Why do BJJ gyms advertise "self defense programs" for women?

[Nooob]

You would often see their cringeworthy adverts say something like this "Self defense program for women", "women empowered" and the way they say it works for women.

It's well known self defense is completely useless and won't work against men so why do they do this? Wouldn't this marketing scam tarnish their reputation? Is it better of saying "women only" class instead?

I have not seen one boxing, wrestling and other combat sport gym does that but it's so popular in BJJ.

 

[2008]

You would often see their cringeworthy adverts say something like this "Self defense program for women", "women empowered" and the way they say it works for women.

It's well known self defense is completely useless and won't work against men so why do they do this? Wouldn't this marketing scam tarnish their reputation?

I have not seen one boxing, wrestling and other combat sport gym does that but it's so popular in BJJ.

I guess they want to also attract very casual female types who have NO interest in martial arts, mma, or fighting whatsoever to sign up for classes so the gym can generate more business would be my guess.

My sister should train BJJ but she zero desire/interest.

Even if someone only trained for one year or two you never know when it will come in handy if you needed to know how to 'fight' to survive an attack that one time.

 

[lts5025]

You would often see their cringeworthy adverts say something like this "Self defense program for women", "women empowered" and the way they say it works for women.

It's well known self defense is completely useless and won't work against men so why do they do this? Wouldn't this marketing scam tarnish their reputation?

I have not seen one boxing, wrestling and other combat sport gym does that but it's so popular in BJJ.

Because most women will not be able to outbox or outwrestle their attackers, despite training. However, learning submissions and how to survive off your back is a pretty realistic scenario for women.

 

[backlight]

It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

The same reason most martial arts do the same...

 

[EGDM]

It's a marketing tool to attract new students. Everyone should recognize that nothing short of months-to-years of serious training is going to let anyone successfully fend off a dangerous attacker, no matter who you are.

 

[Crotalis]

You would often see their cringeworthy adverts say something like this "Self defense program for women", "women empowered" and the way they say it works for women.

It's well known self defense is completely useless and won't work against men so why do they do this? Wouldn't this marketing scam tarnish their reputation?

I have not seen one boxing, wrestling and other combat sport gym does that but it's so popular in BJJ.

I've never seen a boxing or wrestling gym talk about self defense period.

My BJJ gym, advertises this, but it's because we actually run a special class for women only. The teacher of that class is a woman and then we have myself and a few of the other purple belt male instructors to help out and provide the "male" perspective. Some women want to learn BJJ but dobn't want to jump right into a regular co-ed class right off the bat. This helps with their comfort and confidence level. We also have women in this class who have actually been victims of sexual assault and this class allows them a "safe space" where they can start to get some of their "power" back.

I agree there are schools that advertise "women's self defense" and never really address it (just like I've only seen maybe 1 in 10 BJJ schools that advertise "self defense" of any kind actually teach self defense), but there are some places that take this seriously.

 

[Foppa21]

You would often see their cringeworthy adverts say something like this "Self defense program for women", "women empowered" and the way they say it works for women.

It's well known self defense is completely useless and won't work against men so why do they do this? Wouldn't this marketing scam tarnish their reputation?

I have not seen one boxing, wrestling and other combat sport gym does that but it's so popular in BJJ.

Honestly, as mentioned before it's a bit of marketing.

The specificity of the advertising towards women is usually more from the side of "women only" classes to provide a bit of comfort in the classes.

I wouldn't say it doesn't work against men. At the end of the day, some knowledge is better than none. Women I find in general are better at using only when backed into a corner than men. The testosterone kicks in super early and the situation escalates quickly with the little skill then have.

Most half decent self defence courses start with teaching situational awareness and emphasising that running/walking away in the best option before trying any death touch/dim mak silver bullet techniques.

 

[Thaijitsu612]

It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Yup, same reason they advertise kids classes

 

[Russky]

It works.

 

[andrewm2211]

I don’t think most would claim that after a few classes they could make a woman invincible.

But look you take a woman who has trained hard for a year and a woman who hasn’t. The woman who trained will have a better shot.

 

[Adjaar]

I know the two places I've trained at use it as a recruitment strategy. The amount of female training partners is hard to maintain in certain areas, and a lot of women don't want to join because they are too nervous to roll with a man. These seminars allow a bunch of women to come to an event where that fear is no longer there, and then hopefully a few women will join and then can continue to use each other as their future training partners.

 

[winterbike]

I know the two places I've trained at use it as a recruitment strategy. The amount of female training partners is hard to maintain in certain areas, and a lot of women don't want to join because they are too nervous to roll with a man. These seminars allow a bunch of women to come to an event where that fear is no longer there, and then hopefully a few women will join and then can continue to use each other as their future training partners.

Yup. The GF is 30 years old, 120lbs soaking wet and doesn't have a very extensive athletic background. Rolling with experienced guys who all outweigh her scares her, on top of being demoralizing. I mean, sure, you gotta persevere and everything, but let's face it, she'll never tap anyone higher than a white belt.

When she saw a friend of mine offered a few (legit) special self-defense classes for women, she felt thrilled because it was much less intimidating and much more accessible for her level. It makes sense for everyone involved.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

I don’t think most would claim that after a few classes they could make a woman invincible.

