During one of my classes the other day, I was almost struck dumb during a discussion with a parent. Not that it would be unusual for me to be silent, but I was really and truly taken aback by a statement made by one of my student’s guardians. You see, my student (we’ll call him George) is a young boy who has worked with me for several months and has an absolute blast in the Taekwondo class. George has a younger sister (we’ll call her Jane), who is just as energetic as he is and really wants to join in the class. Her guardians were thinking about putting Jane into dance or gymnastics, but since they already have George in Taekwondo, they thought they would let Jane try a class. Jane LOVED IT! She wasn’t shy or frightened at all, in fact, she was one of the most engaged students during that class. I talked with her guardians after the class, and they were excited about getting her officially signed up. If only it could have lasted…
Two days later, George and Jane walk into the gym where I teach. George bows and walks onto the floor, but Jane quickly finds a seat on the front row and deposits herself there. A bit confused, I walked over to talk to their guardians to make sure that something hadn’t gone wrong with the enrollment process. As it turns out, Jane’s mother had been the complication. According to her, “Martial arts is for boys.” I was stunned. It never occurred to me that people still thought that way. I don’t want to undermine the parenting of Jane’s mother, however, I would like to remove some of the misconceptions that may still be around regarding gender and the martial arts.
Martial arts is too rough for girls.
Ok, I can see where you might think this after watching the latest UFC battle on TV. However, please remember that the UFC is a SPORT. It does not represent all martial art forms in training or practice. That isn’t to say that you won’t use many of the same techniques in a martial arts class, however, the likelihood of your precious daughter coming home with a black eye is actually pretty slim. In fact, just for fun, let’s look at a few other “sports” that are popular with girls as compared to martial arts:
National Injury Estimate for 2016 from the USA Consumer Product Safety Commission. Data for females between 5 and 14 years old.
Martial Arts – 2,686 injuries
Basketball – 48,048 injuries
Gymnastics – 26,072 injuries
Hmmm….I don’t know about y’all, but those numbers seem to say that martial arts has a LOWER incidence of injuries. Granted, I don’t have participation data to go along with this, but considering that there are supposedly 18.1 million martial arts practitioners in the US, I would say the numbers can’t be far off from some of the other sports.
Martial Arts doesn’t have female role models.
Most people think of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, or Jet Li when they hear about martial arts. Sadly, this means that all of the MANY great female martial artists don’t get mentioned. However, there are quite a few that your princess can look up to. Cynthia Rothrock literally changed the face of the martial arts industry by proving that women can kick tail both in the ring and on the silver screen. People like Michele Yeoh and Caitlyn Dechelle keep that legacy alive both in acting and in martial arts competition. These are women who have pushed through the odds to become truly iconic in their time.
Girls aren’t supposed to fight
Alright, deep breath…this statement actually frustrates me to no end. Let’s talk about personal safety for a moment. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 2014-2015, 21.1 out of every 1000 females over the age of 12 were victims of a violent crime. The same stats for men show that only 15.9 out of 1000 are victims of a violent crime. So let me ask you this, who needs to be able to defend themselves more? You guessed it, the girls! There won’t always be a willing man right next to you to pull you out of a bad situation. Even a willing man might not have the skills to help. As the saying goes, “chance favors the prepared”, so why not be prepared?
After reading this post, you may still decide that you don’t want your little girl to learn Taekwondo. That is your choice. However, before you make the choice not to let your daughter try a martial arts class, please consider what will be most beneficial for her in the long run. Even if you decide that she needs some other form of exercise or education, giving her a few months of training could help her to become safer, stronger, and more confident. Why not let her try it? You can even try a class or two yourself while you are at it!