Is BJJ The Most Effective Art For A Woman?

[Carol]

My opinion is that it's not the art, its the instructor.

The most effective art for a woman is the one taught by an instructor that is the most effective at encouraging a woman to train regularly. Plus, the instructor must be experienced and effective at teaching a student to defend against an attacker that taller, larger, and with different physiology.

Excellent points about date rape though. Worth repeating.

 

[Drac]

And, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should a woman agree to go somewhere else with an attacker! This is almost certain to result in a murder, not "merely" (qoutes 'cause there's really nothing "mere" about it!) a rape.

YES!!!! 100 % Correct..Every self-defense instructor,martial arts instructor as well as school teachers and parents should DRILL that RULE into the heads of their students.

 

[Lisa]

Instincts aka "the little voice inside you", the "strange feeling in your gut" ..Male or Female OBEY THEM...

I tell my daughters this all the time about almost ever situation or decision they have to make. "What is your gut telling you?"

That little inner voice could save your life one day.

 

[Drac]

That little inner voice could save your life one day.

Amen Sister...

 

[SFC JeffJ]

That little inner voice could save your life one day.

Of course my little inner voice tells me to kill all of my friends before they kill me.

But seriously, the nails been hit on the head many times. It's not the particular style that is important, but the quality of instruction and instilling the "I won't be a victim" mindset. Also the willingness of the attacked to do what is necessary to keep it from happening. All the high-speed hard core training won't be any help at all if the person who received it isn't willing to do what it takes when the **** hits the fan.

Jeff

 

[Drac]

"I won't be a victim" mindset

This should give you all a laugh..One of the many complaints I've recieved while on duty came from a woman whos female friend was touched while riding a city bus.. When I asked her Why she didn't say anything to the bus driver her answer was something to the effect of "We're trained to be quiet"..I asked her "What kind of victims mindset was she being taught??"

 

[SFC JeffJ]

I remember sometime in the past year, when that 12 year old girl escaped from the adbuctor, they had the girl, her family, and John Walsh from Americas Most Wanted on the Today show. The interviewer, Matt Lauer if I remember correctly, asked if she didn't put herself in more danger by resisting, and Walsh came back saying she did exactly the right thing. Our culture as of late is breeding victims. From the schools who will suspend or expell the kid who defends himself as well as the attacker, to all the crap about just giving in to the mugger/rapist/whatever. We need to do all we can to destroy that attitude.

Jeff

 

[SFC JeffJ]

And now that I've posted that, sorry 'bout going off topic.

 

[Drac]

And now that I've posted that, sorry 'bout going off topic.

Lets start a new one on that topic...

 

[Infinite]

I disagree. Keeping to the limited focus on rape, any choice that a woman makes that lets her survive is a good choice -- even if it's submission. BUT I can't strongly enough urge that the plan should always be to resist 100%. A rapist is often someone just one push short of becoming a serial killer. (For a frighteningly accurate view inside the mind of a serial killer, I strongly recommend a book titled Unfinished Murder. It's an account of a Cleveland area serial rapist, and it gives a great insight into why rape is not about sex. I apologize, I don't recall the author's name.)

So strangely enough I'm actually en route to be a forensics psychologist. This is my new career choice I'm sort of tired of my current one. So as I have studied this in some great detail I wish to point out a few things.

1) Serial anything is a compulsive disorder and as such predictability can not be maintained. Going with vs not going with being compliant or not compliant really has no effect on the descisions of the attacker to harm or kill the individual.

2) It is quite true that often serial killers use serial rape first and then escalate beyond that to murder. Murder in these cases is often oportunistic the first time and then increases to deliberate.

3) I disagree serial rapists are not one push away from being serial killers. There are two seperate camps but it is often confusing as serial killers will move from rape to murder. There are several serial rapists that have never and probably will never move to murder unless it was for self preservation. I.E. Kill the vitcim so she can't id him.

And, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should a woman agree to go somewhere else with an attacker! This is almost certain to result in a murder, not "merely" (qoutes 'cause there's really nothing "mere" about it!) a rape.

This how ever I will agree with 100%. It also reminds me of the old addage don't yell rape yell fire.

 

[Kacey]

My opinion is that it's not the art, its the instructor.

The most effective art for a woman is the one taught by an instructor that is the most effective at encouraging a woman to train regularly. Plus, the instructor must be experienced and effective at teaching a student to defend against an attacker that taller, larger, and with different physiology.

Excellent points about date rape though. Worth repeating.

Carol makes the point I was trying to make, and makes it more clearly than I think I did. The particular art is not important - it is whatever art/instructor causes to you to continue to learn and practice, which, as Carol says, is more often the instructor than anything else, that is the key. So art "A" teaches something art "B" doesn't.... but if students come to class "B", and stay, and practice, then I think that's a lot more useful in the long run than if they try the perfect art "A" (whatever it might be) and - for whatever reason - don't stay. The particular art is less important than continued training in something - especially if it covers awareness - than not training in anything, no matter how good.

 

[MJS]

WOW!! Great replies everyone! My appologies for not responding sooner. Rather than going back and replying to each post, I'll just make a few general comments. As I stated in my original post, I was looking at this as an assault type situation. Sure, in many cases, the female will be standing prior to being brought to the ground, so yes, a solid stand up system should provide her with the tools necessary to fend off an attack. However, if she is brought to the ground, I think that having some ground skill is going to be important. Much of the BJJ that we see today is geared more towards the sport aspect, so yes, there is a good chance things are going to have to be modified.

 

[jks9199]

I remember sometime in the past year, when that 12 year old girl escaped from the adbuctor, they had the girl, her family, and John Walsh from Americas Most Wanted on the Today show. The interviewer, Matt Lauer if I remember correctly, asked if she didn't put herself in more danger by resisting, and Walsh came back saying she did exactly the right thing. Our culture as of late is breeding victims. From the schools who will suspend or expell the kid who defends himself as well as the attacker, to all the crap about just giving in to the mugger/rapist/whatever. We need to do all we can to destroy that attitude.

Jeff

The first "rule" is that if the person survived -- they did the right thing. Whether that was beating the attacker senseless or submitting to the assault and getting out of there. There's really no perfect rule for how someone should handle any assault, and that's especially true for sexual assault. If they got out of it alive -- they did it right.

But, to me, the best general principle is to always plan to resist! I'll compare it to the military; it's always the duty of a captured soldier to attempt to escape, as I understand it. That doesn't necessarily mean jumping into a hail of gunfire... Sometimes, it's better to wait for a more opportune moment -- but always be looking and prepared to seize that instant.

The whole zero tolerance/punish everybody approach is just, to me, silly. There's a huge difference between the kid who started the fight, and the one who defended himself -- so long as the extent of the defense is reasonable. If the "defender" re-initiated the fight, or the harm inflicted in defending himself wasn't reasonable in light of the attack (say, broken bones in response to a shoving match between two guys of roughly equal size), that's a different question.

 

[JerryL]

That's going to depends on the situation.

I'd imagine a date-rape tends to start in what is already an "on your back grappling" position, so an art with a focus there would seem very appropriate.

Given the best of all scenerios, I'd be looking at an art that focused on identifying your potential assailant and being able to keep weapon's fire in a tight grouping when you shoot him.

When that fails, and you are up-close without a drawn weapon, I'd rather be standing and using what weapons were at hand. So I'd want an art that covers that as well.

When that fails, you are on the ground defineding. Personally, I still prefer an art that spends some time focusing using a weapon from that position, but I like weapons because of their ability to increase the ability to inflict damage.

I think BJJ would be a good, useful, and obvious choice. I don't think there's a universal "best" without getting far more specific.