female fighters and strongwomen

August 27, 2008 11:36 PM

Female Single Combat Club [nsfw]. An extensive site about women fighters around the world and in history. In English and Russian. Previously.
posted by nickyskye (27 comments total)

Neat site. Although for whatever reason, a cursory scan reveals no mention of Gina Carano, the ass-kickingest woman on Earth, which is a fail.
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:50 PM on August 27, 2008

Nor Kathy Long, retired ass-kickingest woman on Earth. Still, there is a lot of info there.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:57 PM on August 27, 2008

Good stories, way less creepy than I feared (hoped? no no feared, honest).
posted by From Bklyn at 12:34 AM on August 28, 2008

I just finished reading the Iliad, and had re-read the Odyssey last summer. Athena is in the midst of every frikkin' battle. She starts half of them. Yeah, she's a character in a possibly historical novel. So is Queen Penthesilea, and she made the list. I want my Athena on this list!!!
posted by kanewai at 1:05 AM on August 28, 2008

My wife told me we were going to plant a tree. Now I see what she must have been reading. (Good thing I still had the shovel handy.)
posted by pracowity at 1:06 AM on August 28, 2008

Java console popped up on the site:
class jspylog.informer.informer.class - not found
posted by hexatron at 3:33 AM on August 28, 2008

Not sure why this is flagged nsfw....
posted by Perplexity at 5:09 AM on August 28, 2008

Not sure why this is flagged nsfw....

This page, for one. Which leads me to mention that although they might not mention those new fangled kick-boxing women, they do mention the original ass-kickingest woman on earth.
posted by TedW at 6:00 AM on August 28, 2008

I'm glad it's a female single combat club cuz I wouldn't be interested in a female married or taken combat club.
posted by spicynuts at 6:24 AM on August 28, 2008

There's something funky on that site. Firefox asked me if I wanted to accept incoming connections and when I said no and blocked cookies, it locked up something good.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:29 AM on August 28, 2008

I used to be partnered up a lot with this pro MMA fighter woman when I was a social worker, I always thought it was sort of deliciously ironic that she spent her days helping the sick and disadvantaged and her nights pummeling the shit out of people. She had stacks of Tupperware containers that she had to carry into the field so she could eat all the right stuff at the right times, which looked like a real chore. When she put her arms up to tie her hair back you could see exactly how jacked her biceps were. It was pretty awe inspiring, her ars weren't much smaller than mine and I'm not exactly in the petite male category. We used to get sent into these totally gnarly housing projects and she always rolled her sleeves up to the shoulder before we did, shamelessly breaking the guns out, and while other women caseworkers got harassed or assaulted on the regular she always had clear passage because it was apparent that she not only had huge arms but she knew exactly what to do with them to mash your face into a pile shit.
posted by The Straightener at 7:51 AM on August 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

Java console popped up on the site:
class jspylog.informer.informer.class - not found
posted by hexatron at 3:33 AM on August 28 [+] [!]

It locked up my computer--I had to reboot.
posted by eye of newt at 8:04 AM on August 28, 2008

I had no problem, but run Safari: what does this "jspylog" business mean? It sounds less than benign and as I had no problems, frankly, I'm vaguely anxious...
posted by From Bklyn at 8:15 AM on August 28, 2008

It locked up my computer--I had to reboot.

Was it a joint lock or a standard choke?
posted by aftermarketradio at 9:44 AM on August 28, 2008

Single female combat is pretty cool, but I prefer married broads tag-team.

*ducks*
posted by Mister_A at 10:11 AM on August 28, 2008

jspylog is a joomla extension for gathering site visitor statistics.
posted by bz at 10:27 AM on August 28, 2008

I was surprised there was no mention of apartment wrestling in the FPP.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:43 PM on August 28, 2008

I was surprised there was no mention of capoeira.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:04 PM on August 28, 2008

The site also sets a cookie for spylog.com. Surfing to spylog.com takes you to spylog.ru, which is helpfully provided in Russian only.
posted by ghost of a past number at 2:09 PM on August 28, 2008

Lots of female capoeira practitioners, Ubu? Whenever I see them get together, they're almost always exclusively male (well, ok, there's always exactly one woman).

Also: this is mondo cool.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:07 PM on August 28, 2008

Outside of Brazil Capoeiristas don't really fight/compete all that much in organized matches. Hell. Inside Brazil that don't fight in "organized" matches all that much. Key word being organized.
posted by tkchrist at 4:17 PM on August 28, 2008

The group I belong to is probably at least 50% female, including some of the top instructors & players (that's actually my teacher in the photo, on the right).

But yeh, tkchrist is right - it's not really about competing in any formal sense; that's somewhat contrary to the spirit of the thing. Once or twice a year, we have a 'competition', but that's just a bit of fun tacked onto the end of our belt-grading workshops & events.

Informally, you generally try to play 'better' than your 'opponent' but it's far from being The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out. Interaction, dialogue, style, technique, trickery, acrobatics & 'rhythm / swing' are much more important than just being aggressive & 'winning' in any fighting sense.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:30 PM on August 28, 2008

girl power.
posted by CharlotteSarah at 4:38 PM on August 28, 2008

Well, I never mentioned competition. 99% of the time I see these guys doing street demos for the local dojo (if that's what they call it). Actually, in any given city, that's always what I see. I don't believe I've ever seen nor heard of a capoeira competition.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 5:28 PM on August 28, 2008

Oh, tkchrist mentioned competition. I was trying to respond to both at once.

As for women in capoeira groups, it must vary according to the group, what kind of style they teach & whether the group's culture is female-friendly or more macho. Some groups do seem to treat it as more of a martial thing, others as something more artistic.

I generally assume that the girls are attracted to it especially *because* there's so much less overt violence than any other martial art. It's very rare that anybody is actually injured, and if they are it's more likely to be a twisted ankle than a kick to the head that caused it. Plus, they're naturally so much better at the gymnastic side; damn their flexibility!

I think the musical & cultural aspects must have their appeal as well, but there's no reason why women would specifically be attracted to those aspects any more than men are.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:11 PM on August 28, 2008

metafilter: Interaction, dialogue, style, technique, trickery, acrobatics & 'rhythm / swing' are much more important than just being aggressive & 'winning' in any fighting sense.
posted by vronsky at 6:17 PM on August 28, 2008

Yeah fighting ain't usually capoeira's focus. I suppose that's kind of the point. As it tackles the entire concept sideways anyway. But I see lots of women in most of groups I've been exposed to for a long time... by lots I mean more than 5-10%. I've been in a some boxing and kickboxing gyms where there were exactly zero women involved. It was a novelty. It's only very recently that is changing. And changing fast. Thank god. Because, counter intuitively, if there is one thing that most fighting gyms could do with less of it's macho. Women can't rely on muscle. They have to be good technicians. So they tend to help focus coaches back to technique. That. And dudes, when left with gender imbalance, reach a critical mass of stink that is unbearable.

I know one thing. Capoeira will get you in awesome shape. I had a Capoeirsta in my sub-wrestling training group and we had a hell of a time conditioning him. I was always afraid he was bored.

And any chicks that can do inverted push-ups into one handed hand-stands get my respect.
posted by tkchrist at 7:12 PM on August 28, 2008 [1 favorite]