A
talk with Kyoshi John Therien, August 2005:
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Side
note: Make
sure you check out all the free stuff inside
'The
Martial Arts Vault' when
you're finished having a look
at this interview!
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"Kyoshi Therien, first of all thank you for your time! For those who don't know you, could you tell us a little about your background?" |
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"I'm an 8th dan in jiu-jitsu from Ottawa, Canada; owner and chief instructor of Therien Jiu-Jitsu & Kickboxing Dojos established in 1968. You can find more information at www.jiu-jitsu.com." |
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"Could you tell us what the Kyoshi title indicates?" |
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"The
title indicates being an instructor to the masters." |
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"At what age did you start doing the martial arts, and what brought
you into it in the first place?" |
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"At age of 13. Some of my friends were in karate but after reading a simple book on Jiu-Jitsu by Bruce Tegner I was so fascinated by that art that I started to train. Including the teacher we were less then 10 people in Ottawa training in Jiu-Jitsu at that time." |
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"Ah
yes. Tegner is not so well known
over here i Europe, but he was
a familiar figure in Canada
and USA. Guess a lot of people
started out because of the likes
of Tegner and Kiyose Nakae."
"Who was your teacher
back then, and what did inspire you early on in your
training?"
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"My instructor was Georges Sylvain, a policeman in Ottawa. What inspired me the most was the effectiveness and how complete jiu-jitsu was. I lived in a poor and tough part of town where fighting was part of everyday life, and jiu-jistu looked like a good thing to learn to better your chances of survival in a street fight." |
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"Can you remember what fascinated you about the arts when you started out, and what it is that motivates you today?" |
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"At first it was the physical, kick ass side of it. Then it moved to a way of life for me. Training was a great high but mentally it filled a void in my life. Today I am more motivated by the way of life by how good this young generation is and will be. Imagine the martial artists in 25 years from now, wow!" |
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"Has the way we train and teach changed over the years in your opinion?" |
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"Tremendously... The biggest change was the cross training like World Kobudo brought to the arts. In my school we have learned from many different styles and incorporated it in our system. What was taught 30+ years ago is still good but far from being complete. Today you must have knowledge in stand up jiu-jitsu and grappling along with ground defence. A knowledge of weapons is also a must to have a good system. Can you imagine still to this day some systems don't teach kicking and very limited punching skills?" |
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"At one time you used to be a kickboxing promoter and manager to the
legendary Jean-Yves Theriault (23 times full-contact World Champion). Could
you tell us about how that came to be, and why you eventually stopped?" |
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"Jean-Yves Theriault was one of my jiu-jitsu student and still is along with being one of my
best friend friends. In those days we did a lot of fighting in open karate tournaments. The tournaments eventually went to full contact and we just followed the trend. Jean-Yves was the one that got the most success. I had other students who were rank #1 to #10 in the world in their own weight class."
"I stopped promoting kickboxing during the last years of Jean-Yves' career because he was in demand to fight all over the world. The reason I had started to promote was to create a fighting opportunity for my best students. You can only get better in this sport if you compete. When the sport got in full swing I didn't need to promote anymore. Jean-Yves and I have re-started to promote amateur kickboxing over the last 2 years in order to help our young fighters to progress. We have several good prospects so let's see where it will take them."
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"Personally
I think it is truly inspirational
to see a guy with his status
and track-record, enter
a 'beginners mind' and participate
in grappling session along
with other students!"
"Kyoshi,
today you are in charge of Therien Jiu-Jitsu and Kickboxing in Ottawa,
Canada. How is it to operate a professional chain of schools, and what are
your goals?"
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"It is very difficult to operate a chain of schools. I never set out to open a chain of schools for business but rather for martial arts. Some of my students wanted to start a profession as a teacher and a school owner so I helped them achieve their goals. Although you need to be business-minded and extremely well organized you must never dilute the quality of the martial arts you teach and practice. The daily operations demands a lot of attention and expertise. The Therien Schools have consolidated their 37 years of experience and fine tuned a system of operations that helps everyone to function everyday in a positive and successful way."
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"What would you say represents or
describes the jiu-jitsu and the kickboxing at your schools?"
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"We are a stand up jiu-jitsu system complete in every aspect of jiu-jitsu from ground defense to weapons to pressure points to police tactics to fighting."
"Kickboxing is lead by Jean-Yves Theriault, the best there ever was in the ring, and now the best trainer I know. Our kickboxing classes offers you from a great cardio workout without sparring to fighting if you desire to do so. In the last couple of years some of our kickboxers have competed in Canada, USA, Switzerland, Ireland and Kenya."
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"Approximately how many students are training at your schools, and how many students have you trained to the level of blackbelt through
the years?"
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"We have graduated over 1000 students to 1st degree black belt and 4 to the rank of 6th degree black belt since 1968.
We have 6 professional schools in our area ranging from 250 students to 700 active students for an approximate active membership of close to 3000 plus several other non professional schools that you would call clubs in Europe with another total of approximately 500 to 1000 members. "
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"Those
are some impressive numbers
right there!"
"You have students that
have been with you for many years. Which one of the many
teachers that you have, have been with you for the longest time?"
