Inspired by the other thread here, i started thinking. If my gym accepted women, and Pat (the instructor) threw me in the ring with a woman, would i want to hit her? I am pretty protective over women, if i ever see one cry my heart melts, i cant help it, so would i willingly cause the woman pain...even if it is sport and she is doing it with consent and trying to hurt me too. You know during sparring, when you catch your opponent crack on the nose and you see his eyes fill up or it even start to bleed, would you be able to do that to a woman? I dont think i could, yet it would be very insulting for me to say "im not sparring you love" Lets hear the answers folks.
Always have. Will continue to do so. I find that most are my size, which leads to better use of techniques (yes, I am small for a guy). They tend to have better control and discipline at the start than guys do. They tend to not care about the macho BS the guys care about, so it's not always about winning. They tend to avoid the "flailing arm syndrome" and actually fight. Obviously these are generalizations based on my experience. And as far as I'm concerned, if she steps in the ring, she gets hit. I like chivalry, but not on the mat. I expect to hit and be hit.
But checking out your style...do you spar as in boxing spar? Ive rolled with women many a time, but yet hitting one full on in the face is just a no no in my books.
We hit each other with fists, feet, we throw each other around, grapple, and we even get to occassionally hit each other with sticks.
Yes. I started out sparring girls at first. Under Kickboxing, then later submissions. Girls obviously moves differently than guys, so its always fun. As I have said in another thread, some funny things happen, like I uppercutted a boob. Some guys wont go near rolling/sparring with a woman. Mainly because of embarrasment of not keeping in 'control' of certain things or just being shy or totally under-estimating girls. "OOh tell me if I'm hitting too hard OK?" those are my favourites because it usually gets followed with a well winded guy on the floor gasping for air, wondering what hit him. I do avoid sparring girls with recent break ups or really bad moods. Besides, I get slapped enough at home by my own missus.
Yep. I'd box a woman. That's not to say it would be easy. I might have some guilt about hitting a woman. Not specifically because she's a woman. I have guilt about hitting most anyone. Particularly if they're small than me. (And I'm 6'1", 220 lbs., so while I'm no giant, most women are going to be smaller than me.) But any woman who's willing to step into a combative study deserves enough respect from me that I treat her as an equal in so far as is possible. Same with anyone else. I might make allowances for skill level and size differential, but I'd do that anyway. I do believe it's a disservice to hold a woman on a pedestal when it's her own will to get down off of it and into the trenches. That's no insult to you Jamo. I understand where you're coming from. And I struggle with hitting people in general. Stuart
Training in any aspect in life is always going to be hard...I don't persoanally box..but i do spar with a lot of my guy friends..even if they don't want too..cuz they might hurt me..But from my aspect..it's better because them hurting me will teach me more..then getting my ass kicked on the street or on the mat. What we learn from our fellow schools mates (even if our butts get handed to us) will only allow us to learn more. If she's willing to put on her gear then you should be willing to fight out of respect...
In our dojo the belt counts not if you are a female or male.. ...so we spar whoever we are with. Not that I like hitting a woman, I have the same attitude as you. And we have one girl in our dojo, who reacts very badly if you only hit her a bit too hard so I always adjust my hits & punches to her if I have to spar her. But I have twice been kicked in the "soft spot" by girls because I put my guard down because of not wanting to hit them. Christian
At the last tournament I went to in the open division there were men vs women sparring. It was quite interesting and while men won all three medals, the women did really well.
Why do men always seem to think that a woman needs to be protected, I know it's sweet and everything BUT when we're training we're no different. OK we've got two breasts in front and you can't get over that but we may like to have a challenge as well. I was the only woman in the class when I was doing Mauy Thai and I got to choose which man I wanted to fight every time. . The guys didn't like it as I used to go in for the kill every time like most women if you watch fights but the guys would say that they are holding back and it really used to get my angry as this was what I wanted a really good sparring session lol. They used to tease me quite a lot as they used to set me up with certain exersises which looked disgusting to others but I joined in anyway and made sure I never fell like they wanted me to. I'm not going to say which they are as some of the teachers in here might want to use it in a class one day to see if they can get away with it lol. lisa xx
no, cuz i am afraid to hurt her and people will think i am a jerk, and no , cuz i am afraid i will get embarrased.
I have no problem with sparring (or indeed fighting) with women. When I was kickboxing, I beat the snot out of the instructors wife a week after she won a world championship, I was using significantly lighter contact than she was, but I got in trouble for it. I didnt stay at that gym. The way I see it, if anyone (Man, woman, child whatever) want to stand up and fight me for any reason then I will treat them not as a woman etc... but as any other opponent. They obviously think they are ont he same physical level as me or they wouldnt do it; they should expect to be treated accoprdingly. When it comes to sparring I will always use the elvel of contact my opponent is using, so if I am fighting a woman who just goes in for touch sparring, then I will touch. If she starts lobbing bombs, then so will I.
I've sparred heaps of times with the chicks at my club, one of em kept kicking me in the naughty area though...
Why is it that teenage boys are so afraid of the idea of sparring a woman? What, you guys afraid to lose? Get over it. You gonna be embarassed to lose against the likes of Kathy Long, Briget Reiley, Laila Ali, or even Dana Hee? How... sad. All champs, think of what you can learn. I'm with Lisa on this one. Underestimate female fighters at your own risk.
Of course i'd spar with a women; I don't see any difference between sparring with a guy or a girl. At the end of the day, its only sparring/training.
I hope your not reffering to me BaiKaiguy? I have never had anything to prove in that respect, if a woman can whoop my ass, then good luck to her. I used to spar this woman all the time when i did MMA. She used to kill me, and i wasnt embarrased, because she was bloody good. I would never be scared of putting her in an armbar or anything else like that, its just a matter of actually throwing a punch full force into a girls face that i dont like.
we have a couple of girls at our gym. both of them fight like lions. I dont mind sparring girls, but I do tend to go lighter on the girls at our gym- not because tey are girls but because they are much smaller than me. same goes for if it was a guy (although there arent many guys smaller than me there )
