Stacy Duchscherer will be travelling to Abu Dhabi to represent Canada in the first ever Para-Jiu-Jitsu competition at the World Championships alongside his son Ryan who will be competing in the junior division.

Duchscherer’s passion for jiu-jitsu started four years ago when his son Ryan entered the sport.

“I love the sport, it’s a beautiful sport, but I didn’t even think that I would be able to do it. I sat there and I thought nobody is even going to come over here and bug me, I’ve got one leg, nobody’s going to ask me to come onto the mat,” Duchscherer said.

Duchscherer’s left leg was amputated following a workplace accident when he was 20-years-old, he said he didn’t believe he could get into jiu-jitsu because of his disability.

“I was like ‘no way I ain’t doing that, I can’t.’ But it’s not true you can, you just learn different ways to do it,” Duchscherer said.

“I have one leg so I don’t have the ability to do a lot of the takedowns that everybody does. If I get caught in someone’s closed guard I have to struggle to get out of it because they lock their legs up, I don’t have that.”

He soon learned though that there were advantages to his disability.

“You can bring your leg through tiny little places where everybody has to bring their whole leg and foot through, for me it just literally pops out,” he said.

Now all his training is paying off, as he has reached a more elite level, and he has been asked to compete in the Para-Jiu-Jitsu World Championships in Abu Dhabi.

“I can’t say no, it’s a huge honour to be asked,” he said.

“It empowers people, shows them that it's possible to go out there and do whatever you can. ‘If he can do it why can't I?’” Duchscherer’s son Ryan said.

Fifteen-year-old Ryan was asked to compete in the youth division of the event, and says he is excited to go, especially since he gets to go with his father.

“No one going there, I can guarantee it, that’s going with their dad or going with their son at the same time to compete in the same high level tournament,” Ryan said.

The trip couldn’t have come at a better time for the father-son duo, as it comes about a year after Duchscherer’s wife and Ryan’s mother passed away after a battle with cancer.

“People that we’ve met, that we roll with every day, they’ve all become family really,” Duchscherer said.

For Stacy and Ryan, the sport has been a form of stress-relief and a distraction, and their jiu-jitsu family is very excited for the pair.

“For them to be invited to such a big tournament is really a big deal, really really cool,” Ryan McGillivray, at the Legends Training Centre, said.

The World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship takes place in Abu Dhabi between April 18 and 22. CTV News has learned event organizers have set up a special father-son match at the competition that will be televised.

With files from Carmen Leibel