Mission of Roll the Same

The mission of Roll the Same is to work towards making Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space. We want to harness the potential of BJJ to be a force for bringing people from all backgrounds together.

To accomplish this mission, Roll the Same (RTS) works in education, advocacy, and community.

• Education: To provide education, support and resources to drive positive change and make the sport inclusive and safe for all.

• Advocacy: To maintain a platform and a network committed to increasing access and inclusion in BJJ.

• Community: To empower individual practitioners to engage with issues of equality and diversity, regardless of rank or level of involvement.

My Contributions

As a volunteer analyst for RTS, my primary responsibility has been the analysis of mixed-methods data (i.e., quantitative and qualitative data) that were collected as part of the RTS 2020 community climate survey. I then summarized these analyses in a comprehensive report on gender inclusion within BJJ. The full 25-page report is available on the RTS website, but I provide the executive summary here.

Based on our survey of 579 BJJ practitioners, including 189 women, I found evidence of:

• Gyms and cultures that undervalue women.
• Sexualization of women by men who are their teammates.
• No mechanisms of accountability when misconduct arises.
• Sexism in online BJJ culture.

Apart from being the right thing to do, greater gender inclusion can improve the prestige, profits, and technical prowess of any gym. To create a more welcoming environment, gyms can:

• Be proactive in efforts to teach men how to be good training partners for women.
• Build general trust in instructors and amongst teammates.
• Establish and enforce a system that allows women to report sexual harassment/assult without negative consequences.

Future Directions

Complementing this report on gender inclusion, RTS also has data that shed light on the inclusion of racial and sexual minorities in BJJ. These data show that problems extend beyond gender inclusion to other minoritized groups. I plan to conduct analyses of these data, leading to the release of future reports on the state of inclusion in BJJ with regards to race and sexuality. Although I was not part of the RTS team when the 2020 community climate survey was conducted, I already have plans for future study proposals that focus on more targeted questions pertaining to social hierarchy within martial arts and its relationship to well-being and inclusion. I welcome inquiries from people interested in collaborating on this exciting project.