Training with girls, breasts in the way.

[marie curie]

I'm surprised this hasn't come up before. I think a problem is that men are afraid to hit a woman because of the upbringing most men have that you should never hit a woman. And yes you are supposed to spar with each other but there are other spots to hit on a woman than hitting the most obvious. And when women are sparring some will wear a chest guard in case they are hit there.

It has come up before- there have been at least two similar threads that I've posted in.

Yeh, if she gets hit hard enough, she will get herself some lady-part protection.

[YoungMan]

I have hit women in the chest before. No, it wasn't intentional. It's just part of training. You deal with it and move on.

[RealWingChunKuen]

One day at training in Wing Tsun, I got a girl as training partner for a drill.

The drill was a typical, she punch, I block, I strike to the Solarplexus. The problem was that I couldn't strike her without hitting her breasts. They were big and in the way.

I didn't want her to think I was taking advantage of the situation, and I didn't know how to deal with this "problem" so I decided to stop my punch before my fist would enter that zone.

I wonder what she was thinking when seeing her training partner's fist try to dodge her breasts. Might have been really weird if it was a grappling art instead.

How do you deal with this?

At least you weren't using open handed strikes But seriously, I have that problem when I end up doing Chi Sao with a female member of the class. She is a high rank student, which means I need to use all the targets available to me and it makes it difficult when you are up against an advanced level student and are not able to "hit" the mid/upper body area which is the largest target on the human body.

[Kajukenbopr]

hit her.

if u dont, someone will

[Elky]

I didn't want her to think I was taking advantage of the situation

She wouldn't think that, and if she did she's an idiot and shouldn't be training in MA.

I would say that most women are very experienced at spotting when someone's just being a letch, and I'm sure you're not one.

Someone else posted a while ago about some girl in his class who had a fit when someone accidentally touched her breast. People like that should be kicked straight out of the door and told not to come back until they pull themselves together and grow up.

What you've got to remember is that, to men breasts may be something "special", but to women, they're just another body part. As long as you're not deliberately being creepy or punching them really hard in the breast (which I'm told is very painful), most women aren't gonna get too wound up about it.

[YoungMan]

I would think that any woman with an ounce of common sense would realize that taking a martial art entails the risk of getting hit in the breasts, just like guys risk taking a hit to the groin. Any woman who doesn't is foolish. It doesn't mean breast contact is intentional, but a contact activity is going to run the risk of getting you hit there. It's just a fact of martial art life.

[bushido_man96]

One problem that comes with for the women is that their personals are in a more frequent area of contact, where things can become more uncomfortable quickly. The body is usually a main target, as has been mentioned, and the groin can be less of a target, especially with specialized sparring rules. I know that self-defense is different, but even then, when a groin shot is initiated, it is almost always a consciously pulled shot, where to the body, it may not be so when guys work together.

[jaymac]

The way I see it, women take classes and cant leave their breasts at home. I am sure they wish they could at times, but they are there and altering your training because someone has breasts would not do you or her justice. I do not see a problem with aiming for the breasts and coming close without striking them. That would probably make it less uncomfortable for both participants. I also have a belief in striking the most vital striking point available on a person. Since most men are taller than women, the most available striking area may be the head area. Most women who are serious about their training do not want special treatment because they are women. Treat them like a fellow karateka.

[obiwansbane]

the girls who were well endowed at my school used to wear chest protectors, seemed to do the trick seeing as when i went to hit them in the solar plexus i felt my hand get owned by hitting something that solid when i wasnt expecting it