female Vs male at tourney.

[Rikamarudude]

At the last tournament I attended there were only a few female competitors in the teen and adult divisions, and when I say a few I mean five. So when it came to the sparring section there was only one female (teen division) who wanted to spar, and with no one in her belt(beginner/gold TKD) and age division she won by default, but wanting to compete anyway she was allowed to spar a round with one of the adult male competitors in her belt division. The great part is she won, and this guy wasn't slacking off. though he wasn't the best competitor in the class I take nothing away from her. She shut the guy out 5-0. If she had competed in the division I think she might have taken second out of eight. She displayed very good technique and strategy in her match and it was superior to all of the male competitior, except the gentlemen who won the division.

As a high school sports coach, and a hopeful instructor, I find it very satisfying when a display like that happens, and the minority of females in MAs give the fellas a good kick in the chops as to where the notion of male dominance in contact sports stands.

Sidenote*I hope to some day coach the first college recruited female football player.

[fightgrrl]

We had a male student in teen advanced have to spar with a girl and she smoked him, but its point fighting and not really what we do. If it was a real fight there's no way she would have won. But man, she is fast.

Also about winning by default. We would only allow a student to take a win that way in sparring, if there aren't comparable competitors. If its forms they go to either the other division of same age/rank, or go up either to higher age group or higher rank division. We had a girl win boys hand forms division for rank last September, the judges were so impressed that she went over to boys that they gave her the girls division trophy too.

[LalunaSun]

I do have a question regarding women competing against men. Do you feel like if you were in competition with a female, that you would be "easier" on her, or would you go ahead and give it all you got? I would not want to win if I didn't earn it. I have just began Kung Fu, but now have a broken leg and have to take time off, so I obviously have never been in any competition. It is just hypothetically, would men feel obligated to be more gentle on a female opponent? I would hope not, because if you know your art, it really doesn't matter ( I feel) which sex you are, if you kick butt at your art, than you do! I would just like some thoughts on this issue, from a male point of view would be awesome!

[Ron Rompen]

Speaking only for myself, I have taken some of my WORST beatings at the hands of a woman :-)

I may be a -=LITTLE=- more careful in where I strike a woman opponent (some are a little more offended by a strike in the breast area than others) but in general, I will fight with anyone as hard as they fight with me. Man/woman/child....if they can toe the line, they are my equals.

Fightgrll: Don't be so quick to say that there is 'no way she would have won' in a real fight. Although I agree that point fighting is NOT real life, if she was able to 'smokehim', that shows (IMNSHO) speed and technique, which in general will beat sheer strength every time.

(taking a shot of testosterone now, and coming down off the soapbox)

[fightgrrl]

well , I have seen this girl a lot over the years---100% point fighting only...she'd have to hit a wet tissue 500 times to tear it...and I have taken beatings from our guy she beat--sparring and grappling. He wants to fight full contact--currently college in the way.

I'll agree with technique over strength in some areas, but I won't test it duking it out with the guys full contact...I will grapple though.

[it2x1]

My first instructor was a female kickboxing instructor with a world championship under her belt. We got paired up together once and it made me very uneasy. My stress reaction was to laugh. She got mad and clocked me but good. I had no problems after that.

[Skye]

Do you feel like if you were in competition with a female, that you would be "easier" on her, or would you go ahead and give it all you got?

I haven't been in any competitions before so I don't really know. Honestly I probably would go lighter though, try not to injure her. There are some women that are really tough but it usually takes me a while to get over my prejudices.

[Mandeigh Wells]

I haven't been in any competitions before so I don't really know. Honestly I probably would go lighter though, try not to injure her. There are some women that are really tough but it usually takes me a while to get over my prejudices.

I am a bit like that with blokes too...like to go a bit easy on them.

Mandeigh

[warriorwoman]

A few years ago I was in a similar situation at a tournament. At that time I was training in Kung Fu and Taijiquan. There were no women besides myself to compete in a free-style event so I was told that if I wanted to compete I'd have to compete with the men. I came in third place and was grateful that the guys didn't take it easy on me. By the way, no one knew that I had broken two meta-carpals two weeks earlier.
janet dtantirojanarat
www.warriorwoman.org

[WMKS Shogun]

A few year back when i was a blue belt, the only person close to my weight in the continuous contact division was a younger black belt girl. i had never done continuous contact before, but i knew the rules and all, and i will tell you what, this girl had me playing defensive most of the match. While the score was close (within a few points) i had to fight for each and every one of them, while she seemed to be more playing.
My own personal opinion is that if the female is willing and has her instructor's permission(if the tournament requires it), more power to her!

[KungFu Girl]

Not to revive a really old thread, but I was reading through this and wanted to make a quick comment. I would think when it comes to going lighter vs. harder on someone, it depends more on their individual ability (rather than gender presumptions). Some men and women are very tough and can hold their own, but some are still learning (like me!).

So I would think it's dangerous to assume that all women should be treated like equals to all men when sparring (and vice versa) - it's more a matter of being able to adjust your control to challenge them and help them improve, without going too light or too hard (and having good control is a challenge itself).

[tkdcanada]

That's actually a very good point. Control is the key here and is much more important than gender generalizations.

[black-gi]

I keep the intensity high and control at a premium while fighting females at tournaments. Where as fighting other males I usually try to "ante up" the power WHILE STILL STAYING WITHIN THE RULES AND GOOD SPORTMANSHIP. Plus fighting fair while being careful fighting females may get ya a date for dinner. ( oh relax, I'm only playin'.................sorta)


Jason Bryant

[Mekugi]

Females have been left out of sports more than anything else in society, and as a general rule, the competition is segregated by the sexes. To make myself clearer, I am not saying that segregation of the sexes should be banished everywhere; I can see some things being boy/girl. The first things that come to mind is showers, toilets, underwear (most definitely underwear) but I cannot fathom why women, who have excelled head to head with men everywhere else in most Western societies have been left out of sports and athletics.

