Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site usl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!akgua!akgub!usl!jla 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)