The best way to introduce women to BJJ (part 1)

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. Here's the first half of what he said:

"So, the most important thing is having an environment which is not competitive, which is not demonstrations or effectiveness on the confrontation aspect. So, not just a woman, but a fragile person, someone who's not exactly a competitive person, an aggressive person. But anyone who's more peaceful, who's more curious, who's more introspective, he will like to get introduced to jiu-jitsu based on the feelings, on developments of the sensorial aspect of jiu-jitsu. So, if you get somebody's who's never gotten exposed to jiu-jitsu, you don't have to bring fear or problems for him to feel like 'Oh, I'm afraid. What should I do now?' 

"You should just make them feel, in your presence, how his possibilities, based on a little change of angle, a little change of base, a little weight distribution, a little perception of the distance, a little angle for deflection of a punch... So he starts developing the sense of 'Wow! That's interesting to know that, because now I feel stronger, now I feel more prepared, now I have an option to survive or to escape.' So those components, they become addictive, because you start to learn just a little grab on the hand. 'So what d'you do?' And then she starts to struggle and feel like she can escape, but she needs to develop a lot of toughness. So I say, 'No, stop. Don't do that. Try to do this way.' 'Wow!' Just by doing a gentle movement, you can really escape."