Willravel

Maybe you have the wrong idea. The teacher/sempi/whatever says to the 4 guys something to the effect of, "What I want you four to do is take down this woman in as litle moves as possible. Use whatever force is necessary." The four men, who were each between camo belt and maybe green belt got up to attack my wife. After the first one was taken down they each got more serious, but they each fell. This was teaching them the same lesson that some people in here might be having trouble with: with the right training, either gender can pose a serious physical threat. She can spar with me (I am a 5th degree in tae kwon do, as well as being moderatly trained in 4 other martial arts, and I'm learning Muay Thai) and sometimes beats the crap out of me. She is what I would call an expert fighter. I would say that she could easily handle an attack from 99.9% of people on the street. The operative word is "could". My wife and I are pacifists, so we wouldn't fight. The ability is there, though.

"But why are you taking martial arts if you're a pacifist?! That doesn't make any sense!!"

To clear this up before someone asks, in order to truely appreciate peace, you have to understand a lack of peace. If someone is a pacifist from birth, they will never have the same appreciation and understanding of peace as someone who understands both violence and peace. It's based in the teachings of the Tao-te-ching from Taoism.