Women's Self-Defense and Is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Right?
A third-degree black belt, and owner of Strong Heart Academy, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Phoenix, Arizona, discusses Women’s Self-Defense and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Watch the video below:
Transcript:
So today I want to talk about, women's self defense and is Brazilian jiu jitsu, right, for women, for self defense, to defend yourself? And I would say absolutely yes. In Phoenix, you know, I don't know the statistics right now, but there's definitely a feeling that, crime is on the rise. And I think this is nationally right now, too, since the pandemic happened.
Is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a Great Self-Defense?
And a lot of women will, will call and ask, Hey, is, is Brazilian jiu jitsu a great self-defense? Or is it good for self-defense? I'd like to take self defense classes. And, the answer is yes.
Self-Defense Techniques in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
So we don't always specifically use, self-defense techniques in Brazilian jiu jitsu.
It is incorporated to what Brazilian is. And, because most fights end up in a clinch or on the ground, meaning, someone might throw a punch, but then someone tries to grab a hold of somebody. And then we're tussling when we're literally locked together, that's called the clinch. Okay. Now there's wrestling clinch and there's Moi Thai clench. Um, those are very helpful. Okay. But if you've grappled, you can control a lot of the strikes in the clinch. So someone trying to hit you, you can control the strikes then if you're a lot smaller than your opponent, okay. And there's nowhere to run, you can't run away. Then the best option is to take that opponent to the ground. Okay. Once you're on the ground, if you are on top, you have a severe advantage over your opponent. If you're on bottom, Brazilian jiu jitsu teaches you how to escape from those positions.
And I don't know of any other martial art as effective as that. They're none. There's a lot of, you know, Croma gosh, tried it. Some karate they'll incorporate like ground, oh, we do ground. And they just take little pieces of Brazilian jiu jitsu. And then like, oh, this is what we do. The problem is they don't do it live. Okay.
Live Martial Arts Sparring
And I've talked about it before the, the best martial arts are the ones that actually spar live, where you're not letting me do what I want to do. And I'm not letting you, what do, what you want do, you know, it's one thing when they're like, okay, grab my wrist, grab my wrist with the other hand. That's like the joke, you know, is, but meanwhile, they would just be punching you in the face. Okay. Or attacking you. So learning to deal with someone that's trying to oppose their will, or you trying to impose your will on someone when they're not letting you do it.
Okay. That's the sparring aspect of Brazilian jiu jitsu.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: A Must for Self-Defense
I absolutely think it is a must, or self defense. You have to have resistance. Otherwise the realism's not there and in Brazilian jiu jitsu, even more important, even more important than the actual technique, which sounds crazy is learning to deal with adrenalization. Okay. Adrenalization happens when your body is trying to tell you to, fight or flight. Okay. Now sometimes your body wants to flight when there's not an option to flight and that it can be an issue. Okay. And you need to learn how to deal with that. There's also a freezing effect. Sometimes people get frozen like deers do. Okay. And you're a prey. You want to, it's okay to freeze so they can't see you. But if you're already in a conflict, there is no hiding. And I don't think that that is bad thing to hide.
You know, if someone is chasing you and you can hide for sure hide, but make sure you have an out, so you're not cornered. Okay. Once you're cornered, you have to fight. There's no option. Okay. And the fight has to go a hundred percent. Okay. There's no like, oh, I, I kind of just wanna not hurt him. No, you have to defend yourself to the fullest. Okay. And make that person regret the decision that they had to attack you. Okay. We're not trying, we're not talking offensively, going out and attacking people. We're saying we are defending yourself. Okay.
Are Women Easy Targets?
Now, sometimes people think that women are easy targets. Because the truth of the matter is they have 50% muscle mass of upper body muscle mass compared to a male. This is all typical numbers. Okay. There's always outlier there's women that are probably stronger than me.
That could deadlift more than me. Okay. But on average, on average, you know, most women aren't as strong and are not as tall. Okay. For sure. This is on average. Are there, some women that are over six foot tall for sure, but it's very, it's not, it's not the norm. Okay. Those are few and far between and still those women generally are, are still 50%, not as strong as a man. Okay.
