Gracie Barra Harrogate Welcome the BBC To Our GBF Programme
This month we’ve been privileged to host the BBC at the academy, featuring Calendar Girl as Miss October in the Alternative WI Calendar, and new member of our academy, through the women’s GBF programme, Tricia Stewart.
Tricia has drawn media attention by starting her Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey aged 74. As she explained on BBC Politics, “I’ve been interested in women empowered and women’s self defence for a long time. We need to learn how to defend ourselves; how to have that confidence and technique to say no and get away safe.”
A huge inspiration to us at the club, she begins her journey with the long term goal of educating women and girls in the importance of self defence, whilst demonstrating key techniques in schools.
Tricia explains; “I think it’s so important for women to know that they have this power and this knowledge that they can defend themselves...it’s about giving women the power and the tools to defend themselves. You’re never going to teach men who abuse women not to, or stop them. You have to teach women to defend themselves.”
Discussing current school curriculums, she continued, “there is no training for girls to defend themselves, and abuse is rife. It doesn’t get any less. Politicians need to take this on, it has to be on the curriculum in schools. It (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) has a great philosophy, a great dignity about it, and the way they (The Gracie Barra coaching team) talk about it, the way they teach, is very impressive”.
Professor Lewis Matthews, Head Instructor at Gracie Barra Harrogate, also featured, with a glittering report on Tricia’s progress. He said “I think it’s amazing to have anyone at 74 training, and I think that from what I can say from my limited time of knowing Tricia, is that she’s incredibly humble. She comes in, just gets involved, and it feels like normal, it’s amazing!
It’s really nice that she seems so grounded and wants to get stuck in, and actually bring a little bit of exposure to what we’re doing.”
Quizzed on whether she’d apply what she’s been learning in class during our GBF programme if she felt vulnerable, she answered “I would. We’ve learned techniques, and it’s not about fighting. It’s about getting away safe. Having the confidence to know that if someone does challenge you or get hold of you, you can get away safely”.
Reflecting on her time as a Calendar Girl, which lead to a hit Hollywood movie based on their story, Tricia said:
“The calendar wasn’t about showing everything off, it was about women being confident in their own skin. I never felt that it was about people looking at us in the nude, it was about so much more than that.
It was about women power, powerful women developing from being shy before they did the calendar, to realising what they could do and what has happened since the calendar - what it’s done for women”.
See the full clip below:
