Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Burgess
• Joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 2001
• I am an Army Logistics Officer (Support) – Supply, Movements (Air/Sea), Transport (Road), Contracting, Finance, Human Resources, Infrastructure
• I have served with both the conventional and special operations forces
• Completed two (2) tours in Afghanistan – 2006 (Operation ATHENA: Kabul, Afghanistan – conventional forces) and 2008 (Operation ARCHER/Operation ENDURING FREEDOM: Kandahar, Afghanistan – special operations forces)
• I am the senior military combatives instructor in the CAF
• I started teaching military combatives in the CAF in 2003 for conventional forces units (after finishing basic training and occupational trade training) and in 2006 began teaching combatives within the special operations community
Basic Info:
• Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada (East Coast)
• Graduated from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) – Political Science (Defence Policy) and Mathematics (Calculus and Statistics)
• Master’s Degree – Masters of Defence Studies (Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario), Joint Command and Staff Program (Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Ontario)
Martial Arts Background:
• Began studying the martial arts in 1983 in Windsor, Nova Scotia (Karate, then Judo)
• I hold black belts in Karate, Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
• I have trained, competed and taught across Canada and around the world in all three martial disciplines
• In 1989, I participated in my first world-level martial arts competition (Karate) at the age of 17 – the tri-annual Soke Cup World Karate Championships, held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (West Coast of Canada)
• In 1996, I started teaching combatives/defensive tactics within the trade school/college system in Nova Scotia for Corrections Canada and Police Sciences (Scotia Career Academy – Halifax, Nova Scotia)
• I began my training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 1995 (under the Rickson Gracie Association) and then became one of the first students in Canada training directly under 8th Degree Black Belt, Master Marcus Soares (Chief Instructor of the Carlson Gracie Team, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) in 1997 after he moved from Brazil to Canada, opening his first academy in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is regarded as the “Father of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Canada” as he was the first, and still only, master-level instructor teaching full-time in Canada
• In 2009, I became the co-founder of Team Evolution Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/MMA/Muay Thai/Judo with my partner Dan Guillemette (based out of Gatineau, Quebec): https://www.artsmartiauxevolution.com/ . The team has grown to 36 separate schools, with schools presently in: Canada, the USA, Greece and Belgium
Military Combatives/Recreational Martial Arts within the CAF:
• In 2012, I established the first-ever, full-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school (Evolution Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Petawawa), within the Canadian Armed Forces, at Garrison Petawawa (2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group), located approximately 100 miles north-west of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada’s capital city). The club has both adult (military members and civilian) and youth/children’s classes. The club serves both the local military families at the Garrison, as well as the surrounding Petawawa civilian community. Since that time, I now have students who have trained under me directly who have been posted to various bases across the country and who have opened their own jiu-jitsu academies at their bases. Here is the link to the PSP Petawawa Website for reference. Note that the info is a bit outdated right now, however, it does give you a general feel for what I am talking about: https://www.cafconnection.ca/Petawawa/Adults/Recreation-Programs-Services/Recreation-Clubs-Activities.aspx
• In 2013, I established the Military Combatives Grappling Concentration (MCGC) at Garrison Petawawa. The MCGC is an annually-held, military hand-to-hand combat training concentration that utilizes a ‘competition-style’ format with an emphasis upon the grappling techniques currently in use within all of the CAF’s primary combatives programs. Since the concentration’s inception in 2013, this gathering of soldiers, sailors, aviators and special operators from across the CAF, representing both the Regular and Reserve Forces, has become the Force’s premiere combatives concentration. Its popularity has underpinned the modern combatives movement, spawning other regional military combatives concentrations from the Brigade to unit level. Within the framework of the CAF’s core values and principles, combatives represents the essence of the war fighter and is a symbol of the Force’s ongoing commitment to the inculcation of a robust warrior culture across all ranks and trades through the maintenance of a member’s high state of personal combat-readiness. As a secondary mission, I coupled the MCGC with the Soldier On program and as such the MCGC is recognized as one of the organization’s annual fundraising activities. A core principle of warrior culture and a true measure of its intrinsic value to the Force is the support that it provides to all of its members not only during the execution of their primary duties but, just as importantly, in their time of greatest need. In partnership with Soldier On, we are warriors supporting our fellow warriors as they work to overcome their physical and/or mental health illnesses or injuries through physical activity and sport. Of note, the MCGC is the first-ever combatives concentration of this nature that has become truly pan-CAF and brought together fighters from across the entire Force, regardless of whether they are from the Army, Navy, Air Force or Special Operations.
Here are a few links for some more info:
Military Combatives Grappling Concentration - Home | Facebook
https://www.cmfmag.ca/events/petawawa-hosts-fifth-annual-military-combatives-grappling-championship/
https://www.soldieron.ca/
• In addition to the modern combatives movement that kicked off, in earnest, in 2013, I have also spearheaded, along with Rick McKie (Fitness Manager – Garrison Petawawa), a reinvigoration of combat sports in the CAF. Rick and I began to meaningfully engage the CAF sports leadership (PSP) in 2016. In 2017, I briefed their annual national convention with a view to outlining the benefits (psychological and physical) of martial arts training, in general, and the mutually reinforcing benefit that it would have with combatives (a military skillset). It is important to recognize that combat sports and military combatives, although similar in some ways, are not exactly the same. I see combat sports as something different from combatives because combatives, at its heart, is a life-saving skillset which increases a soldier’s survivability rates in high-threat, high-risk environments when they go kinetic (this has both mental and physical aspects to it). In that way, combatives adds the real-world context to the martial techniques being employed in combat sports/recreational martial arts. As they say, ‘context’ matters. However, all that being said, combat sports are certainly a complimentary activity. You only get better at something by doing it over and over again. Punching someone in the face is punching someone in the face, regardless of whether you are in a boxing ring or on a field of combat. The result of this effort, was the inclusion of sport grappling (jiu-jitsu, judo, wrestling, sambo) within the official roster of approved CAF sports, as of 2019. The very first regional-level grappling event was held in November 2019. At this time, only grappling has been reintroduced, however, the long-term goal will be to bring striking sports back as well, if conditions permit.
Recommended Book:
The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Musashi
Recommended Movie:
Lone Wolf McQuade