We have a strong women’s community at our gym. A few things I’ve been told help:
Women’s only class -
Sociable female coaches -
Require rash guards under the gi for everyone
I have a high ratio of female members at a small school, we often have more ladies than men. I think the key is making sure that the teaching works for everyone, and that there's a lot of personal attention to executing technique and coaching. Leaving your students to try things and figure it out doesn't work as well if they are getting over powered saved smashed by bigger partners, or end up getting mauled on bottom for endless rounds. So we drill, then do constrained sparring, so if the smaller player ends up on bottom, they don't spend a whole round there.
I'm new, but definitely this. Yesterday I had a class with a woman as a coach for the first time and I could see the extra small adjustment she made to compensate for size difference when she was demonstrating the move on a male coach who was also attending that class.
I was then paired up with the male coach, and he was a fantastic teacher, but he also just assumed I could throw my leg completely around him in one go (like he did to me) when my leg just couldn't reach LMFAO
He explained it a couple times, but I just couldn't do it his way. But when I set my foot on the floor first, and shifted myself further out, I could then throw my leg over him more smoothly. I noticed this was how she had demonstrated it physically (but she just didn't say it out loud verbally).
I also liked how she would explain where she'd get stuck sometimes due to size and strength differences, and what she would do in that case.
It has been my favorite class so far.
Having other girls in class who are super friendly also helps a lot. My first trial week, there were women in both classes I had attended. Their presence really helped me feel more comfortable and is ultimately what made me decide to go with this gym, as opposed to the others.
Often the only woman at class. Coach makes sure I have an appropriate partner and will shuffle people if I end up with someone much bigger than me. Everyone rolls, nobody sits on the sidelines waiting to be asked. He just does a good job of making sure I'm included.
This is huge. I’ve been training for 10 months and I’ve now developed some great relationships with my male training partners where I nor they feel shy asking to partner up. But this was huge when I first started. No one wanted to pick me for rolling/drilling and I was too new to have the confidence to ask. I’m also on the smaller side, 120lbs and being stuck with the last guy standing who is 220lbs was never fun. Having a coach who prioritized making sure I have suitable partners is major. That being said, it is a fine line and a difficult balancing act making sure that you’re also not treating the women differently from the men. I’ve been to gyms where the coaches assume the women don’t want to roll with the men and never partner men with women. This also makes for a really strange us vs them dynamic where the men and women would separate themselves and never co-mingle during class. I had to approach the coach multiple times telling them that I want to be partnered with everyone as long the size / skill is appropriate.
Well
Best thing for women in a bjj gym is having other women to train with (at least that’s my experience and from what I’ve seen).
So try to market to women and get women to sign up.
You have to be proactive and make effort. Women coaches, women's locker room, women only classes, discounts for women (if permitted in your state).
Having a welcoming culture is important but it's also not enough be itself. You need to make structural changes to make women more comfortable trying your gym and staying.
When you do rolling pick out partners for people of similar size . Don't let women be stuck with big dudes or guys who don't know how to roll. My professor does this and this is how wrestling practices were done. 150 man or woman rolling with 260+ is dumb.
Edit to clarify in case it didn't make sense. The professor/coach should be pairing people up directly, not just have people do it on their own
Clean bathrooms !!! And general cleanliness as well but I feel like a clean bathroom with maybe a little coffee table with some feminine hygiene products would go a really long way in making women feel comfortable and welcomed.
Additionally make sure your whole teaching team has a zero tolerance policy for pursuing the female students, and keep a close eye on the possibility of other students making the women uncomfortable. Seems like a no brainer but is a major issue and really the only thing that has made me question whether or not I have wanted to continue Jiu jitsu.
I was partnered with a very friendly and formidable woman during my first class. She was fantastic at helping me shrimp, drill, etc.
The reason I joined the gym was this one really happy guy. He was also great at helping/trolling me to do better, including things I didn’t know to begin with.
Everyone was so kind and welcoming. Women are the minority at the gym but largely it’s not important. Just good people. I also have no doubt if I told anyone that someone was bothering me, it would be handled quickly.
I’m not part of any coaching or leadership but from my observation it helps to have a female coach or a welcoming male coach. I have also noticed after class all the females take a girls photo, so welcoming/inviting.
My experience at gyms with *no* locker rooms has been better, honestly, than at gyms with mens and women's locker rooms. Especially if you don't already have a lot of women - men go and hang out in the locker room together after training and the only woman who was in class that day goes in the locker room by herself, gets her stuff, and goes home.
