shihan BILLY & shihan KATHY MANZI
Shihan Billy Manzi and Shihan Kathy Manzi are a happily married couple who have been training together in American Jiu Jitsu Centers for more than twenty years and collectively bring over 100 years of martial arts experience. They are both personal students of O’Sensei Joe Puleio – the founder and head of American Jiu Jitsu Self Defense, and 8th Degree “Grandmaster” with more than four decades of training and numerous accolades and awards in the martial arts.
The Manzi’s accomplished the rank of Yodan (6th Degree) Black Belt, a Master level rank, in 2018 and are currently amongst the highest ranking instructors in American Jiu Jitsu. That same year they were also inducted into the American Jiu Jitsu Hall of Fame and have previously received the “Bushido” award – the highest honor awarded by O’Sensei and other instructors to the person(s) who live by the true spirit of the martial arts.
Shihans Billy and Kathy have owned an American Jiu Jitsu school for more than 20 years, teaching children and adults, beginner and advanced classes. They have brought more than a dozen people to black belt and are proud to have their highest-ranking student achieve the “Junior Master” level of Renshi, 4th degree black belt. They have also taught many programs outside of the dojo specifically tailored for Women’s groups and Military/Law Enforcement agencies.
Shihan Billy and Shihan Kathy have taught Women’s Self Defense and Rape Prevention Programs at American Jiu Jitsu in St. James and at Mather Hospital, Long Island. They have also taught:
• Officers of Nassau County Police Department
• New York City Police Department
• US Department of Treasury
• US Army and US Department of Defense.
more about KATHY MANZI
Kathy Manzi is a Registered Nurse who graduated and received her degree from SUNY at Farmingdale NY in 1974. She has worked as a Surgical nurse in the Operating Room, at St. Francis Hospital the Heart Center for 12 years and then at Mather Hospital for the last 27 years. She held a management position AUNC at St. Francis and is now in charge of a busy vascular service at Mather. She has had the experience to train new and experienced nurses as a Peri- Operative preceptor.
more about BILLY MANZI
Billy Manzi was a medical corpsman in the US Army for two years. He then became a surgical tech at the St. Francis Hospital Heart Center, received his nursing degree from SUNY Farmingdale and continued at St. Francis as an Open Heart nurse for fourteen more years. He then went on to become an Operating Room RN at J.T. Mather Hospital where he was promoted to Orthopedic Coordinator and ran the orthopedic department for twenty-three years while training many nurses in that service during his tenure. Now, he is at that same role in the Urology Department.
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