Marketing BJJ for women

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February 09, 2010, 04:05:48 AM

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[Waza]

My program is pretty succesful so far when it come sto the young male demographic.  But I want to have women in the class.

How is the best way to get them interested.  Some are but they all don't want to be the ONLY girl in class.

Can anyone help me?

Waza

[Bolo]

No matter how you market your class, the number of women will always be significantly lower than the numer of males.  Just as most aerobics classes have more women than men, BJJ will always have more men than women.  Most women are not comfortable with the close physical contact, they are afraid that the guys may hurt them, and activities such as kickboxing and yoga are seen more commonly in popular culture and the media.

With that in mind, here's how you can try to increase the number of women...

1. Keep the training area very clean.  In a martial arts business magazine, it was said that the #1 factor that women look for in a school is a clean facility.

2. Make sure all the guys are clean.  No women wants to train with guys who don't wash their gi's or smell like ass.  

3. Comfortable training facility.  When it got really really hot in the summer, the women at my school were the first to complain about wanting the air conditioning on.  The BJJ guys were willing to suck up and deal with the heat.  Sometimes when it was really hot, many women simply did not show up for class.  Sounds petty, but it's true.

4. Teach kids.  Parents will easily enroll their daughters into a martial arts program.  Kids are not bothered by all the things that adult women may complain about or are uncomfortable with.  All the kids I taught, regardless of male or female, loved to grapple.  In addition, at that age, the boys have no strength and weight advantage.  If you start with kids, those little girls will eventually turn into women.

5. Make it very clear to the guys that they need to train differently with the women.  Almost every woman that I tried to get into BJJ was afraid that the guys would grapple hard with them like they grapple with each other.  They were afraid they would get hurt.  However, I had one woman who complained to me that she did not want me to grapple with her any differently than how I grappled with the guys.  So, I crushed her with all my strength and bodyweight and then told her that is what I do to the guys.  I then asked her if she wanted to be treated like the guys and she said no.

6. If you get a woman in class, ask her privately if there is anyone who she does not feel comforatble training with.  Sometimes there are guys who the women simply don't like to train with for whatever reason.  If you are not aware of this, you will lose that student.

7. Some women are uncomfortable grappling with the other guys, while others want to jump right in with the guys.  For those who are uncomfortable, only have them grapple with the other women or just the instructor.  When I taught women who were uncomfortable with grappling with guys, I rolled with them at first and then after a few lessons, they realized it wasn't that bad and asked to roll with the other guys.

8. When trying to spark their interest, emphasize that BJJ is good way to get in shape, have fun, etc....Don't pull out Gracie Jiu-jitsu in Action and talk about NHB fighting.  If you show someone getting beat up, most people will identify with the person getting beat up rather than the person giving the beating.

9. Once you have a few girls in class, it is much easier to attract more.  The hard part is getting the first one to stick with with.  When I had a new girl start BJJ, I would always ask my wife to work with her.  That got them comfortable with the contact and atmosphere.  Once they got to enjoy training and did not mind working with the guys, my wife no longer needed to be there.

I hope this helps.

[valhalla]

Another idea is to emphasize the self-defense aspects of it. If you hold a self-defense seminar and show some cool BJJ takedowns and submission holds in the context of protecting yourself, women will probably be more open to the close physical contact. Plus, it will get them in your door, where you can then put the hard sell on them for the rest of the classes.  

I also want to emphasize Bolo's point #9. At my school, we now have what's approaching a "critical mass" of women,  and that always makes the women who come to watch their boyfriends/husbands sit up and take notice and really think seriously about giving it a try. If you don't have any women at your school yet, try to get them in contact with women who do BJJ. There's a great internet forum called the Women's Locker Room run by Gene Simco (go to "forums" at http://jiu-jitsu.net/), and there are some great women there who love BJJ and are dedicated to getting other women to give it a try. Also, I tend to run my mouth about BJJ to anyone who will listen anyway, so if you'd like to put your potential women students in touch with me, send me an IM. I've been training for 5 years and have some thoughts about how to contribute to a comfortable training environment.

[Waza]

Those are great ideas Bolo.  And I will put them to good use.  I appreciate your response.  But I would really like help with is marketing.  How to initially get them in the door.  What kind of advertising, what to express in the ads, so on and so forth.......

Val-

Great ideas.  Would you be interested in helping with a Jiu-jitsu seminar for women?  

