I'm curious about the considerations in coed MA training. I've found in my experience, that there are quite a number of women who can hold their own with men and I've met women who can whoop @$$ on most men both in and outside the training hall. But more than that, I wonder about the benefits of gender specific training vs coed training. I went to an all male training facility for my military training and all the men I've talked to since wish they had gone there if only to get more rigorous physical training(they said they could do without the hazing etc.) and get away from the women that whined all the time(the whiners being the exception not the rule...we had whiners too). In regards to MA training itself, a girl I was talking to relayed an incident she had with a male during hand-to-hand combat training in which he became aroused and she had to switch partners as she was uncomfortable with it. In relation to this, I have never before had this happen to any of my training partners or to myself but I'm sure it's not all that uncommon. There's also the subject of people being more comfortable within their specific gender. At Ft. Benning, a lot of guys were more comfortable maxing out on push ups, and running because they felt they weren't constantly being compared to others in terms of their manhood being challenged. On the flip side, I've seen a number of MA schools offer women only classes or classes specifically called, "women's self-defense". Thinking it will offer women a more comfortable enironment to train without the sexual advances of men, having to deal with physical superiority and being able to discuss female specific issues(rape being the most common) in relation to self-defense. But in order to teach anti-rape techniques, I trained under an instructor who brought in three of the biggest guys from the "regular" class to give the women an idea of the resistane they could encounter.
There's also the concept of men being embarrased at being beaten by a woman. I know a guy who was embarrased at being thrown by his wife. I also like to train in wrestling and a little KF, at the gym on base but find it hard to find guys to train with when I tell them women may be present. They find the concept of wrestling the opposite sex appalling in terms of chivalry and the thought of losing. I personally don't care so long as the training is good and someone is learning. I learned my lesson after being kicked to the ground by a woman I was training with when I first started. I've met women who kick serious man butt at physical things like push ups, weight lifting etc.
I think I'm starting to ramble so, please share your thoughts on training with the opposite sex. Do you feel it impedes or assistes your training? How do you react to sparring/grappling with the opposite sex? Etc.
-ZC