Female martial artists

[karate_woman]

I saw a post in another forum asking for identification of males and females and some people had objections to that. By my name you can surely guess I'm a woman, so I obviously didn't consider that

 

My first karate Sensei was a woman, and I haven't had any issues where people disrespect me in the martial arts because I'm a woman. My Sensei had to fight hard to get a black belt ring and into the black belt committee for the franchise she was involved in at the time, though. She was the first woman to get such an honour.

 

I've noticed at times that I'm the only woman - especially if I go to grappling seminars - but I've never felt like I didn't belong or didn't deserve to be there. I don't really think much about it when I'm the only woman in class, and the only person to make an issue of it was a teen-aged boy at a seminar and didn't belong to my club. He was so cowardly that he decided to mouth off about being stuck with "the woman" when he was in the men's change room (my Sensei and ex-husband then both told him to be careful, that I'd kick his ass ). We were newly paired off at that point in the seminar (we were rather similar in size) and I have no doubt that without even knowing about his "issues" I more than held my own against him in the end. I hope that opened his eyes about women in the martial arts, but if not, I'm not losing sleep over it.

 

Without opening a debate on men vs women martial artists, what are people's thoughts on the matter?

[ninjanurse]

Other than kidding around (which I never take seriously) I have never run into any problems being a woman and never would have even thought of it as a problem if it hadn't been for this forum. You'll get respect if you earn it no matter what you sex is! In my opinion men who complain about being paired with a woman are very small minded and have not developed the maturity it takes to earn that respect.

 

[karatekid1975]

I had a similar situation happen to me when I used to play drums. "Girls don't play drums, they sing" or something to that effect. One guy challaged me to a duel. He played a little, then I played. He sucked

 

I don't usually have a problem with ego in martial arts. All three schools I been to had a fair amount of female students. But when it comes to sparring, I get the "go easy on her, cause she's female" thing. That's annoying. If I'm sparring against a higher rank and I know they spar harder than they are with me, I tear them up. Just to show them I hit like a guy, I fight like a guy, and I don't want any special treatment because I'm female. They usually back off, or start fighting back.

[CheekyMusician]

There's a few females at my clubs, and we're never intentionally left out or anything because of our gender, but they do tend to put us all together when we do pad work. I guess this makes sense in a way as we probably wouldn't be able to hold the pads for some of the bigger guys while they're hitting them as hard as they can, but its still annoys me that we're separated from the guys.

 

In sparring sometimes you get the impression that the guys don't really want to partner up with a girl, but if there's no one else there to partner with then they'll go with you.

 

Its not as obvious with some of the more confident women. I think its more obvious with me because I'm shy, look younger than I am and I'm low ranked.

[ramymensa]

It's a men's world ... ahem ..

 

well .. I work at a radio station and here it's almost a man's only place

 

I do Karate and we the girls are quite few. Though I've never been looked down. I train with the students and they are complete beginners. i have to help with the teaching (the instructor is a woman too ) and they have a lot of respect for me and my technique. They listen to my advices and it's OK

[omnifinite]

Life is so much easier when we just look at people as people.

[SaiFightsMS]

When I began training it was my status as a person with a physical handicap not a female that somehow brought me to everyones attention.

 

As time passed and my skills improved I blendend in more. And then the difference people remembered me for was the one who wears shoes.

 

Up until brown belt level there was another female student about my age I got paired up with come test time for sparring purposes.

 

There is much less attention payed to the sex of the participant is martial arts activities now than there were the first time I took a lesson in 75 or 76.

[panginoon]

Hey there is no reason to fell out of place because of your gender. I know some women who could beat the crap outa me, you just need to work to your potential. Tune out or ignore those idiots.

[shotochem]

Hi everyone,

 

I personally do not have a problem with female MA. I have trained with many very talented women.

 

I still do after all this time feel uncomfortable sparring with a woman. It

 

has been ingrained in the male mind since a young age that you should not hit women. It is difficult to overcome this conditioning. I tend to stay on the defensive whenever Im paired with a woman. I try to keep better control and focus due to the physical differences. The one thing I will never do again is underestimate or go to easy with partner it doesnt do her any benifit or myself. I was taught a valuble lesson one sparring class after not putting enough effort into sparring a female. I was told to stay on the floor and a pettite 3rd dan stepped on the floor. For 10 min.

 

I was attacked by this little tasmanian devil. I had stood 6 inces taller and I had 50lbs on her. It seemed like she had 4 arms and 4 legs. It had been one of the best sparring sessions Ive ever had, I learned that power isnt everything and not to underestimate your opponent. From that class on Ive improved my sparring tenfold against all men and women

 

To not train hard with a female partner is both condescending and sexist!!!

[IAMA_chick]

my instrucrtor is a woman and she is awesome. she does an awesome job at teaching too.