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Hello ladies and gentlemen! Since I’m in the states and all, I’ve decided to do a little BJJ hopping to make my time here more worthwhile. This is the first of a series of articles so stay tuned for the next ones. Also, for those of you who may find yourselves in this part of the globe in the near future, may this be a guide for some of your Jiu Jitsu or MMA needs.

First up, Team Foster Jiu Jitsu. Prior to leaving for the States, I googled for this BJJ camp then I emailed James Foster, owner and resident black belt of the place. He said I could come by anytime if I wanted to try the place out. Great! Lesson for all of us: never doubt the power of e-mail!

One cold and overcast Seattle morning, I decided it was time to visit James down at his place. The Team Foster Dojo is actually in the city of Kent, WA which is just south of Seattle. If you’re coming from downtown, what you do is you go to the Westlake underground station and get on the 150 bus going south. What follows is a 45 minute bus ride to Kent and you should go down at the West Valley and 190th street bus stop. From there you can just walk to the place, which is at 66th and 192nd street.



Also, once down at the bus stop. Don’t be flustered if you’re walking for a long while already and you still don’t see a single soul anywhere. That area is a really quiet part of town and during the day almost everyone there is inside the buildings doing their business for the day. It gets uncomfortable at some point but you’ll get used to it.




James Foster is a huge guy but he’s got that very friendly and courteous displacement that I’ve seen a lot lately from the locals here. Moreover, he is a very decorated BJJ fighter and he was able to take home a couple of bronzes fighting at the super super heavyweight weight class under the adult black belt division for the Pan American Championships. He got his black belt from Juliano Prado of the famed Lotus Club Federation in Sao Paulo Brazil and that is why he’s sporting the affiliation of the Lotus Club.

After exchanging greetings, we went to business right away. There were only 8 of us during that morning class. Most of the guys were at work.

When we finished warming up and doing stretching, James taught us a few new tricks to add to the guard pass, which I thought were very effective details indeed. He showed some more variations and made us do a bunch of reps for each one. To cap the rather short day off, he made us pair up for sparring. Then, what I thought would be a 3 minute sparring session turned out to be a full 20 minute spar! What the hell, I know.



I was totally gassed out already after the first 5 minutes so the next 15 were just purely survival time. Aside from the fact that it had been months since I last had formal Jiu Jitsu training back home, the climate and the altitude absolutely took its toll on me. It takes some getting used to for sure.

So there, despite of those 15 minutes of suffering, it’s been a grand time indeed training with Coach James Foster and his guys. If any of you guys make your way to great northwest one of these days, it’s highly recommended that you visit Foster Jiu Jitsu. You’ll have a blast. Literally. Hehe.



James Foster
Phone: (253) 208-3270
Email: coach@fbjjonline.com
Address: 6613 S. 192nd St. Bldg K-104 Kent, WA 98032
Website: fosterbjj.com

Well wishes from Rain City,
Pinggoy