Although I read the whole series several times I came across one part where we see in the "shielding challenge" between Nynaeve and Talaan (which I believe is the first and only time in the series) that someone with somewhat less strength in the Power can use their skill in the Power to overcome someone who is stronger than them in this way.

Talaan basically subverts Nynaeve attack to shield her by making Nynaeve think she is going to push against it while instead she slips around it and manages to shield Nynaeve without having to go "head to head" with their strength.

Clearly Nynaeve was less skilled than Talaan, at least at this challenge in the OP.

This I find very interesting, because the battle is treated more like a wrestling match in that the right moves can allow you to win, even if you are not as strong as your opponent. I don't recall EVER having seen two channelers in the series fight this way. It's always been who is stronger ie Rand and Asmodean with the CK sending all their strength against eachother or Nynaeve and Moghedien hammering shields against eachother (until Nynaeve cheated and punched her) etc.

If this one case had a firm hold throughout the series then it could be said that perhaps women who on average could never match the strength of most men, but had years more experience of skill could win battles in the OP against men when they were both sending raw weaves against one another (not area affect weaves).

In real life someone who was fast and not too weak could defeat someone who was stronger and slower so this could have changed everything we've seen so far when two channelers 'face off' & the only time I even remember hearing about how much skill mattered was when Lanfear was laughing at Rand's attempts to fight her, citing how her superior skill was more than a match for him no matter how much stronger he might be in the Power.

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts?