WHAT MAKES WOMEN WANT TO JOIN A CLUB

[dom28]

AT THIS TIME I HAVE NO FEMALE STUDENTS. I THINK THIS IS A SHAME AS KENPO/KAJUKENBO ARE GREAT FOR WORMEN TO DO AS THE TECHNIQUES STRIKE TO THE MOST VULNERABLE POINTS ON THE BODY AND DO NOT NEED MUCH STRENGTH.SO IF YOU GUYS/GALS HAVE ANY IDEAS HOW TO GET MORE WOMEN WANTING TO TRAIN I AM ALL EARS

[grand master hemenes]

in the past I had a lot of girls come in but most of them was just groupies but the ones that stayed with me went on to be grandchampion fighters.

                                                                  prof.hemenes

[Greg Hoyt]

We offer a free Woman's Self Defense class the last Friday of each month. 
Also, some women don't feel all that comfortable training with guys, at least to start with.  So, we started a Woman's Kajukenbo Class one night a week.  All of the women that started training just on that night have jumped into the adult classes. 
Greg

[sifutimg]

Based on percentages those being percentages of women who like to roll, hit, and get down in their training, it's small of course in comparison to guys.  It just is what it is.  So classes offering free women self defense is a good tactic.  Including also things like aerobic Kung Fu and the like can also be good tactics to get groups of women into a class.  You can then observe mentalities and how they carry themselves then redirecting or offering those that may want something more into your Kaj or self defense classes.  Although some women start off just wanting to train hard however some don't.  Again it just is what it is.  I have one particular woman student who could fight full contact kick boxing, do MMA, or even be good at point fighting and forms.  She trains hard isn't afraid of a sweaty guy and has no hesitation to hit somebody, it's great but somewhat rare! 

There are those women who seem like they would be tough and warrior like out of the shoot but have ingrained in them that this type of endeavor or behavior is not OK.  A story now - Two of my friends (A martial art husband/wife combination) had a woman's self defense class going that involved a red man suit.  They really threw realistic scenarios at their class and some woman just couldn't be brought up to the level of intensity to affect the person in the redman suit however they kept sticking it out learning how to do the various techniques (punch, kick, rip, poke, or whatever).  So this one particular 5'2" lady weighing about 105lbs I think about age 20 or 21 attending college was taking the class and was having much difficulty bring her intensity up.  She was in the class for quite some time so she never gave up on that level however she always got her butt kicked in class.  Well a weekend passed, she came to class, was put in a redman suit scenario and BOOM!  She fought the person in the suit off with an intensity never seen before taking the person out even yelling obscenities as the person in the suit.  What happened over the previous weekend is she attended a college party and some huge football player took her into a room at the party and tried basically rape her.  She fought the football player off successfully and apparently hurt him pretty good.  She hasn't had a problem since and thanked my friends up and down for their dedication and patience in training her.

It is too bad that it took that situation to bring that level of intensity out of this woman but thankfully she had the tools in her tool box to use otherwise...?  Keep doing the free woman's self defense class as it serves in a positive way on so many levels.  Also offering family programs where you setup families training together doing conditioning, kid vs kid & kid vs adult learning tactics/techniques/principles in the same class.  Sometimes women (and men) come to the Kaj classes that way.

Any woman out there please tell us how you found your way into a Kaj class.  What attracted you their and what ideas do you have to share.

With Respect,
Tim

[Serene]

What I found was that most women were looking a fitness type class. What you can do is possibly start from a stretching and kaju excercise class. You will than see from that class those that are looking for that next level.

Kaju being kaju is not for everyone. Kaju does not separate us, its all self defense. So, coming up in the art females were rare and far between. It was the ones that came with a purpose, something to protect or something to prove that stayed.  They were already driven to fight, make sense?

Try the self defense fitness class and than go from there. Good luck.

Humblest Regards,
Serene

[juribe]

When it comes to attracting and retaining a significant number of women, as well as who will stick with Kajukenbo, I agree with Serene. I've been training in Kaju for only 8 years (at the same place with the same instructor) and in that time have seen many women come and go. The women who remain with Kaju and/or MMA are the ones who have a background either in very physical sports or a lot of experience with physical contact (NOT necessarily positive). In other words, pure Kajukenbo just doesn't seem like it's for everyone.

We have two active women black belts (I'm one) and one active junior woman black belt now. The other two female black belts are the daughters of one of our adult male black belts and they are blessed to have such a great dad accompany them on their Kaju journey. There are no other active adult female Kajukenbo students right now other than the three of us. There are two active (preparing for fights) MMA female students: one wrestled on a men's team at her high school in Alaska and is Army vet who served in Iraq, and the other has been in several street fights and has changed her life around. They both came in with no experience but were comfortable with the the contact. They also both work really hard.

I originally joined the Women's Kickboxing and Self Defense program to get into shape after my second kid. There were two things that closed the deal for me when I joined:

1. Sifu Chris had been instructing my son for about 6 months and I liked his coaching style (which carried down to the other instructors). I had a preconception of martial arts as being overly macho. His style of teaching was not like that. I was pretty impressed with his patience with adults and kids alike. I've heard it said many times when perusing schools, the teacher is almost as or more important than the art you choose.