Waza

[valhalla]

Waza: Sure, I'd love to help out with something like that. Let me know what I can do.

Loco: Most of the advice I have is for the women themselves, and it stems from the fact that guys who have never sparred with a woman before will be nervous themselves and will basically take their cue from the woman about how to act. If the woman acts weird and uncomfortable, the encounter will be weird and uncomfortable. But if the woman acts friendly and focused on learning, then the guy will relax. I've been paired numerous times with guys who looked terrified to be training with a woman, but after some joking around and some demonstration that I was there to learn, they would talk my ear off and actually seek me out to be a training partner.

Another thing for women to do is REFRAIN from acting apologetic about being in the class. If they act like they have a right to be there (not in a jerky way, of course), then everyone will eventually take it for granted that they do.

A third thing the women can do is know that with the kind of close contact BJJ requires, they should expect to get random bruises, smell random smells, experience near misses (and sometimes hits) from random flying limbs, and just generally get sweaty and messy. Some women (some people, for that matter) aren't into that and won't last. But the ones who are looking for a good workout and something new to try will last.

As for what the instructors can do, if a woman asks you what to expect in a class, you can touch on the fact that it's intimidating to try jiu jitsu for the first time, but emphasize that that's as true for the guys as it is for the women. Maybe spend some time with the student before class going over the structure of the class (e.g., "First we do a warm up and stretching. Then we rep some techniques and drills, and after that, we spar. You will definitely be able to do the warm up. I'll work with you on some technique after that, and then I'd like you to watch the sparring to start to get a sense of what it's all about. We'll have you spar in a few weeks or so, but for now, I want you to concentrate on the drills and techniques, as they form the basis for sparring.")

You can also start with stand-up moves--takedowns, stand-up versions of chokes and limb locks, etc. There can be something really freaky about that first time some random dude is lying on top of you and you're supposed to escape, and if you don't have a more gentle introduction to it, it might wig some people out.

I'll give some more thought to it and let you know if I come up with anything else. Good luck!

[Waza]

So you would come all the way out to Montana to help with one???

Waza

[valhalla]

So you would come all the way out to Montana to help with one???

Waza

Sure, why not? It'd be a good excuse for a trip to a gorgeous part of the country, and to meet another forum/Team Donuts member! More details, please.  

[Bolo]

Good tips "valhalla".

[gazzy]

The best way to attract more females to your school is by having a consistent female role model teaching classes for women only.

Having Val do a seminar is a great idea.  See if you can convince her to do a series and not just one.  It is very motivating for beggining women to see an advanced  female Bjj athlete do her thang!

Most women just want a great work out and need another woman in great shape and knows what she's doing to inspire them.

[valhalla]

The best way to attract more females to your school is by having a consistent female role model teaching classes for women only.

Having Val do a seminar is a great idea.  See if you can convince her to do a series and not just one.  It is very motivating for beggining women to see an advanced  female Bjj athlete do her thang!

Most women just want a great work out and need another woman in great shape and knows what she's doing to inspire them.

BTW, this bears repeating: I'm happy to help out, but there are plenty of women (namely Gazzy ) who are far more qualified and experienced than I am. So if you can get some of the valuable time of the Gazzys of the world, go with them! (I would. )

[Bolo]

Since most schools do not have high level women who are able to teach a class, I would suggest starting with the all the other things mentioned first.  But in general when you look at most sports that involve heavy physical contact the number of women participating will always be much lower than the men.

As far as business goes, BJJ is not the art of choice if you want to attract women.

[Waza]

I agree with your last statement Bolo to a certain extent.  Like BJJ, Judo is also close contact.  However, through the many years I've been a judoka, every established program I have been apart of has had a decent  numbers of females.  So if it can develop in judo, I am hoping it can happen in BJJ

Waza

[sparkle]

Encourage the guys in class to bring along their women to watch.  Usually the women of guys who train know a bit about it anyway and are curious.  Sometimes if they watch a few times they realize its not all that difficult and would be willing to try, so offer a free class.  Once they do, usually word of mouth works good in that they will want to come but not alone, so they'll usually talk their friends or sisters into taking the class with them.

Put up flyers with a couple of photos of women doing some Jiu Jitsu moves, talk specifically about learning self defense, gaining confidence, exercise/cardio workouts and put them up in places where women are, specifically women who are into sports or working out.  But heck even near supermarkets are great too, plenty of women there.

Sparkle

 

[que loco]