But look you take a woman who has trained hard for a year and a woman who hasn’t. The woman who trained will have a better shot.

She should have spent a year learning how to knife fight and shoot guns if she really wants self defense

A woman black belt isn't safe from a large male attacker , nevermind a woman with 1 year training

 

[MaxMMA]

I somewhat disagree with TS. An average sized female with above average boxing, or TKD/karate skills more than likely isn't going to be able to stop your average sized male from overpowering her once he gets a hold of her. However when you throw jiujitsu into the equation, it isn't so cut and dry.

I've known several women over the years with above average bjj skills that could easily get the better of an assailant assuming he didn't have a significant weight advantage.

But on the same note, these women have years of experience, so yes it is a little silly when you see schools putting on womens self defense seminars and what not.

 

[listrahtes]

Imo BJJ is at least much better than the usual Krav Maga, Wing Chun & sports JJ crap that sell women self defense classes.

I am very critical in general with self defense classes. Next to no benefit for participants but with BJJ I kind of came around. Stand Up requires a long time to be able to transfer it into real life threat situation. With stand up self defense classes many women learn wrong behaviour for threat scenario and gain fake self confidence out of drills without any hard sparring (you cant do that in self defense class).

I know of high graded male & female black belts in TMAs without any sparring, training for 20+ years with drills (like in these classes) and they would break like a popsicle in any real life scenario.

With BJJ a women is on her back in sexual assault (that is the number one fear they have for good reason) at least she could have the technical skill to maybe overpower a much stronger man with a surprise attack.

Best case scenario the women realizes martial arts can be fun and starts with serious training & competing. Than there is definitely a positive transfer into threat defense.

The best defense for a women by far is situational awareness and straigh out NOT going into places /situations with clear potential dangers. Sounds obvious but that is were the most mistakes are made.
In a society were citizens are not protected anymore by the law and police that is more and more important.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

I somewhat disagree with TS. An average sized female with above average boxing, or TKD/karate skills more than likely isn't going to be able to stop your average sized male from overpowering her once he gets a hold of her. However when you throw jiujitsu into the equation, it isn't so cut and dry.

I've known several women over the years with above average bjj skills that could easily get the better of an assailant assuming he didn't have a significant weight advantage.

But on the same note, these women have years of experience, so yes it is a little silly when you see schools putting on womens self defense seminars and what not.

bjj is better than nothing, for sure.



most men will have a pretty good weight advantage and a massive strength advantage.



most women dont train in a way that prepares them for enraged attacker willing to rape, bite, punch, kick etc etc. You know how ppl freeze in comp??? shit is another level. i see purple belt women competitors struggle to sweep athletic white belts all the time and htose women have many years of training. they might eventually get the sweep but in a real life situation all that time in between is when the man on top would be throwing strikes.



i dont think the problem is with self defense seminars for experienced women. i think its usually used as a way to attract new customers but the retention rate is probably low so it mostly gives a few women a false sense of security to learn a couple umpa and clinch escapes that will never work for them from 1 hour practice.

 

[Matsukaze]

It's a marketing technique used to get women into the door. Majority of women would like to learn how to defend themselves but the problem is keeping them long enough for it to matter. These self defense 2 week programs are a joke in the long run but at least you hope to gain new students out of it.. my opinion

 

[2008]

I think some people are over thinking this. The average person you can potentially get into a fight with randomly on the street is not going to be a highly trained fighter or athlete. He is most likely going to be a weirdo with a big mouth that knows a little bit of craziness will scare some people off to get what he wants.

A lot of it is common sense like others have said with having 'situational awareness'. Don't go into sketchy bars on a bad of part of town, don't go into the 7-11 where you know all the crackheads and homeless hangout in front of, don't go into to the atm machine at 1am at night, etc.

There is a lot of common sense in kick the guy in the balls and run, scratch the guy in the eyes and run, blow a rape horn in his ears and run. That should sort of be the thinking unless a large knife or gun is involved from the get go.

 

[SummerStriker]

Women may have to fight other women.

Women may have to fight weak men.

Women may have to fight strong men that are already hurt, or hurt by someone else.

Women may find martial arts training helpful for retaining a weapon. (Imagine a BJJ black belt with a kitchen knife, and you're trying to grab her hand)

Some women get pretty strong. There was a 12-13 year old girl at my old gym that did barbel exercises and out-lifted some of the 20 y/o spaghetti kids who never played sports. Lots of 20-30 year old men can't bench the bar, but this 12 year old girl could +, and just because a man is physically weak, doesn't mean he'll never try to rape someone.

Some women can take a surprising amount of damage. You can hit them with a car and break half their ribs, and they will still be up, walking around, talking to people. If she slipped a technical guillotine on an untrained man while in fear for her life, he might not be able to get her off by slamming her through a window.

Martial arts with conscientious coaches, rather than the rapist creepers you hear about on Sherdog all the time, can provide environments where women get used to maintaining personal boundaries and standing up for themselves, which will allow them to maintain their own space socially, when they might not be inclined to otherwise.

That's a part of why I hate useless fucking cult of personality gyms with belts and honor and authority, because that shits all fake and relies on people giving up their personal advocacy to prop up the ego of some douchbag that rented an empty room because he's good at fist fighting.