And yet the idea persists.
Mostly it comes from boys concerned about being beaten up by a girl. That’s just something they’ll have to get used to. Whenever you take up martial arts, you have to accept that you’re going to get beaten. There’s no shame in that while you’re learning—it’s how you learn—and there’s certainly no shame in being floored by a girl who’s been learning longer than you, does it better than you and is a more skilled fighter than you.



Some of the criticism comes from people who believe that girls shouldn’t do such nasty things as learn how to kick someone in the head or deliver an elbow to the nose. They should be learning embroidery, knitting or soufflé-making.

That’s not just a strange idea about what it means to be a girl—it’s also dangerous. Girls face special risks and their need to learn how to defend themselves is even more urgent than that of boys. And even if they don’t feel threatened, no one should be telling girls what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

If a girl wants to learn how to kickbox instead of scrapbook, there are no good reasons for standing in her way—and once she’s been training for a while, plenty of good reasons not to.
And even the appropriateness of girls and boys grappling together on judo mats has been solved. Just because girls and boys do the same sport and the same martial art doesn’t mean that they have to do them together or spar together. Martial arts that are practiced at a distance or with little contact, such as certain types of kung-fu or tai chi, can certainly be practiced in mixed classes. Other types, such as tae kwon do or sambo, might be better studied in single-sex classes.

It’s not just false that girls shouldn’t be learning martial arts. It’s also wrong to say that they can’t learn martial arts, that they’re not as capable or as skilled as boys.

That’s also nonsense.
Experienced instructors who have trained both boys and girls often find that girls are actually better students at least until about the age of puberty when boys begin to take the classes a bit more seriously. Some of that is traced down to behavior. Boys who take up martial arts are often attracted by the machismo that comes from believing that they can beat people up. They’re less likely to follow instruction and more likely to goof around than put effort into practicing their moves.

Girls are often more willing to learn and less likely to believe that they know it all already. Strength is not always a factor either. Size, weight and sheer physical power can be an important part of some martial arts, but that’s also true among boys. Weight classes help to even the field and make competition meaningful. A slim 16-year-old girl with a black belt in judo might struggle to bring down a male heavyweight champion of the same martial art, but she’d do fine among her peers and could certainly beat many untrained men too.

And often, girls have an advantage when it comes to learning martial arts that goes beyond their willingness to learn. While strength might be important, flexibility, reflexes and endurance are even more important in many forms of martial arts.

That’s not true for all forms, of course. Female kickboxers have to learn how to deliver their blows with force. But for tai chi, tae kwon do and many other forms, control, balance and precision are far more vital than power. With the right leverage, it’s possible to move even the heaviest object, and movement and momentum are the principles behind many martial arts techniques.

All this should explain why girls not only are capable of learning martial arts, they’ve also been doing it for a very long time.

According to one Chinese story, after the Manchu empire conquered China and replaced the Ming dynasty with its own Qing rule, it faced a threat from Shaolin monks loyal to the old regime. The Imperial army conquered the temple, killing many of the monks. Five monks, however, were able to escape, include the nun Ng Mui who fled to the White Crane Temple in the south.

One day, Ng Mui noticed a cat attacking a crane. The crane didn’t run and it didn’t panic. It remained calm and was able to fend off the attacks until the cat grew tired and gave up. Ng Mui adapted what she saw to her own Shaolin training to create a new form of martial art.

Near the temple lived a young woman called Yim Wing Chun and her father, Yim Yee. Wing Chun was engaged to Leung Bok Chau, but she was being pestered by the leader of a local gang who wanted to marry her himself. Ng Mui taught Wing Chun her new martial art and suggested that her father tell the gang leader that Wing Chun would marry him only if he was able to beat her in combat.

Wing Chun not only beat the gang leader, she beat up his gang too—and married her fiancé. When Wing Chun asked Ng Mui the name of the type of kung-fu she had learned, Ng Mui named it after her.

The story, of course, might not be true but if one of the greatest martial artists of all time had no problem learning a martial art said to have been created by a woman, no one should question whether it can benefit girls.

Bionote:
Sulaiman Sharif is Harimau Pelangi Cula Saki—highest-ranking black belt—and holds the rank of Black Warrior in the Malay warrior art of silat seni gayong.