Elite BJJ competitor Kendall Reusing recently took the time to share the one self-defense technique that every woman should know. Reusing is a fantastic competitor who has established herself at the top of the sport, winning multiple IBJJF No Gi World Championship titles over the last few years. She was first promoted to black belt in 2019 at the age of 22 but she had been training in BJJ since she was just 5 years old, along with an extensive background in both Judo and wrestling. She’s a very well-rounded grappler and there aren’t many more people better-qualified to give advice on using grappling in self-defense scenarios.
BJJ is often touted as the best martial art for self-defense by it’s proponents but there’s also a few key drawbacks to the sport as well. With the way BJJ is practiced as a competitive sport, it obviously doesn’t include any striking and doesn’t tend to focus on takedowns all that much. For many competitors, pulling guard is a perfectly viable strategy and will often be their clearest path to success depending on their skillset. That’s one of the main criticisms levied at BJJ when it comes to being a functional martial art for self-defense, but it’s also the easiest to address as well.
By adding in standing grappling from other martial arts, any man or woman can become more well-rounded and better able to use their skills in a self-defense scenario. Kendall Reusing seems aware of that herself, and that’s why her recommendation for the one technique to know starts on the feet. It involves dealing with the incoming strikes and working around them to take the fight to the ground, where it becomes far easier to escape. That should be the primary goal of any self-defense scenario after all, simply getting out of it unharmed and back to safety.
BJJ Fanatics shared the clip of Kendall Reusing demonstrating the one self-defense move every woman should know to their official Instagram account, and the full instructional can be found here.
