Women are weak and slow.

[Ray Pina]

Train them the same!

Why do I say this, I believe technique should be based on technical power, not physical power.

If you are 5'10 and 145 lbs fighting a 6'6" 275 lbs is it much different than a girl fighting you? She better have technique, she better learn not to fight capital to capital and not go against ... no different than how I fight a bigger guy.

Of course, she should be told the truth. No matter how much a 100lbs girl trains, she can't beat a 300 lbs man if she is unarmed. Weapons change everything though.

[Watchman]

My thoughts are that you dont teach men and women different -as far as "self-defense" goes all physical-martial training should be designed with the smaller-weaker person in mind.

If women's self-protection were solely about physical technique, then you would be correct.

Train them the same!

You can't.

Self-defense for women has more to do with mind-setting than it does learning technique, no matter how powerful the movements are.

Women are socialized differently than men, and subsequently are raised in a different psychological environment entirely. You can't train or teach them the same as you would men and expect to maximize their potential ability for self-proteciton.

Most women have a psychological barrier to harming people they know. Read the stats I posted before and think about that. Until you can teach them to overcome that barrier you're wasting their time and yours.

[Ray Pina]

I think you underestimate women. Most women I've trained with were more viscious than the average male student, really trying to get ya even in standard line drills.

Also, I think a lot of men today have that same barrier. Most are fine in line drills. A much smaller percent, maybe as low as 10 percent, maybe even 5, are comfortable in actual free fighting. And then a smaller percent will break a rib or collar bone just like that.

Certain mindsets can't be tought, you have to be born with it. Will can be tought. So again, I say train them the same. Men and women need to be taught that when in a real violent situation, it is them or me, and the tiger has to come out.

I'm glad my teacher is small and older. I know his stuff works. I don't want to learn from a 6'6" 250 lbs guy ... he doesn't need martial art. How do you know if its technique or brawn. This is what I mean by train them the same. If its good for a little girl, it will be good for me. That's the technique I want. When I add 200lbs to it, watch out.

My master has a saying. stone to stone, or egg to egg is against. Stone to egg is not against.

Hsing-I kind of makes one feel like a stone and everybody else an egg. From the outside it looks very power (and is) and against, but it's not.

[Temujinn]

My last sifu refused to teach women. He did not want to give a false sense of security.
Say a womens technique is equal to mine, it then comes down to natural attributes, for combat, women lose that equation.
Second most womens temperment does not allow them to throw the "switch" as quickly as a man when it comes to physical violence. I have met women with such solid technique I knew i couldnt win a fight with them, ok, one woman, my Tai Chi Sifu, she oozed power, it disturbed me.

[Taijiquan ninja]

i dont know guys some women (NOT MOST) are capable of equaling mens martial arts. i have a friend that studied 5 years of karate and she addmitingly can bet the crap out of me. however i plan to take up jeet kun do so perhaps through sparing with her ill get better and wont be such a computer geek wimp. oh yeah and dude would you call Lily Lau (eagle claw grandmaster) weaker. i know i wouldnt soon as i got done saying id be in like 5 excruciating pressure points and begging for death....eagle claw is no picknick.

[Zen_Hydra]

"I'm glad my teacher is small and older. I know his stuff works. I don't want to learn from a 6'6" 250 lbs guy ... he doesn't need martial art. " EvolutionFist

I have had a similar sentiment myself, but in my case I am the 6'6" 250 lb guy. I have often bemoaned my natural attributes (reach, strength, weight, speed, etc...) as holding me back more than being advantageous to me as a martial artist. I want to be the best I can be, that is why I "need" martial arts.

From my experience, the attitude towards fighting is pretty much the only difference between the fighting potential of a man and a woman of equal size and skill. This all hits on my experimental plan on raising my children. I don't want any barriers or social hang-ups to hold my daughters back from any goal that they desire. They will be as assertive and aggressive as any man (if I have anything to say about it), and as accomplished in the martial arts as their will and my know-how/funds can provide.