Black Belt in BJJ
Nani began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2007, she started training with her focus mainly centered around self-defense and physical fitness to keep herself healthy and active. Not long after Nani started training with Anchorage Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, she fell in love with the sport and the BJJ community. As the first female Black Belt in Alaska, she spent many of her early years training as the only female on the mat. Nani is proud to be a part of the growing group of women training at ABJJ, she believes the growing number of women is in part due to the great atmosphere provided by the gym which promotes a culture of learning and working hard, allowing students to improve and sharpen their technique in a clean and safe environment. Nani is proud to be an advocate for women training BJJ in Alaska and frequently offers introductory classes to encourage participation and awareness to the benefits of training a martial art that builds self-defense skills. She has donated her time to outside groups to help promote self-defense skills and educate women and youth to self-defense techniques learned while training BJJ
Most of her youth Nani enjoyed participating in team sports and ABJJ provides a team environment that promotes life skills as well as an overall work out system for continued health benefits. Nani has participated in both local and national BJJ tournaments throughout her BJJ career, she feels that competition is a great way to challenge yourself and grow and encourages her students to participate in them as well. One of her favorite things is training for tournaments and helping her teammates prepare for their next competition. Nani believes that one's choice to embrace the BJJ lifestyle and work on developing their skillset is an investment in yourself and the offset benefits of that practice and discipline is one you will never be able to truly put into words; however, it will be one of the achievements you hold most dear.
