Jiu-Jitsu: It's new, it's different

BY GIANNI UBRIACO

Although the Sudbury Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club first opened its doors less than two years ago, it has already been successful in training two of its students to become national champions, including 36-year-old Tom Cooney and 18-year-old Erin Niwranski. After just a year and a half in the sport, Cooney recently won two gold medals in the super heavyweight division at a tournament in United States called National Grappler's Quest. The competition was his first as a blue belt and featured more than 1,000 athletes from all over the United States as well as a few from Canada, including 25 competitors in his division alone.

"It was awesome," he proclaims. "It was such a big high. I was hoping to do that well and with the techniques I learned here, I prevailed. It's inspired me and made me addicted to the sport even more."

What he loves most about the grappling-based martial art is that there's a heavy emphasis on ground grappling, as well as self-defence, and using leverage and various techniques to oppose strength and physicality.

"I always want to come to class more and more because I realize the more that I know, the less that I really know," he says. "It gets so in depth. I find it's the optimum sport."

Looking toward the future, he hopes to continue to learn more tricks of the trade and progress as far as he can.

Meanwhile, Niwranski also won two gold medals at a national level tournament back in October in New Jersey City, New Jersey, while competing against a dozen opponents in her division.

So overall, the club's owner and head instructor, Steve Joncas, was very pleased with both results.

"To me it shows we're on the right track, especially in terms of our training," he says. "It means there's growth in the right direction, and hopefully, we'll have more in the future."

Ultimately, Joncas, who also has a background in karate, kick boxing, and muay thai, believes what sets his club apart from any other is the realism in their training since they do live drills and sparring with resisting opponents.

"What that means is you get to test your techniques on a daily basis in a very realistic scenario with someone who's trying to resist every move that you're trying to make," he explains. "On a physical level, that makes our training very realistic and I find, superior, to some other styles that may train only techniques and never really get much resistance in it."

Originally located on Second Ave. at a school called the Canadian Karate Alliance, the club moved this past July to its current location inside the Gym Fitness Centre at 1283 Sparks St. It's now made up of 35 members between the ages of 16 and 40, half of which are competitive, while the rest are there for recreational purposes only.

Joncas wants to build on those numbers going forward, especially in terms of females since Niwranski is just one of a handful of existing female club members.   

"In my opinion, this is the best thing women can do for self-defence because of the realism of the training, especially training with a bunch of guys," he says. "That's because they're very strong and when the women are being held on the ground by guys, then they have to learn how to get out of those situations."

He'd also like to see some of his fighters enter more tournaments since they only attended two major ones last year, along with a few smaller ones in Canada. However, he does point out that's largely due to the fact that the sport is relatively new to North America and that there are only a couple dozen other schools across the country. Even so, he has high hopes for the future of his club.

"I'd like to find a location in the city of our own and I'd like to eventually become the premier facility in the north for training Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts, and hopefully muay thai," he says. "Currently, we have a mixed martial arts program as well, so I'd like to incorporate mixed martial arts and muay thai and have it all under one roof."

He also mentions that they're working on building a strength and conditioning program, but his wish list doesn't end there. Another one of his goals is to build up a roster of fighters for mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu competitions.

For now, Joncas - who attended his first martial arts class two decades ago at the Benoit's Martial Arts club and earned his black belt in his early 20s - has his eyes set on the Arnold Schwarzenegger Fitness Classic Convention. He'd like to send about a dozen of his students to the Ohio event in early March.

For more information, log on to www.sudburybjj.com .