Fighting is for girls, part.. something-ish.

To make my stance absolutely clear- women have been considered valid combatants from the earliest sword manual we know of.  To dissuade, belittle or otherwise make women feel as if they should not/can not fight is inaccurate on all relevant grounds.

I've talked about social conventions, learning curves and gender differences before. I firmly believe that the equality given by 3 feet of steel makes it possible to have fair mixed competitions. When I comment on gender differences in fighting, I can only comment on what I see and why anybody who says "women can't/don't/shouldn't fight" is wrong.

I see two main issues with women fighters- Women are too weak and dainty to fight or train against men. The accepted physical differences between men and women do not define ability, but they change the learning curve. Because women are generally shorter and weaker than men they need to know things from the very beginning that it takes men ages to realise- good technique will triumph over strength, mastery of distance allows you to control your opponent's speed, and covering your lines is essential. From the very start they're forced to concentrate on technique. This is a good thing and this makes for a better fighter in the long term. So, when fighting against a brute there is a chance they'll be discouraged before their skill allows them to defeat him and it will take ages before the brute learns all the things a smaller, lighter, weaker person has started with.

The other is that "good girls don't fight". Now this one is a trickier one. I don't know how to get past this until after they've decided they want to give it a try and pick up a sword. (Which mostly involves saying "why are you apologising, that was brilliant")- These two falsehoods. work in conjunction and it can be difficult climbing up the learning curve fast enough to overcome the momentum of social convention.

But what would I know, I'm a man who was raised in a culture where respectful adversarialism is the norm. My entire understanding of the female of the species is collected through painful mistakes, guesswork and feedback.

And there is now a new group emerging within HEMA:

Esfinges.

Run by women, for women and it will take the painful mistakes and guesswork out of the equation. But they also do much more than that. Because there's usually only a handful of women in each club, a group like this becomes a conduit for inter-club communication and building up links that stop us from all disappearing up our own arses. It's another strong part of the web that makes HEMA such an interesting and wonderful community to be in.


Women belong in HEMA.  It's as simple as that, and if we can get more in.. excellent.

So here's a plug for their new blog and my best wishes:

http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/the-riddle-of-the-sphinx

Taking people's weapons away.

I've decided that I'm rather fond of taking one person's weapons away in a drill. I initially had this idea as a reaction to the lack of equipment (but didn't use it then) and then I noticed people forgetting the dagger when using both hands. Taking someone's weapon away is a perverse little joy.  First of all they look a bit befuddled and scared, then they start doing quite well.

Today started with people planted against the wall so they had to use their parries rather than controlling distance. Not a bad drill, but won't scale up too well. Will do one where you attack from the wall.

Then-  put dagger in left hand. Take sword away and set someone on them. Get them used to parrying and then give them the rapier again. Although, I confess, everyone was having far too much fun with just the dagger so I didn't get around to reintroducing the sword. I also like void drills without the sword as well- it really helps focus you on moving rather than trying to parry.


It's surprising how effective the off-hand dagger is on its own, people went from "are you kidding" to passing steps and punching within a few minutes.  And lots of grins, which is important.  I also think this handicapping has an important psychological aspect- if you can face and enjoy when hideously under prepared/unbalanced then it serves you well when going up, properly armed, against a better opponent.