Members of Judo Yukon recently attended a camp in Abbotsford, B.C. with Olympic bronze medalists in attendance.

The camp took place Oct. 2-3. It featured Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalists Catherine Beauchamin-Pinard (-63kg 2021 Olympic bronze medalist) and Jessica Klimkait (2021 -57kg world champion and 2021 Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo).

Aaron Jensen is a director for Judo Yukon, head instructor for Shiroumakai Judo Club, and a high-performance coach for Judo Yukon. He explains how this trip came about.

“That was the huge draw in my mind, was the fact that the two women that won bronze medals at the Tokyo Olympics for Canada were gonna be in attendance. It was a last-minute decision to try and take a team to it … I was in Burnaby for a coaching course two weeks prior to that and found out about the camp and it’s like ‘oh, man, we want to come to this if we can.’ Obviously COVID was an issue, but Judo B.C, following Judo Canada and Sport B.C., they have all their protocols in place, so that was one of the first issues we had, that everybody had to be doubly vaccinated to be part of the camp.”

Fortunately, funding for the trip was available.

“Judo Yukon had funds from last year because we are a sport governing body and with the (Yukon) Department of Community Services, the sport and rec branch, so every year we do funding through that source. And because of last year’s COVID shutdown, we had money still that we didn’t spend so it was kind of an easy – athlete development was a huge category of funding that we had, so it fit, to get these kids out and onto the mats for the first time in two years.

“And that’s part of the development for the Canada Winter Games team for 2023. So the group that I took are all youth that have participated in judo prior to COVID, and they hit the right demographics for the age to go to Canada Games 2023, so that’s part of the incentive there as well, to develop a team for that event.”

Most of the Judo Yukon kids that attended the camp were in the 13 to 14 age range.

Jensen says the trip went really well.

“It went excellent, actually. It was without a hitch … we went down Friday, back Sunday night, so two nights in a hotel, lots of good judo training, really good eye-opener for these young athletes, most of which haven’t been out to a camp of that size or of that caliber of coaching before, just to get their eyes literally opened up to how training goes outside of the Yukon in a competitive scene. There was the competitive team from Alberta – again, everybody’s in a regrowth stage, they call it, because of the COVID. Alberta had a team from Lethbridge … and of course B.C has a pretty good judo community.

“Jessica’s from Ontario, Catherine Beauchamin-Pinard is from Quebec. Having them there was a huge draw. A lot of people tend to already forget that Jessica won the world championships three months prior to the Olympics, so not only is she an Olympic bronze medalist, she’s the current world champ in that senior women’s minus 57 kilo category. Not an easy thing. Only the second time Canada’s had a world champion.”

The guest instructors captured the attention of the rather large group of students.

“They were like any other judoka,” said Jensen. “Obviously serious about what they do. It took a little while, everybody’s obviously a little star-struck. There was a lot of people there, so there wasn’t a lot of time just for idle chit- chat. But they both took turns leading classes.

“It was a big enough camp – there was 180 people registered I believe, so they split them into age groups. So luckily, I guess, our group is all in the U16, and then there was another second group that was in U18’s and seniors. So we did miss a bit of stuff, because I think they kind of mix it up between group one and group two, but because our group was all group one …we were all on the mats, and again, it was full. They had to do that because of the numbers. For safety, and COVID I guess.”

According to Jensen, the kids enjoyed the trip.

“When we got back to the club, I asked them each to say a little bit before we started the next class, and the general consensus is that they were mostly – they found it fun practicing with people of higher belts … so that was a big aspect, just getting out. But they’re the big fish in our little pond, and then they go out to something like that, and realize ‘wow, there’s brown and black belts my age.’ It’s kind of an eye-opener, again.

“Just to see those Olympians themselves, in my mind, motivational, just to show – the one gal’s (Klimkait) only 22 years old. She’s been focused since she was 14, 15. That was her dream, that was her goal – to get to the Olympics.”

Jensen said another trip is on the agenda. The next event is the Steveston Shiai Invitational, in Richmond B.C. on Nov. 27.

“It’s on the schedule, COVID has everyone questioning whether things will either go or not, so we don’t know how big an event it will be. It’s typically just a regional B.C. event. But because of Alberta’s shutdown, it might end up being a little bigger than it normally would be, if it even happens.

“After that, B.C will again – plan to do a winter camp between Christmas and New Year’s. We’re basically looking at Judo B.C’s calendar events to try to tag whatever they’re going to promote. We’re gonna try and go with that.”

Jensen is running his club out of the Judo Yukon regional training centre located at 123 Copper road.

“It’s a new facility that I kind of renovated over the last winter and summer, over COVID, when we were shut down. Judo took a big hit, as most sports did, but because we were working out of the school user group, facility bookings with the City of Whitehorse and the government and schools, we were shut right out for over a year. We weren’t allowed into the schools because of the COVID fear, I guess.”

Judo mats and a place for their storage is a prerequisite for holding judo classes. The new training centre, which opened up after Labour Day in September, takes care of that problem.

According to Jensen, the new regional training centre will be busy.

“We’re running beginner’s classes, judo’s Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then my competitive group, and then an adult – what I call ‘Judo for Life’, recreational group.

“Monday’s and Wednesdays I have a Brazilian jiujitsu instructor running classes. Elite jiujitsu. And then we do plan on doing competitive classes on Saturdays and more different classes on Sundays for the older group rating kata for black belt exams that are … kind of postponed because of COVID, so we want to get back into the swing of things there.”

Tuesdays and Thursdays, the beginner’s class starts at 5:15 p.m., followed by the competitive group at 6:45, and the final class, the adult group, starts at 8:00 and ends at about 9:45.

More info on the Shiroumakai Judo Club can be found at http://judoyukon.ca/clubs/shiroumakai-judo-club