When I first began my
study of RyuTe, what drew me to it and to a great degree, made me
concerned over what was being taught, was the level of
violence associated to it. Over time, I learned that the level
of damage that was clearly possible, could be
controlled and limited (depending upon the skill level
of the practitioner).
Having instructed numerous
Female Self-defense classes/courses, I've always paid particular
attention to anything that's been promoted as being designed
specifically for female self-defense.
I have no doubt's
about the fact that Te, was originally, conceived,
designed and intended to be performed by (only) “male”
students. That's in no way intended to be taken as a chauvinistic
statement, only as a statement of fact (prove me wrong?
And Wing Chun doesn't count, it's Chinese, LOL).
Now being aware of
this (and to myself obvious) fact, the majority of
system's that I've had interactions with, have (basically) attempted
to turn their female students into (wanna-be?) butch-like
martial art hermaphrodite's.
This approach (aside from
just being asinine) is ignoring the numerous
advantageous and natural tendency's of females, that
have to be taught to their male counterpart (student's).
If any instructor has
ever had a student who is or used to be a dance
student (for which more female, than male students have tended to of been), they have probably seen the ease (if not boredom)
of that student's learning of the required kata. A typical dance
routine will contain 4 times the number of motions that the
longest “kata” will have.
The only difficulty that
I've experienced with training a female student, has been the
development of (transferable) power in a given technique (by
that female student). The average male will instinctively know
if/when a strike is weak (though
will commonly perform it incorrectly,
in their attempt to develop what they
believe to be “power”). Most often, the male will (attempt to) muscle it.
My experience with female
student's, has been that they will often quit in frustration,
before having been able to develop (what they believe to be)
an acceptable level of power in their technique (and commonly, this can be attributed to their lower level of available mass ).
It would seem (at least
to myself, LOL) that (more so) with the female student, there
is a physical((...mental?), disconnect between
force and strength.
In this case, power
constitutes focused momentum of a mass, to a specific location. One's
individual Strength, is
not the relevant
factor here, nor is their physical mass.
If
I were to drop a 95# weight on your arm, it will (tend
to) hurt. If I form that weight into a 3/4” round rod,
and stab your arm with
it, it will (tend to) hurt more.
If I form the end of that rod into a point,
then shove it into
your throat (basically
anywhere, LOL), I
doubt that you'll be up
for doing much of anything
for a while afterwords.
Understanding
(and believing) this example, is imperative
for many of my (smaller) female student's to understand.
It isn't necessary that those female student's strike (any) harder
than what they are capable of. Only that they can effectively utilize
all of their
(body)weight when doing so, and are applying it properly (i.e.
effectively).
My
experience with female student's has been such that when they
honestly apply themselves,
they (tend to) advance much
faster than their male counterparts. Their Achilles heel
(IMO), is understanding how to
transfer their (natural) available power (body
weight + momentum) into their
technique.
I
believe (as an instructor) it's necessary to have several
different methods of conveying this idea of “Power/Body Weight”
transfer into a technique. Depending on which techniques are being
worked on, there will also be different ways of transferring this
power into a target.
Equally
important to this subject, is accuracy.
The higher the level of accuracy, the lower the level of (required)
power (mass + momentum).
Though (obviously) the greater
those amounts are, the more beneficial
to the implementer. But higher accuracy
can (certainly) offset a significant portion of any mass
and/or momentum
deficiency's.
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