LAC LA BICHE - Three nights a week, local Jiu-Jitsu athletes bring their skills to the mat at the Bold Centre.
Mo Kabalan, who trains out of Kabz Martial Arts, instructs practitioners in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Members of the club wearing blue and white uniforms can be found rolling around on mats practicing grappling fighting techniques.
“It is a competitive self-defence art,” Kabalan says of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. “It increases confidence and athleticism.”
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is primarily a ground-based martial art that places emphasis on grappling and subduing an opponent. According to Kabalan, there are no striking techniques of any kind such as punching and kicking. Instead, practitioners rely on technique and strategy to submit their opponents.
“In a typical class we warm up and stretch, learn and practice a technique whether it be a submission or defensive guard or pass,” he explained. “Then we practice those techniques in real time motion.”
Some members of the club have competed in international events, mostly in Europe and the United States.
Like most martial arts systems, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu includes rank levels, with two years of training required to move up a rank in the five belt colours. Beginners start out with a white belt and work their way up the ladder all the way to black.
Kabalan said due to limited space and available times, the club is currently only running an adult class.
“We did have a very successful kids program running the last six years and currently have a long wait for kids’ classes,” he said.
Adult classes run three times a week. For more information about the club, please contact Ahmad Kabalan at [email protected]