Learning to Deal with Leverage
So in learning to deal with leverage, okay. To leverage the fact that you don't have as much strength. And for me personally, this was, helpful because when I started Brazilian jiu jitsu, I was about six foot tall. I was 20 years old, but I was very thin for a six foot tall person. So I was about 135, 140. I just very skinny. I would say I was scrappy cuz I wrestled.
But, I didn't have the muscle mass that most of the people in class did and every class we sparred and instead of using it as an excuse that I was smaller, I just learned how to get good at jiu jitsu, Brazilian jiu jitsu and there's tactics in jiu jitsu that you can use as a smaller person to defend yourself. And I think it's hugely valuable, for everyone, but especially women. Again, you are a smaller statue. My wife she's about 5-4, 5-5, maybe. I'm six foot tall. And even for a woman, 5-6, 5-7, that's a pretty tall woman. But you're still shorter than an average man. I think the average man is about 5-10, 5-11. You know, if we're talking about six foot-2, 6 foot-5, those are very big people. Even for myself, it can be hard to, grapple with someone that large. Okay. But Brazil Brazilian Jiu jitsu Jteaches you how to use your leverage to gain advantage over your opponent.
Okay. How to escape bad positions. Okay.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu: Overcoming Panic and Emotions
And then how to not panic when you're in these bad positions, which is also extremely helpful. When you, if you start panicking, you don't think clearly you don't breathe clearly and you're not gonna react correctly. Because we spar every class at strong heart. You're gonna get the feeling of that. A generalization of panic. You know, I, I, I don't wanna scare people saying that that you're gonna panic in class, but you all have a, you know, it's a controlled environment, but, when you start wrestling for the first time, it could be very, alarming if you've never done it before. So it's very helpful to learn how to deal with those emotions, deal with those thought processes.
Being Prepared: BJJ
So when it happens for real, you're prepared, it's not a, it's not something that you're not prepared for.
Okay. It's like the Boy Scouts, you know, being prepared, it, it's gonna help your outcomes for sure. Or business, any business that's not prepared. Excuse me for, everything, you know, is when something bad happens, you're just not ready for it and it can set your business back. Okay. So, you know, it's the same thing in the life. If you're not prepared for a dire situation, it can catch you off guard. And if you're not mentally ready to shift gears, from peace to violence, that's also could be an issue. Okay. I've seen so many people why I don't wanna hurt them. Um, well you're being attacked. Okay. And you need to defend yourself and you know, we're not talking about, unjust violence. We're talking about just violence because you're, you're defending yourself with the people around you or even your children. Imagine you're a mom.
Okay. You know, I know any mom would die for her children, but do you, know how to defend, defend yourself so you don't have to die. Okay. We don't want, we don't want people to get hurt. We want people to defend themselves so they can be, live another day and be with their children, be with their family. Okay.
Husband and/or Boyfriend Will Defend Me
I've had many times in the past women have told me when I've done. Women's self defense seminars that, oh, well my, my husband, he's such a tough guy or my boyfriend. He's a tough guy, but you know, they go to work, they have jobs, they have lives that they're not around 24-7, you're going out to run an errand. Okay. And you gotta go to your car and back there's, that's no man's land. Okay. Depending on where you park. If there's anyone around, you know, there's a lot of people I would call street people right now that are homeless, have psychotic issues, are on drugs and they're desperate, you know, times can be desperate right now. So, you know, you wanna be able to defend yourself against these people that might approach you. They might be completely harmless, but what if they're not? And you need to be prepared for those scenarios.
Using Weapons for Self-Defense
And I'm not against weapons either. I practice regularly on pistols, but there are levels of when you can use, a firearm. Okay. Now I think actually women have an advantage with that because you can kind of prove that, it's gonna be harder to defend yourself. And if it's a, if you think your life is threatened, you can defend yourself with a pistol, but are you willing to pull that trigger and kill someone? Okay. And studies, say that, most people are not. And even officers, although we see so many, videos of officer shootings, a lot of times they miss quite a few rounds because they're not willing to take a life and, Brazilian jiu jitsu makes it so you don't have to take a life.
