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From: jla@usl.UUCP (Joseph L Arceneaux)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Self Defense
Message-ID: <203@usl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 15:24:35 EST
Article-I.D.: usl.203
Posted: Fri Jan 11 15:24:35 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:19:13 EST
Organization: USL, Lafayette, LA
Lines: 41

> 
>    Mostly, I agree with xxxxxxxxwhat I have read on the net about martial 
> arts and self-defence for women, but there seems to be one thing glossed 
> over.  Martial Arts skills are do not "take away" the advantages of size 
> and strength.

Well, I would say that martial arts COULD turn size and strength of the
assailant from an advantage to a disadvantage.

> A lifetime of training will not make someone elses muscles smaller or their
> reach shorter.  It only gives you an advantage of your own.  Enough training
> can make up for an extra thirty pounds and longer arms, but your opponent
> remains dangerous.  And if your opponent also has training, they are more
> dangerous still.

OK, but I would like to qualify this--I would rather have to fight a large,
strong, untrained person than a small, well-trained person (note that this 
category includes women).  Of course, this depends on the quality of the
training, but I am assuming a high degree thereof.

> It is all a matter of degree.  In fact, I think the major advantage of 
> martial arts training for women is psychological, but no less real for that.  
> 
>                         Carlo @ the U of Waterloo

I disagree that the major advantage for women is psychological.  Sure, there is
that too, but this advantage is a RESULT of the acquired defensive capability.
I hasten to add that I believe (with proper instruction), a women trained in
the martial arts is more than a match for the average man.  At least I have
seen women who could easily best most men I knew.  So, given this training,
such women would have no more reason to fear males in general.



-- 

					Joseph Arceneaux
					
					(ut-sally!usl!jla)