Encouraging Women to Train

[Buka]

My buddy is teaching a woman's self defense class at his dojo this Saturday, with a follow up on Wednesday night. He's asked me to teach it with him. As much as I don't really care for women's self defense" courses any more, I've done enough of them over the years that I couldn't say no.

Beside the usual self defense hooha, there will be a lot on awareness and crime prevention, especially as to how it relates to the unique geographical/social area in which we reside. There will be some basic grappling situations - and there will be no worry what-so-ever about anyone touching anyone else anywhere that people deem socially unacceptable. It's all business - the self defense business. And when it's all business I've not once seen anyone uncomfortable, not even a little. When it's all business, the students feel that, they know that and they embrace that.

 

[Tez3]

Women's self defence .....choose your life partner carefully.
Domestic violence is far more likely than a random attack.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Women's self defence .....choose your life partner carefully.
Domestic violence is far more likely than a random attack.

I have family members and friends that were victims of domestic abuse. The verbal abuse is more difficult to deal with than the physical abuse. The verbal abuse is like a feeler for physical abuse. I'm not sure how most people get into the mess, but from some of the stuff that I heard, they say it doesn't start off bad and people have hope they can change the person who is abusing them.

 

[Buka]

Women's self defence .....choose your life partner carefully.
Domestic violence is far more likely than a random attack.

You said it, Tez.

A couple things I teach to the young women in my class. I ask them, "When speaking with a young man, what's the one sure tell that he's lying to you?"

Answer - His lips are moving.

I also teach them that if they start to get serious with a guy to closely observe how that man treats the women in his family, both in their presence and how [if] they speak of them behind their backs. Because they are most likely to treat you the same way. It's what they're used to, it's learned behavior and difficult to change, especially under stress.

 

[Tez3]

Women also abuse their partners, male and female.

 

[WaterGal]

I also teach them that if they start to get serious with a guy to closely observe how that man treats the women in his family, both in their presence and how [if] they speak of them behind their backs. Because they are most likely to treat you the same way. It's what they're used to, it's learned behavior and difficult to change, especially under stress.

I think another good indicator is - how do they talk about their exes? If every ex is "a crazy b****" who he has a thousand complaints about, steer clear of that guy! If he's like "yeah, it didn't work out, our personalities were too different", he's probably okay.

 

[WaterGal]

You need women to get women.

Yep. Many women will feel uncomfortable coming in to a class of all men. A class with at least one or two other women will be much more comfortable. Maybe see if a few of the partners, sisters, daughters, female friends etc of the male students would be interested in taking classes at a steep discount.

 

[PhotonGuy]

There are no female students in my school. I used to think this was just how things go in martial arts schools but after seeing a lot of the posts here as well as spending more time cross training with instructors at other schools, I'm noticing that this isn't the case in other schools. The last time we had a female student was 4 years ago and the last time we had a female promoted to black belt was over 10.

We don't seem to be doing anything that discourages female students after they've started, I just can't seem to get them to walk in the door in the first place. I think having male and female students together provides a different perspective on techniques that is important. What can we do to encourage more women to come in and give it a try?

At my Jiu Jitsu training facility they do have an all women's class. During ordinary classes we usually do have some women although the men do usually greatly outnumber the women in such classes. As for the all women's class I've never seen it but I've heard its quite full. Maybe if you had an all women's class more women would train although whether a woman does train or not, its really up to her.