She has a Black Belt ranking in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as of May 2009. She was the first Canadian woman to achieve a Black Belt in Canada. She was the FILA Grappling World Champion in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
So who is this Canadian Wonder Woman? Her name is Sheila Bird, but some call her Sheila Baker (with a little boom, boom, boom, sort of like Bam Bam, you get the idea!)
In all honesty, we wanted to get the inside scoop on Sheila and who better to give it to us than her business partner, husband, and father of her children, Brian Bird. So this is what he had to say:
Sheila and I met in high school. (So sweet, right? Settle in, this is a really great story…) We were 17 years old and we were both going to Alternative High School. This school was created for kids that weren't making it in the regular system, for all different kinds of reasons.
It was a very open environment, we were taught respect for others, respect for yourself, there was no judgment. -Coach Brian Bird
The school taught an incredible foundation to each student; it was a very open environment, we were taught respect for others, respect for yourself, there was no judgment, you had a lot of freedom, and they taught different styles of learning, more expansive ways.
Sheila and I would go play badminton, and according to Sheila, this was a date (so our take on this was that expansive learning was kept strictly to book-type things).
Right around that time I started to get interested in jiu-jitsu. Some of my buddies and I started watching everything we could find on it to learn the moves. We would travel to Vancouver for a 2-hour seminar and drive back home. So while I was learning all these moves, I was also trying it out on Sheila. (You all know where this is leading, right?)
Well, she got tired of constantly being taken down or twisted into a pretzel. So she started to take an interest in it, and this was the beginning of the making of our Canadian Wonder Woman.
So while we were learning and growing, we moved to Yellowknife for a while and not long after we came back to Calgary, and we started Champion's Creed.
The foundation for our club really came from what we were taught at our alternative high school. It's an open environment, no judgment, a place where we respect each other and ourselves.
We want everyone who comes here to have the freedom to learn in different ways and to really enjoy it.
It's a good life, me, my wife, and our two children, along with the huge extended family here at the gym.
We wanted to tell you a little more about Sheila, the unconquerable warrior. (That's just about every mom, but she was all that before being a mom. How awesome!)
Sheila is the Brazillian jui-jitsu instructor for the Adult and Children's programs. We wouldn't do this write-up justice if we didn't talk a little about all of this (ever seen the Friendly Giant? Look way, way down, yup, keep scrolling):
So, after you read all that, would you ask her what her favourite move of the month is? Yeah, we didn't think so. (For now it will remain a secret.)
So, that is just part of the amazing story of Sheila Bird. As far as the Wonder Woman thing goes, we have never seen the two of them in the same room, at the same time. (What would you think?)
Come into the gym and meet Sheila. She will be the one wearing the Wonder Woman belt, and she will tell you Wonder Woman isn't a fictional character, Wonder Woman is a mindset!
