Transnational Meeting 22-23 September 2023 “Women Doing Karate and Judo are Empowered from Martial ARTS” Oradea, Romania

#WonderMarts: The European project for women’s empowerment through martial arts.

“Martial Arts, Beyond Technique”

Just concluded in #Oradea, Romania, the 4th meeting of “#WonderMarts”, a project of European importance that has seen participants from various countries such as Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey get involved.

The heart of this activity was the promotion of #womenempowerment, through the practice of #martialarts, namely Karate, Judo and Taekwondo.

On Saturday, September 22, the 1st practical meeting of this meeting took place.

The participants, gathered in the belvedere of the beautiful Romanian city, practiced and reproduced techniques of the three martial arts.

After the initial greeting and a short warm-up, we moved on to practicing kihon ippon kumite and different self-defense techniques.

During the meeting in Romania, they were presented by all the teams of all the participating partners / countries, and some applications of martial arts, attacks and counter-attacks, and defense work and self-defense were explained.

The dozens of participants between karategi, judogi and dobok, have responded with enthusiasm, perhaps the peaceful climate and fresh air are complicit, showing a keen interest in each proposed Karate-do technique.

Next was the Judo and Taekwondo class with projection techniques and spinning kicks alongside a demonstration of self-defense techniques.

During the two hours made available for this hands-on session, emphasis is placed on cross-disciplinary collaboration and above all on the socialization of all attendees, not only professionals, but also among technical staff.

On the 23rd of September, through a meeting held at the historic Judo club liberty gym of the Judo world champion, M° #DanielLascau, space was given to analyze the data gathered thanks to the administration of temporary tests related to psychological, behavioral and social changes participants in judo club.

Thanks to a preliminary survey, the basic data of the sample of the people under study were reconstructed.

The women involved were asked, among many questions, whether they had ever been victims of sexual behaviour, whether they had experienced discrimination, physical or verbal aggression.

  A varied but worrying sample emerged, with a percentage ranging between 36 and 42% of positive responses.

Accompanying these experiences, after practicing the proposed martial arts, all project participants found improvements under the psychophysical profile with particular reference to increased self-confidence and personal safety.

Extremely important was the testimony of six Ukrainian refugees, who participated thanks to the Slovenian sports club Judo klub Golovec, who gave the most positive comments, stating that they have benefited, at all levels, from the lessons offered in the project.

Thanks to Wonder M arts martial arts courses have been opened in different European territories and people from different nations have been able to get into the game, comparing themselves, traveling and trying new human and martial experiences, all in a perspective of friendship and cooperative spirit.

Martial arts and especially Karate-do, judo, taekwondo, prove to be a tool for personal, psychological and human development.

With the last stage in #Mardin, Turkey, further data will be analyzed and the final results will be monitored, however, what is already clear to everyone is that the impact of these activities, and in particular the practice of Karate-do, Judo, Taekwondo , had a great positive impact on the lives of everyone involved and without rhetoric or excessive drama, for more than one or someone, it was a first step towards gaining greater and better knowledge of oneself and one’s own potential.