AVENUE D: MARTIAL ARTS SCHOOL BUOYED BY LOCAL SUPPORT

Wednesday afternoons at Momentum Martial Arts are the calm before the storm — a flurry of activity, with classes operating in each of the school’s three instruction spaces.

It’s a chance for owner and lead instructor (sifu) Kris Kembel to relax, but on this day he has his two dogs with him.

The school is located at the corner of Avenue D and 33rd Street West, off a busy span of the arterial road. Saskatoon’s west side is where Kembel wants his business to be — even when the school outgrows its current home and has to re-locate.

“I think the best thing about being on the west side is we still have people that support local. That’s a big deal on the west side, not just from businesses, but from the people who live here,” he says.

A lot of the school’s clients live locally and walk to their classes, he says. “You don’t see that a lot anymore.”

The “local” mentality still means something here, and that means something to the school, he says.

Kembel is a former World Kickboxing Association championshipwinning competitor. He took his first martial arts lesson at the age of five. Growing up, all he wanted to do was eventually open his own school.

In his early 20s, he detoured from that dream while gaining life experience. He returned to it when he was 27, getting back into training.

He and his wife learned that a business in Saskatoon needed someone to teach women’s self defence courses. He started teaching self-defence, and the passion to open his own gym came back, he says.

The school started in the gym of Tommy Douglas Collegiate, and it grew in popularity, outgrowing the space.

After moving into its own facility on Fairlight Drive, it outgrew that, too.

Three years ago, he moved the school to its current home, but again it’s outgrowing the space. He plans to keep Momentum on the city’s west side, he says.

“We chose the west end when we first opened. Being on the west end is important to us. It means something to us.”

Momentum is the only school in Saskatoon that teaches in the Shaolin Kenpo tradition. Kembel says it comes from Japan, but has a blended influence with Chinese martial arts.

The particular brand practised at Momentum is more of a sports style, he adds.

“It has all of the traditional aspects to it, but it also focuses quite a lot on sport and practical selfdefence and things like that.”

The popularity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and mixed-martial arts means there’s been quite a bit of interest in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and kick-boxing. Kembel says this is because the two sports are directly relatable to mixed-martial arts.

“Especially because we’re the only directly Gracie-affiliated school in the city, so we have a lot of interest for that, being members of Team Renzo Gracie Ottawa.”

The Gracie name is huge in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as they were key in its development. The Gracies created Brazilian JiuJitsu, Kembel says, and Renzo is the grandson of the first Gracie to learn Jiu-Jitsu. The school is affiliated through Renzo Gracie’s first black belt in Canada.

“It’s huge. I mean, there’s not a whole lot of steps removed from the origins of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so it’s a very big deal for us.”