Ladies of the MA

[karatekid1975]

Yeah karatekid it's great when your the only female in the sense that the guys reckon they should be nice to you and go lightly in sparring. That's until they get a big shock when you beat them up lol

Hehehehehe I agree, Kez. That will rock hehehehe.

[Jiffy]

Okay, before I get into my speel, let's face a fact, men and women are different. There's no possible way of denying that. Generally speaking (there are always exceptions, so please don't quote them), both mentally and physically, men and women are different.

This also applies to the dojo. The one controversial thing is, can a woman take the same sort of impact that a man can? Generally speaking, no. Now, before all the women go crazy and start yelling "Let's see you push out a baby", I'm not talking about your mental ability to handle pain, because I honestly believe that women have a greater pain threashold than men. What I am talking about is that the physical makeup of a woman is generally less robust than that of a man.

On the flip side, men tend to lack the attention to details that women often display. Women tend to have more interest in getting things right where men are generally more content to just "Make it work".

Once again I'd like to emphasize that I am generalising based on my experience. Please do not bother posting that it's not the case. If it's not the case in your experience, that's okay, but it definately is the case in my experience.

Anyway, sorry, just had to get that out of the way...

OK, back on topic.

In the dojo, there are two ways at looking at things and I have to admit that at different times in my Martial Arts Career, I have held either belief.

One says that women should be given consessions to allow for certain things. For example, one shouldn't hit a woman in the chest as it can cause serious and permanant injury. I also believe that a woman is not the same as a man in that they are not consistant. The monthly cycle plays havoc not only with the womans emotions but also with her physical ability in many cases. This will obviously have certain effects on her performance and ability to cope. Then of course there is the difference in the physical makeup of the body which should be allowed for just as it would be for anyone in a weaker physical state such as a junior or frail senior.

The other way of thinking is obviously the opposite. The woman does everything that the man does, they must fight the same, do the same excersizes, receive the same impact and do everything just like the men.

What I do say though is that it's one or the other. Either women are given the concessions for safety or for whatever reason and that is widley known, or they have to do everything the men have to. Either way, the respect placed on the grade should reflect as such, no more, no less. If the grade was a concession grade, then it does not deserve the respect that a non-concession grade would get. Similarly, if the woman has gone through everything the man has had to go through, then they deserve exactly the same respect.

[bushido_man96]

I don't treat female martial artists any differently when stand up sparring, but I can't help using a different strategy when rolling and grappling against them.

I don't think I would be able to grapple with a woman in training. I just think there could be too many rules that could be broken there.

[obiwansbane]

oh wow i wish our dojo had some of you in it... the girls at my dojo make me REALLY mad... they have this air about them saying im a girl so it doesnt matter if i try or not cause ill advance anyways just cause im a girl, then they are of course the annoying giggly type, where you'll be trying to work and they will be laughing over something and you have to waste time telling them to shut up, and then it comes to sparring... this is where i have fun... sorry for being disrespectful ladies, but they are like walls if u understand me... so thats where i get the satisfaction of beating the hell outta them since we have almost no contact sparring its not too hard... but it makes them realise that they arent as great as they thought the were, and that nobody is going to give them special allowances just for being girls... im just glad that they arent and never will be higher belts than me... i think it would cause me to snap..

but yah there are some girls who like the martial arts and train hard.. but if you are not going to train like the rest of the class, you dont deserve to be there with the rest of the class... plastic girls should stay away from the martial arts... especially if they are plannin on joinin up at a dojo i go to...

[Jiffy]

Very Well Said obiwansbane!

On a slightly sexist note: Is that you in your avitar?

[Ace2021]

Most of the girls in our dojo can handle their own. They have the decision if they want to spar with a guy or pair up with fellow women. I've sparred a few, depends on the person, but a lot can't be taken lightly or else you'll end up getting messed up.

[Adonis]

I trained with several diffrent women. There are diffrences between men and women obvisouly.

I avoid the chest both and grappling and in stand up sparring.

How ever I still accept certain mount of technique both sexes the same. Only diffence is the phycial attributes, bone size, height of the person, flexiblity level, weather men or women. As to what techniques to show.

How ever emontailly it can be awekward or diffrent if its a sweet, attractive women. I probably won't hit as hard. Because of the emotional factor.

[obiwansbane]

On a slightly sexist note: Is that you in your avitar?

nope im a guy...

another thing is when u have a girl with slightly a slightly larger, for lack of a more refined word chest it does make kicking kind of a dilemma....

[lordtariel]

I don't think I would be able to grapple with a woman in training. I just think there could be too many rules that could be broken there.

It took me a while when I was in judo to get over this. There's two different scenarios for it.

One, the woman is a serious student. I'll grapple just as hard with one of them as I would a guy because if I don't they'll tear me a new one. When you're fighting someone serious, you don't have time to think about accidentally doing something, and if you do, they usually don't mind because it's an accident and they're too busy trying to bar you or choke you out.

Then there's the giggly goof off ones. You have to be a bit more careful with them because a lot of the time they're really self-conscious. Since I'm never in a position where I'm competing with them, I usually just be a good uke and let them practice.

This might not be the case with everybody but it was how things worked in my dojo.

[bushido_man96]

I don't think I would be able to grapple with a woman in training. I just think there could be too many rules that could be broken there.

It took me a while when I was in judo to get over this. There's two different scenarios for it.

One, the woman is a serious student. I'll grapple just as hard with one of them as I would a guy because if I don't they'll tear me a new one. When you're fighting someone serious, you don't have time to think about accidentally doing something, and if you do, they usually don't mind because it's an accident and they're too busy trying to bar you or choke you out.

Then there's the giggly goof off ones. You have to be a bit more careful with them because a lot of the time they're really self-conscious. Since I'm never in a position where I'm competing with them, I usually just be a good uke and let them practice.

This might not be the case with everybody but it was how things worked in my dojo.

It sounds like you had a good system there. Was judo fairly popular with the women? Like you, I think it would take quite some time to get used to grappling with the women. Being just a throwing dummy, I could maybe do that.