Physiology
You may be familiar with alleged differences between the male and female skeletal structures, finger length, centre of gravity, and so on. My understanding is that a lot of that is exaggerated in terms of significance, but I have little knowledge of anatomy beyond the basics, so I'm going to reserve judgement of such claims.
I know tall and short, fat and slim, male and female fighters, with a mix of all of these characteristics. Duke Drachenwald is not much taller than I am, and I am 164 cm/5'4. As we all know, good technique is superior to physical strength.
There are four features in terms of female physiology that make a difference in terms of training:
1. Females generally have a larger chest circumference in relation to the rest of the body than males, and the tissue is distributed in such a way, that unless the breasts are flattened through binding, the woman may have difficulty with certain movements involving bringing the arm across the upper body. Some women may have difficulty fighting with their head held up and their chest out, rather than curling their head and shoulders over their chest, because they have been told they shouldn't be having "their tits out".
2. Females have wider hips than men. In the fighting system I use/am learning and developing, this makes little difference in terms of power generation. However, both the presence of more mass here, as well as the wider chest, may affect the woman's spatial perception regarding their position in an engagement. The shape of the female hip also means that the length of the female upper torso from the nape of the neck to the navel is considerably shorter than that male equivalent length. These kind of features have much more relevance in terms of armour construction (I will come back to this at a later stage) but they may have a relevance to the particular style you teach.
3. As a rule, women have smaller hands than men. Again, an immediate relevance is armour, of which more later. However, another immediate significance is the grip of the sword and of the shield. If a woman is not quite able to close her fingers around a sword hilt, her sword mobility will be affected and she will be clumsier than a man with larger hands grasping the same sword - through no fault of her own but because of her physiology. Similarly, if she has difficulty grasping a shield, some of the energy she should be using to control the fight will be re-directed to managing the equipment.
4. Most women between the ages of 13 and 50 have monthly periods. An egg is released from the woman's ovaries around halfway through the menstrual cycle, which is called the ovulation. Her uterus will have been developing a thick lining, in case the egg gets successfully fertilised and needs to attach itself to the lining. If a fertilisation doesn't happen, this uterine lining is released from the body as menstrual blood (and yes, it can be lumpy). Women experience their periods and the lead-up to their periods in different ways. Some women barely notice it. Others suffer a great deal of pain. Symptoms include: low/aggressive mood, headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, sometimes a feeling of weakness. Most women have their heaviest flow in the first two days of their cycle, during which they may feel the worst.
Women athletes have only started to talk about their periods in the last year or so. Here is another link. And Here is a link to a recent study in Sweden concerning female athletic performance and the menstrual cycle. Some women can perform better in particular points of their cycle. Others can feel ill and are able to perform less well. It is possible that an important tourney co-incides with a bad day of the cycle. Or it may be that your female student is suddenly performing far less well in practice than she normally would.
Ideally, try to create your practice into a space where your female student can say, "Dude, I got my period, I feel shit," without anyone feeling embarrassed. They may choose not to. You may choose to not bring it up. That's fine. But if they feel they can, you're winning. How can you achieve this? Do not joke about annoying people being on the rag. Never challenge female fighters accusing them of being on their period. Talk about the experiences your female fighter friends have had, or other sporty female friends, in a neutral, informative way. If you want, you can put together a care bag for the practice, which includes pain killers, plasters, stomach medicine, tissues, nose spray - and pads and tampons, so that they are present there with the rest of the equipment as perfectly normal items. They will also thank you for the pain killers.
Conduct
Yes, yes, not all men, and yes, you are not one of those men. But the number of those men is so great in the world that literally every single women has grown up in an environment, where they consider it normal to have to moderate their behaviour and movements under a constant threat of predators. Even the strongest, the most confident take-no-shit women are subject to this. If you truly want to make your practice and other fighting environments comfortable for women, so that they can feel themselves safe no matter what, you need to respect this. Some women may have had bad experiences with men and they may be particularly sensitive to male behaviour, presence and ways of speaking. If you follow the below advice, you are not doing so because you are personally suspect or because you're kowtowing to the PC-brigade: you are, in fact, demonstrating to the female fighter that you embody the virtues for which we strive: chivalry, courtesy, and respect - and you are in every way a sound chap.
1. When inspecting the armour for safety, inform the fighter what you are doing at all times, and ask them for permission before you touch them. "I am going to put my hand on your back to check for kidney protection, is that ok?" and RESPECT the answer. Get into the habit of asking even when you're inspecting your friends, who you know will not mind, in order to avoid forgetting the ask when you inspect someone you don't know.
2. If you have legged your female opponent and are fighting them from upright position, please don't shove your crotch in their face. That would be poor behaviour at the best of times, but it is particularly pronounced in a situation where a relatively new female fighter has to smell her opponent's box in a situation that mimics an intimate contact. And in any case if you know what you're doing you don't need to do that.
3. Do not make any comments about her body or her looks, no matter how positive. That is not relevant to the situation in which you are training together.
4. NEVER, EVER employ any kind of innuendo until you are 120% certain that the female fighter in the situation will not mind it. Yes, there are women who enjoy dirty jokes. But you need to identify them first.
5. As with #1, in case of drills and demonstrations, always ask the other person first, if you need to touch them. You can get a blanket permission in the beginning of the class, if it makes things easier, as long as you remind the attendees that they can refuse at any point. If you need to figure out another way to demonstrate your point, well - you are the trainer, that is your job, to think of a way to teach your student in a way that makes sense to them (and that includes keeping them comfortable).
6. If anyone else in the practice makes any of the mistakes listed above, you need to step in without hesitation and say, "Dude, that is not cool." If you as the trainer, the authority, don't call out bad behaviour straight away, you have effectively given it your blessing.
The above, of course, don't just apply to women - they are pretty decent guidelines for interaction with any gender.
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