For the North Road Corridor
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Near Burquitlam
Burquitlam does not have a jiu-jitsu gym of its own. About 25,600 people live in the towers and older walk-ups either side of North Road, a lot of them in buildings that went up after the SkyTrain arrived, and the closest dedicated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy is ours: True North Jiu-Jitsu, at 814 Brunette Avenue in Coquitlam, roughly four kilometres south.
This page is about getting here without a car, and about what training looks like when your realistic window is the hour after work or after class.
Getting Here
Two SkyTrain Stops and a Short Bus
From Burquitlam Station the trip is short but it does involve a transfer. Ride the Millennium Line one stop south to Lougheed Town Centre, cross to the Expo Line, and take it one stop to Braid. From Braid, the 156 and the 169 both run east along Brunette Avenue, which is the street we are on. Give yourself around half an hour door to door and a little more on a Sunday evening when buses thin out.
Driving, it is about four kilometres. From the North Road and Clarke Road area most people head south and pick up Brunette, and outside of rush hour it is under ten minutes. There is parking at the academy.
Either way, this is the kind of distance you stop noticing after a month. It is the transfer that puts people off, not the length of the ride, and the honest advice is to do the trip once before you decide.
The Evening Timetable
Classes That Fit After Work
Most of the people who come to us from the North Road corridor are working or studying during the day, so the evening block is what matters. Adult jiu-jitsu runs Monday 7 to 8pm, Tuesday 7 to 8pm, Wednesday 6 to 7pm and 7 to 8pm, and Thursday 7 to 8pm. There are also 1 to 2pm classes Tuesday through Thursday if your hours are flexible or you are between lectures.
An hour-long class is a deliberate choice. It is long enough for a warm-up, technique and live rounds, and short enough that you can leave the office at six and still be home at a reasonable hour. Two nights a week is enough to genuinely progress, and it is a commitment most people can hold for years rather than abandoning in March.
Full details, including kickboxing and weekend options, are on the schedule page.
Starting Out
If You Have Never Trained Anything
A large share of the people who walk in have no athletic background at all. They have a desk job, they have been meaning to do something for two years, and a gym membership they never used is quietly renewing on their card.
Jiu-jitsu solves a problem that a treadmill does not. You show up at seven because there is a class at seven and someone is expecting you. You are learning something with enough depth that you are still thinking about it on the train home. The fitness turns up as a side effect, which is a much more reliable way to get it.
The first class is free. Wear athletic clothes you can move in. You will be paired with someone who has been doing this a while, and the room is used to first-timers, because there is one most weeks. Our adult program covers both gi and no-gi and you can start with either.
Other Ways In
If Grappling Is Not Where You Want to Start
Kickboxing
Open to ages thirteen and up, striking-only, and a straightforward hard hour if what you want is conditioning and something to hit. Some members do it alongside jiu-jitsu, others only ever do this.
Women's Self-Defense
Our women's self-defense classes are for ages thirteen and up and focus on practical situations rather than sport technique. For people living alone in a new building and walking home from the station after dark, this is often the class that gets them through the door first.
Private lessons
If evening classes clash with shift work, private lessons are scheduled directly with an instructor. They are also a common choice for people who would rather learn the basics without an audience before joining a group.
Who You Train With
The Room You Are Walking Into
Professor Khatib Ahmad, our head instructor, is a fourth degree black belt. Professor Mahan Salimian and Professor Ash "Smash" Mashreghi are black belts, with Coach Igor Vavi and Coach Kim alongside them. The academy holds a 5.0 rating from 116 Google reviews, the highest of any dedicated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Coquitlam.
The evening classes skew toward adults in their twenties and thirties, though the range is wider than that in both directions. Nobody is going to try to injure a new person to make a point. Call ahead or just turn up ten minutes before a class you like the look of.
Call 604-777-0396
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions From Burquitlam
What people along North Road usually want to know first. Anything else, get in touch.
Not a dedicated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, no. The North Road corridor has grown quickly since the SkyTrain opened but the martial arts have not followed yet. We are about four kilometres south on Brunette Avenue, and we have members who make that trip several times a week.
Millennium Line one stop to Lougheed Town Centre, transfer to the Expo Line and ride one stop to Braid, then the 156 or 169 east along Brunette Avenue. Around thirty minutes door to door. Check the current timetable before a late class, since bus frequency drops in the evening.
The last adult jiu-jitsu class ends at 8pm Monday through Thursday. Allow a few minutes to change and you are on your way home shortly after. If you are travelling by transit, that timing works comfortably with the evening service.
Yes. Alongside the evening block there are 1 to 2pm adult classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which suit shift workers and people who study in the evenings. If neither block works, private lessons are booked directly around your availability.
No, and waiting until you are fit is the most common reason people never start. You set your own pace in a class, you can sit out a round, and conditioning arrives on its own once you are training twice a week. Come and try a free class in whatever shape you are currently in.