Local jiu-jitsu athletes continue to put Bella Coola on the map.
Recently seven members of Bella Coola Martial Arts competed at BCIT in Burnaby in October.
Devon Girard, who runs the dojo, said members of the team included Carlos Edgar, Jacob Vaa, Vlad Mattefy, Markus Hembruff, Eli Hall, Devlin Leblanc and himself.
“Markus, Eli, Devlin and Vlad are all 15 years old,” he said. “Vlad and Markus competed in the adult division.”
Girard and Edgar competed in March and since then there has been a growing interest from others wanting to compete, which Gerard said gave the training a greater context.
“They related to the idea of a competition and I guess I’m looking at it with fresh eyes too. I was never a huge competitor, but it is pretty fun to go with a group and I would say it focuses our training.”
Accompanying the athletes were some parents and they all stayed together while in the Lower Mainland.
Edgar, who has been training for two years, loved the experience of going with a bigger team and expressed gratitude to the team parent who rented a place for them to all be together.
“It was awesome to go as a team. It was really cool,” he said.
Comparing his performance to last time he competed, he said he felt he had a “little bit of an edge” at his level.
“I’m still new but I had experience to share with the other guys. I knew what to expect when I was going back and wasn’t surprised by the ferocity of my opponents this time. I was expecting it.”
Everyone attending the competition learned about what needs to be worked on, Girard said.
“We did pretty well, but I need to warm up better, which is one thing I took away. I had a good first match and did not recover properly from my second match, but the third and fourth match went really well.”
More broadly, the game the younger athletes have been working on needs to deepen, which is natural and no surprise, he added.
On Friday, Oct. 13, they had a watch party at the dojo to view videos of the matches taken during the competition.
Girard said they train three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - and as he eyes the future he thinks they could probably go to competitions twice a year.
“My two oldest students did not compete this time, but they train on their own every time they go to a city. They are advancing in their game over the long term. They have been planting a seed of an idea for us to host a summer training camp.”
Participants would maybe go fishing in the morning and train in the afternoon, he suggested.
Intrigued with the suggestion, Girard said he has heard of other retreats.
While at the recent competition, Girard met up with his coach and some of the others he trained with when he lived in the Lower Mainland.
“Three of us from the old crew have our own little clubs going. It’s a nice story for our coach Adam Ryan,” Girard said.
Aside from competing, a highlight for Edgar was going to Girard’s old gym.
“There were nine black belts who all run their own gyms who came together for Devon because he is kind of like the stray-away who moved into the middle of nowhere. Now Devon is competing again and they were all congratulating him.”
Describing Girard as leading a secluded lifestyle and eating mostly food he grows, Edgar said he is a “humble guy,” who is also a “master” of the sport.
“He was supposed to get his black belt years ago. Once he took me out to compete I think his old team became aware he was active again and set up this whole thing to promote him to black belt.”
When one of the black belts asked him how he was doing, Girard pointed to his team from Bella Coola and responded that he was staying in shape because he had a lot of new guys to keep him shape, which Edgar said he thought was a pretty cool comment.
Girard said there is a “real positivity” in the jiu-jitsu community.
“We are not hitting each other in the face. The vibe is good and people try hard. They will even try and growl at each other to bring forward their own serious energy and focus themselves, but as soon as the match is over, it’s all high-fives and ‘good jobs’, and I think that is what keeps people involved for the long-term.”
For his part, he tries to instill a sense of pride in the athletes by talking about bullying and respect and them being ambassadors of the club and the art.
Seeing the club blossom and grow has been a boost, he added.
“The competitions are a bit of a surprise to me that they have such a galvanizing affect on the guys, but I guess I shouldn’t be. There is something valuable in it.”
READ MORE: Bella Coola jiu-jitsu competitors strike gold at Vancouver competition
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