Featured Traveller: Teghan Hume – BJJ Globetrotters
Age: 36
Belt: Purple Beltch
Profession: Environmental Advisor
How many years in BJJ: 8…ish. Give or take a few existential crises.
Other martial arts: Muay Thai — 3 years, until I realized I don’t particularly enjoy getting punched in the face.
Where do you live: Currently Aberdeen, Scotland; soon to be Norwich, England.
Where are you from: Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada.
Any fun facts you’d like to share: Instead of Jiu-Jitsu competitions this year, I decided to do something completely reasonable and completed an Xtreme Scottish Triathlon (over half Iron Man distance) called the Solo .5 Celtman on the west coast of Scotland. It involved an open-water swim in the North Sea — featuring a frankly unnecessary number of jellyfish — cycling over the third-highest mountain pass in Scotland, and running around the base of a mountain. It was absolutely wild, ridiculously beautiful, and a fantastic way to voluntarily suffer in the Scottish Highlands.
Teghan Hume – BJJ Globetrotters
What inspired you to travel and train?
My first big Jiu-Jitsu trip was to Hawaii to train and celebrate my birthday. Beaches, rolling (read: fighting strangers), and sunshine seemed like the perfect combination. And honestly, it worked. Somewhere between getting folded in half on the mats and eating my body weight in good food, I realized travelling for Jiu-Jitsu was definitely going to become a problem. A fun problem, but definitely a problem.
Tell us about your most recent trip and what’s next – where have you been and where are you going?
My most recent big trip was to the Globetrotters camp in Copenhagen, and it was absolutely brilliant. I went with “Team Bus,” a group of amazing badass women (and Giles) from around the UK and EU. We originally met at a Queen’s Jiu Jitsu camp and somehow went from “people I met at a Jiu-Jitsu camp” to “people I will willingly travel across Europe with.” When the opportunity came up to reunite in Copenhagen for full days of Jiu-Jitsu classes, pastries, coffee, and general tomfoolery, it was a no-brainer.
I’ve been really fortunate to train in lots of different gyms across North America and Europe, and enjoy camps like including Globetrotters Pärnu, Queen’s JJ in Amsterdam and Stark’s Best Practice in Stockholm. Getting to train with different coaches and communities has been such a valuable part of my jiu-jitsu adventure. You get exposed to different styles, different approaches, and, perhaps most importantly, different people to complain about your sore back with.
My next adventure is already booked: I’m heading back to Estonia for the Tallinn Globetrotters camp with Cristiana from Ronin in Glasgow — go check them out if you’re ever in Scotland!
Teghan Hume – BJJ Globetrotters Copenhagen Camp
What do you enjoy most about travelling?
Food. Hands down. I love trying different foods, flavours and local places. Jiu-Jitsu definitely attracts a certain type of wonderfully weird human (neurodivergents unite! Woot woot!) but I think food is one of the things that connects people even more universally.
Wherever you go in the world, people celebrate over food, catch up over food, fall in love over food, grieve over food, and recover from getting choked unconscious or armbarred over food.
Some of my favourite travel memories are basically: drink coffee, eat , roll, eat again, talk nonsense, repeat.
Any particularly memorable experiences that made it all worth it?
I don’t think I can pick just one. It might be overly corny, but I think the connections you make along the way are the most memorable part. When you travel and train, there is this built-in community wherever you go. You get insider knowledge on where to go, what tourist traps to avoid, where to find the best food, and where the locals hang. And sometimes you make genuinely lifelong friends, people who will give you a couch to crash on the next time you’re in their country.
That’s one of my favourite things about Jiu-Jitsu. You can walk into a gym knowing absolutely nobody and leave with dinner plans.
What has surprised you the most while travelling?
How the world is so big, but the Jiu-Jitsu community is ridiculously small. You will almost always meet someone who knows someone you know. You can travel halfway across Europe, walk into a random gym, and somehow discover that your training partner’s coach once trained with your coach’s friend’s training partner. It’s all connected. Insert Charlie conspiracy board here.
Teghan Hume – BJJ Globetrotters
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
Budget applies to daily life. It does not necessarily apply to my travel budget. All logic and financial sense tends to go out the window. My general philosophy these days is “do it for the plot,” which is rarely the cheapest option.
You only live once, you don’t know how long you’ve got, and I think it’s worth spending money on experiences that leave you exhausted and smiling. So book the trip! (Unless booking the trip requires you to sell a kidney on the black market. In which case… maybe save up a little longer.)
Any advice for your fellow Globetrotters?
Have fun with your rolls.
