Michelle Nicolini comes to Cowra!

On Friday, August 9 2019, our gym had the absolute pleasure of hosting the most prominent female Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor on the planet for a three hour seminar. This is the first time a female BJJ Black Belt has been in our area to teach and definitely the most decorated BJJ athlete to visit country NSW. For those who don’t train Jiu Jitsu and have never heard of Michelle, here are some of her competition results, not including MMA fights:

In the major IBJJF gi championships at black belt level she is a:-
8x World Championship champion
3x Pan-American Championship champion
3x European Championship champion
3x Brazilian Nationals champion

In the major IBJJF Nogi championships at black belt level she is a:-
4x World Nogi Championship champion
2x Pan Ams Nogi Championship champion
2x Euros Nogi Championship champion

She is also a 4x ADCC medal winner – 1x Gold, 2x Silver and 1x Bronze.

By winning the Brazilian Nationals Nogi Championship Michelle would become the first female athlete to complete a clean sweep of winning a gold medal at black belt level in both gi and no-gi at all four major championships.
– Wikipedia

The seminar started at 6pm, with twenty eight students in attendance. Not only did we have our own members from Cowra and Young, we also had students from Orange, Newcastle and Mudgee. (forgive me if I missed a town!). The mats were full of keen practitioners ready to soak in the knowledge.

After a brief introduction, Michelle got things underway with some drills for warm ups. Guard passing drills were on the menu and students ate up the techniques quickly.

With bodies warm, sweat starting to drip, steam in the windows and the heater being turned off! (lol) Michelle began teaching some awesome guard retention concepts and techniques. Everyone in the room responded well to Michelle’s instruction and students weren’t afraid to ask for help when needed. The techniques continued to flow and everyone was having such a great time!

We moved on to some guard techniques Michelle is famous for.  I learned these techniques 4 years ago while attending Michelle’s Sydney seminar and have taught them to my students, but it was great to revisit them again and pick up more details in her moves!

I could not have asked for the night to go any better than it did. Seeing the smiles on faces, everyone had a fantastic time and Michelle is not only a world class instructor, but also super humble and such a nice, positive, down to earth person.

I would love to thank Michelle for coming all the way out to Cowra, especially through the icy snow that just happened to bucket down this week!  Thank you also to students who traveled from other towns to support us. Without the support from not only our own members, but students from surrounding areas, bringing World Champions like Michelle to our area would be impossible. Finally thanks to my coach, Felipe Grez, for helping to organise the booking with Michelle. I hope she can come out again!