Beginners and veterans alike, all martial arts practitioners – at least once in their journey – have already asked themselves if their fighting modality would serve them in a real-life situation. For most female practitioners, especially those interested in Jiu Jitsu for women, this question is one of the main motivations for starting trainin
If that is your case, this is meant to you.
In this article, we’ll see how and why Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most efficient self-defense techniques, and why it works so well in real-life scenarios, especially for women.
Why self defense is important for women
You can’t solve systemic violence with your fists. But you certainly can stun it.
Before moving forward, we must address the despicable elephant in the room: gender related violence has no easy solutions. We won’t claim that self-defense training will magically solve the situation for a woman who’s facing a violent situation at home.
Nor that it will miraculously end random cases of assault on the streets. For the same reason that we wouldn’t claim that the lack of self-defense training on the part of women is the cause of violence. That would be ludicrous, right?
But… While facing a violent situation says nothing about a woman’s personality or capability, assaulting women is – pretty much – a character definer for aggressors. And, usually, they are not the most courageous people.
In this context, self-defense training in general (and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, specifically) is more than a simple tool to physically handle an aggressor – being a family member, partner or stranger. While that aspect of training is very important, it’s most of all a path to self-empowerment and community building. Those are the bases of the School of Jiu Jitsu and the aggressors’ worst enemies.
Is BJJ a good self-defense technique for women?
Yes! That was easy, right?
In this blog, we’ve talked a lot about how Hélio Gracie – founder of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – created this martial art to function no matter how stronger or larger the opponent. Despite training Judo from a young age, Hélio himself was kind of frail, physically speaking: smaller and lighter than most of the other practitioners. But he mastered the technique.
What he eventually did was adapting the Japanese martial art that his brother teached (Judo) and combining it with the ancient technique of the samurais (the traditional Jiu Jitsu). In such a way that his opponent’s own strength and weight became his weapons. The fragile Hélio became an international champion, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu became internationally known and the rest is history. That you can read about in this blog.
To make a long story short, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu works so well for women’s self-defense for the same reason that made Hélio Gracie a legend: it changes the game. It’s no longer a matter of who’s stronger – but a matter of who has the best strategy and who better masters the technique. It’s the lever versus brute force. And let’s repeat it a thousand times: we all know who wins that fight!
There are some practical characteristics of BJJ that are worth noticing. First, unlike boxing or Muay Thai (that are also great self-defense techniques), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a grappling fight modality. Which means it’s focused on overthrowing and twisting moves, instead of punches. Second, BJJ differs from Judo and from the traditional Japanese Jiu Jitsu by concentrating most of its practice on ground fighting.
Why is that important?, you may ask. Well, while facing an assault – especially from a larger adversarie – chances are that you’ll be thrown on the ground at some point. And, without training, it’s harder to defend yourself from that position.
That’s because of the (obvious) practical reasons and because you’re expected to be a little stunned and disoriented by the fall. The constant practice of ground fighting will eventually neutralize these issues and you’ll not only be ready to continue holding out but also know what to do in this scenario.
Get to know more about the origin and bases of Muay Thai.
Know your strength: the right mindset to kick some ass
Self-knowledge. Self empowerment. Inner peace. Trust in yourself and others. Those are more than pretty zen words: they are the mantra that puts a chill down the spine of any wannabe aggressor. And they are all parts of what you learn in Jiu Jitsu – beyond the grappling.
Like we’ve said before, we can all probably agree that men who beat women share the common denominator of not being particularly brave people. You’ll hardly see a thin 5,2 ft bully harassing a 6,2 ft kid that’s on the football team, right?
While there’s no universal feature that connects all violence survivors, most aggressors will aim against what they perceive as smaller, physically weaker, least trained or distracted targets. In this context, “the mantra” will deny them just that.
And, while we’re at that topic, the ability to get help is as important as the capacity to knock out the aggressor. This goes for family, friends and community relations, such as the ones that we nourish here at School of Jiu Jitsu.
Want to know more about the life changing, self-defense potential of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?
Check our social media for the “Small Guideline for Women’s Self-defense”, with practical tips for avoiding, defusing and neutralizing dangerous situations. And come visit! We have free trial classes just for women.