Kengo Hatanaka is living his dream.
The Pemberton resident has been running —the valley’s first-ever standalone Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) gym—since September. Now, he's back after a winter break with an expanded schedule at his young and growing gym.
Hatanaka started doing BJJ in 2016 under He was just looking for a new hobby for when he wasn't snowboarding, when he fell in love with the ground-grappling sport.
“I love the problem-solving aspect of it," said Hatanaka. "Every time I roll with someone new, they give me a different problem. Every time I find something I have to solve to a way to submit the guy.”
The Vieras trained students in Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton, out of Pemberton's community centre. But since they had to split their time between three locations, classes were only run a couple times a week. That wasn't enough for Hatanaka.
“We were training only two days a week or three days a week," he said. "So I always wanted to do the five days a week ... to have more options for the people.”
Hatanaka saw the opportunity to expand the valley's training times when the Vieras stepped away from coaching for personal reasons. Over the last two years, the coaches gradually stopped showing up to the Pemberton classes.
"The Pemberton group was fading away," remembered Hatanaka. "People were starting to leave."
So, Hatanaka decided to pursue BJJ as a full-time job, opening Tempest JiuJitsu in Mount Currie. Old students from Mountain JJ found a new home, and new students started to sign up. Now, Hatanaka counts 40 students at Tempest.
Hatanaka has enjoyed the transition from student to teacher.
"It improves my understanding of everything I teach as well," he said. "So that's helping me. I love it.”
With kids, he approaches teaching with a different style. Instead of sitting students down and talking through a technique at length, he’ll have them play.
“I want kids to be more engaged in jiu-jitsu,” said Hatanaka. “So we approach this one through a task-based game system.
“I'll give you a job to accomplish. Like, to just hold your opponent down on the mat. That's your only job. Then the bottom player, your job is just get back on feet. Simple and fun."
He sees martial arts as being ascendant in the Sea to Sky. In addition to Pemberton’s first dedicated martial arts space, 麻豆社国产has and , and Whistler hosts a and another .
“If you want to get into martial arts, this is the time,” said Hatanaka. “Just come and train and feel it.”
He doesn't sugar-coat the martial arts journey. Training and competition can be tough. But the community is behind you in recognition that everyone who comes through Tempest JJ's door is looking to improve.
"Sometimes you get beat up, sometimes you lose and it's gonna be hard for you," said the coach. "But it's all about the process. It's all necessary for you to become better, and we're here to help."
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