CANADA REPORT - Continued #2

On arrival in Ottawa Dave was supposed to train and was initially disappointed to find that the session had to be cancelled. Kyoshi had made a commitment elsewhere, in fact to attend his God-daughter Miva's 4th birthday party. So Dave was invited along as well to enjoy the hospitality of the local population and to accompany Kyoshi and his wife Christine who is also a noted black belt.

But this was no ordinary 4th birthday party.

The Therien dojo is like a big family with several hundred students at each.
It was one of Kyoshi's senior black belt instructors who chose Kyoshi as godfather. This again shows the enormous respect and special relationship Kyoshi has with his students. Moreover, Aline (the mother of the birthday girl) was also a past student and black belt in the art of Goshindo, founded by Alain Sailly who Dave had previously brought to New Zealand to run seminars in Rotorua. Dave had trained with Aline in France and Canada previously so it was a pleasant surprise.

Also at the party were other instructors of the Therien dojo both from Kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu and a sizeable presence from the royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Ottawa Swatt team. Being a capital city there is clearly a high level of security required and much of this expertise comes from Kyoshi John Therien and his team of instructors.

There was also a Cuban connection as Aline (Goshindo student) has an immigrant Cuban as partner, who has also taken up martial arts at the dojo along with members of the family from Cuba. Needless to say there was a mix of French, Spanish and English spoken and the food was also internationally representative including a specially roasted Cuban pig, and many smoking fine Cuban cigars. It wasn't martial arts training, but it was very interesting mixing and talking with such a wide range of top level martial artists on my first afternoon in Ottawa.

And they all want to come to New Zealand!

Despite the change in plans, the dojo training did come, and it all happened during a heat wave in Ottawa where temperatures stayed up in the mid 30 degree range - topping out at 37 Celsius. Different from a Kiwi winter.

Next Report: in the Therien Dojo. Visit this page in a week or so to hear about the Dojo.

Canada - Phase 1

1st stop is Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Dave was last there in 1994 at the World Kobudo Convention and in 1992, 5 hrs down the road in Toronto at the Jiu-Jitsu International Convention.

It was a 13 hour flight from Auckland to Vancouver, then a 5 hour flight to Ottawa, so he was pleased to be able to walk upright again on arrival. But why choose Ottawa if there is no martial arts convention on at this time? because the person who organised the 1992 and 1994 convention is Kyoshi John Therien who is the head of the World Kobudo Federation. Kyoshi Therien is an 8th Dan in Jiu-Jitsu and has many times been nominated as Canada's #1 martial arts instructor. Kyoshin has a number of dojos in Ontario and Quebec provinces. Another claim to fame of Kyoshi John Therien is his involvement in kickboxing at the highest level. Kyoshi was responsible for training, promoting and developing the 14 times world champion middleweight kick boxer Jean Eyves Theriot, who was known in the ring as the "Iceman". Although now retired from professional kickboxing, the Iceman continues to train and teach at the Therien Dojos, bringing through a new wave of highly skilled fighters from the Therien stable. It is a further tribute to Kyoshi Therien that a world champion martial artist would take coaching and guidance from the same man throughout his professional career and long after in his retirement.

On arrival in Ottawa, Dave had arranged a training session with Yoshi Therien. this was to be the subject of Kyusho - Jutsu, - pressure-point and nerve centre theory. Dave has studied this before and is aware of a large number of nerve centres and pressure points on the human body, but Kyoshi Therien is somewhat of an expert in this area and Dave knows it well. At a World Kobudo Federation convention in Charleville Mezzieres in France in the late 1990's, Kyoshi Teruien invited Dave to be his demonstration partner so he could teach the theory to the thousands gathered. Following the demonstration, Dave was unable to climb the stairs of his hotel for 2 days, and in this town the hotels are old with no elevators. It was this positive and enlightening experience that encouraged the current visit to Ottawa to experience more of the Kyoshi Therien magic. (In a city full of hotels with elevators.)

Dave has now arrived in Canada and is currently training under Kyoshi Therien's positive influence.

We will have a regular report from Dave on the outcome over the next few days, and the rest of the Martial Arts Extravaganza over the next two weeks.

Come back to this blog, you can add your own comments and check this page to find the results of his trip.