The Female Fighters of Moh
Female Fighters Every style of Martial Arts has them, even mixed martial arts. They have played a pivotal role in Moh since the beginning. Here is a short list of some, Marge Hilbig, Came over on the boat with Olaf, She had a crucial role in the formation of SKS Still trains the Edmonton Police (as far as I know). Doreen June Simon nee Urness, Former President of Simon Kung Fu Studios, Love or hate her, she helped shape Moh “Sister” Tarvis (?) A member of the Edmonton KFC I did not see her much Joy Tunis (?) The woman I mention who performed “Sweeping Crane” She was a high ranking student in the Vancouver Studio Laurie Kitson (?) She trained and taught out of the Vancouver and both Surrey locations. Surely there are others. It was my experience that they got trained harder than the guys. But then they had to, in order to survive.

From what we as students understood, women were not eligable to become instructors. We certainly never saw any, although I beleive there were some exceptions in other studios.

Hello Drunken Monkey, You posted, “From what we as students understood, women were not eligable to become instructors. We certainly never saw any, although I beleive there were some exceptions in other studios.” My response, Ouch! Sometimes women make absolute primo instructors. Within the Moh history, they have usually gotten a raw deal. Or in one case, given it. But “not eligable”?!?! What nonsense! No offense to you, personally. Now, I know there were female students in the Moh system. Roman’s wife is another one that comes to mind (and she was a Black Belt) There were also instructors. Regards, MrE2Me2 p.s., Where did you hear this, DM?

We heard it from a couple of ex-instructors - it wasn't official or anything, but for about 8 years there were none in Vancouver or N. Vancouver. I was good friends with several female students who often mentioned this. They also had issues with the fact that they were never allowed to work with the men; the instructors would always pair the women together (in an apparent effort to keep anyone from feeling 'uncomfortable'). While this is somewhat understandable, these women had a legitimate concern that should they ever need to use their self-defence skills, it would likely be against men, and thus they should be allowed to train that way. The instructors at the time disagreed. One friend - an experienced, advanced female would ALWAYS get stuck working with frail, tentative women, often brand new students, and she felt her training suffered for it. There was always an awkwardness whenever the male instructors (mainly the young ones) worked with the women, to the degree that it seemed they'd been warned about it or something. I think it had something to do with instructors dating the students but I wasn't around much at that time. It was a common topic of conversation/speculation with groups of students who went out together after class however...

Drunken Monkey, Thank you for your candor. Obviously you and I are from different eras of Moh. There were several females who both trained and taught Moh. They did so at various locations in B.C. But as I understand it, the idea of no fraternization goes back to Calgary. Wayne, one of my instructors, was there when the rule was changed. He said that the idea of fraternization was suddenly there. As in, first it wasn’t there and then it was. And this idea was not restricted to females, either. Also there is a certain macho attitude where martial artists are concerned. My experiences were no different than a lot of my fellow instructors in those days. Now I am only going by what they said then (I have no proof). I found the attitude of the male students was very aggressive towards female students. Also, females usually did not train with other females during my day. We did not expect them to be attacked by other females. Sounds like a different style of martial art when you describe it. Regards, MrE2Me2 Without prejudice E&OE

There was a female teacher from Edmonton or Calgary in the late 1980's / 1990's, Ms. R. Delcorro She could kick butt. But otherwise they were few and far between. It is unfortunate but DrunkenMonkey is right about how partners were paired up in group classes, especially when run by inexperienced instructors. I was verey aware of this issue and went out of my way to try and make sure the female students got to work with the male ones so that they could experience a stronger attack. It sucks but it only takes that ONE guy who is an idiot partnered up with a woman and either he looks at her weird, says something stupid or worse and actually does something stupid to ruin it for everyone. This happened a lot. Guys would do the techniques and repeatedely "brush" against a females partners breast, that is just not cool. Because of that the junior instructors were trained to just avoid this, and for good reason.

SHe was Master Piercy's commonlaw wife as I understand. Yeah I remember her being very skilled. Though I understand a lot of people had issues with her personally I never got to know her that well.

I had brought a group of my student to a tournament in the early 1980’s. One was a top female competitor. She entered both forms and free sparring divisions. Tourneys in B.C. were different back then. The females all competed with each other regardless of size or rank. In one match, my student ended up against a very large woman kickboxer. This woman bragged how she was going to hurt my student. When the ref said, “Begin”, she did. Three times she pummeled this woman mercilessly. That day she was the girl with the flurry. The kickboxer actually turned away at one point. You see, my student had been trained in a very tough school. All the men tried to pick on her…at first.

Good for your student! It is a pity that people have to make comments like that, "I'm going to beat your brain's in!". I mean, it can be a way of testing your psychological preparedness for a violent situation, but at a tourny, it seems so unprofessional so childlike. I would sooner see the skill one has acquired through training their body, not their mouth!

Often the people who are shooting their mouths off are the ones that have doubts about their own abilities.

Hello Cam and Current Student, Yep! But it was a different era for tourneys then. I was at a tourney not too long ago. Much has changed for the better. The judges and refs are much more in control. Like, bad mouthing a contestant from the side lines isn't allowed (anymore). Regards, MrE2Me2

Female Fighters 4 There was this one mid level color belt adult female in the Vancouver studio. One night she went out on a date. Upon returning to her date’s house she was asked to come in. At first she demurred. He was insistent and charming. He also assured her nothing untoward would happen. After all, they had had such a good time that night. Anyway, he knew what “No” meant. So much for that! She finally relented. She entered and sat on the couch. He joined her there shortly afterward, and then the trouble started. When she later recounted it, she could not remember exactly what she had done. All that she remembered was that she had used only her left arm. And that after she dropped him in a heap on the floor, she fled the apartment.

From my experiences a lot of the instructors were very unprofessional. I have personally seen a lot of instructors hitting on the attractive women during training.

That was pretty common in our studios too - it was actually a bit of a running joke with some of our female friends who trained, although they truthfully found it a bit offensive. The only thing that kept it from being really creepy was how socially awkward the instructors always seemed to be. I think this whole vibe was just another facet of the problem with women not being allowed to work with men, etc. -- it just showed a lack of maturity throughout the organization. To be fair it was mainly a few instructors and chiefs who tried to use the place as a dating service, but many were respectful and never crossed those lines. I remember one chief getting caught listening in to a conversation that was going on in the girl's changeroom between a student he was interested in and another girl. When we walked into the hall his face went bright red and he stammered something about trying to see if the changeroom was empty so he could go in and change the toilet paper! ROFL.

There was this one female beginner. At first she was there just because of her husband’s insistence. Later, she realized that she could really fight. But this incident happened before that. At that time I ran sparring classes differently. Everyone would have a partner and everyone sparred at the same time. After a couple of minutes, we’d switch partners and go again. It made for a long sparring class with plenty of action. This was during a time when we did not call it contact unless: You could not get back up or there was blood. Anyway, that day there were six students and the female was one of them. Every male that I paired her with tried to take her head off. It didn’t matter what I said or did, these guys were just rough. When the guy who had just finished sparring with her switched off, He would find himself slugging it out with the next in line. Yet the next guy to spar with her also tried to pound on her. (It was a very eventful sparring class.) Finally, she left the floor. I remember thinking, “She’s left without permission!” (Ya, I was a little pompous in those days, l.o.l.) I went after her and found her in the washroom. She was all teary and as I approached, She buried her head in my gi top and said, “It Is So Hard!” I said, “Hard is what we do.” She nodded, almost to herself, And went back out to finish what she had started. She may have been the best of her time, But I found her fighters attitude in most of the females I trained.