Most Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling students are male, and in most grappling schools females are the exception, not the rule. My foundation in the martial arts was self-defense oriented, not competition oriented. … [Read more...]
How To Get More Women Into Grappling
by guest author Krista Scott-Dixon I am often asked two questions by well-meaning male instructors: How do I get more women to join my school? And once they join, how do I keep them? … [Read more...]
Tips for Female Grapplers
- when a (small) girl meets a (big) boy - by Krista Scott-Dixon Stephan's note: this article grew out of a conversation I had with Krista Scott-Dixon on Facebook about the special challenges faced by women (and smaller grapplers) when they spar bigger, stronger opponents. There are other good articles addressing this topic on Grapplearts.com already (here, here, here, and here), but … [Read more...]
How to Defeat the Bigger, Stronger Opponent
Today is a very exciting day! For the past few months I've been working like crazy to get my new DVD series finished. In these videos I'm collaborating with my friend, and former teammate, Emily Kwok. She's one of the best known competitive grapplers out there! For a lot of different reasons. … [Read more...]
Life’s not fair (but these tips will work for just about anybody)
Life just isn't fair!! BJJ is the art of leverage, but there are techniques in the grappling repertoire that require you to be at least as strong as your opponent. … [Read more...]
Podcast EP7: Sarah Kaufman, Top Female MMA Fighter, Reveals All!
Sarah Kaufman is one of the top fighters in women's MMA. And she is officially amazing! Here's an in-depth interview and podcast with Sarah. I grilled her pretty hard (I hate interviews where you don't actually learn anything about the fighter or about the way they train). But the information she gave out went way, way beyond what I was expecting. She revealed: • how a top level … [Read more...]
Podcast EP5: A Woman’s Jiu-Jitsu Journey from White Belt to Black Belt
In this feature interview I talk with Emily Kwok who is a very smart, very talented jiu-jitsu practitioner. She's been involved in the woman's competition circuit for a long time, having competed both with and without the gi, and in MMA overseas. Her ability as a teacher of jiu-jitsu - to both men and women - is proved every time she steps on the mats at her BJJ Academy in Princeton, … [Read more...]
Why Men Should Grapple Women (and Smaller Men)
Here's a very interesting email from a female reader that I thought I'd pass along... Hi Stephan, I just read through the article called "Why Should Women Grapple?" … [Read more...]
The Six BJJ Supplements That Really Work
When it comes to supplements, most people either take nothing at all or far too many! And most serious grapplers go through a phase of taking tons of supplements in hopes of boosting their jiu-jitsu game. … [Read more...]
How To Attract Women… To Your Grappling School
Krista Scott-Dixon is many things, including being friend of mine, a student of BJJ and the brains behind a great fitness website called Stumptuous.com. She is also a becoming a semi-regular contributor to Grapplearts.com. … [Read more...]
How To Sweep A Larger Opponent
I've recently featured a fair bit of content from various guest authors. And that's a good thing, because different perspectives are critical to your improvement; after all, no single person can show you everything you need to know about grappling. … [Read more...]
Tips for Female Grapplers
Recently I've received a flood of emails from women and smaller men, wanting to know how to deal with larger, stronger opponents. The thing is that - at 200+ lbs myself - I'm NOT the best person to address these questions. … [Read more...]
Why I’m Training Like A (Strikeforce) Girl
I had a great conditioning workout today, motivated by two entirely different things. The first thing firing me up was watching a Christiane Cyborg conditioning session on Youtube. She was preparing for her recent fight in Strikeforce against Gina Carano. … [Read more...]
Dan Inosanto on Adaptation
Last weekend I had the pleasure of learning from Dan Inosanto at a seminar. As he often does, he stressed the importance of adapting techniques to make them work for you, regardless of whether those techniques are Filipino stick disarms, Jun Fan kickboxing or BJJ submissions. … [Read more...]
A Survival Story
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. … [Read more...]
Grappling Girls
I have added a couple of new articles written by, and for, female grapplers. The first is a compilation of different reasons women might want to study grappling, and the second is guide for women stepping onto the mat for the first time. … [Read more...]
Beating the Big Guy (Again)
Of all the questions I am asked, the most common question has to be how to beat someone who is much bigger than yourself... I've already tackled beating the larger, stronger opponent in a previous article on this site but people keep on asking me for more tips … [Read more...]
Dealing with Ludicrous Strength
A reader writes: Q: "Do you have any advice on how to deal with guys who are ridiculously strong? I'm not necessarily referring to grapplers who are bigger than you, I'm referring to guys that are so strong that when they grab you it's like a death grip." … [Read more...]
The Larger, Stronger Opponent
If you try contesting a larger, stronger opponent using your strength against his strength you will probably lose.You need to fight the battle on your own terms, and two effective (and somewhat related) strategies to do this include: 1, Move quicker 2, Tire him out. … [Read more...]