Gi, no gi, it didn’t matter for Estevan jiu jitsu fighter Chase Foord.
The 11-year-old Foord won the Sask Submission Series in Saskatoon in both gi and no gi after months of qualifications and training in Saskatoon a couple of weeks ago.
He fights under the direction and training of Estevan’s Tyson King in the circuit and Foord won all of his fights on the weekend by points or submission.
“Don’t think about losing, really, just think about the fact that you’re going to win but you’ve got to put in the effort for it, too,” The 5’1”, 111 pound Foord said.
Foord started in jiu jitsu in 2012, and quickly took to the sport.
“With jiu jitsu the training is different because you’re on the mats, and you’re with your coach,” Foord said. “He’s warming you up at first and … then you split up in different groups and you work on things like technique.”
He’d won the same tournament in 2015, but had to take 2016 off from the sport after a broken arm.
“I was really disappointed when we found out it was broken but when we finally got it (the cast) off, it was really weak,” he said. “I just kept working with it and eventually it just got better. It was hard at first though.”
He returned to full training for jiu jitsu by competing in two qualifying series’ in Saskatoon and Foord had been clearly learning a lot this year.
“The thing that I was struggling with is getting the single leg takedown and defending the takedown so we worked on that,” Foord said. “Other kids in my group struggled with getting out of guard, so we did that too and there was a lot of cardio.”
Cardio training is important in combat sports, especially in a tournament setting where brute strength can only get only so far. Getting that second and third and fourth wind can take a fighter a long way, particularly with four fights in a weekend.
“It’s been lots of hard work,” Foord said of training. “It’s a lot of cardio kind of warm-ups. You’ve got to keep going and you can’t slow down.”
Foord doesn’t sound like he has any plans on slowing down.
“There’s always room for improvement,” he said. “It’s always good to get better.”
When he’s 12, he may expand into kickboxing.
