Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) isn’t the only martial art I’ve trained; I’ve explored a few others along the way.

Back in elementary school, I took a stab at judo. My most vivid memory involves an overly enthusiastic peer choking me with a gi—a harrowing ordeal that paused my martial arts journey for two decades.

Curiously, despite this unnerving experience, I found myself drawn to BJJ, a discipline where gi chokes are perfectly acceptable. The reasons behind this choice are a mystery even to me.

I had my first BJJ class in 2010. I was in love from the start, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that my training was missing something, namely, striking. As a result, I took a few classes at Muay Thai Kai Singthong in Vancouver.

I really can’t say enough good things about Muay Thai Kai Singthong. It was there that I fell in love with muay Thai. Sadly, I found it difficult to juggle the two martial arts, so I made the difficult decision to give up muay Thai in order to focus on BJJ.

Another martial art I dabbled in was krav maga. I attended two krav maga seminars that were fun, but the instructor leading the seminars struck me as unethical. Specifically, he tried to persuade me to stop training with my current teachers and come train with him. To me, that showed a lot of integrity on his part, so I didn’t go back.

Coming full circle, I decided to give judo another try. By this time, I had a couple of years experience grappling, so I wasn’t afraid of being choked with the gi. Plus, it was fun to test my skills against judo players. Needless to say, they threw me around with ease.

If I had to summarize my experience of other martial arts in one word it would be dilettantism. But I’m okay with that. That’s because, while I never developed any real skill in judo, muay Thai, or krav maga, I did develop a respect for those martial arts and the people who practice them.