I do believe that it is a mix of cultural conditioning and sexism in male dominated sports. I'm not talking about chauvinism in sexism- this is far more damaging as it plays itself out from the home. This is the sexism that defines a woman's role. The weaker sex! Sorry, I am not buying that.

I am of the opinion that in the next 40 years we are going to see an accelerated number of women make themselves dominant in the sports and athletics scene in mixed competition. The first thing, IMHO, is to let them compete neck and neck, for an "inter-gender" chance, even if it's just in exhibition at first.

IMHO one of the sports that this should have happened in a LOOONG time ago is baseball. I played Babe Ruth for years as a kid, and the female players that we had were always on top of their game. They could throw, bat, run and spit just as well as the rest of us. We found them an asset to our team and indispensable players. Now, you look at the major leagues, where are the women- what happened to them? Did they all go home to be barefoot and have babies? Maybe it's just that men have too much competition in the "career" avenue, and that as a society we allow them to play games for money. This is coming from a guy that would literally rather eat a cactus quill sandwich rather than agree with a feminazi, but in this case I find myself spitting out thorns.

In the martial arts, there lies yet another opportunity. If I were to talk about *the* most famous judoka of this decade in Japan, the name "Yawara chan" AKA Ryoko Tani would be the first to pop out of the common person's mouth. Hands down, she is the most famous judoka of today and perhaps the most famous of all time. However, will she be allowed to compete against men? Would they ever let her do that, seeing that she could possibly beat men of equal weight? Will she ever be just a "judoka" and not a "female judoka"?

We may never know.

[gojuman]

I must say I probably would take it easy, even if I had a Sensei screaming not too. I think it is just all those years of "don't hit girls" and even though she is there with the intent to hurt me I would feel much worse if I hurt her.
Maybe I am not supposed to in this day and age.......... but I would.

I just think my subconscience would not allow me to go all out.

I do have a question regarding women competing against men. Do you feel like if you were in competition with a female, that you would be "easier" on her, or would you go ahead and give it all you got? I would not want to win if I didn't earn it. I have just began Kung Fu, but now have a broken leg and have to take time off, so I obviously have never been in any competition. It is just hypothetically, would men feel obligated to be more gentle on a female opponent? I would hope not, because if you know your art, it really doesn't matter ( I feel) which sex you are, if you kick butt at your art, than you do! I would just like some thoughts on this issue, from a male point of view would be awesome!

[skatergirl]

I have only ever sparred one girl in a tournament. Every other match has been against guys. Older guys at that. And actaully I can see exactly why a guy wouldn't want to hurt a girl. We do look small and fragile, I have had trouble kicking other girls with full force because I don't want to hurt them. It makes sense logically, but I still get ticked off if anyone (guy or girl) goes easy on me.

[dao]

Not to revive a really old thread, but I was reading through this and wanted to make a quick comment. I would think when it comes to going lighter vs. harder on someone, it depends more on their individual ability (rather than gender presumptions). Some men and women are very tough and can hold their own, but some are still learning (like me!).

So I would think it's dangerous to assume that all women should be treated like equals to all men when sparring (and vice versa) - it's more a matter of being able to adjust your control to challenge them and help them improve, without going too light or too hard (and having good control is a challenge itself).

It's a trainer's/coach's job to know when some is ready to compete and at what level regardless of the gender, size, shape... Based on that, the (very)few times I have competed my goal is to win while abiding by the rules.

[huunjin]

Interesting thread. Sparring and tournaments are a far cry from an actual fight. Although you would be hard pressed to ever make me go for more than just poiints. i.e.I am not going to actually fight one! In sparring and tournaments if she wants to go than she knows and can decide that on her own. I may not do total power, but certainly would take her serious. On the other hand, I do not take point fight too serious at all and I suggest to my students to do the same. Too many of them walk away from a tournament thinking they can not fight because they could not score three points first. It should be looked at as a separate entity from a real battle. We teach too many techniques as a counter to ignore them, and in tournaments you do not get that opportunity.

[Alex]

Why do women have separate categories than men in no/semi contact matches of any ma? I never understood the point of that other than to prevent the "haha you got beat by a girl" comments.
I once asked my old kendo sensei "why do women fight in a separate competition?" he said (yeah you guessed it :P) "girls are weaker so they cant strike as fast, it wouldn't be fair" I was very young at the time and just accepted the answer, but really...how weak do you have to be to not be able to use a shinai at optimal speed lol, i believe ( could be wrong ) that in naginata-do there is no separation of men and women in competition.
I think any or more integration can only be a good thing for womens ma, and may encourage a few men to work more on technique and spend less time posing in mirrors ;P

[drivica]

One of new popular sports where women comepte with men in CHANBARA, a japanese derived "swordsmanship" with various soft-padded weapons (long sword, short sword, knife, yari, etc..)

Women can also easily spar with men in non-contact sports such as WKF karate.

However, because of a simple physiological fact that androgen type of constitution includes less fat and more muscles than gynecoid type, in all disciplines where weight is important, male competitors will always have more muscles (and, thus, more strenght) than female competitors. Of course, unless they are both fat - but those are not sportsmen, right? Any judo player who has near 80 kilos has narrow hips, large back, big shoulders and no fat at all. For a woman to be 80 kilos it s very hard to have that much strenght. I am speaking this as a medical doctor who has been active in sports and sport medicine for a whole decade...

Best wishes!