Wrestling with his faith

[thestoat]

I've never tried sex in make-up. Wouldn't knock it though ...

[dgs49]

"I do believe there is huge benefit to be gained from cross gender fighting though."

Care to elaborate?

Jaraxle, are you seriously suggesting that because you (might) know a female who (might be) capable of doing some things better than a certain male, men aren't stronger than women?

Please tell me you are not making that argument.

And since you know absolutely nothing about me or my physical condition, how could you possibly know what I am capable of? I am old and have many limitations, but other than heavy construction labor there are not many physical work tasks that I couldn't do, at least in the short term. Running, interval training, and lifting weights for thirty-plus years does have some benefits.

[Gob]

You wear make up for sex if you want to C-P, we're a broad minded bunch here. (Apart from Dave.)

[Andrew D]

Dear Andrew

But did she compete (when she competed) against equally trained men? Or were her competitions in the women's divisions of martial arts - which is her teaching area.

Grandmaster Gee teaches men and women. (A while back, she accepted me as one of her students, but a health problem got in the way.)

I do not know what competitions she was in. I think that some full-contact competitions involve men and women fighting each other, but I think that they are divided into weight classes anyway.

Long ago, when I studied under Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong (Grandmaster Gee's principal sifu), Grandmaster Gee was an instructor in his studio. I saw her in full-contact, full-force sparring -- which is common at the advanced levels; among other things, pulling one's punches is considered disrespectful -- against men at (or even above) her level and considerably larger than she, and I saw her beat them (not always, but often enough).

I continue to see no reason why this young man should give up his wrestling on the off-chance that one day he might have to wrestle a girl.

Because competition between boys and girls is built into the rules. If he did not want to wrestle a girl, the proper time for him to make that decision was before the season started.

I think that this:

It's rather nice isn't it - like giving up a seat to pregnant lady on a bus or holding open a door.

is precisely wrong. Unlike giving up a seat or holding open a door, what this guy did was disrespectful, and it deprived the girl of her chance actually to earn her "victory".

[thestoat]

"I do believe there is huge benefit to be gained from cross gender fighting though."

Care to elaborate?

As a woman, sparring a bloke can be very beneficial since a lot of women's would-be attackers are men. Good to get an understanding fo how different men might move and be used to their typically greater weights and strengths. A man sparring a woman can also benefit from getting an understanding of different timings, speeds and attack types that a woman might have.

[loCAtek]

Following the tournament, Cassy Herkelman (the female wrestler, who also runs track and plays softball) was eliminated in the quarter finals; It's also notable, she wasn't the only girl in the contest. ...they sound like quite honorable sportsmen, as they know that in spite of their great athleticism*, they're not likely to win against males. They are there just to compete and have fun.

The Huffington Post

From the comments;

"Any coach would feel pleased that a freshman boy made it to state. A girl who does so is phenomenal­. She's clearly fast and adept. Wrestling is a challenge of skills, not simply musculatur­e. And Cassy is actually very strong. In the 112 bracket, no one is rippline with muscle. She began wrestling at age 7, got very good, and probably knows more about technique and moves than about 60 percent of boys out there. That's an advantage. She'll be sigificant­ly better three years from now."

[loCAtek]

Now, why don't the pictures shrink anymore? Oh well, you can really see her muscle

Eric VanSickle Blog all about Cassy Herkelman;

Wrestling was a family passion on Herkleman’s father, Bill’s side of the family.

“My grandma really said I should, so I did,” she said. “She just said one day, when my sisters and I were messing around, that I should, and I decided I wanted to (wrestle).”

Now, that's inspiring!

[Jarlaxle]

FWIW, when my daughter was in 9th grade (and a gymnast) she held the school record for pullups (37) of the entire school (both boys and girls), a record which I don't think has been broken to this day (6 years later). There are exceptions to every rule, and different degrees of conditioning as well; I don't find it surprising that this young lady could have bested 20 reasonably conditioned boy wrestlers in her weight class.

Ye gods, THIRTY SEVEN pullups?! Wow! That's quite a feat for anyone!

[Jarlaxle]

"I do believe there is huge benefit to be gained from cross gender fighting though."

Care to elaborate?

Jarlaxle, are you seriously suggesting that because you (might) know a female who (might be) capable of doing some things better than a certain male, men aren't stronger than women?

Please tell me you are not making that argument.

And since you know absolutely nothing about me or my physical condition, how could you possibly know what I am capable of? I am old and have many limitations, but other than heavy construction labor there are not many physical work tasks that I couldn't do, at least in the short term. Running, interval training, and lifting weights for thirty-plus years does have some benefits.

I know you are anything but young and have physical issues that I recall include back and shoulder problems. Simple test: can you lift and install a mounted Class 8 truck tire, size 11R22.5, weight about 200lbs? Can you pop loose lug nuts "torqued" (read: "hammered on with a 1" impact") to 650+lb/ft with hand tools? Can you sling around heavy steel dolly axles (they often have to be lifted head-high), safety chains, and wheel-lift bars? If not, than you cannot do her job, it's as simple as that.

[Big RR]

FWIW, when my daughter was in 9th grade (and a gymnast) she held the school record for pullups (37) of the entire school (both boys and girls), a record which I don't think has been broken to this day (6 years later). There are exceptions to every rule, and different degrees of conditioning as well; I don't find it surprising that this young lady could have bested 20 reasonably conditioned boy wrestlers in her weight class.

Ye gods, THIRTY SEVEN pullups?! Wow! That's quite a feat for anyone!

30 more than I ever did. Of course, she could also climb two parallel ropes with one hand on each which keeping her legs straight out in an "L" position and do stuff on the uneven bars and vault that scared the hell out of me, but she did weigh less than 100 lbs (I guess around 45 Kg?). Her upper body strength to body weight ration was pretty amazing,

[dgs49]

Jaraxle,
Put me on your list in the "Extremely Skeptical" category.

Neither I nor any sane human would make any attempt to "lift" a 200# wheel & tire assy under anything but emergency circumstances. That's what power tools, jacks, lifts, and hoists are for.

And you say your wife does this routinely?

I'm extremely skeptical.

I have known many women who work in non-traditional fields and who can lift surprising amounts of weight, but what you are describing is simply not credible.

[Jarlaxle]

Not "routinely", but at least once every few weeks...and any road service guy who does more than passenger cars will have to change a tire on a class 6-7 truck himself at least once. It usually doesn't have to be lifted very high (a few inches), but it must be lifted to install it correctly. I've done it (not even mentioning the many times I have had the wheels off my bus), Liz has done it, every driver she works with has done it. She changed a shuttle bus tire (a low-profile 22.5", 140-160lbs) last week. A couple years ago, she and I had no problem lifting a mounted 11R22.5 tire (210lbs by the scrapyard scale) into the bed of my F-350 from the ground.

[loCAtek]

OK, some won't wrestle a girl, because it's an unfair fight;

By that logic, how about a guy with one leg?;




He'll beat you with one leg tied behind ...oh, wait.