
12. Advice to anyone contemplating joining a BJJ club?
Just show up. It's the hardest part.
13. Advice to anyone feeling like they are not progressing in their training or become fixated on belts?
You'll go through that feeling of not living up to your belt colour with every belt.
That feeling always passes!
14. Your top go to submissions?
Definitely bow and arrow and arm bar
15. Your game/guard? Any advice to someone in early stages looking for their style/game?
For 2/3rds of my career I was a butterfly guard player, and pressure passer.
Now I have expanded to a lot more DLR kind of stuff, but I'm always looking for the sweep as opposed to subs from the bottom. I'm still a pressure passer.
Your game probably will change s from time to time and that's a good thing, but if your "game" don't change much, make sure its always evolving, ya know?
16. How do you feel about the evolution of leg locks?
I think its great for the people who makes that a part of their game. I don't use them as much as I could be I guess. there's so much info out there and I find it a bit overwhelming to be honest. So I just keep it simple.
17. Who to you is the Greatest of all time BJJ athlete/competitor? If not the same, current fav competitor/practitioner)
My fav athlete was always Marcelo Garcia, that's who I based my game off of. But the Later years, It has been the Mendes Brothers. Their way of training has always been sport BJJ, and that's where I focus most of my classes.
18. Why do you feel BJJ is so addictive?
It's definitely the competitiveness of it. That's why a small percentage of people stick with it. Most people can't handle not being good at something for such a long time lol.
19. What has BJJ taught you or done for you personally/development outside of the gym?
I feel as if I incorporate BJJ into most aspects of my life, either directly or indirectly. It's who I am.
20. What keeps you motivated to train once you achieve that milestone of black belt in BJJ and do you foresee an age you feel it will be time to retire?
I religiously watch the big tournaments every year, ADCC, Worlds, Pans, Europeans etc, and my social media feed is full of BJJ videos. So after watching any BJJ video, there is nothing I want to do more.
The older I get, the more I realize how easy it is to become sedentary, so as long as I'm healthy enough to train, I'm going to train.
