karate_woman

Welcome

Maybe you should bring your wife to join in - or even watch - a class or two. Is there a reason for her concern? Are you already taking class? How many women participate? I suppose you could also talk to the instructor about your spouse's concerns about grappling women and see if there are any suggestions. I hope she understands the grappling in class is not like the m/f grappling you'd see on the internet as a fetish sort of thing; it is fun, but hard work, and the female members of class are more often the ones to be uncomfortable with the situation. I've found that when men are uncomfortable they generally worry about hurting the women, or perhaps even the possibility of losing to a woman (though I haven't heard anyone say it). There seem to be more women who worry about rolling on the floor with men (I'm not one of them) - the most common reason I've heard is the one you mentioned, but there are a few others reasons they don't like it - religion, being a former victim, and fear are a few that come to mind. I generally find that women grapple in a faster, more technical way then men; we basically need to be fast and do the move correctly because we can't (generally) just overpower our opponents and "force" a move to work when it is being done wrong (I HAVE seen men pull that off, however). For that matter, even when we are doing it right, when we are applying it against a bigger opponent they can power their way out if they notice what we're doing - that's where the speed comes in. I think grappling against men is VERY valuable from the women's point of view - if all of the opponents we grappled were other small women we'd have a very inflated sense of our grappling abilities, and we really need to apply the moves against men too. Trust me, it IS different. As for your original question, I haven't heard of any "men only" martial arts, though I must admit I haven't been looking for them. Perhaps at a men only gym or something? I have seen "women only" classes and schools, however, because some women won't train with men at all. Something else that occurred to me is that not all martial arts clubs practice grappling (especially striking arts), so you might just try to find a club that doesn't grapple - or doesn't grapple often - and if you've talked to your instructor ahead of time about the concern about m/f grappling perhaps they can pair you up with a male partner (often they pair you up based on size anyway).

Welcome

I think Miyagi Chojun was the greatest martial artist of all time, myself.

congrats

I enjoy my job. I work for a large employer and have changed positions a few times in the 10 years I've worked there, which makes things more interesting. Last year I was promoted twice, and the newest position is a management position so there is both a lot to learn and still some potential for further promotions and/or special projects.

Welcome

I agree. My ex was in the Canadian Army Reserve and he and a few others were ORDERED to carry the women's packs (in addition to their own) on a forced march while in basic training. He said at one point in the march even the rifles became too heavy for the women so they weren't even carrying their rifles! I think the standards have changed again since then (1992), though. They were in a communications/radio operator troup so the job they were doing involved a lot of sitting at desks, but still! If the standards were deemed too high for what was needed for the position, then they should have been changed across the board for that position, in my opinion. If on the other hand the standards are appropriate and someone can't cut it then they need to fail. It leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those ordered to pick up the slack, otherwise.

Forms, when taught properly (with bunkai) are a rather valuable part of training. We don't do forms to the exclusion of all else, however. Are you saying that "[edit]" (as you termed them), [edit] and kids should be turned away at the door and prevented from training? The kid black belt issue has been flogged to death in a few other threads, so I'm not going there. All of the groups you mentioned, however, can greatly improve their ability to defend themselves. Of course, when making that statement I'm assuming that the black belt/training was obtained in a dojo that incorporates self-defense (with or without forms), and not a McDojo. These groups in particular would have the element of surprise behind them; by the time the attacker realizes they intend to defend themselves the attacker could very well be on the ground. False confidence is definitely a problem; certainly nobody (even a young, healthy male, btw) should be overconfident in their abilities, or underestimate their opponent. I'd also like to point out again (though you addressed it in a dismissive, McDojo sort of way) that most people aren't training to go toe to toe with a trained fighter. That doesn't mean they are defenceless against such a person, however - especially with the element of surprise. As you've shown by your statements, potential victims aren't perceived to have self defense skills - if the victim can make use of the element of surprise to do some moves they've learned they have a much greater chance of survival - it sounds like you would deny people that chance just because they'll never be able to fight someone like Royce Gracie. If that is the measure of value in martial arts training there should be very few people training. There were two recent instances in my city where women were grabbed in broad daylight. One woman pressed her car alarm button, which scared the attackers off (there were four), and the other woman's dog chased the guy away. It really goes to show how doing something - anything - improves your chances "on the street".

A rather funny topic. The debate could go on indefinitely, which makes it even funnier. I don't really care one way or the other - the winner will always be whoever the writers wanted to win

What is a wife beater? It appears to be a piece of clothing judging by its description but I've never heard the term.

Oo! Mead... isn't that similar to whiskey? Ish. I read a lot of fantasy books and they're always drinking mead, but I've never heard of it in modern reality. ie: I know that it's a Celtic drink, but that's about it. I think it is a honey beer. Courtesy of Merriam-Webster online (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary) mead Pronunciation: 'mEd Function: noun Etymology: Middle English mede, from Old English medu; akin to Old High German metu mead, Greek methy wine Date: before 12th century : a fermented beverage made of water and honey, malt, and yeast

I haven't met any women that actually like combovers, though I have met plenty that think they are disgusting. There are all different tastes, that's for sure, but combovers just encourage you to hide instead of being confident in yourself. Combovers don't work anyway - the guys with combovers look terrible to begin with - they aren't fooling anyone - and then to top it off, they've got this 10 inch flap of hair flying around when the wind blows I would much rather be with a guy that shaves/cuts his hair really short and accepts the fact they are going bald than one that hides under ball caps or a combover. Here is a website dedicated to the combover: http://www.combovers.co.uk/open.html

I think there is some confusion here with respect to atheist vs agnostic. The definition I'm seeing tossed around of an atheist tends to fit the agnostic more. Courtesty of the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, which can be found at:http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary : athe·ist Pronunciation: 'A-thE-ist Function: noun Date: 1571 : one who denies the existence of God ag·nos·tic Pronunciation: ag-'näs-tik, &g- Function: noun Etymology: Greek agnOstos unknown, unknowable, from a- + gnOstos known, from gignOskein to know -- more at KNOW Date: 1869 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and prob. unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god

Yes, but only if the guy is confident about it and basically shaves his head. My husband shaves his head and it doesn't get overly long before he shaves it again. He rarely takes an actual razor to it - he usually just uses hair clippers without the guard. To me there is nothing worse looking than someone trying to hide their baldness; NO COMBOVERS PLEASE!

I agree with this; I can't really vote.

Scary stuff

No

Welcome!

I guess that depends whether your style contains new kata after black belt; mine has several rather substantial kata after black belt.

Welcome

Nope

Stupid move; he's lucky he got away with it.

Welcome

Welcome