New jiu jitsu class starts next month

“I don’t know, somehow you kind of get addicted to it, I guess,” Matt Nore said.

Nore, volunteering with the parks and recreation department, will be hosting jiu jitsu classes starting next month. Nore has grown up enjoying combat sports, he said, starting with wrestling in high school. He also participated in mixed martial arts through the Alaska Fighting Championship before he was first deployed to Iraq around 2004.

He started getting back into jiu jitsu early this year, he said, and wants to begin teaching others the basics so he can keep enjoying the sport. With no classes in Wrangell, however, Nore decided that he would have to make some himself.

“I wanted to be tough, I guess, when you’re young,” he said. “Now I just want to continue on for the benefits like muscular strength and flexibility.”

Cognitive functions are another benefit the martial art can provide, Nore said. To improve at jiu jitsu, a fighter has to think several moves ahead. They cannot just take the match one move at a time. It is kind of like learning how to read, Nore said. A kid learns some letters, then how to put the letters together to make words, and then how to put words together to make sentences.

“At first you don’t see it in jiu jitsu, then this whole world kind of opens up,” he said.

Registration for jiu jitsu classes open Aug. 2 and classes will begin Aug. 24. Nore said he is not sure of registration costs yet, but he is hoping for about 20 participants.

To register, contact the parks and rec department at 874-2444. Students must be at least 18 years old.

The department’s website says classes will be held Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with a session pass for the full program or drop-in fees for individual classes.

Nore plans to teach people the basics of jiu jitsu and ease them into the training, and he has been in contact with professional coaches from Ketchikan and Washington state, to see about the possibility of larger seminars in the future. He also said people can learn more by following his new Facebook page, “Wrangell Jiu Jitsu.”

“I know enough to teach the basics and get people going,” Nore said. “As I’m learning new things, I’m helping also teach other people. Everyone’s getting better together. … I really wanted to continue jiu jitsu so I was like, ‘Well, I gotta do it myself.’”

 

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