I love practicing the Historical European Martial Arts. Anyone who knows me knows that.
There is a lot of commotion in the community from time to time about women in HEMA and I just wanted to make my point clear. Everyone is more than welcome but encouraged to come and practice with me in the arts I love to practice.
I want to encourage men, women, anyone who wants to come to learn how to use a sword to come to one of the classes I am a part of. That is just how I am, I love it, and if I think for a moment that anyone else I know would love it too, I would rather they come and learn with me, then to not come and participate. There is a unfortunate lack of women in class, I am not sure what that is about, but we do not have as many women in our class as there are men. This is not unique, I am sure there is something cultural about it, but what I do know is that I am not a fan of it.
You see the thing is that the more people we have in class the better we can become. The more different styles and personalities we face week to week, the better we learn what works with what and how to counter things better. It is easy when you only spar with the same half a dozen people every week to know their tricks and how to beat them, New and different people make you learn how to do it better, and sometimes see where your weak points are.
Women add to that.
In class in years past we have taught a one size fits all strategy for all things the truth is this never works. What happens if your arms are not as long as your opponents, or you stand a full head shorter than they do, or what if you have a harder time moving a sword from one place to another because your chest gets in the way? Ultimately facing these challenges forces us to work with them to come up with different solutions and think about the art differently. Maybe you cannot effectively go over the arms for a hip throw but can by going under the arms, is it better to learn a way that does work for you then only have the answers that do not? To me it does.
People are not cookie cutters. There are some people in my class that are just quicker than I am, but if I do not train with them, how can I learn to counter it, or to make myself better? Diversity breeds innovation. I am a larger guy who is not always as quick as my opponents, so I have learned to be faster on my feet so I can be. (Ever see a 300 pound dude hopping at you with a sword? Fun times.) I have reach on a lot of people, but if I do not think about how to counter that, I cannot ever be a good teacher of the art I love.
There is also a fine line here between adjusting to meet the needs, and allowing excuses. Allowing excuses happens when we are doing a drill and someone just does not want to do it because they think that they cant. Excuses happen when there is mental block that says "I can't fence this person because they are better than me, they have been fencing longer, and they have more skill than I do." Allowing excuses is not helpful, in fact I think it lets people get off the hook when just trying and pushing through is the better lesson than giving up and going home.
If you are fast but can't fight strength than work on strength and until it is there use what comes natural to you.. If you can't swing a sword the right way because your chest gets in the way, lets work on ways to counter that, make it work. If you are a full head shorter than your opponent and we are doing grappling, lets look at what you can do and teach you both the proper way, as well as something that you CAN do so you are not in a bad position when you need to use the technique. If it means Womens tournaments because that is how you get people involved, then that seems like a great way to get people involved.
Fencing is about balance. Balancing pushing peoples perceived limitations, and giving them a hand to help them up. Encouraging without babying. Teaching, but sometimes stepping back to see the student step up and teach themselves. (Often the lessons that stick come from this.) Sometimes the balance is literal: right and left, or front and back. But unless we are putting our hands out there to encourage people to join and try it out, we can't hope to get better. Unless we are friendly to everyone, no matter the age or gender, we will not be as good as we hope to be.
Our diversity makes us better, both as students as well as teachers. The better you know how to deal with a difficult student the better chance you have to keep them, and maybe pass on those same skills to someone else. If we do not embrace that diversity we become foolish, like the person who "knows everything already" and as such is not open to new ideas or new ways of looking at the same thing.
Our diversity makes us strong, if this sounds like something you want to try out let me know, in the mean time I am here, doing my daily practice.
