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Old 03-19-2012, 04:57 PM   #77
Hanna B
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 647
Sweden
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Re: Differences between female & male practitioners

My first budo dojo was a karate club which at the time offered one women's only beginner class and one regular beginner class. I chose the mixed one. Why? There might have been something about the weekdays being better for me - I'm not sure. But I do remember that the women's class was just 1 hour short, while the regular class was 1,5. Also, the women's class was mixing in a bit of aerobics, if I remember the descriptions correctly, which should take time away from the actual karate. So I wondered "how are we supposed to learn the same as the guys, in less than 2/3 of the time?"

Today I would have chosen the women's class, for one reason only: it had the better teacher. The regular beginner class was taught by a bunch of different people, of various levels and skills, but the woman doing the women's class was the only competition champion in the dojo - she was in the national team in kumite. That group must have been a lot smaller as well. The regular beginner's groups were amazing large at this time - at least 40 people, maybe 50-60. So if she was any good at teaching, maybe actually the girls in the women's group learned as much as the men on 2/3 of the time.

However the club dropped the women's classes after some time. I'm not sure why.

Last edited by Hanna B : 03-19-2012 at 05:04 PM.
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