Kiwi Girls Grappling Group - Bringing Female Fighters Together

Photos by Crispin Anderlini

Last weekend in Auckland a new all-female martial arts collective was born: the Kiwi Girls Grappling Group.

Representing a number of female martial artists from around New Zealand, the collective will act as a banner for a variety of different training sessions, seminars and fight camps to be held around the country in the near future.

I spoke to co-founders Kate Aroa (current ICNZ women’s welterweight champion and BJJ brown belt) and Melodie McDonald (ICNZ co-promoter) about the first meeting and their ambitions for the group.

Kate Aroa is the first female MMA champion in New Zealand. Training under her partner Roney Da Silva in Tauranga, she has been practising BJJ for seven years and has earned a brown belt in the process.

While training and fighting in Australia (including a notable victory over highly-touted Australian Angie Parr in 2010), she encountered all-female grappling clubs and competitions for the first time, and noticed the positive pathway that these groups provided for women interested in training and fighting in BJJ and MMA. While New Zealand hasn’t yet got the population to support all-female events, Aroa began to see the potential benefits that having an all-female grappling group could provide.

After attending an all-female grappling seminar held last year by Sophia Drysdale – Australia’s first female blackbelt – the idea for the Kiwi Girls Grappling Group was born. Drysdale discussed the benefits of training with other women, both in terms of the social atmosphere it can provide and the possibility to learn specific female-focused techniques that may not be developed in general martial arts gyms.

Alongside Melodie McDonald and fellow brown belt in BJJ, Keitha Bannon, the trio set out to liaise with other female BJJ practitioners and MMA fighters throughout the country and organise regular training sessions for the group. Already there are plans for sub-groups as far south as Dunedin, and the list of members is growing daily.

Both Aroa and McDonald were enthusiastic about the atmosphere at the first session, with participants ranging from experienced competitive grapplers to an 8-year old white belt making her first steps into competitive jiu-jitsu, and women travelled from as far as Whangarei and Taranaki to attend.

The first training session and discussion was followed by lunch and an opportunity for everyone to socialise and get to know one another, which McDonald considers essential to the success of the group. While there are obvious technical advantages to sparring and rolling with women for those who train exclusively with men at their own clubs, there is also a great benefit that she sees in making women feel more comfortable about getting into martial arts and preparing themselves for competition.
 
McDonald also notes the simple pleasantries of training with other women: the more social tone and general lack of bad body odour, for example.

The group also prides itself on a non-hierarchical structure, where club allegiances and fighting experience don’t dictate power. In such a small scene, many of the participants have already faced each other in competition, and they must be able to share skills and knowledge comfortably with those that they may once have submitted or punched in the face.

McDonald was extremely positive about the reactions to the first session, with the women bringing diverse styles and techniques from their own gyms to the group.

In keeping with the politic-free ethic of the collective, the location for their meetings will rotate between clubs, and she hopes that other groups will form under the same umbrella in cities farther away from Auckland.

Plans are also underway for a series of all-female fight camps, at which experienced trainers and international guests can deliver seminars and train with the women over the course of a weekend.

Whilst Aroa is positive about the growing interest in female martial arts, she’s also still waiting for suitable challengers for her ICNZ welterweight belt. She sees the foundation of the Kiwi Girls Grappling Group as a good step towards establishing a coherent network of women who are interested in training and competing in both BJJ and MMA.

McDonald similarly laments the current lack of females in competitive MMA – while five applied for the last ICNZ show, only two could be matched due to weight differences; she reports similar difficulties pairing opponents in Belinda Dunne’s Princesses of Pain promotion.

Still, while some of the women will look to the group for help in learning about possible opponents and fight cards, others will simply be there to enjoy themselves, share skills and learn from other members. Either way, the group’s foundation looks to be a great development for females interested in grappling and MMA at any stage in their fighting careers.

To learn more about joining the group, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/189752427784238/