More Men or Women?

[Fenris-wolf]

Well, I'll tell you what, I am not flexible! I am strong ("for a woman"... dammit, it's true ), and I am aggressive. Yes, weight matters, but I find height matters more (of course, I do a stand up art). But I can certainly hold my own against the men in my club and few of them go soft on me. On the other hand I wouldn't like to fight them...

 

Speaking of which, I was talking about that the other day with my mate after class. I was saying how happy I had felt when one of the guys (who is a very good fighter! About 2kg lighter than me) had said to my bf (before we were going out) that he reckons I could fight men and he's afraid of grappling with me

 

And I was saying how one day when I'm a better fighter I'd like to fight men (good luck finding guys of course: if you win you bet up a girl and if I win you got beaten up by a girl!) and he was saying about Lucia Riker (is that right? - the boxer) had pretty much run out of female opponents and so she had a fight with a man. She was an incredible boxer, he was kind so-so, everybody figured she would kick his *rse. Well, she got she got done over apparently.

 

And I find that very interesting. Sure, men have higher muscle to body fat ratio, which makes you stronger and faster for your body weight, but IMO any obstacle should be able to be overcome, surely she could have won? It seems odd? Maybe with experience she could fight men.

 

Opinions on the matter welcomed

[aefibird]

I think that with experience and correct training women can sucessfully fight and beat men. Maybe Lucia Riker lost because there was so much pressure and expectation on her to win.

 

Men and women tend to have different fighting styles, so I suppose if you are only used to fighting with women (or vice versa) and you suddenly get to fight a guy then it could come as a bit of a shock because of a man's style of fighting.

 

Yes, of course, men are different physically to women. Men have their own physical plus points, same as women have their physical plus points. You have to take these into consideration when fighting, just the same as you account for age, experienc etc etc when fighting anyone.

 

With regard to female fighters finding male opponents, I agree with Fenris-wolf = good luck to them!

 

I think that male martial artists have a difficult job in trying to find a balance between pasting a woman into the ground simply because she was a 'weaker' opponent and the opposite, which is to hold back because of the traditional view - their mum told them it was wrong to hit girls and they can't get over that mindset now.

 

That isn't to say that women can't beat men in a fight, because I believe they can, it's just that men who want to take on women are often masochistic bullies who see a woman as an easy fight and a push over - they feel they have to 'prove' by defeating women that women shouldn't be in martial arts. In this day and age it is a sad attitude to come across, but unfortunately in my MA journey I have encountered it more than once.

Edited May 15, 2004 by aefibird

[turonaga]

we have no women in our karate practice but we have a lot of girls and women being groomed for the Wushu Sanshou practice. but still male out number females in that class. don't get me wrong these females may look very attractive and u might think they cant kill a fly but wait til you see them in the mat. they are fighters.

[Fenris-wolf]

Ahhh... I just love the sweet little innocent-looking girls who kick *ss!

[sAtelitte]

Out of the 30 people in my group, there are about 4 women in it of which only one shows up every training

 

Then again one of them is really cute (think she's about 24, long blonde hair, athletic body,...) and if she ever shows up my concentration tends to drop a few notches . So perhaps it's better for me if she doesn't show up that much

[Thaegen]

Nice, well we have one woman, she comes like one time in a month or so... and she is not beautifull....

[Ironberg]

Then again one of them is really cute (think she's about 24, long blonde hair, athletic body,...) and if she ever shows up my concentration tends to drop a few notches . So perhaps it's better for me if she doesn't show up that much

 

I know how you feel. However, if you learn to not let your mind wander - that could be a great achievement in your mental development in the martial arts !

[sAtelitte]

Ironberg, then next time she can come in bikini outfit so i can really put my mind to the test

 

seriously, i would like more girls in our group, makes things more intresting (and not in the way described above). Already did a small sparring exercise with one of those girls and she hit to my surprise pretty hard, making the exercise a real intresting one.