Welcome To Nova União Jiu-Jitsu Australia
Here you will find information about the Australian Branch of The Nova União Jiu-Jitsu Team
History - Brazil
In the early 1990s, when competition jiu-jitsu was starting to become popular in Rio, a new team was founded, joining the two zones of the city.
Carlson Gracie’s pupil Andre Pederneiras (a black belt in jiu-jitsu and judo) had a strong team in Botofogo, in the South of Rio de Janeiro. To expand, he looked for new members for his team in the northern area of the city.
At this time, the North Zone was considered technically inferior in jiu-jitsu and Andre aimed to help the area as part of his quest.
Meaning “New Union”, the Nova União Jiu-Jitsu Academy was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1995 when the Mello Tenis Clube Jiu-Jitsu, headed by Wendell Alexander, joined with Andre’s team. Wendell was a black belt from Sebastião Ricardo, who in turn was a student of the Master Oswaldo Fadda, one of the few people to train in Brazil under Sensei Maeda of Japan.
Within a few short years the team had a production line of local (state), national (Brazilian) and world champions which culminated in the team winning the Team Division at the 1997 World Championship.
History - Australia
Our Australian Team is formally administrated by black belts John Donehue, Rodney Ellis & Marcelino Freitas, all of whom have both been granted permission by Andre Pederneiras to look after the team in Australia.
With each year, our number of members keep growing, and with it the number of high level black belts.
Since the time when John Donehue & Rodney Ellis began the Union in Australia; they have been joined by several more black belts. Some graded locally but some too coming from Brazil to help grow the team.
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