An anonymous person contacted me recently and shared a story of how a female friend had used a few months of BJJ training to escape from an assault and/or attempted rape situation. Using BJJ she managed to escape a pin, stand up and then run away and get help. She probably just used very basic pin escape movements, but pulling them off under emotional duress, with limited training and a large size and strength disadvantage points to the effectiveness of both the techniques she learned and the training methods used to ingrain them in her.

Arguments about the relative importance of grappling in MMA go on and on, but women’s self defense is not MMA. Virtually all rapes end up on the ground, and I think that some form of grappling is critical for women everywhere. This takes us back to the article written by the female readership of this newsletter entitled ‘Why Should Women Grapple” – it’s an article that is still very relevant and I’m proud to have it on my site. Please feel free to forward this article to the women in your life, it might just make them a little safer.