New Home School: Wakizashi JiuJitsu
Working as a government contractor has been pretty awesome. It has allowed me to travel across the country and add some twenty plus JiuJitsu schools visited to my list. It can be a cut-throat industry though, which I knew going into it, but had to experience before it really sunk in for me. The traveling contracting gig came to an abrupt end when I was casually told that too many contractors had been hired, and I wouldn't be able to be put on the schedule for two months. I was broken-hearted when I found out because it meant that my all expense paid traveling and training was over.Fortunately though I was able to jump onto another contract, with this one being a fixed location and more permanent position. It did mean relocating all the way across the country from North Carolina to Oak Harbor, WA. Ya'll know me, so of course the first thing I did when I got off the phone with the recruiter was Google "JiuJitsu in Oak Harbor." I was a little nervous about the relocation because the search didn't produce a lot of results. Paying bills sadly takes priority over JiuJitsu, so I hoped for the best and hopped in my car to make the very long drive out to Washington. Just for the record, that drive broke me off and I'd rather buy a new car after moving than over do that again.
On my way up to Oak Harbor, I stopped and visited one of my teammates from Cornerstone that was visiting family back home in Kent, WA. I pulled off the interstate just in time to meet Craig at Foster Brazilian JiuJistu and got to meet the one and only James Foster! I was welcomed in with open arms by the team there and got my butt repetitively kicked during the competition class. After 4 days of sitting in a car and eating snack food, Craig invited me to a family cookout for some burgers and beers. It can be tough to relocated to a new place and not know anyone. Craig's family treated me like I was a lifetime friend and it was just a really great time hanging out with them. Just know that if you've ever fed me. I consider myself to owe you a life debt and would drop whatever I am currently doing to drive across two states and help you with whatever it may be 😂
Any concerns I had about finding a good JiuJitsu place were quickly dispelled after my first class at Wakazashi. After a week of training twice a day with them, I am now ecstatic about being here and being apart of their team. I wanted to highlight some of the things about the school and their program that I am excited about:
The Program:
Different people learn things in different ways. Over the years I've worked to figure out how I learn best in order to make the most out of my training. Professor Eli here teaches in a way that really meshes with my learning style. Every week he will pick a particular area of JiuJitsu to focus on (For example this week we were covering attacking and defending from the turtle position). Then every day cover techniques related to that area, adding new techniques every day. The end of the week is then a review day, where students revisit and continue to practice the techniques that were learned. I personally find that this reinforces the material covered and increases the likely-hood of it being later remembered and implemented.
The Team:Wakizashi is a younger, growing school that reminds me a lot of beginning at Cornerstone years ago. It is made up of a bunch of students that are hungry for training and eager to learn. All the right ingredients that you hope to find at a school. I have yet to catch an easy roll here and have been nothing but impressed by everyone from the white belts on up.
The Training:
From my private lessons with Chad Hardy the biggest thing he told me that I need to work on is my no gi game. No gi isn't my favorite pick, I just love rolling in a gi so much, and I have regrettably allowed my no gi training to be stunted as a consequence of avoiding it. After that conversation, I was determined to add no gi training back into my schedule and was thrilled to find out that no gi classes are offered 4 times a week here.
In addition to the extra no gi, I'm a fan of how the classes themselves are run. The warm-ups are tough with things like partner carries, two minute positional drills. All the kind of things I personally like to see in a warm-up that increase technical ability while pushing the limits of cardio. Combine that with a great technical program and tough rolls and I am a very happy camper.
The Area:
I have to share just a couple pictures of the local area. It's just absolutely beautiful and every-time that I take a drive I feel like I'm traveling in a postcard. I do enjoy the beaches, but my soul has always been the happiest in the mountains and I've just loved being able to venture out in the local state parks.
Conclusion:
After 6 months of traveling and visiting school after school. I'm actually looking forward to the next year where I can settle down into a great program and get into a good routine. I'll still be occasionally taking a weekend to venture out and train at a new place just to get my travel fix, but I'm happy to share that was able to find a great place that I continue to develop and be pushed at.
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