As Brazilian jiu-jitsu in South Korea grows, women are fighting as hard as men
A martial art that teaches smaller people to defend themselves against larger assailants, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is gaining popularity in the home of taekwondo – especially among women, helped by female instructors and women-only tournaments
Heejin Lee is crouched on a floor mat, demonstrating moves that could be debilitating or even life-threatening if used on someone in self-defence.
Lee, 40, was South Korea’s first woman to earn a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Today, she is the country’s sole female black belt, the sport’s highest ranking, and is the instructor and owner of the Queen of Jiu-Jitsu academy in Seoul.
These days the evening classes in her second-floor studio are filled with students as Korean interest in the sport blossoms. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ as it is more commonly known, is a sport, martial art and self-defence technique that centres on grappling and ground fighting. It developed from the Japanese martial art of judo, so many judo fighters cross-train.
BJJ was developed so that smaller and weaker opponents could defend themselves and take down larger, stronger assailants by applying joint locks and choke holds. As the popularity of mixed martial arts has risen, BJJ has become one of the world’s fastest growing martial arts.
The growth is perhaps surprising in a country that originated its own popular martial art, taekwondo. In January, the popular comedienne Park Na-rae demonstrated BJJ on the MBC television programme I Live Alone, a key move in a country where celebrities are trendsetters.
Fellow comedians Heo Kyung-hwan, Lee Seung-yoon and Yoon Hyung-bin also recently became BJJ fighters. Seungri from K-pop giants Big Bang has extolled BJJ’s benefits in recent Instagram posts and K-drama actor Oh Ryong from Something in the Rain appears in a BJJ feature in the June issue of Men’s Health Korea.