Salajwe Girls MMA Camp

One project of mine that is starting to take off is my interest in starting a mixed martial arts group for female youth in the village. Mixed martial arts is a combination of several martial arts including Brazilian Jui Jitsu, wrestling, and Moi Tai boxing (punches and kicks). From my understanding, a lot of girls in Salajwe suffer from low self esteem. Rarely do the girls complete school let alone qualify for college. Most are mothers before they turn 20. There is somewhat of a low expectation for women: their goals are small if any and they have few role models to look up and relate to. Because so many girls are single parents, they move from boyfriend to boyfriend dependant on men to provide for them and the child. Part of the exchange is sex, most likely unprotected sex. Here lies opportunity for more unwanted pregnancies and possibly HIV infection. By learning and competing in mixed martial arts (MMA), I am hoping to build these girls’ confidence. As a result they will delay their sexual debut, or demand more equality in their relationships (i.e. condomize). My goals include building their self respect and also respect for their peers. By no means am I encouraging these girls to practice violence on each other or otherwise. But rather building a sense of women empowerment in the village.

[Please note that not all girls in Salajwe would fall in these categories I am mentioning]

With Lucas’ help at Lempu Junior Secondary School, I am applying to start an after-school club. A major set back for the school is that I want to open the club to 11-30 year olds. That includes primary school and out of school youth whom don’t attend the junior school. In order to build interest in the club beforehand (I’m sure none, if any of the girls know what mixed martial arts is), I planned a week long camp in December to show the girls what the club would be all about. I posted fliers all over the village about who, what, when, and why. My greatest advertisement by far was word of mouth. Any girls who come by the house all the time that are old enough I invited and had them bring a friend. I requested to use the community hall in the village and borrowed athletic mats from Lempu. The camp went Mon-Fri for two hours. I managed to secure all needs with no money at all. Lucas and I filled buckets with water for the girls to drink during practice and got to the hall early every day to sweep and mop mats.
Monday finally came around and we were excited to start. I got a scale from the clinic so I could weigh each girl. When I met Lucas at the community hall, he had been stung by two wasps and was having an anaphylactic reaction.  His face, chest, and arm pits were red and swollen and he was itching all over his body. I rushed him to the clinic to get a hydrocortisone shot and some medication. After all that excitement we still had to run back to the hall before all the girls showed up.
Well 10:00am rolled around and still no one was there. A few minutes later 4 girls popped in. I took their weight and recorded their names and ages. We warmed up and stretched. I had requested an out of school youth from the head of the youth committee to help me interpret to the girls but no one was available so we did the best we could (both sides). I wanted to stress the importance of drinking water, stretching, and insisting that all moves showed in the room were not to be used out of control or to manipulate anyone. Hopefully they got the message…Anyway, we played crab soccer (same as soccer only must stay on hands and feet all the time-really good for building arm strength). We started with boxing; jab, cross, and jab-cross combination. The girls were very enthusiastic. We ended with a game in which two people stand facing each other and must try and make the other person move their feet by pushing on their hands-really good for building better balance.
That afternoon we were visited at home by several young girls. We played ladder ball with them (Lucas made himself from tree branches and rocks). Afterwards, we encouraged all the girls to come to our camp the next morning at 10.
The next day we had 23 participants! Ages ranged from 11-17. No real out of school youth participated but many liked to watch. There were babies everywhere; either from girls baby-sitting brothers and sisters or mothers with their children. Even some boys tried to join. The girls took pride in telling the boys it was Batsetsana Fela! (girls only). We decided to break out the mats that day so that we could have a larger selection of games. We reviewed jab, cross, and combos for everyone who wasn’t there the first day. Because we had so many girls, we did relays. They get so excited! But they like to cheat too…The girls were getting pretty good at punches. We had them pair up and practice on each other while their opponent would hold up their hands. I think I started to loose them when I showed defense. We ended with Steal the Bacon-split the group into two teams and assign a number to each girl. When their number is called, one girl from each team races to steal a ball placed in between the two teams and run back to their team. These girls were flying head-first towards that ball. I don’t know how we didn’t have like 15 concussions. These girls get after it. They’re such good sports-no one was particularly too bummed that they lost. They were just having a good time.
On day 3 we showed up at the community hall to sweep and mop (an hour before practice started) and there was a group of girls already waiting for us. They are so eager to help. They offered to sweep, pull out mats, and fill buckets with water. That day we took a different route and started teaching some wrestling takedowns. I had them practice their balance by playing a game in which they hold one of their feet behind their back, hop around, and try to pry their opponents hand off their foot while keeping their own balance. We did step-by-step instructions of how to perform a takedown shot. They did pretty well during the drills but actually taking down an opponent is hard and I think some girls started loosing interest. I’m sure a lot of girls were starting to get soar and tired from the weekly activities. We regained their attention with more games but what really calmed them back down was doing boxing drills. They really picked up on those quickly. We warmed down with some yoga stretches and even did some push ups! Our plan for the next day was Jui Jitsu moves. We were nervous but thought they should give it a try anyway.
We started off the day with low expectations. The girls seemed to get frustrated quickly with the takedowns. Jui Jitsu is hard enough to explain in English. I didn’t know how me and Lucas were gonna explain these moves in Setswana. We decided to tackle the beast early and taught a reversal from guard right away. Guard position is when a fighter is on her back with her feet flat in the mat. Her opponent is on her knees in between the fighter’s legs and lays almost chest to belly. In a reversal, the fighter hooks her opponent’s arm and with her hips, pushes off the mat and rolls so that she is on top of her opponent (this can also be used to escape from a sexual predator). The girls embraced the move well although most were embarrassed about the position, especially if they were wearing skirts.
After drilling takedown shots again across the mats, I split the group into two teams and had them paired up by weights. When their number was called, the 2 girls would meet in the center of the mat and try and take each other down. I wasn’t sure how the game would go but I was interested in seeing how the girls could wrestle. Please note that when teaching wrestling in the states, most coaches would wait weeks of intense wrestling practices before having wrestlers attempt live takedowns. I was blown away by the results. From the youngest to the oldest, these girls were so tough and would fight to the death. No one was too shy. It was the best part of my whole week. I demonstrated how to sprawl (throwing legs back and out, and hips down onto an opponent’s head) when an opponent was trying to take you down and other defense wresting moves. We ended with more games and bowed out (circle up, hold hands to your side, face up, and bow forward-encourages building respect for peers).
Last day, we planned to have mostly games to keep them interested and wanting more. We played sword fight (girls stand foot to foot and hold hands so that their finger is pointing out like a sword; then they try to “stab” each other with their “sword” while protecting themselves at the same time). We did 6-man relays that included tumbling, shots, cartwheels, and barrel rolls. We lined them up and did punching drills plus a few takedowns and sprawls. Again I split the girls into tow teams and had them take down their opponent. They had low stance, taking shots and sprawling. I couldn’t believe how much they learned in only a week!
While Lucas occupied the group with various games, I took two girls at a time and had them show me various boxing punches, takedowns, and Jui Jitsu rolls (mock exam). Afterwards everyone got a treat which they loved. I explained as best I could in Setswana that I was interested in starting a club similar to the camp at Lempu next term and wanted them to come and join.
All in all I thought the camp was a HUGE success. I think over time these girls will develop higher self esteem and hopefully deter them from risky behavior. A perfect ending to my week: Lucas and I got the go-ahead to start the club at Lempu!!!


Lucas after being stung =(


Kenaneo being weighed, first day


Katie teaching a jab


Girls drilling punches


Lucas teaching takedown shots


Katie teaching takedowns


Katie teaching jiu jitsu roll


Girls doing live takedowns