With more and more influential female BJJ champs coming into the limelight (see; Grace Gundrum, Jessa Khan, Elisabeth Clay and many more) it’s more important now than ever to promote the benefits and significance of women training BJJ. Not only for the benefit of women in the sport, but the benefit of the guys too!
Self Defence
This one is a no brainer. Training BJJ will give you a foot up in any physical confrontation you may face. In fact BJJ may be one of the most practical self defence martial arts for women due to the large skill gap between trained and untrained people, as well as the ability to negate disparities in weight and strength through good technique. Due to this same strength disparity, women tend to pick up good technique quicker than larger men who can rely on their strength.
Community
Women in BJJ also reap the benefit of coming into a nurturing, supportive and motivating community, especially at Base Training Centre! Our ladies only classes are designed to ease you into the sport of BJJ without the pressure. Move at your own pace and learn alongside likeminded women who will help you every step of the way. When you are ready, you are free to move into our regular classes to test your skills against the guys (who are monitored by coaches to ensure they are rolling appropriately to your strength, size and skill level). In fact, skilled ladies in the regular classes make for great training partners for guys because it teaches them: humility if they are beaten, to slow down if they are too spazzy and to use less strength and more technique!
It’s Different
The biggest thing we see time and time again with women training BJJ is that they will stick to it because it’s different. No matter what your goals are, it’s hard to miss a training session if you actually love the training! Unlike a traditional weightlifting gym where it can be daunting, uncomfortable and anxiety inducing to go, jiu jitsu retains it’s charm in being an outlet from the world. For that 45 minutes to an hour of training, nothing else matters other than the training and the laughs you will have with your training partners.
Non-Detrimental Goals
For most people, goal setting is a big issue because they set goals that can be detrimental to their mental and physical health. Goals such as “I want to lose x kilos” or “I want to be a size x in 30 days” can be very dangerous if you go about achieving them the wrong way. BJJ helps you create reasonable and actionable goals with little milestones along the way to show your progress. Goals such as “I want to be able to do an armbar” or “I want to get my first stripe on my white belt” are goals of consistency and skill. If you keep turning up and keep training hard you will get there, with the fitness, weight loss and strength gains being a secondary benefit.
We hope this has enlightened you to consider giving BJJ a try! If you want any more information please contact us on Facebook or email us at [email protected]
