Carmen Louise
With over 20 years of boxing fight and coaching experience Carmen has founded her own brand CLSDE; Carmen Louise Self Defence and Empowerment. Branching out of this Business she subcontracts to Proactivity as their Wellbeing Coordinator, Team Leader and Sports Coach within schools, Communities and Elite Sporting Teams such as Richmond AFL, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Storm to name a few.
Carmen has been doing martial arts for 31 years starting off with karate at Waverley Meadows Primary School when she was 5 years old. When she was 13 years old she obtained her black belt through Golden Cobra school of martial arts. In 2008 she was part of the ISKA Golden Cobra Victorian team as a coach. When she was 19 she underwent a gruelling grading for her 2nd Degree Black belt. In 2012 Carmen was promoted to 3rd Degree Black belt when she founded Kachi-Do Karate. The name she proudly requested to use from her very first martial arts and karate coach Darryl Andreola.
She was also selected to be part of the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) sports draft to be in the RIO 2016 Olympic Boxing team. She was then asked to be a wildcard and train with the Australian Boxing Team. Unfortunately due to injury (and surgery) it prevented her from completing the necessary training for the RIO Olympics . She made the conscious decision to become a coach.
Having a Brown Belt, 4th stripe in BJJ, she has been very successful in multiple tournaments and helped coach several of her students into success while training under Carlos Portugues Viera. Carmen was also the first Australian female coach Cia Paulista Affiliate with in 2014.
Carmen has dedicated her life to making a difference in the Self Defence field. Self Defence is a very unique Martial Art on its own. She believes it’s violent, unpredictable and incredibly complex. One of her driving passions is to help others to be able to defend themselves, stemming from the literal experience of not being able to defend herself at moments in her life. This passion has also led her to launch Worldly Women in Martial Arts and The canIAM Project (Trauma Informed Self Defence and Protections Program) which has already been implemented in 3 schools in collaboration with Proactivity.
Books:
She has collaborated and authored in 2 books, one of which became and Amazon Number 1 International Best Seller in 2023. In one of these books “Change is not a scary word” Carmen speaks about her childhood briefly and also shares “The Gameplan” model for living with Chronic Illness and Disease. In the book “Living True to You, Carmen delves into positive mindset and childhood.”
Train with Carmen
Carmen owns her own phone APP that can be used on any personal device. Contact her on social media if interested. Carmen also coaches Boxing, Karate, BJJ and Self Defence at a number of Martial Arts Gyms including Contemporary Martial Arts in Emerald. Look out for Women’s Self Defence program’s Launching at CMAG in Term 2 2025!
Book a school, council or workplace incursion with Carmen
School Incursions are booked in collaboration with Proactivity. Contact Carmen and find out more information about
The canIAM Project (Elaborate Self Defence & Protection Workshop) (link coming soon)
Standard Beginner Self Defence Incursion
Boxing, Boxercise, Karate or Martial Arts incursion
Sports or Inflatables incursion
Wellbeing + Incursion as per Proactivity