Martial Arts for Women: A Practical Guide

Rating:
Summary: inspiring book
Review: I am not a martial artist, yet MARTIAL ARTS FOR WOMEN: A Practical Guide both intrigued and entertained me. Lawler obviously has a zany sense of humor and the many personal anecdotes that she included in her text made MARTIAL ARTS FOR WOMEN a very enjoyable read. The chapter on self-defense contains plenty of practical information about self-defense techniques that any woman could use, even if she is not well-versed in martial arts. And the chapter on physical concerns includes many warm up exercises that would benefit any athlete, not just a martial artist. For someone like me, who is curious about martial arts but has no background in them, MARTIAL ARTS FOR WOMEN is a perfect beginner's book. Yet enough solid information is presented to satisfy the most avid female martial artist

Rating:
Summary: She's biased toward taekwondo, not against men
Review: Lawler's book is definitely biased when it comes to martial arts styles--nearly every technique she describes or warning she gives is obviously more pertinent for taekwondo artists than for any other kind. But she puts her comments about troublesome male sparring partners clearly in context.

For example: "Certain guys at certain ages and at certain ranks develop an attitude problem toward women" (p. 132), and "even in the most female-friendly school [and Lawler does not equate *female-friendly* with *wimpy*], women occasionally encounter men who have a condescending or belittling attitude toward them" (p. 34).

Both the world of business and the world of martial arts are still mostly populated and run by men. Some female martial artists may never have to deal with prejudice against them, but again, if the pattern holds true, most of us women will at some point have the pleasure of being bullied or denigrated, even in the martial arts. I appreciate Lawler's attempt to put such negative experiences in context, and to give us some idea of how to deal with such a problem if (or when?) it arises.

Reviewer Keith Nelson ([e-mail]) wilfully misinterpreted the "rib-cracking" incident. Lawler asserts that her sparring partner "kept walking into [her] reverse punch" (p. 69), but then takes full responsibility for not having enough control to keep from breaking his ribs anyway. She describes how "appalled" she was that she had allowed the injury to occur. She relates how she lost her nerve and was encouraged and coached by *both female and male* sparring partners until she got it back. Then (and only then, because Lawler herself didn't label this man as a bully until hearing it from other women), she reveals that the sparring partner she injured was notorious for sparring too hard with partners he felt were less capable than he was. He quit coming to classes after Lawler broke his ribs. She says:

"Occasionally, justice is served in the martial arts, and though I was still wrong and at fault for not using better control and for causing an injury, I felt oddly relieved. It was somehow appropriate that I, who didn't know the man's background, actually served to help him understand what it was like when your partner sparred too hard" (70).

It seems to me that Lawler took full responsibility for her own error, while acknowledging that bullying and inappropriate aggression lead only to trouble and should not be tolerated. She encourages women to take problems with bullying, etc., to their instructors first and foremost, and then describes other reasonable tactics women can use if their sparring partners refuse to follow the rules.

On the positive side, Lawler repeatedly encourages female martial artists to practice with both female and male martial artists, in order to develop a range of sparring abilities. She relates stories of positive experiences with both female and male sparring partners.

Summation: Maybe the book should have been titled "Tae Kwon Do for Women." That criticism seems justified. The "how dare she give women the impression that some men are bullies" criticism is just plain silly.

Rating:
Summary: Like all of Lawler's books: incomplete and biased.
Review: The beginning of this book is the best part. The author clearly states her goals and concerns and then proceeds to elucidate on them a bit. Unfortunately, the first chapter is as good as it gets and everything goes downhill from there. There are gleanings of good information to be found, unfortunately these are among such a huge morass of misinformation and stylistic prejudice that they are swamped.

Ms. Lawler's inapparent exposure in any way to any other forms of martial arts besides tae kwon do and even besides her own school of tae kwon do is baffling to me, especially in the light of her book being on martial arts for women, not tae kwon do for women. Her lack of knowledge concerning even the most fundamental aspects of common arts such as judo and aikido is apparent in statements such as "judo and aikido rely on upper body and arm strength" (this may be a paraphrase, as I do not have the book in front of me). This is followed by advice to women to not do arts involving a heavy reliance on upper body strength. However, the basic tenets of judo and, especially, aikido involve movement based around one's center of gravity, hips and legs and are generally well-suited to female martial artists. Such gems of misinformation would have been easily corrected with a brief reference to any of the 10-20 basic aikido or judo books that exist or even a 5 minute conversation with a teacher of these arts. More such biases appear throughout the book and lead one to believe that the author did most of her research on the various martial arts other than tae kwon do by talking to people who didn't practice them.

Her views towards the use of weapons by women are nothing less than dismal. She seems to advocate not training in any weapons as they will just get taken away from any woman who attempts to use them. A good hard look at some of the weapons training and self-defense courses out there (as seen in Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women's Self-Defence) would be a much more realistic and fair assessment of the role of weapons in women's martial arts and self-defence training.

As a practitioner of an art which does not teach competition sparring, I have very little to say about the majority of the midsection of the book, as it focused quite heavily on that aspect of her art. However, I do find that her attitudes towards males seem to advocate her going all-out on them (including anecdotes of cracking ribs and the like) but them treating her more gently than they'd treat an equally sized male. Again, some valid points, but lost in a haze of sexism.

The section on choosing a school was somewhat better, although her focus on and bias towards large, commercial schools was lamentable, as was her bias towards striking and competition arts. Ms. Lawler comes from a large, commmercial dojang and has apparently only participated in a striking, competition-oriented martial art.

Suggestions would include not buying this book at all. A much better (although still limited) book is A Woman's Guide to Martial Arts : How to Choose and Get Started in a Discipline, by Monica McCabe-Cardoza. Other suggestions for the author would include retitling the book Tae Kwon Do for Women and/or doing a lot more research on the martial arts in general before proceeding in this vein.

Rating:
Summary: Like all of Lawler's books: incomplete and biased.
Review: [...] A martial arts novice could get better information by spending an hour or two on the internet.

Lawler is obviously very knowledgable about Tae Kwon Do, but like all her other books, her bias towards it is obvious and the misinformation hits you in the head like a round kick.

For the $ you spend on the book, you'd be better off picking up a bunch martial arts magazines at the grocery store or book store.