ABSTRACT
This chapter is co-authored by two elite female martial artists who crossed paths on a female physical activity community project. Rebecca founded the Fight 4 Change Charity which uses boxing as an avenue to engage disadvantaged youth and Reisha is a Doctoral researcher interested in the physical activity behavior of young urban females. The chapter focuses on the experiences of females in the fighting domain, but from two perspectives. First, Rebecca discusses her personal experiences of being coached by a male and then becoming a female coach in a male-dominated arena. And, second, Reisha shares a portion of her research which explores the experiences of Muslim female boxers and the complex relationship between gender, religion and fighting sports. This is a chapter to discuss the experiences of women in fighting sports from two intertwining perspectives. In the first section a British woman shares her personal experience of being coached my males in martial arts, and in the second section a British-Caribbean woman shares her experience of conducting cross-sectional research with Muslim female martial artists.
