Back when I trained, women were not a common sight in most jiujitsu gyms here in Brazil. I started in 98, and stopped training at blue belt around 2002, and I never had female regular in my class. The purple belt I mentioned was the wife of a visiting black belt from são Paulo. Sure there were some women training, there were female divisions in tournaments, but it was still considered odd. I remember the first time I heard about a female figher was Leka Vieira wearing a bikini on the cover of Gracie Magazine (which was kinda disappointing cause she was shaped like SpongeBob). Different times in jiujitsu.
It's still easily 10:1 men to women, and even greater if you count those that take it seriously enough to achieve a coloured belt, but I've rolled with enough women who are built up from playing hockey to know that at white or blue belt, only most heavily conditioned women have a chance against me, a computer geek who's never taken Athletics seriously.
Back when I trained, women were not a common sight in most jiujitsu gyms here in Brazil. I started in 98, and stopped training at blue belt around 2002, and I never had female regular in my class. The purple belt I mentioned was the wife of a visiting black belt from são Paulo. Sure there were some women training, there were female divisions in tournaments, but it was still considered odd. I remember the first time I heard about a female figher was Leka Vieira wearing a bikini on the cover of Gracie Magazine (which was kinda disappointing cause she was shaped like SpongeBob). Different times in jiujitsu.
It's still easily 10:1 men to women, and even greater if you count those that take it seriously enough to achieve a coloured belt, but I've rolled with enough women who are built up from playing hockey to know that at white or blue belt, only most heavily conditioned women have a chance against me, a computer geek who's never taken Athletics seriously.