By Steve Hubrecht
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As COVID-19 restrictions eased over the summer and a semblance of normalcy returned, if briefly, local sports clubs were able to participate in competitions again.
Invermere Jiu Jitsu was one such local club able to get back into competitive action, taking part in the Champions Creed Martial Arts annual tournament in Calgary last month. It was the first time Invermere Ju-Jitsu took part in a tournament in more than 18 months, stretching back to before the pandemic began.
“It was great to be able to take our athletes, who have been training for a while, for them to see how they can do in a competition,” says Invermere Jiu Jitsu coach, Justin Relph.
Jiu-Jitsu is a Brazilian martial art with Japanese roots and, as Relph explained, “a focus on the grappling side of things, especially standing up. It starts standing up, like other martial arts such as karate, but often very quickly the emphasis shifts to wrestling-like grappling on the ground.” The sport is quite different from traditional wrestling, however, as traditional wrestling typically involves trying to control a match from the top, whereas in jiu-jitsu the focus is more on fighting from the bottom, added Relph.
Invermere Jiu Jitsu has been operating for more than a decade, founded by a Columbia Valley resident originally from Costa Rica, and the club operates as a nonprofit society (in contrast to the many jiu-jitsu clubs in Canada that operate as businesses), based out of a gym space located above the Invermere Veterinary Hospital at the crossroads.
The Champions Creed tournament was done in a submission-only round-robin format, giving the Invermere participants — Michael Prete, Chelsea Norman, Wyatt McKay, Mat Loyola and Jasper Mitchell — a chance to square off against four opponents.
Three —Norman, Loyola and Mitchell — earned gold in their categories, and the other two put in “very strong performances,” says Relph.
“It felt great to be back competing, to see all the hard work we’ve put in over the past few months put toward a competition,” Relph told the Pioneer, adding the club will continue to participate in tournaments as long as it is safe to do.
“We’re excited and we’re hopeful, but we do understand that our sport involves close contact, so we are definitely strictly following all provincial guidelines,” says Relph.
The club hopes to participate in a tournament in Edmonton in September, another in Kamloops in November, and, if all goes, well, at the masters’ world championship in Las Vegas in November.
“I’d like our success to remind people in the Columbia Valley that we are an option as a sport that really anyone can try and like many other sport groups in the valley, our program’s quality is much higher than you might expect from a small town. This seems to be a trend in the Columbia Valley and I’d encourage everyone to get out there and participate in whatever sport they are into,” says Relph.
