Martial Arts in Thompson Manitoba

You have to be tough to live in Thompson Manitoba. It's a short 8 hour drive due north of Winnipeg. Sitting north of the 55th parallel, winters see average temperatures of -20C and as little as 7 hours of sunlight a day. This is a town straight out of a Tom Cochrane song, except that its tougher, because there is a mine instead of a mill. In the summers though, and even now in the Fall, this is God’s Country, with Paint Lake, Mystery Lake, and Pisew Falls. It’s also home to my brother Rick and the destination of my recent Camper Van Roadtrip.

If there was ever a town for hardcore martial arts training, Thompson is it. Websites and social media showed mixed potential for Karate, Jiu Jitsu, MMA and Tai Chi, so I packed my gis, ready to play. An email to the Karate sensei bounced. The MMA email was met with radio silence. Tai Chi is infrequent and not running while I was in town. Only the BJJ professor got back to me: “It’s hard to keep things running here.” Such a shame.

I did get some solo training in though. Blasting out Goju and White Crane kata and flowing through a couple of Tai Chi forms on a rocky shore with a view of float planes. There were even sticks for the hound to swim after. Not bad. In fact, life in Northern Manitoba can be pretty good.