Craig Jones isn’t one to shy away from tough conversations.
And in a recent episode of On Borrowed Time, he addressed a serious issue facing the Jiu-Jitsu community – the difficulty in attracting and retaining female practitioners, often due to the behavior of some men both on and off the mats.
He shared a story about a female acquaintance who experienced disrespectful treatment from a male training partner, using it to highlight a larger cultural problem within the sport:
Especially now [in] sport, we have trouble getting women in the sport and then due to the actions of dudes in the sport, we have trouble keeping them.
Despite his often playful and controversial image online, Jones made it clear that he wants nothing to do with men who act inappropriately toward women:
I do not want to associate with dudes like that.
His advice to male practitioners was simple and direct:
Don’t be the dude…Don’t send the DM after – don’t make it weird.
These words are especially important at this moment, given the controversy around the expulsion of Jay Rod from the B-Team due to inappropriate behavior towards some of the female students.
Check out the full conversation on the video below:
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