The best way to introduce women to BJJ (part 2)

 Our team interview with Rickson in December featured a question about what women should look for when starting out in jiu-jitsu. The master's answer ended up providing advice for teachers trying to offer the right environment for female and non-competitive people. But, of course, if you're a beginner and see that your gym seems to be doing the opposite of what's described below, it may be time to find a new team, rather than decide that BJJ isn't for you. Read on for the second half of what he said.  And catch part 1 here. 
 

"So you're introducing different ways so that, based on technique, based on leverage, based on angles, based on weight distribution, she starts to add to herself an invisible element which is gonna be maybe the most significant support she has outside of her intelligence. Because you come and say, 'See? This is much easier than doing that. Try to do this.' And she's gonna go, 'Wow! You showed me something which I never thought about, and it makes a lot of sense.' So you start to build up that kind of confidence, that kind of sense of opportunity, that kind of sense of what to do, and those will kind of open her eyes and open her mind and start to become a flow, understanding more of the mechanics of the body, start to [?] better, start to breathe better. 

"And once he or she starts to become more confident in those new approaches, she's gonna start to rely much more deeply on that knowledge, on that need of 'I don't know. Show me something here, because I'm in the hole here.' And then you say, 'Try to use more shoulder here' or 'Try to put—' So that becomes enlightenment, or that becomes happiness, becomes positiveness, becomes confidence, becomes something very special for people to experience the increase of their understanding, of their possibilities of surviving, of the possibilities of even counterattacking. So the introduction has to be developing the sensorial aspect of the student, making them feel happy by getting the difference between 'I always struggle here, but now just grabbing this way instead of this way makes all the difference.' So you add the comfort of invisible techniques, invisible elements of leverage, and she starts to become completely happy and motivated to learn that's gonna eventually maybe save her life, maybe give her peace of mind to make a good deal or be in control emotionally."