BBC Looking for Vegan / Vegetarian Martial Artists

[BBC SCIENCE]

BBC Science are conducting a groundbreaking study looking at how not eating and eating meat affects competitive performance.

We are looking for vegan / vegetarian FEMALE martial artists of all standards to be involved.

If you would like to find out more please email or call Liz Collier at BBC Science
liz.collier@bbc.co.uk / 020 8752 6434

[JP]

hi,

interesting project!

may i ask why martial artists? It is a very skills based field where dietary choises play probably very little role...

There are numerous top level vegan male martial artists - and fair few female martial artists as well on the board though perhaps not as accomplished comptetetively.

can i also ask why only females?

[BBC SCIENCE]

Thanks for the reply.

As we will looking at both physical and psychological aspects of competitive performance we thought martial arts would be a particuarly good sporting discipline to base the study on and as with any scientific study we need to be to decide a workable criteria for selection and with this in mind we have decided work with females. Fear not we will be working with sportsmen in other parts of the programme.

If you have any further questions please feel free to email or call me directly

[PaulMarsh]

When the programme be on?

[BBC SCIENCE]

It will be on BBC2 , Discovery USA and Pro-Sieben in Germany in January 2007.

thanks
Liz

[Green]

Strange, to me martial arts are the non-competitive ones. You must be looking for practitioners of martial sports, or gendai budo - modernized and sport-related.

[Fruitbat]

isnt the criteria "martial arts" very vast? i only wish i could help but i know NOTHING about martial arts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now if you said CV training or weight training, dancing, gymnastics, skiing, skating, trampolining ... these are all things i have done or could have a go at!! LOL will be v interested to see the program - of course it depends very much on whether the participants follow healthy meat or meat-free diets... i mean comparing a healthy vegan eater to an unhealthy omni eater or a healthy meat-eater to an unhealthy vegan will be very bad publicity and a very very poor comparison....

[danethevegan]

I have faith that they'll do a fair job. It wouldn't make sense, and it'd be poor journalism, for the BBC to run an anti-vegan smear campaign. Plus, I get the impression that they're looking to highlight performance athletes, which connotes a healthy diet.

That said, while Martial Arts covers a lot of territory in terms of the spectrum of the styles, I think it's relatively straight forward in the types of athletic endeavors the term entails. To be clear, it is those sports, styles and forms relating to combat (hence the word martial). While Tai Chi wouldn't seem to be a martial art per se, there is "combat Tai Chi" and the forms are based on combat-related stances.

[infenix]

T'ai chi might not seem to be a MA but it is .

I don't know any veggie/vegan girls doing MA, though I can think of a number doing Yoga.

Rgds,
David