Felicia Oh
On a long drive to a fateful camping trip soon to-go-very very bad, Felicia Oh was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by her friend’s husband. Intrigued by the notion that technique and skill could overcome size and strength, she went to watch a class. She signed up and started training the next day.
Felicia has since dominated many national competitions and was awarded her black belt by Jean Jacques Machado after only 4.5 years – an achievement that has left many of her male training partners both envious and struggling to keep up.
In 2007, Felicia became the first woman to win both the Pan American Jiu Jitsu Black Belt Gi and No-Gi divisions. After winning the ADCC North American Trials and securing her spot to represent the United States at the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championship, she had convincing victories over a multi-time BJJ World Champion and a Japanese superstar which put her in the finals of the most prestigious grappling event in the world. She is also a multiple-time FILA Grappling World Champion.
Felicia is a CrossFit Level 1 instructor and an RKC and IKFF-certified kettlebell instructor. She currently runs Women’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, CrossFit and Kettlebell classes at Big John McCarthy’s Ultimate Training Academy in Valencia, CA, and is a guest instructor with Jean Jacques Machado’s Online Training Program. She is now a happy camper.
Valerie “Valhalla” Worthington
Much to her surprise, Valerie has been training Brazilian jiu jitsu and submission grappling for over 12 years. During this time, she earned her blue and purple belts from the late Carlson Gracie, Sr., and Carlson Gracie, Jr. In 2006, she embarked on a grappling odyssey throughout North America, training in various places and looking for herself. She is still looking, but has settled in Southern California and now trains with Johnny Ramirez and John Ouano at New Breed Academy in Santa Fe Springs, who awarded her her brown belt in June 2008, and her black belt in July 2010.Since arriving at New Breed, Val has acquired many grappling titles, including the following:
- Gold medal, World Grappling Games, Antalya, Turkey (2007)
- Gold medal (purple belt), Mundial, Long Beach, CA (2008)
- Silver medal (brown/black—as a brown belt), Mundial, Long Beach, CA (2009)
- Gold medal (brown/black—as a brown belt), PanAmerican of BJJ, Dominguez Hills, CA (2010)
Val holds a BA in English from Dartmouth College, so she fancies herself a raconteur and wag, and even a bit of a card. (Please hang on for a second while she looks up those words to make sure she is using them correctly). She also holds a doctorate in educational psychology, the educational part of which has helped her learn and teach grappling, and the psychology part of which has only somewhat helped her understand her particular obsession with it. She is also a CrossFit practitioner, training and interning at Team CrossFit Academy (http://www.teamcrossfitacademy.com) in Monrovia, CA. She holds the CrossFit Level One certification, the CrossFit Basic Barbell certification, and the CrossFit Football certification. She is working on making Fran her homegirl.
Emily Kwok
Emily began her combat sports career in Vancouver in boxing and sambo, and fell in love with jiu-jitsu shortly afterwards.
After moving from Vancouver and traveling around the world, including a year in Japan, Emily settled in New Jersey. After a string of competitive victories and a spot in the prestigious 2007 Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling World Championship, she won the 2007 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship in the women’s middleweight division as a brown belt. She was awarded her black belt in November 2008 by Ricardo Almeida, becoming the first Canadian woman to attain the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Emily currently trains with the Migliarese brothers at Balance Studios in Philadelphia, PA, and with Marcelo Garcia in New York City.
Guest instructors
Lily Pagle
Lily has been a “tomboy” all her life. Growing up, she enjoyed various sports including skiing, windsurfing & scuba diving. As an adult, Lily has dabbled in various martial arts. However she has been dedicatedly involved with Judo since 1991 and has competed at the national level. Altogether, Lily has been teaching martial arts, self-defense and personal safety classes to all ages since 1995. She started doing Mixed Martial Arts in 1999 and soon began training with SBGI. By 2002, she had formed ModCom MMA with her husband Alan and started training BJJ.
Using her expertise as a counselor, Lily has helped many children and adolescents with their self-esteem, behavioral problems and anger management through martial arts. Together with Alan, she has taught Judo and self-defense classes in the Police Athletic League for many years.
Lily also has been working as a Sports Psychology Consultant and has worked with college athletes and amateur competitors in the past 9 years. In recent years, Lily has been helping coaches of various sports through coaching workshops and seminars. Lily has been the ModCom Competition Team Captain since 2009 and helped competitors such as 2010 World Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt Champion Ahmed White, achieve their goals both physically and mentally.
Background
- Black Belt in BJJ by SBGi president Matt Thornton (Machado)
- 2nd Degree Black Belt in Judo by Dr. David Matsumoto (Development Chairman for the United States Judo Federation)
- Certified Sports Psychology Consultant
- Certified Personal Safety Instructor
- Certified Pistol Shooting Instructor
- Certified Violence Prevention Program Instructor
- Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology (Child & Adolescent Counseling / Cross Cultural Counseling)
Past guest instructors
- Gina Franssen-Campbell
- Tammy Griego
- Krista Scott-Dixon