Anyone Teach Grappling?????

[TenTigers]

this is to any and all teachers/school owners-I have a conundrum: I would like to add grappling to the curriculum, but how do you teach women? In the beginning you can pair women off with women, but eventually they will want to grapple against someone bigger and stronger, and that opens up a whole can of worms. Suggestions?

[Knifefighter]

Start them off with other women. As they progress, begin to pair them off with some of the smaller, more technical guys. Also, older guys are a good choice because they usually have less of an issue of rolling with women and will usually work at their level.

[dwid]

The most difficult grappling experience I ever had was with a women... a woman who by the way I probably outweighed by well over 50 pounds. I think for some women, grappling is more natural than stand up fighting. After all, many women have difficult with striking people (the whole cultural norm thing) and a lot of the leverage advantage a man has standing up goes right out the window when you go to the ground.

[unkokusai]

Originally posted by dwid
and a lot of the leverage advantage a man has standing up goes right out the window when you go to the ground.

If you don't know how to wrestle, I guess...:confused:

[dwid]

If you don't know how to wrestle, I guess..

I guess what I meant to say was that in my admittedly limited experience, technique on the ground was a more decisive factor over brute strength than it is standing up.

[TenTigers]

Ok, let me clarify a bit-Starting females out together is great, but there will come a time when they want to (or not want to ) grapple with men. We teach Hung-Ga. It is very close range, and some people feel uncomfortable. In grappling it can get very "touchy"-especially when doing such moves that require you to go between their crotch, or sometimes reverse position where you are literally face to crotch, or in the mount, etc. There is also the situation where women might have been the victim of sexual, and or physical abuse-again such positions as the mount can bring disasterous results if done with mixed sexes.
So the problem arises, how do you bring them to a higher level without the bottom falling out of your class? Some people might quit even before you get to this level because of such fears.
So far I am thinking of requiring a total unifor-ie judogi,feminine breast protectors as well as groin guards, and of course cups for men as well. This way, nothing 'soft' is touching or being touched-trying to make it as non-human as possible!~
I've asked other people who teach grappling and their answer is usually that they have no women, or the ones they do have are Polish weight lifters, or that they grapple with them since they are the teacher. Frankly, I don't want to grapple with my female students. Students develop all sorts of weird crushes, or get ideas in their heads and I just don't want to open myself up to those possibilities. So bearing that in mind, what are the if any, solutions?

[Gangsterfist]

I think the answer is a simple one. We have some females in my class from time to time, and have done some chin na and ground grappling with them. Just explain to them up front that these combat techniques don't care what sex you are, they are designed and executed for a specific reason. Then my sifu will usually tell them that they have a choice. If they feel comfortable with learning the advanced stuff that is more touchy feely, then it will help them advance in their training greatly. If they feel uncomfortable and do not wish to do this, that is totally okay and they can watch the others, or train something different. Then when they feel comfortable with it, they can join in. If you give those options and support them either way they choose you will usually get rid of any weird feelings that may be involved. I can symphathize with you on this one as well. Years ago when I was training in my first martial art ever, Okinawan karate, we had several girls in our class. Some were my age, and some were women. There are several techniques in the first kata that are designed as anti-grappling where someone would grab your shirt or chest, in the upper chest area. This was embarrassing for the men that had to grab the womens chests and vice versa. However, the older women did not have a problem with it really, and if anything made them more determined to execute the technique properly. The younger girls felt uncomfortable.

Its basically all about communication. Just let your female students know that grappling is a very close range situation and some akward positions are going to happen so you can train for everything. They should probably understand, and when they are ready to get more physical they will. If they never get comfortable enough to do that, then grappling is probably not for them and they should learn a striking or range fighting martial art; which is totally okay, different strokes for different folks.

[Ren Blade]

I agree, communication is the key. But basically, it is likely that a woman would find herself defending herself against a man in a real confrontation. So in order for her to fight against men, she'll ultimately have to train with men.

[knuckleheadJKD]

How to make your own grappling man dummy, by Nubreed Martial arts Systems, visit site for low cost information

I have used my dummy's to work with women and they work, once the women get comfortable with the dummies then you just switch them out with human dummies. The women have developed the techniques enough and are more confident to fight back using the dummy.

The grappling dummy's I have seen are great, but they cost way to much money, and mine works just as good, and I can fix it the way I want to. Let me know what you think, happy grappling!



Nubreed Martial Arts Systems

Sifu/Guro Ben Fajardo