G'day all. Somehow, I doubt any women JKDers post on this forum, but if there are some out there, I'd like to get a reply. If not, maybe someone who teaches JKD can help me out.
I was wondering, what different do you do if you do JKD as a female?
Its just, I sometimes stuff around with the punching bag with my sister who does some form of Karate (dont remember which) and my dad (who just has his own form of streetfighting based loosely on western boxing... which is quite effective). Alot of the motions I do, just simple stuff, like the leading straight punch, my sister finds challenging to do. I dont want to sound stupid or anything, but being built like a woman appears to make JKD as I know it very challenging. Compared to boxing and karate, which isn't nearly as bad.
So yeah, there are probably instructors out there that teach JKD as womens' self defense. Do you teach it much differently if you were teaching a male?
I have trained many women in Jeet Kune Do. There are certain problems that you often run into when training women. The main problem I have run across is nails! Yes, I said nails! Most women wear their nails long, and as a result, cannot make a good fist. Therefore it becomes necessary to focus on open hand strikes such as palm strikes and chopping motions, but most importantly, the bil jee, or finger jab. I also work with them quite a bit on striking with the elbows.
Women do have a lower body strength advantage, so they seem to adapt well to kicks and knee strikes. I concentrate on the eight basic JKD kicks, placing the most emphasis on the straight kick, side kick, hook kick and back kick, as well as the forward knee smash and the foot stomp. The new issue of Hardcore Jeet Kune Do magazine has an article on self defense training for women.
hey im a 14 year old aussie female and i love jkd and bruce lee ... i am dedicated to me training and belive that there is no difference in the sex when it comes down to martial arts.. thankyou
Yes, although there is a big difference in physical power, in real fighting, women have a surprise advantage, and also a good killer instinct which can even the odds
Boxing is a rubbish example Naz (once again imust disagree with you, but I do love you too), it is highly fitness/strength orientated. At elite levels the technique out weigths fitness/strength, but as a generalisation it is true. The weight category thing is a weight westernised concept.
This type of concept makes a farce of the idea that martial arts is based on skill and not on size and physical strength. This would mean a small guy like me has no cahnce against a bigger fitter guy. Might as well pump up and get bigger.
i did not mean to say that the men are equal in fighting with women what i mean is that there is no difference in what things girls can learn and boys and there are no reason to say that jkd is not for the women of the world ..
surely when bruce lee did not hold race in the equasion when teaching he would not hold sex either...
i know that if women were not allowed to do jkd i personally would be crushed and rether angry .... i didnt mean to say that women are stronger as biologically that is not the case sorry for the missunderstanding i will try and explain myself better in the future dani
Jack if you had 2 bruce lee's vsing each other, and they were exactly the same, except one was 200lb bigger, who do you think would win seriously?
The bigger one would win.
I'm a small person so I agree that skill is better than size, but when you have equal skill then size will help.
Women can be better than men, and men can be better than women. But they aren't the same. If men and women were the same, then all guys would have breasts and all women would have penises.
I hear what you are saying, and I agree that at a low level your example will ring true. But if we are saying two high class fighters than I disagree. If to equeally skilled fighters come together the more determined one wins, it has nothing to do with size. We take for example the fight between Shamrock and Severn in the early UFCs. Both highly skilled grapplers, but it was Shamrock who was a lot smaller than Severn who won.
Strength and fitness are important factors but their relevance is limited. You need to have a minimum strength and fitness. However being only being able to break rock as appose to metal will still allow you to break someones head. Thus it is skill and focus that determines the fight when two proper martial artists come together.
Bigger does not necessarily mean slower but it conveys different attributes to the combatants training compared to the smaller guy. The smaller guy will learn how to overcome his size. Smaller people need to get over this hiccup that bigger guys have an advantage. When I am in close I have the advantage one could say, as I have more techniques available in my shorter range. Compare the Gladius to the Long Sword. It is a matter of skill.
Women of course have some physical differences to men, but are all men exactly the same shape, sixe and strength? No, of course not. So does that mean we can not teach all men the same? Again no. Before anyone suggests catering to the individual, this is in my opinion unnecessary. The basic concepts of combat are true for everyone, it is up to the individual to understand and develop themselves as martial artist based on those principles.
You could teach your students to be robots by showing them moves you think suit their size and gender or you can teach them to be martial artists by introducing the way of infinite development. "No way as way, no limit as limitation".
To say that size means nothing is completely close minded. And then you use a UFC fight to back you up? It's all about any given day. If you made those two fight everyday for 1 year, THEN you could use it as an example. But to have one match, is ridiculous. You win some you lose some.
I never said women can't be as good or better than a male, or that a smaller person can't be as good or better than a bigger person. Don't put words in my mouth.
Naz you clutching at straws dude. Just because I have not come up with a thousand examples does not mean I am wrong. Hell all you have to do is watch some Muay Thai fights in Thailand and you will see mix weight matches where smaller guys win as often as bigger guys. It is very difficult to find examples we can all access, but if you only response is to ask for more than there really is no point in debating with you because it is you who have closed your mind.
On your other point, please show me where I said size meant nothing. Size is a factor among many factors that you have to take into account in a fight. One factor alone does not garuntee the conclusion of the fight. And at high level it does not necessarily give you the edge in a fight.
I'm not saying size is everything. Because if so, I'd be training to get huge. I'm saying, that if you have two exact clones, and the only difference was weight, then the bigger guy would most likely win.
the fact is, size DOES matter, and a smaller person has to have alot of skill to deal with the size difference.
But in the end, skill will outmatch size in my opinion.
Fair enough, but you got to see that quote in context with the rest of the sentence. Size means nothing when two opponents of high skill come together they play on skill not on size. They both have to work around each others physique, and it becomes irrelevant at that level.
A woman can learn and look good in ther performance of the M/A. BUT as a rule the average woman does not hav near the mass power that a man would build in the same move. So the impact level would not be as great. And a woman as a rule would not step to the heart level as a man to keep the fight going. Sure a woman can take pain very well. But fight is different. take a 125 pound man and a 125 pound woman. Both have the same training level. The man should and would probably come out on top. But for training I think the woman should practice the key strike areas. Then they could over come the out come. As Though the manb is stronger the weak areas are not.
Actually, I feel that women that are well trained in martial arts have a great speed advantage in most situations! Have you ever noticed how many women seem to have those "cat-like" reflexes? Why, well it's because they seem to move with almost no antagonistic muscle tension. In other words, their bodies seem to naturally recruit only the muscles absolutely necessary to accomplish a specific task (this explains why they can slap us in the face before we know what has happened, LOL). Men, on the other hand, often tend to flex more muscle than necessary, causing the antagonistic muscles to place a braking action on the tendons, thus slowing the strike down. If you can learn to activate only the agonistic muscles when executing a strike, no matter what your size, you have a great speed advantage over someone larger who uses too much muscle! If you combine the accuracy to strike vital targets applying that speed with little or no antagonistic muscle tension, you really have something for an opponent to contend with! In case you haven't heard, SPEED KILLS!
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