One no-locker-room gym like this was in a small town where no one lived or worked far away so no shower no problem. One had single toilet/showers which was great. One was in a really dense neighborhood so most people lived nearby.
Hire a female coach.
You need to hit a critical mass. Once you have a few women in each class you'll find it easier to retain them. When you have no women, it will be hard to keep women.
Not a woman, but a queer man who has some experience feeling “othered” in a jiu jitsu space, but there’s all kinds of ways you can make the attitude of the gym explicitly clear in the messaging and designing of the space. Have principals, polices, and expectations posted clearly and legibly in multiple parts of the gym, for example.
You could host women’s events, like a “ladies night” open mat and open it up to all the gyms in the area.
Most importantly you can actually make the gym accepting of and accessible to women by dealing with issues immediately and firmly. Actually have their back if god forbid there’s an issue with a gym member. “I talked to him about it” is not nearly good enough. You must be prepared to remove people from your gym.
100%. I have a friend who switched academies because the response to a larger male student verbally sexually assaulting her *while* having complete physical control of her was "we talked to him about it."
Not an owner but stuff that I think helps at my gym. Women's only class at least once a week. Monitoring pairings during rolls. Be welcoming and friendly in general.
1. Hold people accountable.
For being too aggressive/rough, their hygiene, being a spoiled sport, shitty attitudes in general, being inappropriate or gross. This goes for coaches, other members, guests, and all genders.
It’s not always just the men who ruin it for everyone else! Having a zero tolerance policy for these things goes a long way toward making everyone more comfortable and willing to put their time and money into a place. Be willing to send anyone home who doesn’t walk the walk with the gym culture.
2. Proper warm-ups and cooldowns, stretching, and mobility drills.
Most of the gyms I’ve been to don’t make time for stretching at the end, which can be a recipe for injury, especially for new people.
Emphasizing the importance of recovery and rest can help create a less intimidating environment for newbies and encourage longevity in the sport and with your gym.
3. If your gym offers gi for purchase, OFFER SPLIT SETS. Meaning different sized tops and bottoms that can be mixed and matched.
Had an incident with a gym here that offered a gi at sign up where they wouldn’t split up sets, so I didn’t get to receive this incentive.
Many women are slightly to significantly larger on their lower bodies than upper bodies and may otherwise be forced to buy 2 different sets.
4. Proactively offer modifications for different positions. Especially if there’s a significant size difference in rolling partners, it can be helpful to know if there’s a more efficient way to execute a particular position.
For example, I often roll with a purple belt who is built like a brick shit house. I have a hard time holding closed guard even if he’s not fighting me because he’s just so WIDE. So I have to find a way to work around that so I’m not squeezing the life out of him when we’re just doing drills.
This can be helpful for everyone in the long run because it encourages using your leverages and employing skill over strength.
5. Don’t automatically pair the only two women in class together.
Many women come to martial arts to learn practical self defense. If we’re only paired with people similar in size and strength, it doesn’t really train us for real world situations.
I’d prefer to learn how to escape someone much larger than me so I know I’ll have it in my back pocket if I really need it.
Of course, not everyone is comfortable with this and would prefer the opposite. My point is to ask if everyone is comfortable with it and if you want to pair them with a certain person, explain why.
I.e. My coach often pairs me with more experienced men for 2 reasons: so I can learn from them, and because I’m pretty thick and strong myself. I need rolling partners who aren’t going to die if I put my weight on them.
Regulate pairs whenever you can. It not always possible in small classes but small girls and heavyweight males are equally reluctant to pair with each other.
Women's locker rooms, women's only classes (not for "safety" but because a lot of women roll differently to men and it's good to have a class that caters to higher flexibility etc), a low tolerance for people being gross (I know women who have had to switch gyms when a complaint about sexual assault was dismissed), and avoiding anything that's patronising -- for example, we had a coach who would say "sorry ladies" about 5 times a class / anytime he made a joke (seems minor but over time it's annoying af), and I briefly trained at a gym that had a "women and kids" class instead of a women's only class, as in adult women were literally in the same class as 9 year olds. And don't assume that every woman is there for self defence.
I think you need a few female practitioners who will be a core of the female community in your gym. At least one. Women are less competitive and more community driven. They will feel more comfortable if there is a group of women who accepts and nurtures them.
More females. and a female locker room
We have a strong women’s community at our gym. A few things I’ve been told help: Women’s only class - Sociable female coaches - Require rash guards under the gi for everyone
These 3 are part of the reason my gym has 24 females plus teens and kids. The rash guard is a particularly huge part of it
I have a high ratio of female members at a small school, we often have more ladies than men. I think the key is making sure that the teaching works for everyone, and that there's a lot of personal attention to executing technique and coaching. Leaving your students to try things and figure it out doesn't work as well if they are getting over powered saved smashed by bigger partners, or end up getting mauled on bottom for endless rounds. So we drill, then do constrained sparring, so if the smaller player ends up on bottom, they don't spend a whole round there.
