For women martial artists

[wild child]

With out sounding too personal, do you use a sports bra or other protective equipment for you chest?

I am a martial arts teacher, and recently have taken on a number of young women as students.

Should I advise them to wear protective equipment or for them to need a more supportive bra?

thanks in advance for your help

regards,

wild child

[JasBourne]

If your school teaches any kind of sparring or two person drills, the answer is a resounding yes, for two reasons:

1) obviously, to protect the breasts
2) to lower the inhibition levels of the male sparring partners.

Seriously. I cannot tell you how much training time I've wasted because the fella I'm sparring with is afraid to accidentally touch my breasts. I finally just made it a point to always wear the small plastic bra inserts as a matter of course, and whenever I feel the guy holding back, audibly thump the inserts and say with a big smile, "don't worry, I have tits of steel". Works every time. :)

For serious full-on sparring, I wear a polyethylene molded shield that protects the abdomen and sternum area as well.

Here's a really great woman-owned MA supply store, they have all kinds of female-specific gear: http://hometown.aol.com/chajonshim/women.html

[old jong]

:D ...I'm sure the guy is not shy anymore after a line like that! ;)

[Nexus]

You'd never catch me saying "I have balls of steel" to my female training partners. Heh!

- Nexus

[SaMantis]

Hi --

I wear a sports bra even in regular class. Keeps everything in place and minimizes distractions.

Sparring class is usually light contact, so I don't worry about wearing more "armor." However, I have been popped in the chest a couple times by unintentionally hard jabs, and believe me, it hurts (probably not as much as a groin shot to a guy hurts). If they're doing full-contact sparring then definitely some chest padding is warranted.

Haven't tried the "chest of steel" line yet, though! :D

[Prairie]

Definitely a sports bra. I don't do a lot of sparring lately, but any that is done is the light contact variety and so don't worry about additional protection.

[Ryu]

Well you know my story about grappling with that girl in my BJJ class... To this day I think she did it on purpose in order to beat me.

:)

Ryu

[red5angel]

i was thinking about this a while back. We have only a few women in our class at teh moment. We had a seminar not too long agao and the guy giving it, pretty much only demonstrated on men. I noticed later that he had a tendancy to punch or smack the chest. I asked him about it and he said he doesnt have a problem at his school but because of the unfamiliarity of people at seminars he doesnt normally demo on women because of this.
Now, my thought was, when I get hit by my sifu, or someone demonstrating something, it goes a long way towards my understanding it. This would be a disadvantage if you were a woman. What would you ladies recommend to a guy who was teaching a class about approaching this subject?
As a future instructor, I dont want any body to be at a disadvantage but I also dont want someone to feel uncomfortable!