Is my coach a red flag or is this normal?
I recently started Jiu Jitsu classes at a local gym. Currently only doing no Gi. I picked the gym because it was close, a little smaller, and from what I could see on socials (mind you, not super current posts), had a decent amount of women in classes. The people at the gym are by and large great, but the coach… might be a red flag. I’m honestly trying to gauge if this is normal in the community or if these are red flags.
For one, there are almost no women who come to classes, whether beginners classes, all levels, or open mats. In the last month and a half, I’ve been in 2 classes where other women were present.
The coach said “most females don’t stick around”, which, maybe? But gotta ask why when plenty of gyms don’t seem to have that problem…?
There is an attendance and progress tracking system. Again, I’ve been going to classes 3x a week for the last 6 weeks and I still don’t have an official way to track my attendance or progress. A man who joined 2 weeks ago does. When I mentioned to my coach that I still needed to be set up, he said he would get to it.
I’ve noticed a number of times when we’re drilling, the coach will ask me (if I’m the only woman in the class) to watch others rather than actually drilling the moves. I was sort of taken aback the first couple of times, and asked if I was doing something wrong asked my training partner if I’d hurt him (he assured me I had not). The coach said no, but sometimes it’s good “to watch to get it”.
I live in a place with a number of gym options, but is this normal ish? Or should I cut my losses and find another gym?
Posted Oct 3, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC