Lori O'Connell grew up in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. She earned a B.A. in Communication at the University of Ottawa, graduating with honours. There are two things that have captured her mind and heart in life, writing and the martial arts.
Lori began her love affair with the martial arts at the age of 16. At the time, she had trained in western fencing for 5 years, competing nationally in women's foil, achieving the rank of 26th in Canada. She started studying Can-Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, under Ed Hiscoe Shihan, heir apparent to the art, at the Hiscoe School of Jiu-jitsu in Ottawa. The Can-Ryu style is focused entirely on self-defense, blending modern and traditional concepts. It is mainly a stand-up style utilizing boxing punches and blocks in addition to open-hand, elbow and forearm strikes as well as a number of practical kicks. It also covers some practical ground defense tactics.
After several years, she earned her Shodan (1st degree black belt), assuming a teaching role, both at the university and at her home dojo. Simultaneously, she trained in Shotokan Karate for a couple of years in a small basement dojo, eventually earning her brown belt.
During this time, Lori acted as a model to demonstrate the application of various techniques in several training videos produced by Professor Georges Sylvain, founder of the art of Can-Ryu Jiu-jitsu, including The Persuader Key Holder Self-Defense System, Police Pressure Point Techniques and The Use and Application of Pepper Spray Against Dogs.
In 1999, Lori achieved the rank of Nidan (2nd degree black belt) in Can-Ryu and soon after graduated from university. She originally planned to be a cop, having successfully passed all the required tests. She even had an interview with the Ottawa police, but turned it down, deciding she was not yet ready to settle down.
Instead, Lori moved to Iwaki, Japan to live and teach English on the JET (Japan Exchange in Teaching) program. Not long after she arrived, she started her own Jiu-jitsu club at a community centre, teaching classes her Canadian-ized style to both foreigners and Japanese locals of the small coastal city in Fukushima prefecture. She also trained in the internal martial arts of Aikido and Taichi on the side. While living in Japan, Lori studied the Japanese language. Though her speaking skills have since declined after leaving the country, she still maintains some basic conversational skills.
Having finished her 3-year contract in Japan, she moved to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. She immediately started training in martial arts again, but found it difficult to find a school that was a great fit for her needs. She started training in Wushu, which lasted a year and a half, transitioning to a Taekwondo/ Hapkido school for another year and a half. In the latter half of her time at the TKD school, she simultaneously trained in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
After several years of training in different arts, Lori found she missed teaching as well as the comprehensive self-defense system she knew and loved, and felt compelled to return to her roots. As a result, she started her own Jiu-jitsu club, West Coast Jiu-jitsu in January 2006. As a member of the Jiu-jitsu BC Society, Lori was also invited to teach at several provincial training seminars. Later that year, she was promoted to the rank of Sandan (3rd degree black belt).
Lori ran her club out of several different locations in Richmond, changing locations as the needs of her club changed. Eventually, the club settled at Next Generation, a boxing and mixed martial arts school. One of the owners of Next Generation, Mark Friedman, an ex-pro boxer, watched her train with her students, seeing potential for her in MMA. He offered to train her on the side, suggesting that she had the potential to go pro. Lori took this to heart, seeing this as an opportunity to develop her martial arts skills even further. Since then, she has stepped up her personal training, while also developing MMA skills with Mark.
Combining her love of both writing and martial arts, Lori wrote a book, Weapons of Opportunity, about her training and teaching experiences in the martial arts. She published the book in Sept. 2007. Lori also maintains an active blog, Jiu-JitsuSensei.com, on which she reguarly posts about her ongoing training experiences and her general insights into the martial arts.
