Daniel Cormier Wrestling Academy Review: Gilroy, California

While we were staying in Marina, California, for two weeks in April 2026, we had the opportunity to drop our kids into Daniel Cormier Wrestling Academy in Gilroy.

As a family that trains while we travel, we’ve visited a lot of different rooms around the country.

This one was different.

Daniel Cormier isn’t simply a famous name attached to the gym. He’s an Olympic wrestler, former UFC two-division champion and one of the most recognizable people in combat sports—and what surprised us most was how much he was actually in the room coaching the kids.

We also happened to arrive during a visit from Magomed Ramazanov, the 2024 Olympic freestyle champion at 86 kg who went on to win the 2025 European Championship.

Needless to say, we were a little starstruck.

This was an experience our kids won’t forget.

Why We Chose DCWA

We knew before arriving in Marina that we wanted the kids to train while we were there.

Once we realized Daniel Cormier had a wrestling academy within driving distance, that decision became pretty easy.

You don’t get many opportunities to have your children walk into a room run by someone with Daniel’s wrestling and MMA résumé.

What I didn’t know was how involved he would actually be.

I assumed we might see him occasionally or that most of the youth program would be handled by other coaches.

That wasn’t our experience at all.

Daniel was there a lot.

I won’t say he personally coached every class we attended, because he didn’t. But he was considerably more involved in the youth program than I expected.

A Very Family-Friendly Room

When we first arrived, there wasn’t a staff member who immediately greeted us, and for a moment we weren’t entirely sure where to go or what the process was.

However, that confusion didn’t last long at all.

Almost immediately, a parent noticed we looked a bit unsure and came over to welcome us. They helped us figure out where to go, explained how things worked, and made us feel instantly comfortable in the space.

That moment really set the tone for the rest of our experience.

Even though this is a very high-level room with elite athletes and serious training, it still felt incredibly family-friendly. The parents were kind, engaged, and clearly very connected to one another. The athletes themselves also seemed to have strong relationships, and there was a real sense of community in the room.

Despite the initial confusion, we quickly felt welcomed, included, and supported.

Daniel Cormier as a Kids’ Coach

This may have been my favorite surprise about DCWA.

Daniel is incredibly dynamic with kids.

Before practice, there’s a basketball hoop above the wrestling mats, and our kids got to shoot hoops with him. He joked around, played with them and brought a ton of energy into the room.

Then practice started.

And Coach Cormier showed up.

He expects a lot from his wrestlers.

He coaches kids seriously, holds them to a high standard and doesn’t seem interested in watering down expectations simply because they’re young.

That’s something we appreciate.

He took a particular liking to Charlie during our stay and spent quite a bit of time helping and correcting her. Having someone with his level of experience actually watching your child wrestle, identifying things she needs to work on and personally helping her improve was pretty incredible.

It wasn’t simply: We trained at Daniel Cormier’s gym.

Our kids were actually coached by Daniel Cormier.

There’s a big difference.

One of my favorite memories from our entire time at DCWA happened at the end of a hard practice.

Everyone was exhausted. The kids were sweaty, practice was essentially over, and they were clearly ready to be done.

Daniel had them running sprints back and forth across the room. At one point, he looked at Charlie—who was eight at the time—and asked if she had one more in her.

Our kids know that if a coach asks whether they have more work in them, the answer is always yes.

So Charlie said yes.

They ran another sprint.

Daniel looked at her again.

“One more?”

Yes.

Another sprint.

Then he asked her again.

Yes.

This went on several times until Daniel started using this little eight-year-old as an example for the rest of the room. There were older kids standing there completely exhausted and ready to go home, while Charlie just kept agreeing to one more sprint every time he asked.

Eventually, Daniel had to stop asking Charlie because she apparently wasn’t ever going to tell him no. 😂

I loved that moment.

It was funny, but it also captured something I really appreciated about the way Daniel coached. He saw that Charlie was willing to work, challenged her to prove it, and then used that effort to raise the expectations for everyone else in the room.

She was exhausted too.

She just wasn’t going to be the one who said she was done.

That’s one of those little memories from training on the road that I’ll probably remember long after I’ve forgotten most of the techniques they learned that week.

An Unexpected Olympic Champion Seminar

Our timing couldn’t have been much better.

When we first arrived Magomed Ramazanov, who won Olympic gold for Bulgaria at 86 kg at the 2024 Paris Olympics and won the 2025 European Championship at the same weight, had started a two day seminar he was putting on at DCWA.

We didn’t initally know about the seminar but the following day, our girls were able to drop in.

I wish I could tell you exactly which techniques they worked on, but I can’t remember well enough to pretend that I do.

What I do remember is the caliber of wrestling in that room.

Our girls were getting direct instruction from an Olympic champion while training at Daniel Cormier’s academy.

Those are the moments that make training while traveling so much fun.

Sometimes you walk into a random room in a city you’re visiting and find an opportunity you never could have planned.

The Kids’ Classes

DCWA had options that worked for all three of our kids.

Forest, who was four at the time, tried one of the younger wrestling classes.

There were plenty of little kids for him to work with, and he enjoyed the class—although he was still very new to wrestling and wasn’t particularly thrilled about discovering that other children were allowed to take him down. 😂

That’s part of learning the sport.

Our older two trained together in the more intermediate/advanced youth practices.

The room was primarily focused on wrestling, not MMA. We weren’t looking for an MMA program or jiu-jitsu during this stop—we wanted wrestling, and that’s what they got.

Training Partners for Girls

Finding appropriate training partners is something we pay particularly close attention to when visiting wrestling rooms.

Charlie had one training partner who was a really good partner for her.

Sullivan also had a female training partner, although she was a bit bigger. She was still a good partner to Sullivan, and Sullivan also worked with several boys during our stay.

Some of those boys were quite a bit more advanced than she was.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

She was challenged.

Both girls felt comfortable in the room, and we felt like they were getting meaningful work rather than simply attending practices for two weeks.

What Practices Were Like

I would describe the training at DCWA as very balanced.

There was plenty of:

• Technique
• Drilling
• Live wrestling
• Conditioning

Nothing felt disproportionately focused on one area.

And this is where I think Daniel’s experience as an elite wrestler and professional athlete really shows.

The kids aren’t simply being taught wrestling moves. The room feels like it’s trying to develop wrestlers.

There was intensity and accountability, but Daniel could also turn around before class and play basketball with the same kids he was about to push through a hard practice.

That combination worked.

Who Would We Recommend DCWA For?

Honestly, I would recommend the wrestling program to a pretty wide range of kids.

There were younger and newer wrestlers like Forest as well as more experienced kids training at a considerably higher level.

Our girls were able to train in a room that challenged them without making them feel unwelcome.

For families traveling specifically for high-level wrestling, DCWA is especially interesting because you’re not necessarily visiting a gym where a famous athlete occasionally appears.

At least during our experience, Daniel was genuinely involved.

That’s what made it worth the drive.

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