Inclusive Martial Instruction - part 1

(Updated from a July 2020 lecture)

Illustration of a woman fencing - from a Dutch fencing manual by fencing master and artist Pieter Bailly, sometime before 1608

The following series is built off of a class/lecture I was asked to give on things to consider when you want to enable an inclusive martial training environment.

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Introduction

There is an issue that many, if not all, martial arts schools and practices face. Many don’t register the issue. Some ignore it. Others seem to treat it as a feature, not a bug. I think, though, that many people who run martial schools and practices just don’t know how to approach the problem, or what to do to improve it.

The issue I’m referring to is how to attract and keep students who are underrepresented in the discipline, in their region, or just across the board - everywhere. Essentially, how to bring in a range of good people and fix the leaky pipeline so those people stay involved and advance. Really, implementing these strategies and tips I will discuss can work to attract and retain all types of students. Which is exactly the point.

I do not hold myself out to be an expert on inclusivity.  When I wrote this lecture/class and gave it over video, I was focused specifically on attracting and including more women - that was the brief I was challenged with. I expect that a lot of what I will discuss here will be applicable to other underrepresented groups, but by all means, those of you who have dug in to this for the LGBTQ+, the BIPOC, or the neurodivergent communities, if I write something that gives you pause, note it in the comments and let’s discuss it.

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Some resources

So this was the most difficult class to sketch out that I think I’ve ever done.  There are SO MANY things to address and discuss, as I’m sure most of you are all too aware.  Thankfully, I’ll point you to K. Sadowski’s book (Fear is the Mind Killer) and to great write ups by Gia Hoover (Wolfpack or Tigers: Use personality typing to be a more effective student and/or teacher) and Rachel Faye (Half the Heroes: The Impact of Sex & Gender on SCAdian Martial Arts) that gets at a lot of complementary points. 

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The six broad topics

A good friend, Monica, who is herself a champion fencer and who has been working for years to boost both the recruitment and retention of women in historical fencing, asked me to give my views on the subject over an online lecture during the COVID-19 pandemic years. Here’s how I decided to approach it: I asked several of my students what I do in their experience that seems to help women advance and feel included in martial training and not run them off.  Their thoughts and comments fell into 6 broad topics that I compiled and will discuss here.  I will start most topics with their words, and I’ll then expand on what I do that they’re talking about.

The six broad topics that came up in our conversations:

1. You need to choose a time, place, and atmosphere when and where the people you want to attract can attend.

2. Teach structured classes, with a progression of skills.

3. Once you’ve built a relationship of trust through structured classes, individual instruction should address individual physical and mental stepping stones, and should be based on patience and respect.

4. Promote the physicality of fencing and help students with the mechanics, strength, cross-training, etc.

5. Be open to learning from your students and presenting skills in new ways that bring them to understanding.  Be open to guiding them to other instructors to hear new ways of describing things.   

6. Give your students opportunities to succeed and advance, and reward them when they do.  Lose the ego, and avoid “tough love” methods of teaching.

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1) Time, place, and atmosphere

Practicing a new thing, especially something that requires physicality and trying something new in front of others, such as a martial art, is already an uncomfortable endeavor for most of us in the best of times. It is especially so for those who didn’t spend a lot of time growing up playing competitive sports, or training in dance, and for those with types of anxiety and/or depression. By its nature, learning new things takes most people out of their comfort zones. Doing so in front of others just turns that up to 11.

Creating an accepting and positive space for people to practice is, therefore, necessary if you want to attract and keep a wide swath of people. At the very least you need to ensure that the practice space is accessible and not, by its nature or by the actions of others, threatening or uncomfortable.

Place - the physical location

You need to choose a good place where the people you want to attract can attend.

Obvious right?  But like fencing itself, when you dig into it there’s a lot of nuance that we fail to address.

We need a physical place to train, clearly, and I find getting a good venue one of the hardest things about holding a regular practice or planning an event. Some options I’ve considered and used are local parks, church auditoriums, local gyms, and schools.

Every venue, though, has pros and cons. If you hold a practice on the fourth floor of a gymnasium that only has stairs for access (I’ve been to a practice like this once in Germany), can you expect differently-abled individuals to want to attempt that first beginner class?

How about if you hold the practice in a local Crossfit gym that has Confederate battle flags or Nazi terminology or symbols hanging against the back wall?  Is that going to be a welcoming environment for any potential BIPOC students, or for jewish students?

Is the basement of a church known for bigotry the best place to invite diverse groups?

Or a martial arts or boxing club with calendars and beer ads featuring naked women. How many women would feel comfortable and safe there?

When you’re in charge of finding the venue, talk through with those people you want to attract what a welcoming environment would look like, if you’re unsure, and endeavor to present one.

Atmosphere - code of conduct and personal behavior

What if the closest practice is held in the backyard of that guy - you know, the guy who stands too close to all the women and sometimes calls them when drunk and says inappropriate things?  Is that a welcoming environment?  A safe one?  How many women are going to just nope right out of that?  

