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True North Jiu-Jitsu

Coquitlam Martial Arts & Fitness for All Ages!

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For New Westminster & Sapperton

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Near New Westminster

Our address says Coquitlam, but the geography says something a little different. True North Jiu-Jitsu is at 814 Brunette Ave, roughly two kilometres from the New Westminster boundary, on the same road that runs straight down into Sapperton. For a large part of New West, we are closer than most of Coquitlam is.

The Short Version

How Close This Actually Is

Brunette Avenue is one continuous road. It leaves the Sapperton side of New Westminster, crosses under Highway 1 at the Brunette interchange, and carries on into the Maillardville area of southwest Coquitlam, where we are. There is no detour and nothing complicated about it. From Sapperton it is a three to five minute drive. From the Brow of the Hill, uptown or Queen's Park, allow eight to ten. Even from the far end of New West you are looking at a trip most people would not think twice about.

Put another way: we are noticeably closer to Sapperton than we are to Coquitlam Town Centre. New Westminster is a city of around 78,000 people, and a good share of them live nearer to this mat than a lot of our Coquitlam members do.

Coming by SkyTrain

Braid Station is the closest station to us, and it sits directly on Brunette Avenue at Braid Street. From the platform it is roughly a ten minute walk east along Brunette to our door. Sapperton Station is the next one west, which puts it a little further out, so Braid is the one to aim for. If you would rather not walk it, the 169 bus runs along Brunette between Braid Station and Coquitlam Central and stops on our stretch of the road.

In practice that makes us one of the few Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies in the area that a New Westminster student can genuinely reach without a car. Teenagers training in our adult classes often do exactly that.

Midday Training

The 1pm Class and the Sapperton Shift Pattern

Royal Columbian Hospital is in Sapperton, minutes from here, and it is one of the largest employers on this side of the region. Anyone who has worked a rotating hospital roster knows the problem with martial arts schools: everything is scheduled for people who finish at five. If your week is nights, days and days off in some other order, a 7pm-only timetable means you train sporadically, lose the thread, and eventually stop.

We run adult Jiu-Jitsu from 1:00 to 2:00pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It is a real class with real instruction, not an open mat. If you are coming off a night shift, it is close enough to train before you sleep. If you are on nights that evening, it is the hour before your day disappears. If you are on a stretch of days off, it is the class you can attend without giving up your evening.

The midday hour also happens to be quieter on the mat, which suits people who are new and would rather learn without a crowd. Between the 1pm classes and the 7:00 to 8:00pm classes Monday through Thursday, plus a 6:00 to 7:00pm class on Wednesday, most rotating schedules can find two sessions a week that hold. That consistency is the whole game in Jiu-Jitsu. The full timetable is on our schedule page.

On the Mat

What You Would Actually Be Training

Adult Jiu-Jitsu at True North Jiu-Jitsu is open to ages 13 and up and covers both gi and no-gi. The emphasis is on the grappling itself: position, control, escapes, submissions, and the timing that ties them together. It is a striking-free art, which is a large part of why people who want to train hard without taking shots to the head end up here. Our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program page covers how classes are run.

Alongside it we teach kickboxing for ages 13 and up, wrestling, and a women's self-defense program that focuses on practical situations rather than choreography. Kids Jiu-Jitsu for ages 5 to 12 runs weekday afternoons at 4:15 and 5:00pm, which is a workable pickup window from most New Westminster schools. After training there is a sauna and cold plunge on site, and meal prep is available if that is useful to your week.

The Team

Who Is Teaching

Professor Khatib Ahmad is our head instructor and a fourth degree black belt. Professor Mahan Salimian and Professor Ash "Smash" Mashreghi are also black belts and teach regularly, with Coach Igor Vavi at brown belt and Coach Kim at purple belt rounding out the coaching staff.

Five coaches for one school means smaller effective ratios and more eyes on you while you are learning. We hold a 5.0 rating across 116 Google reviews, which is the highest of any dedicated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym in Coquitlam. If you want the background on the academy, it is on the about page. If your schedule needs something the group timetable cannot give you, private lessons are available.

New students of any age get a free trial class. Call 604-777-0396 or use the contact page, and mention you are coming from New West so we can suggest a class time that fits the trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions From New Westminster Students

What people from New West and Sapperton ask before their first class. Anything else, give the academy a call.

No. We are at 814 Brunette Ave in Coquitlam, about two kilometres past the New Westminster boundary. Brunette Avenue runs continuously between the two, so from Sapperton it is a three to five minute drive and from most other parts of New West it is under ten.

Braid Station. It sits on Brunette Avenue at Braid Street, and our door is about a ten minute walk east along the same road. Sapperton Station is further away. If you would rather ride, the 169 bus runs along Brunette between Braid Station and Coquitlam Central.

This is what our 1:00 to 2:00pm adult classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are for. Combined with the 7:00 to 8:00pm classes Monday through Thursday and a 6:00pm class on Wednesday, most rotating rosters can lock in two sessions a week regardless of which block they are on.

Yes, and several do. Our adult Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing classes start at age 13, and the SkyTrain to Braid Station plus a ten minute walk makes the trip straightforward without a parent driving. Kids Jiu-Jitsu for ages 5 to 12 is a drop-off program.

Yes. There is free parking at the academy, with no meters and no permit to sort out. For a short drive in from Sapperton or Massey-Victory Heights, that keeps the whole trip to a few minutes door to door.