Gender Issue Three

For about a year, the local Gracie Academy has been running women's self-defense classes. They usually run with over 20 participants, making them larger than the school's main Jiu-Jitsu class.

Several of the women have taken the course more than once. A very few have also made the transition to mixed-gender Jiu-Jitsu.

Clearly, there is an interest in women's martial arts. Why?

The class addresses the issue of self-defense. It is also an interesting martial arts activity. I have no data as to which aspect is the real draw, so let's assume it's half-and-half. For most of the students, it is probably a mix of the two.

If you add 50% of the students to the female students in the mixed class, magically the Academy is balanced in relation to gender. I find that assumption interesting. If I'm correct, there are a significant number of women who want to do martial arts without men around.

I guess this makes sense. There are women-only gyms, and women-only Yoga classes. I've never heard of a man-only exercise class, at least in modern times. There must be a significant number of women who just don't want to do physical activity around dudes.

I suspect this is even truer in martial arts, especially one that is grappling oriented.

It is no fun being the smaller partner. My friends Madeline and Coco routinely face guys who out mass them by over 50%, and the biggest guys out weight them by 100% and are over a foot taller.

That would be like me joining a wrestling class full of guys seven feet tall who weigh from 270 to 360 pounds. I can see how that might be daunting. Even if I had the guts to do it, I might find it less than enjoyable.

There is also the gross factor. The laws of thermodynamics say that big people have a harder time shedding heat than smaller ones. When this happens during vigorous activity; the bigger the person is, the more they sweat. Our big guys sweat significantly, and our biggest guys sweat like pigs.

It is not uncommon to have some guy's drenched chest hair being ground into my face. I suspect this is not a big draw for female participation. I could be wrong.

Is there a place for a Jiu-Jitsu class for women only? I believe there is. This would be quite different from the self-defense class structure. Self-defense runs once per week for a couple of months and then ends. Jiu-Jitsu runs several times per week on an ongoing basis. Self-def tries to give maximum effectiveness with techniques that don't require practice. Jiu-Jitsu involves many more skills. Self-def is done in sweats, while Jiu-Jitsu has uniforms and rank progression.

Jiu-Jitsu also has rolling round on the ground like monkeys for fun.

I don't normally advocate division by gender, but to me this makes sense. My ideal women-only Jiu-Jitsu class would be for the basic level only. When White Belts are about halfway through their program they normally add in a higher level class. I don't think these should be divided by gender. The students also continue attending their low level classes, so a participant who preferred the women-only class would still be doing most of their training there.

After attaining Blue Belt, students attend even more-advanced classes. These should also be mixed. Blues are also strongly encouraged to keep attending the lower-level classes. These could be mixed or not.

All we'd need would be a spare instructor with time on their hands.