Kicks Like A Girl?

Kicks Like A Girl?

By Delyth Evans

I hated sport at school. The dreaded changing rooms where the school bullies waited to pounce, the thought of Netball, Hockey and the ice cold playing fields was not something I looked forward to. I forget how many times I asked my poor mother for notes to get out of lessons.

Everything from the common cold to the time of the month were used as a possible excuse to get out of sports lessons. The teachers seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in forcing us less enthusiastic kids to chase a hockey ball (?) around the ice cold pitch in the middle of January. I hated it. With a passion. It was not a mild dislike. I hated it.

Fast forward from the age of 18 to 30 and I had done very little sport. The odd exercise video or Race for Life 5 km, walking the dog were as far as it went. I didn't like the way I looked. I had a series of not nice boyfriends, thinking the bullies were right and that was all I had to look forward to. I was 30 years old. I was underweight, with bad skin and poor self esteem. I rarely went out socially and was on anti-depressants. One phone call from my friend changed all that. "You need a night out." My response was horror. That meant seeing people I didn't know - getting judged. Lizzy, bless her knew what I was like. "I mean, come to karate with me. One hour, see what you think." From the first lesson at Gilfach Goch Karate Club I was hooked.

Gilfach Goch Karate Club is part of Welsh Bushi Kai which was founded by the late and highly respected Ritchie Noblett 8th Dan. It teaches Wado Ryu karate which is a rariy among Rhondda based martial arts clubs. I this area the majority of clubs are MMA, Shotokan and Tang So Do. This means that as the only club in the area gradings and competitions are held in West Wales rather than the South Wales.

The karate club is held twice a week with members ranging from five years old to adulthood. The club has a focus on both kata and kumate with a number of junior members routinely competing at national level. Competitions include the Under 16 Welsh Open which saw two members of the club achieve the highest ranking in their age groups.

As a black belt in the club I have gained weight - no longer in the anorexic range with good skin and a decent level of fitness. I have also gained confidence in myself, with each grading that passed and each course gained I managed to achieve my fitness goal. The goal was to be less reliant on asthma medication and actually like the way I look - most of the time. Well, seven years later I still need my asthma medication at times but I actually like the way I look now.

It was then I started looking for karate and martial arts magazines that are aimed at women. I wanted to read about techniques, katas, kions and kumate, while there are a good selection of fitness and health magazines aimed at women and a plethora of magazines based around martial arts for men there seemed to be none which were based around martial arts and women's fitness. How can one of the most ancient sports, which has people of all ages and gender take part so side lined by the media? That was when I looked on Facebook.

Black Eagle, Martial Arts Addict, Karate for the Olympics. All excellent sites with great Facebook pages but none really about what I was interested in. Very little mention of Kata, Kion or the differences in how men and women percieve karate. That was the idea behind starting the Facebook page - Kicks like a girl. It's still very new with very few followers but it's idea is to encourage those who thought martial arts were all male dominated with macho men at the forefront - it isn't like that. Some of the best karateka I have met have been women.

With films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the films of the early 90s such as Rush Hour all popular isn't it time that Karate became more mainstream and seen as a sport for all? After all, if it wasn't for that phone call one freezing cold December night I may not be where I am now. And for that I have my friend Liz and Karate to thank.

Subscribe to our mailing list