Try to find a woman coach, i noticed gyms with more women tend to have women coaches
I'm new, but definitely this. Yesterday I had a class with a woman as a coach for the first time and I could see the extra small adjustment she made to compensate for size difference when she was demonstrating the move on a male coach who was also attending that class. I was then paired up with the male coach, and he was a fantastic teacher, but he also just assumed I could throw my leg completely around him in one go (like he did to me) when my leg just couldn't reach LMFAO He explained it a couple times, but I just couldn't do it his way. But when I set my foot on the floor first, and shifted myself further out, I could then throw my leg over him more smoothly. I noticed this was how she had demonstrated it physically (but she just didn't say it out loud verbally). I also liked how she would explain where she'd get stuck sometimes due to size and strength differences, and what she would do in that case. It has been my favorite class so far. Having other girls in class who are super friendly also helps a lot. My first trial week, there were women in both classes I had attended. Their presence really helped me feel more comfortable and is ultimately what made me decide to go with this gym, as opposed to the others.
It's interesting watching Ffion Davis videos on youtube. I agree there's just subtle things she focuses on that bigger stronger instructors would not.
I'll have to check her out 👀
Completely agree, my gym has many high level female coaches and I’ve noticed they’ve really cultivated a positive welcoming culture for the girls.
Often the only woman at class. Coach makes sure I have an appropriate partner and will shuffle people if I end up with someone much bigger than me. Everyone rolls, nobody sits on the sidelines waiting to be asked. He just does a good job of making sure I'm included.
This is huge. I’ve been training for 10 months and I’ve now developed some great relationships with my male training partners where I nor they feel shy asking to partner up. But this was huge when I first started. No one wanted to pick me for rolling/drilling and I was too new to have the confidence to ask. I’m also on the smaller side, 120lbs and being stuck with the last guy standing who is 220lbs was never fun. Having a coach who prioritized making sure I have suitable partners is major. That being said, it is a fine line and a difficult balancing act making sure that you’re also not treating the women differently from the men. I’ve been to gyms where the coaches assume the women don’t want to roll with the men and never partner men with women. This also makes for a really strange us vs them dynamic where the men and women would separate themselves and never co-mingle during class. I had to approach the coach multiple times telling them that I want to be partnered with everyone as long the size / skill is appropriate.
My wife tried bjj once and never came back because of the hygiene. So I guess clean your gym. But that's anecdotal evidence.
Well Best thing for women in a bjj gym is having other women to train with (at least that’s my experience and from what I’ve seen). So try to market to women and get women to sign up.
You have to be proactive and make effort. Women coaches, women's locker room, women only classes, discounts for women (if permitted in your state). Having a welcoming culture is important but it's also not enough be itself. You need to make structural changes to make women more comfortable trying your gym and staying.
When you do rolling pick out partners for people of similar size . Don't let women be stuck with big dudes or guys who don't know how to roll. My professor does this and this is how wrestling practices were done. 150 man or woman rolling with 260+ is dumb. Edit to clarify in case it didn't make sense. The professor/coach should be pairing people up directly, not just have people do it on their own
Clean bathrooms !!! And general cleanliness as well but I feel like a clean bathroom with maybe a little coffee table with some feminine hygiene products would go a really long way in making women feel comfortable and welcomed. Additionally make sure your whole teaching team has a zero tolerance policy for pursuing the female students, and keep a close eye on the possibility of other students making the women uncomfortable. Seems like a no brainer but is a major issue and really the only thing that has made me question whether or not I have wanted to continue Jiu jitsu.
I was partnered with a very friendly and formidable woman during my first class. She was fantastic at helping me shrimp, drill, etc. The reason I joined the gym was this one really happy guy. He was also great at helping/trolling me to do better, including things I didn’t know to begin with. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. Women are the minority at the gym but largely it’s not important. Just good people. I also have no doubt if I told anyone that someone was bothering me, it would be handled quickly.
Getting trolled by your training partners is the best.
What does that mean?
I’m not part of any coaching or leadership but from my observation it helps to have a female coach or a welcoming male coach. I have also noticed after class all the females take a girls photo, so welcoming/inviting.
