Skip to main content

Warrior Wednesday - 9 Fantastic Females

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignnone" width="1020"]sword Image created using Bitmoji[/caption]

It's Warrior Wednesday and today's number is 9. Today I'm doing a brief profile on several of the world's best female martial artists.

*Please note that I don't own any of the photos.*

1. Iaido - Atsumi Hatakenaka

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] Photo from the 2016 Canadian National Iaido Championships.[/caption]

Of course I had to start with my main art. When talking about Iaido, it's Atsumi Hatakenaka for me. She is an amazing woman to look up to. Not only is she skilled, but she once told me she hopes to bring peace to the world through Iaido. Hatakenaka Sensei is an eighth level black belt. She cross trains with hot yoga. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video of Hatakenaka Sensei.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="662"] Photo from Centro México Asia[/caption]

Pam Parker Sensei is one of the only westerners and the first female in the world to be awarded a Nanadan in Iaido, so I need to mention her. To be awarded a seventh level black belt in Iaido is rather rare for someone living outside of Japan. It is as much about character and manners as it is about skill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsBoMT-Rpnk&t=144s

2. Taekwondo - Zheng Shuyin

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900"] Photo from China Daily[/caption]

Zheng Shuyin won the Olympic gold medal in the heavyweight division in the 2016 Summer Olympics. China hadn't won gold since 2004.

3. MMA - Sarah Kaufman a.k.a. The Knockout Artist



Canadian Sarah Kaufman recently achieved the Invicta FC bantamweight title. Not only is she a persistent and skilled fighter, but Sarah is also well-educated. You can watch her fight against Miesha Tate here.

4. Kung Fu - Lily Lau

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dimitris Doukas[/caption]

Grandmaster Lily Lau is the first and only woman to take over a Kung Fu System and teach openly as a Kung Fu Master. More about her here: http://laufatmangeagleclaw.com/

5. Kendo - Mizuho Matsumoto

Mizuho Matsumoto is the current women's kendo champion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYi-msZ1Y7s

6. Karate - Rika Usami

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1526"] Photo from Blackwater Martial Arts[/caption]

Watch World Champion Rika Usami as she performs a kata and you can guess why she's the champion. The skill, focus, and fire she wields at just the right moments is breath-taking.

With the next championships later this month, will Rika still be on top?

7. Sumo Wrestling - Bum-Erdene Tuvshinjargal

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="800"] Photo from India Live  Today[/caption]

Bum-Erdene Tuvshinjargal is an accomplished wrestler despite a restriction against going pro. She is an inspiring woman. More on Tuvshinjargal here.

More female sumo wrestlers..

8. Wushu - Suijin Chen

Suijin is the current champion of the Women's Taolu. Here is her winning performance.

9. Various - J.J. "Golden Dragon" McParland

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Photo from The Huddersfield Daily Examiner[/caption]

What list of fantastic female martial artists would be complete without Jesse-Jane McParland? You've probably heard of her. Her audition at Britain's Got Talent went rather viral. She is a young woman who has won many championships. She is also an actress. Jesse practices a wide variety of martial arts and is said to have studied karate, taekwondo, and kung-fu. Here's a more recent one than her audition. It comes in weapon-less and sword varieties. Below is the sword version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlaTGrCwid8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Mhh0GptkA

But Jesse isn't just flashy. Here she is performing kumite (sparring).

 

I would've liked to choose some less well known arts, such as Capoeira, but I could not find a female mestre of any level. Systema is another art I had difficulty finding out about. Women practice it, but it doesn't seem to have a ranking system and the fighters don't seem to be well-documented. If you are a woman in these arts, start documenting who the people are that you can look up to and keep practicing. There are many other arts such as judo, hapkido, BJJ, etc. that I couldn't fit in the list of nine. It would be really something to know who are the key practitioners in some of the more rare arts too.

R~
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...
Read more

Fortifying Friday - Rejection

Yesterday, I received my first rejection from an agent. It stung. It wasn't that it was bad. It was worded in a way that it may have even been personally written. Regardless, rejection never feels good unless you were secretly hoping to stay home and do nothing when a friend made plans with you. Then it feels great! I might be an introvert ;) Anyway, it hurts a bit extra when you have other things going on. Between the worries of the state of the world and being unemployed, it felt much like being kicked while I was already down. The agent said she couldn't connect with my book though she really wanted to. She also said not to take her rejection as any kind of sign that I should give up. It was nice as far as rejections go. So, I lay there for a bit. Then I let my friends know via social media. Several said that I had hit a milestone and I should try to collect as many as possible this year. Rejections, they said, were a badge of honour awarded for putting myself out there. See...
Read more

Thoughtful Thursday - Dental Access

I haven't made use of it yet as I discovered it only this week, but there are free dental screenings in Ottawa for people who have a low income. I'm not sure what happens at these things, but I imagine they're rather like the once or twice yearly visits we had in grade school from the health unit where they checked our teeth. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that in case anyone is in need. There is a schedule with the locations listed and I'm guessing it's hard to get there early enough to get seen, but I'll check it out soon. I've been using dental products that are supposed to repair and whiten. I'm unsure they are working, but I figured they were worth a try. Also, I hear if you add activated charcoal to your toothbrush before the toothpaste, it helps whiten too. It makes a hell of a mess, but I tried it. I think it might take a while to whiten, but my teeth are definitely cleaner, so I think it really does help with plaque. Activated charcoal is als...
Read more