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"Shihan Norm Beauchamp, Shihan Randy Cooligan, Shihan Bernard Ladouceur, Renshi Brian Lacroix and of course Jean-Yves Theriault. They range from close to 20 years all the way up to 35 years."
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"What are you looking for in a potential teacher?" |
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"Someone who knows the techniques well and can communicate with the students. I hate when I see instructors teaching to make themselves look good. As a teacher you have to focus on how good your students are not how good you are. They must also be loyal to their senior instructors, teach within the curriculum and train regularly." |
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"Indeed,
there are a teachers
who likes to show off -
forgetting why they are
put there in the first
place."
"What is, in your opinin
kyoshi, the greatest benefits to anyone doing martial arts in general or jiu-jitsu or kickboxing in particular?"
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"Health/fitness, mental awareness, a positive way of life, self confidence, self esteem."
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"I understand you have made a series of DVD's quite recently? Could you tell us a little about those and how they are doing? Also what will a
viewer find there, and where can they be found?"
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"The DVD were done professionally and mostly supervised by one of instructors, Sensei Hana Abaza. Most of all our senior instructors participated in the video. They are one of the best martial arts instructional video ever produced. In the DVD you will see requirements from white belt to brown belt in our jiu-jitsu style. They can be found on our web site jiu-jitsu.com. The sales of the videos are doing quite well but most of all it is helping all of our instructors to be on the same page as far as teaching requirements are concerned and it helps our students to review and learn our system."
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"You are doing a lot of international seminars. Is it anything that you find separates the students in say Europe to North-America and Canada?"
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"Most Europeans have a big desire to train and to learn. They can train for hours on basics and they do get better. On a constructive criticism observation they should add new things to their curriculum if they feel it is needed; never be afraid of progress."
"America has many great martial artists, but the trend in the last 10 years or so has many instructors going more for the flashy stuff and have watered down a lot of their system for a quick fix to stardom or for business profit."
"Canada is somewhere in the middle. One of our problems, is that over the last few years, the sale of high ranks and titles to any black belts who wants to pay the price is easily available, or simply by joining someone's association you can obtain such worthless pieces of paper and/or belts. To reverse this travesty, WKF has implemented better and stronger martial arts programs for school owners. Not only do they understand the martial arts better but they respect them a lot more. The benefits of these programs are then filtered down to their students in order to keep the quality of MA at a high caliber."
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"Mr. Therien, you are leading the World Kobudo Federation today. Could you tell the readers what sort of an organization WKF is, and what prompted
you to start it?"
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"I started World Kobudo because I had many friends who wanted to share their knowledge of the arts while learning other arts. So we stood together and shared what we do best and made a major contribution to the martial arts worldwide."
"WKF is a multi discipline federation working together to help each other. It is presently going through some positive changes and re-alignment that will again make a major mark in the world over the next few years."
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"What is, in your opinion, the single most imortant factor to a student who wishes to succed over a period of time in the martial arts?"
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"Find yourself a good instructor/mentor. Make sure he walks the talk." |
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"Where can people learn more about Therien Jiu-Jitsu & Kickboksing and World Kobudo Federation?"
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"Jiu-jitsu.com
for Therien Jiu-Jitsu. The new world Kobudo web site is finally in construction and should be up soon. In the meantime contact me at kyoshi(a)jiu-jitsu.com."
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"Are there anyone or anything particular in the martial arts today that inspire and motivates you?"
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"Many instructors and students are presently so good that it is difficult for any one in particular to break away from the pack. In my many seminars I meet some kids with more raw talent then the big guns from yesterday."
"What inspires me most is just to think what the future will bring...
wow!"
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"If you could go back and change anything to improve your art - what would that be?"
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"Not too many things since life is a learning process and the arts are
the same. You learn through trials and errors."
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"How do you see the martial arts in 20 years from now?" |
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"Just phenomenal! It will bring the best of the best from a journey of 30 years or more where different styles got together. The end results will be demonstrated by young martial artists who started to train at age 4 or 5."
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"You know Jean-Yves Theriault better than most others. What molded him to the feared fighter and huge success that he was and is?"
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"Talent, brains and devotion to his every day training. He was very well surrounded by his trainers the late Guy Mallette, Marc Brunet and yours truly as a manager/mentor/promoter. What we called the Iceman Championship Team was a small group of great individuals who did their job as best as possible, and worked as a unit for the same goal."
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"Do you have a piece of advice for anyone who wishes to start a professional
school? I understand you have a program called BudoPro? Could
you also tell us a little about that?"
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"First of all go for it but never lose track of why you are in the martial arts and why you love the martial arts. Stay with your instructors and keep learning and training. As for business you better learn quickly how it works if you want to have success otherwise it will eat you up in no time."
"Budo Pro is a subdivision of World Kobudo Federation to help all schools to achieve better success. It is base on business management from the some of the best and most successful school owners today. It will help you and your school to achieve greater success. Again those that are interested in Budo Pro contact me at kyoshi(a)jiu-jitsu.com."
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Kyoshi
John Therien, thank you so much for your
time!
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