Defend Yourself Without Killing
You could defend yourself without killing another person, which is also why it's great for the police. I believe all police should be at least a purple belt. Like Andrew Lang said, the president candidate, from the last election, you know, he said, all Brazilian jiu jitsu should be mandatory, purple belts. And I highly agree with that. Your ability to defend yourself and others is paramount to be a police force that you are trying to protect the public. But women is no different. So, I highly recommend that women train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Women's Only Self-Defense for Jiu Jitsu
Now we also run into like, well, do you have a women's only class? And sometimes we, we used to have a women's only self defense class or, women's jiu jitsu class. But the truth is most women are going to be attacked, not by other women. So you're gonna be attacked by men.
That's just, are the statistics, rarely women attack other women, you know, they either attack their spouse or boyfriend or actual children, unfortunately. They're not attacking other women. It's very, very, seldom that ever occurs. That's like the smallest of populations that ever happens. So the mass amounts of physical altercations are gonna be between a man and a woman, a man trying to attack a woman, unfortunately. And if you're training in Brazilian jiu jitsu, I highly recommend you're training with men so that you are used to the size difference, the physical presence of a man. And it's not as scary, you know? And, as intimidating, like, oh, I've done this before your mind goes, okay, this is a big giant man, but I know I could defend myself and at least get out of the situation and not be stuck underneath person.
Sexual Assaults and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
The last part I wanna talk about this would be in sexual assaults. Okay. You know, most sexual assaults. They're trying to get you down, on the ground. Okay. They could have also pushed you against an object. Okay. And assault you from behind. But, even then your ability to grapple on that situation and face the person okay. And defend yourself that way is gonna, help tremendously with Brazilian jiu jitsu. Okay. Not being taken down, not being forced against a wall, forced against a hard object. And then the last part is that they're trying to take you to the ground, trying to take your pants off. You know, there's so many techniques there that can prevent that from happening. And, you know, even teenage daughters, you know, I only have boys, but I can't imagine, my fear if I had teenage daughters, they're out there in the world.
And, so many women are assaulted and sexually assaulted. The numbers are, are, are disturbing. How many men are that evil. And it's an unfortunate thing in society. And I hundred percent agree.
Teaching Men to Be Better
We need to teach our men better and are boys better. But also the reality is that there's a percentage of the men that are doing this or will always do this. So, I think it's a twofold thing. You know, teaching my children, my, my boys to be morally sound men that don't take advantage of women or hurt women ever. That's my, that's my responsibility. Okay. And then, if I had a daughter teaching her to defend herself, so it's like a twofold problem. People go, oh, we're just, you know, it's, don't men should just be better for sure. Men should just be better. For sure.
I'm not arguing that fact. But if we could just, teach our boys better, plus teach our women to defend themselves. I think, the statistics would play out a little bit better and there'd be less assault. And, there'd be a lot more happy stories of women able to defend themselves. And, hopefully if that happens, then men will start thinking twice before they start attacking.
Are People Who Attack, Trained?
I also don't believe that most people, that attack people are trained in anything. So your, your advantage to being trained versus an untrained is crazy. If you've ever taken a Brazilian jiu jitsu class, you'll see this from, once you're in six months after six months of training and a new person walks in the door, your ability to handle yourself is insanely. It's crazy, the difference. It really is crazy. The difference if you were consistent for six months and then a new person walks in the door and you're gonna start wrestling that person tonight, they don't know anything, your ability at least to keep them in front of you and not hold you down or not get on your back.
