Students are as part of maelstrøm as the instructors. A Student’s Perspective allows the people who make up classes to write about their experience, and give a glimpse into what it’s like to be a practitioner of Filipino Martial Arts – straight from those who are muddling their way through techniques and concepts just like the rest of us! Here, one of our longtime students, Tiffany, write about being a girl in the arts:
Starting in a new hobby with a group full of more experienced people is always daunting. Being the minority gender walking into a new situation also has its own unique set of challenges. Imagine, gentlemen, if you will – walking into a dance class (or any kind of class, say knitting) full of women. You’ll always stand out for not being the same gender. For the longest time, heading to kali class was like that for me. It’s no secret that men dominate the martial arts scene; after all, societal archetypes dictate that females are calm, peace-loving and nurturing. This lack of women is doubly true for the bladed arts, where the numbers of females are even less. I’d jump in happiness and invariably loudly proclaim “you’re a girl!” every time one of my gender showed up. At our high point, there was four or five girls in one class. There was almost a couple classes when the gender ratio was fifty fifty. And what a thrill they were – I’d revel in the estrogen levels in the room until some guy slid open those doors and the room became male-dominated once again.
Once after class, a fellow girl and I listened in silence as the guys talked about Dog Brothers. They talked about fights with other “huge dudes” who outweighed them by fifty pounds, and this macho-ness went on for a while. They talked about how much they bench, and the feat of fighting outside their weight class. When we walked out, I said to my friend: “you realize that that’s us every day in class right?”
Luckily, with our classes in new our new location at Tactix gym, the gender ratio was reversed simply because there were more girls at the club from which to draw students. The main location drew students from word-of-mouth and the googling public. Which turned somehow to be always male. It was strange, at first anyway, to go from one location to the other each week and experience drilling with primarily girls. There was more giggling and more excited girly camaraderie at Tactix – none of that stoic “hey how’s it going” and chin nod that form male relations. It was strange, but I realized that I didn’t necessarily like one setting more than the other. The material was the same, and the material was what I was there to learn.
When you spend any amount of time training each week, the club becomes a home away from home, and the guys I knew there were some of my dearest guy friends. They’re like brothers to me; and would jokingly ask if they needed to beat anybody up for me when I looked upset. Girls would probably comfort and hug, but at the end of the day we all got on with it and hit each other with sticks.
The gender thing is always there, and remains a largely undiscussed component of my training experience. But the truth is being a girl doesn’t really matter while training. It’s like being short, or having a bum knee. There’s disadvantages and advantages to it. I mean after years of training, I can barely make a stick whistle or do 15 regular push-ups in a row. Don’t mistake me, there are girls with actual upper body strength but it definitely doesn’t come as easily to us. But as our instructors will intone, strategy wins over strength every time. Besides, don’t they said that the weapon is a great equalizer? Sure, being small works for a lot of techniques, and not so well for some others. But it’s like that for every body type, and hardly unique to the female experience. Plus, one instructor has told me that females tend to be less stiff in their movements when picking up new techniques. So while there’s always that awkward moment during training when movements lead to some otherwise-inappropriate body contact, being a girl in martial arts is absolutely a non-issue.
Once in a while, a guy unused to hitting girls will cringe or pull their shots. But hey, in a real situation, that works for me.