“You’re a black belt!?” : common misconceptions about Karate and why they’re wrong

I started Karate at the age of eleven in my home village in Cheshire. I made my way through the belts and reached Black Belt 1^st Dan by the time I was fifteen. I continued to train and assist in teaching up until I left to live in Leeds and begin university. Increasingly, more and more girls are taking up Karate which is fantastic, but there is still a way to go. At our home club – by Sensei Nick’s rough approximation, classes are made up of about 85% boys, 15% girls. Actually, when you think about it, that is a lot more boys than girls. I can’t give any real reasons why this is the case – my experience of Karate was that training, instruction and classes were delivered in the same way to girls and boys. The only gender separation is in fighting competitions but under tens are mixed. My fear is that there are some misconceptions surrounding the sport and I would like to straighten them out and show you why Karate is a great sport for your daughters, nieces, grandchildren and yourselves (and boys too!). I can only talk from own experiences and I know that universally not everybody has had or will have the same experience as me but I truly the believe that the majority of Karate taught in the UK is done along the same lines as my experience.

Anna Kessle has highlighted to me in her book Eat, Sweat, Play that sadly in some instances of sports, coaches seem to give less attention to girls, maybe believing that they’re not as strong or fast as the boys. Especially at a younger age, this is simply not true. I wonder how many people think that girls can’t be as good as boys at Karate because girls are weaker, not able to be aggressive, it’s not very ‘lady-like’ to fight, blah, blah, blah… In a Karate class of beginners age five to ten there is no difference in the ability of boys and girls. That is why from a young age boys and girls are given the same attention, expected to do the same moves, with the same power, speed, agility, skill, technique and controlled aggression and they progress at the same rate. Any discrepancies within the class are down to the individual students, not their gender. Sensei Barry who is the owner of our club William’s Karate made a sure effort to tell people not to kick like a fairy, he never said girl. Which is fair enough because fairies are pretty delicate little creatures.

Everybody learns how to do strength exercises like press ups and squats, everybody learns the same Katas, everybody learns the same fighting techniques. Everybody spars (controlled practise fighting) with each other. At the age of thirteen I was sparing with forty years old men. To me this was no big deal as I was well acclimatised to training with people of a different gender and age. On Wednesday nights senior belt training took place which was made up of mostly brown and black belts. On many occasions I was the only girl at training but this wasn’t a big deal and I was never made to feel less able because I was a girl, if anything I felt more able. I remember the pride when I was singled out to demonstrate the roundhouse kick because it was technically good, with good power and aggression.

I think I was helped along the way by friend Leanne, only a few years my senior she would not stand for any grief from anybody, she is a demon when it comes to fighting and continued to train when she pregnant with both of her daughters. Being able to see a young woman absolutely kicking gender stereotypes to pieces (both literally and metaphorically – it was hard work holding a kicking pad for her) definitely helped me overcome any worries or doubts that I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. When Leanne and I trained for our Black belts, we did them at the same time, we were pushed to our absolute maximums, I don’t think I’ve ever been as fit since. To this day people are still always shocked or impressed, or sometimes both, when I tell them that I am a black belt. I don’t know if this is because I’m a girl or maybe because I’m a friendly person and they can’t imagine me punching somebody. Either way, Karate is something that is accessible to all genders and ages, everybody is treated the same and pushed to train as hard as they personally can. It also makes you feel like a ninja and who doesn’t want to feel like a ninja? See if there any classes in your local area and get out there and try something new.

Em x

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