I mean, it's empowering. It really is empowering.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Can Empower Women: Confidence
And I think jiu jitsu can empower women to help have confidence in their ability to defend themselves or at least get out of the situation. And then keeping, someone when, when you have the confidence. Okay. I believe it makes you less of a target too. Predators look for soft targets in the wild and in, humanity too. Okay. Why would you want a hard target? That's going, I mean, if you even, I mean, for all my wife watches, all these murder shows, you could look it up. I mean, all these guys, the serial killers are always looking for easy targets, gullible targets. They, they trick, okay. They're weaker, they're vulnerable. Okay. You know, I, I would, if you're doing Brazilian jiu jitsu, you will be less vulnerable that I can promise you. Okay.
Can You Defend Yourself?
Can it defend you against everything? Absolutely not. Okay. There is no full proof anything okay. Weapons can be used against us. Okay. So, and even if you do have a pistol, you lose your pistol. It jams. What, what do you do then? You know, can you defend yourself? You should be able to defend yourself. And Brazilian jiu jitsu is perfect for that. Okay.
Striking Classes for Women
We also offer a striking class, which is great learning how to use distance and circling, your ability to move in striking. We don't just sit you in front of a bag and you're just doing like a cardio, kickboxing. I know a lot of women like cardio, kickboxing classes. You're still gonna get cardio out of this, for sure. You're hitting bags, you're hitting mitts, but we're also working with others. You could spar if you like. But learning how to move on your feet and not be a sitting still target to get pummeled on is very important.
I want it to go to the ground. Once it gets to the clinch. Now we're talking about Brazilian Jiu jitsu now with striking. It is a disadvantage. If you're a smaller person, number one, why you have so many weight classes in striking, martial arts, be it kick boxing, boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, even karate. Okay. And there's different women and men divisions. It is because there is a huge disadvantage. If you're smaller, reach is a big thing, physical, weight difference, you know, cause power comes from, mass, rotation, and speed. So your mass, that's why heavyweights are such knock outs. If they hit you correctly in the right spot, okay, they're gonna drop you even a sledge hammer, moving slow. It's still gonna hurt you. Now. A sledge hammer moving fast is gonna do extreme damage. And then think about a sledgehammer.
The rotation you're swinging. It creates more force as well. So the taller someone is the more rotation they're gonna have, okay. To create power in a strike. So where I love striking, I've boxed, I've kicked boxed. I've done, MMA. I fought MMA. For sure there's a difference. And there's a size, difference and advantage there, okay.
Where Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Comes into Play
And this is where Brazilian jiu jitsu comes into play, where like, I cannot knock this guy out. I need to either take them down or I need to be able to create distance so I can get out of the situation. Okay. When you're in a corner, there is no other option. So we're going to have the clench and get it to the ground. Even if I were to pull guard, okay. At least I have up kicks and up kicks can knock someone out. So learning how to be on the ground, practice your up kicks practice.
Upkick standups to stand back up after I've struck him in the nose. If you can bloody his nose. Okay? Most people aren't used to having a bloody nose, your eyes water, you can't see properly. And then you can get out of that, that situation. Okay. I'm not even talking about chokes involved. Most people wear a collared shirt. Okay. If you're wearing a collared shirt, you can be choked. If you're wearing a jacket, you can be choked. Okay. Those are advantages for a Brazilian jiu jitsu player. You know, people talk about Nogi, but the reality, why would I, if someone's wearing a weapon that I can use, why wouldn't I use that? Okay. That's not a knock against Nogi. I love Nogi. But for self defense purposes, women, you can take advantage of that and choke someone. If you could choke someone unconscious, there is no fighting.
Sometimes if you break someone's arm, a limb, from a kimora, an arm bar, if they are so whacked outta their head, they still might be to fight now, not as a, as well, they can't fight as well, but they still may continue to fight if your ability to choke someone unconscious, okay. Using all the various chokes in Brazilian jiu jitsu. And you're confident in that. I mean, you could save your life for sure. You could save your life.
Women's Self-Defense in Phoenix | Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
So, you know, this is just my, my take on, women in self defense and in Brazilian jiu jitsu, you know, in Phoenix, Phoenix, women's self defense is imperative that, you know, some form of self defense while living in Phoenix.
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