Making a safe and welcoming place for all might also mean asking some to think about and modify their behaviors, or just outright leave. What is being said and how it is said at a practice is a Big Thing that drives people out. Especially for non-men and LGBTQ+ people. Without a sense of belonging, most people are unlikely to stay.

Comments that are racist, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. need to be policed rigorously, and if you’re the instructor, it’s your job to do so.

Also, read up on micro-messaging,¹ micro behaviors, and micro aggressions.² Understand how they are used, learn to recognize them, and learn ways to mitigate them - both coming from yourself and from others.

Finally, if you’re an instructor, note always the power dynamics you are creating and involved in. It’s just never, in my opinion, a good idea to start hitting on or dating a student in your school or someone you’re training. The power dynamics at play are complex, at best, and can lead to some very bad things for those involved, even tangentially. Be very careful that you aren’t viewing students who come to you to learn a skill as a dating pool.

It is of course considered very unethical for professional teachers to establish romantic or sexual relationships with their students. But this is equally true for any situation in which someone with experience sets out to mentor or instruct someone else. The potential toxicity that flows from that has destroyed many schools and personal relationships, and run many excellent students away from an art they used to love. Plenty of studies have been published on the subject of these very types of teacher-student and other power dynamics in relationships. If you have questions, it’s worth digging some up and reading.

Time - both scheduling and enabling the time

So time!  Time’s easy, right?  Make sure you don’t have practice when everyone is at work!  Done.

Well, what if you are running an SCA rapier practice and want to attract HEMA or armored fighters?  But you hold your rapier practice at the same time and day as the closest HEMA practice, or the same evening the armoring guild meets?  Would you expect to see a lot of them?

Similarly you want to encourage all your friends to pick up the sword and learn, but you hold the practice at the same time as the local Arts and Sciences night, or during the sewing guild meetings. Who do you think that’ll impact the most?

To attract the broadest audience possible, you will need to schedule your practice to compete with the fewest other events. But specifically, if you want to make swordplay more accessible, don’t make a target group have to choose between their interests.

Women are rewarded by society, and their friends, more for their pursuits in the arts and for service than for martial arts or sports.  Most women also are already pre-loaded with skills and knowledge in those areas, but not necessarily for competitive sports. They will be rewarded much faster and see a path to improvement much easier in the more familiar endeavors. If you’re making them choose between fighting and their other interests, you’re making them socially disadvantage themselves in order to learn to fence.  Do. Not. Do. This.

Family dynamics

OK, changing the aperture a bit, if a fencing heterosexual couple has a young child, which of the two is most likely to have to put their fencing aside for a while?  

Or maybe a single parent wants to learn to fence. Can you, the one arranging practice, help set up a childcare option for your practice time?  Maybe one fencer’s husband can watch two or three attendee’s kids that evening? 

Also for you significant others who are reading this, if your S.O. wants to learn a martial art, and you want to encourage and help them, you need to be willing to provide the time and space for them to focus solely on that with no distractions.  This may require you sacrifice something you want to otherwise do.

That may mean giving them the ability to go to a practice and focus while there, and also giving them dedicated time each week to drill at home.  I know people who are very encouraging and excited for their S.O. to fence, but when it comes down to it they don’t think to set any of their own time aside to enable it.³

Studies have shown that the point at which men in a relationship, specifically, THINK time and household duties are allocated equally is still WELL short of the point they actually are.⁴  

Effectively, if you, men, are starting to feel like you’re giving up an unfair amount of your own time and pursuits for your S.O., it’s probably getting close to being fair.  Bear that in mind when you’re balancing your time and interests with your partner.

So to maybe rephrase this issue in one sentence:  To be inclusive, your training needs to happen in a welcoming non-threatening place that is accessible to those who want to join in, at a time when your target audience can and will attend, and in a time and place they aren’t distracted or made to choose between their interests.

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To be continued…

In Part 2 of our discussion we look at the benefits of teaching structured classes, with a progression of skills, and I present a framework and some ideas on how to do it.

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Next up: 

• Breaking down Capoferro’s plate 16 (Paid subscribers)

• Inclusive Martial Instruction - part 2 (All subscribers)

1. Micro-messages: Small, subtle messages, sometimes subconscious, that are communicated between people without saying a word. MIT researchers found that people send between 2,000 and 4,000 positive and negative micro-messages each day. These messages include looks, gestures, and tone of voice. (https://www.nycbar.org/images/stories/pdfs/Micro-inequities%20Notes%20Article06_2005.pdf)

2. Microaggressions: One type of micromessage is a microaggression. Microaggressions can be understood as a micromessage that creates a culture of exclusion, disrespect and feelings of unwelcome or a lack of belonging. To better understand microaggressions, watch the video below. (https://learn.library.wisc.edu/reflecting-on-social-justice-foundational-concepts/lesson-4/)

3. An interesting article here on how an unfair division of labor in the relationship damages the relationship: (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_an_unfair_division_of_labor_hurts_your_relationship)

4. Koster, Tara, Anne-Rigt Poortman, Tanja van der Lippe, and Pauline Kleingeld. 2021. “Fairness Perceptions of the Division of Household Labor: Housework and Childcare.” Journal of Family Issues 43 (3): 0192513X2199389. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x21993899.