Sparring in Vancouver, BC, Canada

**Roidie McDouchebag** · Posted On: 3/27/2008 4:19pm

That is a legit school. I've seen their guys fight. The head instructor refs a lot of (MMA and other) events in the area.

EDIT: Whoops, looks like he moved awhile ago! I can't attest to anything going on there now, but it WAS a legit school at one point. Pshemek Drabczynski is the guy I'm talking about, he reffed one of my grappling matches, once upon a time.

**derrickv** · Posted On: 3/27/2008 4:52pm

Wow you're old cracky lol

**Hemant** · Posted On: 3/27/2008 5:52pm

Derrick: I just fired off an email to the place asking if we could crash their open mat and if not, how much a rental would cost later in the day. We'll see what the guy says.

Cracky: Apparently, Pshemek Drabczynski's top student, Goldie Kalsi, now runs the place. Don't know much about him but I agree with ShiroNinja that the whole belts in MMA system sounds a little hokey. If some guy were to say "I have a BB in taekwondo, or karate, or judo," okay, it is what it is. But if a guy were to tell me "I have a BB in MMA," well, to me that would sort of smell...

But I digress, I'm not looking to train there full-time anyway. Let's get this Vancouver throwdown going dudes! It's been like, what, a month?

**Hemant** · Posted On: 3/27/2008 8:15pm

That guy Goldie Kalsi emailed me back. He didn't even address the question about crashing his open mat. He said we could rent out the dojo but that we had to call him to discuss fees/details.

Derrick: would you have a free moment to call this guy? Goldie Kalsi (604) 341-0011.

I still don't know if this weekend is good for everyone. Maybe Saturday afternoon/early evening or Sunday anytime (as the dojo doesn't have anything going on then)?

We should confirm number of people free to attend and the best time before we contact the guy to make arrangements. This seems promising though, a place for grapplers and strikers alike!

**Roidie McDouchebag** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 12:09am

Cracky: Apparently, Pshemek Drabczynski's top student, Goldie Kalsi, now runs the place. Don't know much about him but I agree with ShiroNinja that the whole belts in MMA system sounds a little hokey. If some guy were to say "I have a BB in taekwondo, or karate, or judo," okay, it is what it is. But if a guy were to tell me "I have a BB in MMA," well, to me that would sort of smell...

To me as well, but they have to make money somehow.

Also, I can't make it on Saturday.

**shironinja** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 8:38am

By the way if... anyone is looking for good places to train there are more decent BJJ / MMA places in the greater mainland than you can shake a stick at.

Some of my favorite peoples include:

http://www.universalmma.com/ (Soares / Kang ... cream of the crop right here)
http://www.clubdojo.com/ (John K is a great trainer)
http://www.cocoonathletics.com/ (Shears rippin' it up)
http://www.infighting.ca/ (Richie Yip is the ****)
http://www.realitymartialarts.ca/ (Ilya Goldman is crazy good)

**shironinja** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 9:07am

Hey... hey! I just realized something too on a related Columbia Martial Arts thing that they don't mention on their website.

Marcus Soares rents out the mat there and teaches 2-hour classes some days.

Schedule is at:

http://www.marcussoares.com/contact/index.htm

**Neildo** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 12:19pm

Shiro - you heard anything about this place:

http://www.bjjvancouver.com/

I live close and want to check it out but they're always closed when i get there.

**shironinja** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 12:44pm

Adam Ryan (formerly Tarsey)'s classes I've never tried 'cause that's far from me (I used to live downtown but now in Burnaby).

However he has ALL the right skills.

You should definitely check that place out. Adam is a BJJ black belt from Soares and a few fights under his belt.

Adam's fight record on Sherdog:

http://sherdog.com/fightfinder/fight...FighterID=4491

**Hemant** · Posted On: 3/28/2008 1:19pm

ShiroNinja: Good links. I've seen some of those places' websites before too. I was looking at the Columbia place as more of a throwdown location for occasional fun rather than a regular place to train. I'm in Burnaby too and in the long run I definitely will need to find a place to train straight BJJ with a gi (and maybe some no-gi) under a real BJJ instructor. I will be getting my stuff shipped out in May, though, so it'll have to wait till then.

I was interested in these places close to Burnaby/East Van:

http://www.jiujitsulife.com/location.htm#burnaby
or the Marcus Soares class at Columbia you mentioned
or, if BJJ proves prohibitively expensive, this place: http://www.burnabyjudoclub.ca/home.html

I looked at Tim Shear's place in East Van but it's like $139 per month. My upper limit is going to have to be $100...