Jiu-jitsu for women and girls
SUNNINGHILL – Gracie Barra combats violence against women and girls by empowering them with a free Brazillian jiujitsu class.
If you were attacked by a person much larger than you, would you know how to defend yourself?
Gracie Barra held a free self-defence class for women and girls for exactly this scenario.
The martial arts centre in Sunninghill saw a need to empower the fairer gender after the spate of violent incidents across South Africa.
The free class saw a whopping 80 women and girls attend, and focused on teaching them some potent Brazillian jiu-jitsu moves.
“About 60 of the people had no previous experience in self defence or martial arts,” said Gracie Barra Sunninghill owner, Norman Wessels.
“Brazillian jiu-jitsu focuses a lot on smaller people going against larger people.
“With all the stuff going on in South Africa, and with our focus on competitions and a combat perspective where many fights go to ground and many times they are against larger people who want to control or dominate, Brazillian jiu-jitsu was perfect.”
He explained that the martial art uses joints, parts of the body and even clothing to enforce chokeholds with minimal effort.
The day saw these 80 women and girls learn effective techniques to subdue larger opponents with these methods.
“We had good feedback that the movements were easy to understand and comfortable.
“If someone sits on you, you know how to turn the tables on your attacker, subdue them and keep them down.”
Wessels said teaching women and girls these skills had a two-fold reward in that it would also give them more confidence in their day-to-day lives.
The centre also provided pizza and coffee for free for the participants.
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