2. I saw a female student take her blue belt test. She went on to become a black belt (not active now) but when I saw the self defense portion of the her test, with multiple attackers, I was so impressed I ran out after her after the test to tell her how awesome she was. She barely stopped walking to acknowledge me. In retrospect, she must have thought I was such a dork!

I had done a lot of physically challenging things before kaju: I played soccer through high school at a very competitive level, had done several marathons and triathlons, and was an accomplished mountain biker who rode mainly with men. I'd been hospitalized a couple times for some pretty bad mountain bike crashes. I joined Kajukenbo thinking "Well, how hard can this possibly be??" Ha, ha!  It was hard! Hard to get hit. Hard to get kicked. Hard to be taken down over and over again. Until you get used to falling, it's hard! I admit there were many days where I thought to myself, "I just need to survive this one hour." There were also many days when Sifu Chris would say to me casually on my way out, "How you feeling?" in a seemingly rhetorical way. Looking back,  he probably was actually wondering how I was feeling after getting beat up!

The classes with the most consistent female participation at Tribull are the kickboxing classes with optional sparring (or sparring separately in a Level 2 class) and CrossPit-type fitness classes that incorporate MMA or Kaju techniques, like punching, kicking, sprawls, ground-n-pound.

Based on my experience at Tribull, I think retaining female students in a pure Kajukenbo program will always be challenging. The women you retain will be the ones who are comfortable with, or even thrive on (as I feel I do), a highly physical and/or combative sport. Like mountain biking, it's the thrill of the dangerous and the scary that, once you are hooked, is hard to live without in other sports.

Thanks for taking my input into consideration. I recognize I have far fewer years of teaching and training under my belt than most on this forum, but I love Kaju and I take a special interest in women in combat sports.

[dom28]

Thanks for all the input. enything you tell me is a great help as I have only been runing a club by myself for a little over a year,and I am still not so good at the advertising side.

[Gints Klimanis]

Observe general gym activity.  With notable exceptions, men tend to hit the heavier weights and drive the machines (treadmill, bike) harder.  In classes, Yoga/stretching and dance/aerobics are dominated by women.  Even "toning" classes with light weights attract women.  When the weight is doubled or quadrupledfrom 6-12 to 25+ lbs, as with kettle bells, the classes shift towards men.   Martial arts classes with no contact (Tai Chi, Wushu) or light contact attract an even number of women.  Women flock to cardio boxing that hits air or light hand pads.  When the pads are close to the body (kick shield) or if the padded gloves are used to hit the body, fewer women and more men are interested.

I'm looking at the schedule for my corporate gym.  The schdule has 63 slots.  2 for Brazilian JuJitsu, 2 for Shotokan karate, 1 for Go Shin Jutsu Kenpo, 4 for kettlebells, 2 for cardio kickboxing (pads/air).  There are 48 slots for a continuum of yoga (three types) to dance.  I'd say that commercial and corporate gyms do not offer enough classes that interest to men.

As soon as risk of injury is introduced, the classes shift towards a near exclusivity of men.  Martial arts with regular fighting typically have one woman for every ten or so guys.  So, if you're interested in retaining more women, appeal to their needs and desires :  zero or low contact with very little risk of injury, little athletic competition among members and a purely female group.  Advertise a women's class.  Women that want more intensity will ask to join with the guys.  In martial arts class, if I knock the wind out of a guy, he comes back next week with a buddy to join.  Blunt but true.

[KatieJo]

Guess I don't fall into the "typical" catagory.

 I had never been active in sports and I didn't begin my martial arts training until a couple years ago in my early 50's. Three of our four children were grown and I was ready to take some serious "me" time. It was at that point in life when I looked at where I had been and what was still ahead. As Phil Keoghan (Host of The Amazing Race) points out in his book people have a way of putting off what they intend to do until "someday" and then it is too late.  So I decided it was now or never.

As I train in Kajukenbo, I appreciate that what I lack in strength, I can make up by using proper technique(I found out quickly that I can't "muscle" the guys). I like training with the men, if I were to be attacked it would most likely be by a man. "Hey you're too big, you can't attack me" . At times the men do go easier while sparring or doing tricks, but as I move through the ranks that is occurring less often.  I've had my share of bruises and scrapes, and I continued to train last Summer despite a broken arm.

A lot of my friends(both male and female) don't understand why I enjoy training most every weeknight-all I can say is now that I've been doing this for awhile, I can't imagine not training.

[Greg Hoyt]

Good for you, Katie.  Keep training.  It's an investment.  Fitness with a purpose. 

[Susan Dickey]

I was drawn to martial arts training for two main reasons.  The first reason was the variety involved in the training.  You do different things on different days.  No two training sessions are ever the same.  The second reason was the social aspect.  You get to know people and create special bonds when you train.  I would try gyms but never stuck with it.  Martial arts is easy to stick with for me, in part, because of the social aspect.

I think most women look into martial arts to get fit and lose weight.  To get women involved you might want to have a woman's only kardio kickboxing class or self defense class.  Another idea is to have a special classes every so often where students can bring their families to participate and try it.  I've talked to mothers who want to try it but hesitate to take that first step of trying it.  If you can create an opportunity of women trying it in a supportive environment where they don't feel self conscious, you may find success.  Steve Larson from the Tum Pai branch has created an excellent women's only kardio kickboxing class in his school.  If you are interested in starting one, I would talk with him.

Good luck!