I trained shotokan for a bit having come from a gridiron/rugby background, and there were some exercises (like ring-out shoving exercises) where I was a laughable mismatch with anybody else in the room. One of the trainers was a woman that I had 35cm and 50kg on, if she tried to square up, it would have been hopeless.

But strength isn’t all of it. There was another three-step positional sparring exercise, and that one trainer tied me into knots every time. I wouldn’t have been able to touch her in a real fight, and she would have popped my kidney like a balloon every time.

I’m mostly pissed off about stuff like amateur rugby and field hockey not letting trans women compete. In sports like that, at the pro level, the top team would be all men no question.

But for a bunch of random people in their 20s playing amateur rugby? Piff, the safety/dominance issue is really overblown.