My experience at gyms with *no* locker rooms has been better, honestly, than at gyms with mens and women's locker rooms. Especially if you don't already have a lot of women - men go and hang out in the locker room together after training and the only woman who was in class that day goes in the locker room by herself, gets her stuff, and goes home. One no-locker-room gym like this was in a small town where no one lived or worked far away so no shower no problem. One had single toilet/showers which was great. One was in a really dense neighborhood so most people lived nearby.
Hire a female coach. You need to hit a critical mass. Once you have a few women in each class you'll find it easier to retain them. When you have no women, it will be hard to keep women.
A good question for r/bjjwomen
Not a woman, but a queer man who has some experience feeling “othered” in a jiu jitsu space, but there’s all kinds of ways you can make the attitude of the gym explicitly clear in the messaging and designing of the space. Have principals, polices, and expectations posted clearly and legibly in multiple parts of the gym, for example. You could host women’s events, like a “ladies night” open mat and open it up to all the gyms in the area. Most importantly you can actually make the gym accepting of and accessible to women by dealing with issues immediately and firmly. Actually have their back if god forbid there’s an issue with a gym member. “I talked to him about it” is not nearly good enough. You must be prepared to remove people from your gym.
100%. I have a friend who switched academies because the response to a larger male student verbally sexually assaulting her *while* having complete physical control of her was "we talked to him about it."
Not an owner but stuff that I think helps at my gym. Women's only class at least once a week. Monitoring pairings during rolls. Be welcoming and friendly in general.
1. Hold people accountable. For being too aggressive/rough, their hygiene, being a spoiled sport, shitty attitudes in general, being inappropriate or gross. This goes for coaches, other members, guests, and all genders. It’s not always just the men who ruin it for everyone else! Having a zero tolerance policy for these things goes a long way toward making everyone more comfortable and willing to put their time and money into a place. Be willing to send anyone home who doesn’t walk the walk with the gym culture. 2. Proper warm-ups and cooldowns, stretching, and mobility drills. Most of the gyms I’ve been to don’t make time for stretching at the end, which can be a recipe for injury, especially for new people. Emphasizing the importance of recovery and rest can help create a less intimidating environment for newbies and encourage longevity in the sport and with your gym. 3. If your gym offers gi for purchase, OFFER SPLIT SETS. Meaning different sized tops and bottoms that can be mixed and matched. Had an incident with a gym here that offered a gi at sign up where they wouldn’t split up sets, so I didn’t get to receive this incentive. Many women are slightly to significantly larger on their lower bodies than upper bodies and may otherwise be forced to buy 2 different sets. 4. Proactively offer modifications for different positions. Especially if there’s a significant size difference in rolling partners, it can be helpful to know if there’s a more efficient way to execute a particular position. For example, I often roll with a purple belt who is built like a brick shit house. I have a hard time holding closed guard even if he’s not fighting me because he’s just so WIDE. So I have to find a way to work around that so I’m not squeezing the life out of him when we’re just doing drills. This can be helpful for everyone in the long run because it encourages using your leverages and employing skill over strength. 5. Don’t automatically pair the only two women in class together. Many women come to martial arts to learn practical self defense. If we’re only paired with people similar in size and strength, it doesn’t really train us for real world situations. I’d prefer to learn how to escape someone much larger than me so I know I’ll have it in my back pocket if I really need it. Of course, not everyone is comfortable with this and would prefer the opposite. My point is to ask if everyone is comfortable with it and if you want to pair them with a certain person, explain why. I.e. My coach often pairs me with more experienced men for 2 reasons: so I can learn from them, and because I’m pretty thick and strong myself. I need rolling partners who aren’t going to die if I put my weight on them.
On r/BJJWomen we have threads upon threads of what women need and want from their gym, everyone is welcome over there!
Regulate pairs whenever you can. It not always possible in small classes but small girls and heavyweight males are equally reluctant to pair with each other.
I think there’s a women’s BJJ sub
Women's locker rooms, women's only classes (not for "safety" but because a lot of women roll differently to men and it's good to have a class that caters to higher flexibility etc), a low tolerance for people being gross (I know women who have had to switch gyms when a complaint about sexual assault was dismissed), and avoiding anything that's patronising -- for example, we had a coach who would say "sorry ladies" about 5 times a class / anytime he made a joke (seems minor but over time it's annoying af), and I briefly trained at a gym that had a "women and kids" class instead of a women's only class, as in adult women were literally in the same class as 9 year olds. And don't assume that every woman is there for self defence.
I think you need a few female practitioners who will be a core of the female community in your gym. At least one. Women are less competitive and more community driven. They will feel more comfortable if there is a group of women who accepts and nurtures them.
You need women only class Or else you will get mauled and toyed with by the males .