Are female martial arts masters as rare as they seem? Or are their numbers proportionate to those of female students? I don’t know the answer, but if I had to guess, here are some of the factors I would consider.

The Strength-Sensitivity Paradox

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, a martial art is something that everyone wants to know, but nobody wants to learn. The learning is arduous, occasionally painful and frequently embarrassing.

Having reached the limit of their endurance, students are sometimes tempted to abandon the principal objective, and start playing to win instead of investing in loss. Practically speaking, this means using strength and speed to “fill in the gaps”, or compensate for inferior technique. [Read more →]

Mohandas Gandhi

Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
~ William Francis Butler

He who is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
~ Ben Jonson

The weakest of all weak things is a virtue that has not been tested in the fire.
~ Mark Twain

Courage first; power second; technique third.
~ Author unknown [Read more →]