Ladies of the MA

[The BB of C]

If it's a street defense class I think the women should actually be trained harder than the men because from what I've heard a woman is 3x more likely to be attacked. They all need to be as good as they possibly can do defend themselves at any given time.

I was brought up on the words of my older brother "Don't ever hit a girl. Be a man. But if you should ever need without any questions asked fight a girl, tie her up." So I noticed a lot of you don't grapple with girls. That's all I do against them if I can. Of course in sparring class at Kuk Sool Won grappling wasn't allowed so I had to actually hit them. Of course I didn't feel good about it but I still didn't hold back. Open spot? Fill it with my foot. Guards not high enough? They'll find my glove in their face before they can blink. Just like I would do sparring a man. Despite the words of my older brother I don't hold back in tournaments either because there are titles on the line. I believe it's good for them anyway. Especially because I have a set code I live by where I won't do anything too bad to them. But they'll get no such love on any level from someone on the street.

If I was training a woman, however, things would be just a little bit different. But not in a way that the man's training would be more beneficial or the other way around. I have thought of ways for women to go about my training strategies and get the same results as a man.

[throwdown]

The martial arts women are certainly a unique category. We train, we fight, we take the bruises, bumps and contusions, and we do it as well as the men. We've all trained with the guys. So, now I've gotten curious on a few counts. As women, do you ever feel that it's forgotten that you're female in your school? Are the ladies ever treated differently than the men? Do we get respect for how much we can be like the guys, or do we get respect for being actual females?

For kicks: Guys, do you ever perceive us ladies as being treated any differently than the lot of you? Do you ever feel the need to treat us differently because we're female?

At my kickboxing/jiu-jitsu dojo the women are treated differently.

Now I'm not gonna spar with a girl the same way that I spar with a guy. I can hit a lot harder than they can and it would not be fair of me to take advantage like that. I spar at a lot of kickboxing and boxing gyms in the Toronto area and my attitude remains the same. Plus I'm one of the few fighters at my gym that fights both full-contact and low kick kickboxing rules and the girls at my gym do not want to go low kick rules at all. So sparring with them is a bit of a waste of my time because I cannot throw low kicks and I cannot spar at a heavy intensity either. I believe that it is a waste of time for them as well because when I hold back it just gives them a false sense of their own abilities. Therefore when they actually get in the ring with a person that wants to take their head off it's a different ball game and they are not ready for that.

I don't grapple with females much either. Probably because there are not a lot of girls in Jiu-jitsu classes at my dojo because of the obvious reasons. Women don't feel comfortable getting so up close and personal with guys that they do not know or barely know.