I've been thinking of putting together a once or twice a week women's class at my school. Have any of you guys tried this? What have you found to be most successful? Cardio type class or self-defense oriented? Gi? No gi? Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated.
First of all: Required class attire- Thongs ONLY... NO EXCEPTIONS...
ok ok ok, seriously...
I'd lean towards a self-defense oriented class, stay away from the "cardio" classes: They can go to Baley's for that one...
I'd honestly gear it towards no-gi but require gi-pants... This will allow them to learn self-defense w/o relying on a gi, but will give them the pants to work with. This, in my eyes, is the most realistic scenario to teach self defense under.
You should contact Jessica Ross on this topic. She ran a women's program at our school and it was quite successful. She taught traditional BJJ however she also did lot's of conditioning with the women. It was a great way to get women to feel more comfortable with BJJ and then they would be more likeley to do the Co-ed class. I will contact her and tell her to check out this thread.
Brandon Fracassi
I started BJJ because I liked the sport aspect--not the self-defense side (if I were looking for self-defense I'd probably just buy a gun...).
I might be in the minority, but I say just run it the same way you'd run any other jiu jitsu class.
Women who like martial arts and especially BJJ will probable want to have nothing to do with a women's only class, because they don't want any special treatment, they just wish to be treated the same in a "standard" BJJ class.
A women's only class is aimed to women who are not attracted to martial arts but they would join in a BJJ class, for instance, because of its secondary value as a sport. The first would be alertness and confidence through feeling good about yourself; learn to train your body in a way to revitalize your senses and prepare for an attack (self defense).
About the clothing: Definitely no gi. Ask them to come in a comfortable outfit and later introduce a t-shirt with the school’s name or the sport etc.
Women will love this stuff, as long as their femininity is pampered, not threatened by the sport.
gi would be best...both sport and self defense is good and ull see that you will have some women who want to compete and do no gi etc then go from there.
I would recommend an extra tight pair of wight underwear and nothing else. Lots of closed guard.
I'm a big fan of the gi, especially for women. Why? Because the gi makes it much easier to defeat a bigger/stronger opponent. It's much harder to dominate a bigger opponent no-gi unless you're some phenom like Garcia. People can argue that the gi is not practical, however, if a person trains long enough than they'll have a good chance of defending themselves regardless if they trained gi or no-gi. Basically self-defense comes down to reflex. Reflex is all about practice and repetition. Practice can be gi or no gi, but as I mentioned earlier I prefer gi because of the strength factor. In teaching self-defense, it's important for people to realize that it's not something you can learn in a matter of weeks even months. It takes years to develop certain unnatural refexes (e.g., defense against rear naked choke) that will save you in a self-defense situation. Other types of reflexes (e.g., dodging a punch) are more natural. When I was jumped earlier this year I experienced first hand how important reflexes are in self-defense. There's simply not much time to think.
I think some of the silly comments/sexual innuendo,discourages guys from recommending their female friends, relatives, and GF/spouse to take up BJJ.
Hi Matt, yes I ran the "Chicks" program in Michigan for years and it was very successful.
I would start with the gi for sure and offer conditioning. I would not position the class as Self Defense only. To Xtina's point, women interested in the sport, want to learn the SPORT, not just self defense.
Women, like to get in shape too and unfortunately when you first start JJ, you don't get much of a workout until you know what is going on. I do believe that women only classes are the best way to intro women and make them comfortable with the sport. Most, if not all of the women in my classes ended up taking regular male dominated classes at the school as well and almost all of them ended up competing.
If you would like to chat further, feel free to email me. I'll pass on all of the information I have. JessicaAnnR@aol.com
Thanks guys. I'm still a few weeks away, but I'll let you know what I come up with.