Ladies of the MA

[lordtariel]

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.

I wouldn't say it was necessarily popular with the women, but we had about 6-8 at any given time though four of them were fairly serious and in it for the whole time I was there.

[SBN Doug]

I guess you could say I'm still in the "taking a while" stage, since I don't feel comfortable staying in as close and "snaking" up the body for position.

I'm pretty much 4 points on the floor.

[CheekyMusician]

I'm a girl and I find it can be annoying and awkward sometimes.

At one of my clubs my Sensei is very much of the mind that a woman should train as hard as a guy and makes no concessions for us. It works quite well for us, especially as it is a very traditional karate club where we very rarely do sparring.

However, my other club is very sport based and it can be a bit trickier. The Sensei there chops and changes a bit. Sometimes he separates women and men, other times he keeps us together and expects us to do the same as each other. I must admit, it does annoy me ever so slightly when he splits us up, but at the same time, I can understand where he's coming from.

For example, doing padwork...I know that I would find it difficult to hold focus pads while a guy was kicking or punching them. But it also creates a bit of a catch 22 for me, anyway, and probably for some of the other women. I do tend to put my all into it when sparring or doing padwork, and a lot of the other women complain that I'm going too hard for them, but then again, if I was sparring with a guy who was putting his all into it, well I really doubt I'd hold my own against him and I'd probably come out of it with a few broken bones!

Then again, when training, especially when sparring you always have to consider your opponent. You always have to take note of their ability, their size and strength etc. and you very rarely find yourself up against someone who is an exact equal of yourself in all these things. And often, for a higher rank practicing with a lower one, it doesn't do them any harm to work on their control, and then let themselves go full out when fighting with someone stronger and more advanced than they are.

[Jiffy]

I'm a girl and I find it can be annoying and awkward sometimes.

At one of my clubs my Sensei is very much of the mind that a woman should train as hard as a guy and makes no concessions for us. It works quite well for us, especially as it is a very traditional karate club where we very rarely do sparring.

However, my other club is very sport based and it can be a bit trickier. The Sensei there chops and changes a bit. Sometimes he separates women and men, other times he keeps us together and expects us to do the same as each other. I must admit, it does annoy me ever so slightly when he splits us up, but at the same time, I can understand where he's coming from.

For example, doing padwork...I know that I would find it difficult to hold focus pads while a guy was kicking or punching them. But it also creates a bit of a catch 22 for me, anyway, and probably for some of the other women. I do tend to put my all into it when sparring or doing padwork, and a lot of the other women complain that I'm going too hard for them, but then again, if I was sparring with a guy who was putting his all into it, well I really doubt I'd hold my own against him and I'd probably come out of it with a few broken bones!

Then again, when training, especially when sparring you always have to consider your opponent. You always have to take note of their ability, their size and strength etc. and you very rarely find yourself up against someone who is an exact equal of yourself in all these things. And often, for a higher rank practicing with a lower one, it doesn't do them any harm to work on their control, and then let themselves go full out when fighting with someone stronger and more advanced than they are.

A great way of looking at it. Recognising the differences in men and women, but basing it on the individual merits of that situatiion rather than a generalisation.

For example, normally I find myself being lighter on women. There was one scenario however, where I want full force with a woman and held back nothing. Why? Partly because it was my black belt grading, but mainly cos she was world champion at the time (in her category) and could give more than she got.

[Jiffy]

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....

Unfortunately, and usually quite akwardly, that can cause a problem. For instance, we have some strikes against the chest. The most obvious one though is a straight arm bar from the mount position. The first part is to place the flat of the hand directly on the centre of the chest and push. Obviously, this needs to be modified when working in the dojo with women.

I rekon women must find it hillarious when men get embarrassed about it.

[insinuendo]

The only difference I've noticed, as with most people here, is sparring. However, how the blokes spar the women seems (in my dojang, at least) to be almost entirely down to the way the woman spars, ie if she backs off a lot, complains when hit, etc. then they tend to go slower/lighter, and are less likely to call her over to spar. I tend to go for the "give as good as you get" option, don't complain when hit, get straight back up if knocked down and get in the next hit as fast as possible... and consequently the blokes call me over to spar with them as they do with each other and as far as I can tell, don't hold back or, if they do they certainly hold back a lot less than with some of the less confident (attitude rather than ability-wise) female sparrers. It's entirely down to your attitude and how you come across.

[Shotokan-kez]

I see where cheekymusician is coming from in the way of pad work. I can't really hold the pads for the blokes because it really hurts my stomache and really winds me.

[SBN Doug]

For example, normally I find myself being lighter on women. There was one scenario however, where I want full force with a woman and held back nothing. Why? Partly because it was my black belt grading, but mainly cos she was world champion at the time (in her category) and could give more than she got.

Excellent point. We had a woman in our dojang that has since gone off and started her own school a couple towns over. However, when she was still practicing with us, and was a Sheriff's Deputy, if you held back on her she'd clean your clock in short order.

[Jiffy]

Give as good as you get I say.

And if they love it, then so do I. It's great to see the women that are not afraidl to take it to the men.

[bushido_man96]

If any of you know who Kathy Long is, she was known to use male bodybuilders as her sparring partners.