Welcome to Female Fighters!

So What’s the Female Fighters Camp All About?

Female Fighters Camp started from the desire to bring a group of BJJ, Judo and MMA friends together from across the UK, for a chance to roll with other females and put their heads together to share.

Friends….Plus Guests

The first camp was organised for a few friends who invited their friends and we ended up with some really decent training over a couple of days, with plenty of social time built-in too.

More Female Rolls!

Before the amazing influx of Woman Only Seminars and sessions now found across the UK it was common to be the only woman at gym, with competitions often being the only chance to roll with another woman.

So, the idea of a ‘Female Fighters Camp’ was conceived with the idea of encouraging more women to start and continue training in combat sports.

Intimidation Free Space

The Female Fighters Camp aims to provide quality mat time with other women to encourage and inspire each other. It  provides a safer space, minimising the risk of being overpowered by man strength all the time which can be off-putting, especially for those ladies just starting out.

All Welcome

Whether you’ve been on the mat for 1 week or 20 years, only ever trained Judo, BJJ, No Gi or Greco-Roman Wrestling, all can attend the camp and get something from it.

There is always a good range of fighters, from those just starting out to seasoned athletes who have been competing for years, so it’s always easy to find plenty of ladies to practice with.

Balancing Fighting Types

The set-up of the camp has come about through Sophie’s years of experience travelling around the world attending camps as a judo player, a BJJ practitioner and also as a coach. The Female Fighters camp set-up aims to optimally blend the two types of training of BJJ and Judo, plus offer useful and informative workshops. All of course using the expertise of quality instructors.

Balancing rolling, sparring, learning, recovery and socialising!

There was striking included in a few of the first camps, but it was a lot to fit in within a few days. This is definitely something we are thinking of looking into for future camps if the demand is there.

Previous Camp Instructors

Over the years we have been lucky to have some of the best fighters in the country as instructors as well as camp attendees. Many of who do not need any introduction in the fighting world with their crazy great fighting CV’s.

Rosi Sexton

UFC Fighter, BJJ Black Belt, Taekwondo Black Belt and Osteopath

Rosi has many accomplishments to her name and had a very successful MMA career before retiring and setting up her own osteopathy practice.

A great pioneer for female fighters and grapplers, Rosi was one of the instructors on the first camp we did in 2014.

Anna Mayne

BJJ Black Belt

Anna is the two-time brown belt IBJJF European Champion 2013, 2014 and took Bronze at the IBJJF World Championships in 2013.

Anna was awarded her well deserved Black belt by Professor David Onuma and Master Ricardo De La Riva in November 2014.  Since then, she has won silver at IBJJF European Championships 2015 and taken double gold at IBJJF Gothenburg Open 2015.

Vanessa English

BJJ Black Belt

Vanessa English is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and fights out of the UK.

Vanessa is known for being the first British born Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor to win the IBJJF World Championships in the adult division; this was back in 2013 at purple belt.

Vanessa has represented the UK in various different countries across the world and holds many titles beneath her belt, including 7x British titles, 4x European titles and the purple belt world title.

Ffion Davies

BJJ Black Belt, Judo Brown Belt

Ffion is Wales’ first and only IBJJF World Champion and has multiple titles to her name.

Her list of achievements includes Double Gold at the NOGI World Championships; Silver at the GI World Championships, back to back Gold medals at the European Championships, multiple national titles and an unbeaten MMA record (3-0 Amateur; 1-0 Pro).

Ffion holds a black belt in Judo and was part of the Welsh Judo squad before taking up Jiu Jitsu in 2013.

Ffion runs the women’s programme at CF24 Jiu Jitsu.

Rachael McKenzie

World Champion Muay Thai, Team GB Boxer

Rachael MacKenzie is a World Thai-Boxing champion.

Having only started Thai-Boxing in 2000, her hard work and determination paid off when, in 2006, she topped the Women’s Thai-boxing world rankings in two weight categories (50kg and 52kg).

Rachel has also taken two British Titles – both by knockout – and a European Title.

Rachael became the first European Woman to compete in traditional bare-knuckle Thai-Boxing in Thailand and the first woman to fight under Full Muay-Thai Rules in the UK.

Sophie Cox

2 x Judo Olympian, BJJ Purple Belt

And of course, the organiser!

Sophie Cox – a seasoned athlete,  Judo 5th Dan and BJJ purple belt.

She has been coaching for a number of years and can dish out plenty of advice, including how to win at giant Jenga.

She loves a bit of girl power (but not in a cheesy way) and has worked hard to establish her credibility in a mostly male dominated environment as an athlete and a coach. Started judo at 6 and BJJ a in 2013……

 

Olga Butkevych

Team GB Olympic Wrestler

Samantha Cook is a British born BJJ black belt under Marco Canha.

She represented Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics in Wrestling. Has a Bronze World medal and multiple European Championship medals to her name.
She can currently be found around Salford teaching wrestling classes, including wrestling for MMA.

Sam Cook

BJJ Black Belt

Samantha Cook is a British born BJJ black belt under Marco Canha.

Cook earned her reputation as one of the leading athletes in the female medium heavyweight division (163.5 lbs) by conquering numerous medals in important tournaments such as the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation’s (IBJJF) World Championship (gi and no-gi), European International Open (gi and no-gi), ADCC Trials as well as at the United Arab Emirates Jiu Jitsu Federation’s (UAEJJF) Abu Dhabi Grand Slam.