Coaches always look quizzically when they see me approach my boys. The polite ones catch themselves, but inevitably ask, “Where do they get their height?” My boys are both over 6′ and have at least 8″ on me when they stand up straight. At 15, Kyrian is still filling out, but is whip-strong lean from competitive dancing and Adin continues a weight-training regime that increases his 19 years of muscle mass and pushes his bench strength to double my body weight. As the banner photo shows, they tower over me: and I am grateful.
The height-bias is especially pronounced among men, so I am glad my boys are both above average stature.[1] I am a realist and appreciate the reasons why height is universally prized: it remains a good proxy for physical prowess and the ability to provide.
(A fun dead-white-male aside: read John Adam’s letter to Benjamin Rush where he glibly enumerates reasons for George Washington’s prominence, “A tall stature, like the Hebrew sovereign chosen because he was taller by the head than the other Jews.”)
I will sometimes use my boys as training partners when I am working out the specifics of a technique or trying a variation. It is a sobering experience, for despite their knowledge deficit, often my application fails; decades of training dashed against the irrefutable reality of strength and size.
There were early indications. Both Scott Schanaker and Bob Topping were easily able to escape pins and “immobilizations” were effective only if they were unwilling to ignore the pain. I vividly remember both Yoko and I simultaneously trying to pin Scott with ikkyo, only to have him free his arm with relative ease, and Bob Topping grabbing me ushiro ryotedori only to have him simply lift me off the ground.
As much as I wish it were otherwise, traditional martial arts place (market) an exaggerated faith in empty-handed technique. Combat red in tooth and claw is most often determined by size and strength. Weight classes and gender divisions exist to address the reality of the advantage those characteristics provide.[2]
Of course there are outliers – statistical and historical anomalies who defy the odds – but size is determinative in combat.
Except when weapons are involved.
“God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal,” is an easy quip but it speaks hard truth. As I covered in Size Equals Disparity of Force, the reason David prevails against Goliath is because David used a projectile weapon.
_________________________
[1] The bias against short men is so pronounced that some will endure an expensive and painful leg lengthening surgery to compensate.
[2] John McEnroe was unapologetic in his assertion that Serena Williams would have a hard time breaking the top 1,000 best male tennis player despite her dominance among women players. Of course he was lambasted and the pundits all claim that to “qualify her greatness” as merely the “best female” is misogyny. That is Orwellian double-plus good language which places gender politics above facts (facts that Serena acknowledged on David Letterman years earlier in 2003).
Protective Arts 