One of Canada’s leading Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners and teachers, Giacomo Zanini was on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, Aug. 21 for a special seminar at Gibsons’ Sadohana Dojo.
Zanini began training in Jiu Jitsu as a teenager in Brazil, originally for self-defence. What he discovered – and what led to a lifelong passion – was confidence.
“Everything I do in my life is a result of Jiu Jitsu,” Zanini said. “Building my craft in Jiu Jitsu helped me to evolve as a man – in what I believe I am and what I believe I came to life to do.
“At the time street fights were common, so I looked to Jiu Jitsu just to defend myself,” he said. “I was also obese, I was 90 kg at 13 years old – I had health problems. After a few years of doing Jiu Jitsu, slowly I started to lose weight and to change my life and get healthier. As a natural process you get more confident.”
Michael Seamark, owner of Sadohana Dojo, said the seminar was “fantastic.”
“Sensei Giacomo’s passion you can see,” Seamark said. “When you ask him a question it brings up a bunch of different things that are cross-roaded with that question. You can’t imitate that, you can’t pretend. When someone is that passionate about Jiu Jitsu, everyone feeds off of it.”
Zanini is a black belt in Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu. He left Brazil at 17 to train under masters Saulo and Xande Ribeiro at the University of Jiu Jitsu in San Diego, Calif.
Zanini made history in the sport in Western Canada by winning the overall provincial level championship six times in a row with over 12 undisputed fights.
In 2015, Zanini was the only black belt in Canada to qualify for the World Jiu Jitsu Championship in Los Angeles. He returned in 2016 and placed among the best Jiu Jitsu practitioners in the world.
“I fought the current national champion for Brazil,” Zanini said. “I had a really good match but I ended up losing, so that put me among the 10 best guys in the world in my division. I feel that although it was a small evolution, there was still some evolution from the first year to the second year. That was exciting.”
For Zanini – and for many students around the world – defence, sport and physical conditioning are just by-products of a greater philosophy encapsulated within Jiu Jitsu.
“The main thing in martial arts is to develop yourself on a daily basis,” Zanini said. “I think our goal in life is to become better in all aspects of our lives. Jiu jitsu is just a vehicle of improvement. It’s an art, it’s self-defence, it’s a fight, it’s a sport – but most definitely it’s a vehicle for you to learn who you are and to be OK with your imperfections and to understand that you are going to be weak in some areas. But you can improve.
“You have to see positivity in things that are not always so positive,” he said. “You have to deal with the things you don’t like about yourself. Deal with the things you don’t like about your life – then you start to be happier overall, because nothing is perfect. Being able to accept who you are and to try to evolve to the best that you can, I think is the most important.”
Zanini now lives in Coquitlam. He trains and teaches at Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu Vancouver (www.ribeirojiujitsu.ca).
Head instructor at Sadohana Dojo, Jason Wilson received his brown belt at the beginning of the seminar. This came as a complete surprise to him.
“It was pretty emotional actually. I had no idea,” Wilson said.
Unlike in other martial arts schools, at Sadohana Dojo they don’t conduct a structured test for belt advancement. Instead, “the test is every day,” Seamark explained.
“In a lot of developed schools, to run a generic sort of test that day is more of a demonstration,” Seamark said. “Whereas, when you’re working every day on the mat, that’s the true test. What you bring to the school every day, how you’re developing, what benchmarks did [Wilson] make from this belt to his last belt? It’s really all about his journey as well as the school’s journey, more than just some sort of ‘here’s the bar.’”
“It’s more than just training – it’s a lifestyle,” Wilson added. “With your training you go through plateaus, but that translates into life. When you get past these plateaus, you become a better person.”
Two years of training was enough to have Zanini committed to this martial lifestyle.
“I decided to do Jiu Jitsu for the rest of my life when I was 15 years old,” Zanini said. “That day I was able to medal, I got a bronze at the World Jiu Jitsu Championship juniors. At that point I realized – the medal made me see – that there was no talent involved. It was all about hard work and positive reinforcement. That opened up my mind for life. I wanted to share that with people, those benefits that I saw through Jiu Jitsu.”
Sadohana Dojo offers a mixture of Brazilian and Japanese Jiu Jitsu as well as shiatsu massage. After all, “Jiu Jitsu is Jiu Jitsu,” Wilson said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Brazilian or Japanese.”
Learn more at www.sadohana.com
