Women's Self-defense That Actually Works! 

                           The challenge is that most women won't establish boundaries that they don't feel capable of enforcing and that's where the Women Empowered program comes into the equation. Gracie jiu-jitsu has been used to defeat larger opponents for over 80 years but until we created the Women Empowered Program it hadn't yet served its most important purpose. Law enforcement studies reveal that sexual predators follow a very specific four-phasestrategy when carrying out their assaults. In the Women Empowered program,we've identified the 15 most common threat scenarios and we've divided theminto 10 one-hour lessons. Women cycle through these lessons as many times asnecessary to develop the muscle memory to execute the techniques without hesitation.

                             At the end of the course women take a test, and if their reflexesare on point they earn their pink belt. A special belt that we created to signifysuccessful completion of this amazing program. The physical techniques are critical but it's equally important to understand the psychology of an assault. One of the most important things we discuss is intention assessment. Let's say I'm alone at a gas station, and a man from a nearby bus stop gets up and starts walking directly towards me and I assert myself, and I tell him to stop and he continues to walk towards me what do I know at that exact moment? I know that he has bad intentions and once I know his intentions I can start preparing for his actions but until I set a boundary his intentions are unknown. Boundaries are everything. Women Empowered is so different because they teach us the scalability of jiu-jitsu and the psychology of an attack. Whether it's somebody you know or somebody you don't know and so it's so applicable at work because I know these people have to be around these people but I have the right to be confident and be comfortable no matter who I'm around.

                          What makes jiu-jitsu perfect for women is that it's the only martial art that effectively addresseswhat to do when the fight goes to the ground and if there's one thing we knowfor sure it's that the attacker will do everything in his power to get us there. My daughter and I signed up at the Gracie Academy because she's gonna be going to college next year and I felt much more comfortable with her having some self-defense training before being on a college campus. I feel much better about her going off to college next year and I feel safer myself too, on the street. At the end of the day, we know that victoryis getting home safely. The Women Empowered program teaches how to neutralize an assault escape if possible, and if escape is not possible how to incapacitate the attacker with a joint lock or chokehold. I really feel like it changed my life because it brought me back to who I am. I lost myself for a long time. Finding jiu-jitsu helped me find my strength again. Words can't even describe how much happier I am how much more confident I am. 

                             I really feel like it's changed my life a lot. One of the things I love about being here is how supportive all the other girls are how much encouragement they give us I feel like after the class like I could conquer the whole world. What separates Women Empowered from every other self-defense program out there is the Violence Scalability Factor because not every situation warrants the same degree of violence in our response. This is critical because statistically, 78% of sexual assaults are committed by people that we know. For example, if you're at a work functionand a drunk co-worker starts getting out of hand and getting a little too touchy-feely you're probably not going to feel inclined togouge his eyes out or palm strike them in the face but if that's the only self-defense you've learned, chances are you won't do anything at all. With Women Empowered we teach everything from simple de-escalation techniques all the way to deadly force techniques for worst-case scenarios so no matter who the perpetrator is  or what the circumstance, we have a plan.

                                I for a long time had thought it would be a good idea for me to take women's self-defense but I was always too intimidated to do so. I was really, really, really nervous becausethis was so outside the scope of my comfort level but the environment was sosupportive of that it just kind of pulled me in and swept me up and the next thing I know I'm at the end of Women Empowered and I thought "I don't want this to end" and it's such a secure place to be and it's such a cooperativeand collaborative learning environment. And for me, that is every reason why I'm here. Once a woman owns these techniques,and is prepared for worst-case scenarios she's so much more likely topreemptively assert herself which could really help deter an assault before it happens. 

I had an incident where I was in the car somebody was trying to break in my car and he hadn't seen me yet so instead of like panicking and getting really scared I just stopped, thought, and my mind wentsuper clear, and I still saw that he didn't see me so I thought "what's the safest way for me to get out of this situation?"I think the most important part is that I didn't feel unprepared, I did feel totally empowered. I think without my training Iwould have just freaked and not been able to handle the situation and even nowwhen I look back on the situation I'm not scared by it, I feel empowered by it. We kind of defeat ourselves with the perception that it doesn't belong to us or somehow we don't connect and it's really because our own perception of what it is and what we really need to do is get in there and learn what it's really about and see how it really is for everybody. Ever since learning Women Empowered I just never have that uncomfortable uncertainty anymore I just have this real confidence and it's just so powerful to me that I can, that I can just... It's so funny that it still makes me cry, it just makes me so happy. As women we have the right to control our bodies and our boundaries. Women Empowered has given me the tools to do just that.