From ESPN’s outside the lines. Great piece.
http://www.mmapayout.com/2008/07/espn-outside-the-lines-kids-mma/
Positive if it is properly regulated, as in don’t let the kids go crazy and try to kill the other person. Martial arts is all about self discipline, and that should be the focus 110% especially in mma. Kids have been practicing martial arts for years, and I don’t see any problem with them learning the best new styles or martial arts.
It was all bullshit in that interview they would not let someone like shamrock who has been apart of MMA for years voice his opinion.
Martial arts can do a lot for kids. But I can see some real problems with putting kids into MMA competitions. Defensive fighting is not a common part of MMA.
MMA is more about two guys just wailing away on each other till someone is out. You see that in this video, kids just wailing away on each other. That is a terrible lesson to teach kids and a terrible way to teach kids.
I predict in the future we are going to see a lot of young people with MMA injuries who aren’t able to do martial arts.
I also predict that we are going to see some poor kid get ground and pounded to death. Because some kid outside of school is going to get into a fight, get a dominant position and start wailing away. But because there won’t be a refferee to pull him off the kid will just keep wailing away. Because that is what he has been taught to do wail away until the referee pulls him off.
Only recalling from memory…if time permits I’ll dig up the research, but:
Kids definetly need to avoid head injuries until the age of 14. Training, playing, & competing are acceptable…but kids can’t handle concussions or trauma to the head as well as an adult or teen. Head injuries, and other injuries from lack of supervision, must be avoided. This means a use of a different training protocol than most are willing to use or consider (avoiding head contact even with protection). But it is needed…and actually appears to have no bearing on a fighter’s development as he gets older.
Hmmm…I’ll go dig up that research.
Edit: I wrote the above before watching the piece. I want to add the following: It is good for kids to be involved in Martial Arts activities with a COMPETENT INSTRUCTOR. Self-Control, Discipline, Respect for others as well as yourself can be taught. Kids need to be built up, and not beat down…through training, a “sharpening of the sword”. When kids are pitted against others to “Test their Mettle”…Competent Supervision must be inplace. Mismatches must be avoided. Every competition this will happen. The referees need to be experienced…and in-control. Usually though, this is not the case…even in major professional bouts.
Personally, I plan to train my kids, and let my kids be trained by others… Life isn’t a cake walk, and kids don’t need to start out life as if everything is easy and everyone wins. Again though, the head injuries and major joint injuries MUST be avoided.
For what its worth.
Negative.
In my opinion, it is kind of hazardous for a yong child. First, they can get injuried severly and screw their development up. Secondly, at this age, kids are not grown up enough to have a good understanding of situations and make correct choices when it comes to break someone’s face, they can develop bad behavior. If a kid screws his back doing this stuff, it will get worse when he grows up.
I think that a kid of that age should practice martial arts, but a less violent form, with less or no contact.
[quote]Sifu wrote:
Martial arts can do a lot for kids. But I can see some real problems with putting kids into MMA competitions. Defensive fighting is not a common part of MMA.
MMA is more about two guys just wailing away on each other till someone is out. You see that in this video, kids just wailing away on each other. That is a terrible lesson to teach kids and a terrible way to teach kids.
I predict in the future we are going to see a lot of young people with MMA injuries who aren’t able to do martial arts.
I also predict that we are going to see some poor kid get ground and pounded to death. Because some kid outside of school is going to get into a fight, get a dominant position and start wailing away. But because there won’t be a refferee to pull him off the kid will just keep wailing away. Because that is what he has been taught to do wail away until the referee pulls him off. [/quote]
I fully agree.
However looking back i can only wish that i had some form of training during High School… i just dont know how sensible i would have been.
I have taught hundreds of kids martial arts and I have seen that they can be very beneficial in many ways. For kids fighting should not be that important of an aspect, espcially competitive fighting.
Headgear doesn’t do a damn thing to protect your brain. The main thing it does is protect you from getting cut.
It protects the opponent’s fist in my opinion.
I dont think it is any different than martial arts… when closely regulated.
This is absolute nonsense. This issue has been studied extensively. Just do some basic searching and you’ll realize that, as usual, your “TMA logic” leads you to false conclusions.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Sifu wrote: Headgear doesn’t do a damn thing to protect your brain.
This is absolute nonsense. This issue has been studied extensively. Just do some basic searching and you’ll realize that, as usual, your “TMA logic” leads you to false conclusions.[/quote]
Headgear reduces cuts but it does jack shit for brain injuries according to everything I have ever seen for both boxing and rugby headgear. If you have anything different please post it.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Sifu wrote: Headgear doesn’t do a damn thing to protect your brain.
This is absolute nonsense. This issue has been studied extensively. [/quote]
It doesn’t do much. The brain is essentially free floating inside the skull. The way a knockout occurs is the skull is accelerated so fast that the brain can’t move with it, so the skull slams into the brain. Rotational acceleration is the most damaging. This is why when you see a fighter hit clean and his head rotates so fast the sweat flies off his hair he usually goes down.
I have seen quite a few people knocked out with head gear on. The first time I saw Mike Tyson knocked out he had head gear on.
If over several years a person is repeatedly punched, kicked, elbowed and knee’d in the head like you obviously have been, they are going to get brain damaged like you.
[quote]
Just do some basic searching and you’ll realize that, as usual, your “TMA logic” leads you to false conclusions.[/quote]
Again you have to talk shit about TMA. I have a suggestion for you. Instead of trashing TMA to justify your desire to get half naked and roll with other men, why don’t you just come out of the closet and leave me alone.
[quote]Fiction wrote:
Negative.[/quote]
What is it that you disagree with?
Edit:
Nevermind, my bad. You were answering the question on the subject line. Selective reading, lol.
[quote]Sifu wrote:
CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Sifu wrote:
If over several years a person is repeatedly punched, kicked, elbowed and knee’d in the head like you obviously have been, they are going to get brain damaged like you…
[/quote]LOLOLOLOLOL
[quote]
Again you have to talk shit about TMA. I have a suggestion for you. Instead of trashing TMA to justify your desire to get half naked and roll with other men, why don’t you just come out of the closet and leave me alone.[/quote]
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Is this VMA?
i dont think mma for kids is anymore dangerous than pee wee football. they limit punches to below the collar bone and are always under supervision.
the “experts” like the very ugly and naive dan doyle will tell ya that it is child abuse, its despicable, etc etc
but yea, fuck him
[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
i dont think mma for kids is anymore dangerous than pee wee football. they limit punches to below the collar bone and are always under supervision.
the “experts” like the very ugly and naive dan doyle will tell ya that it is child abuse, its despicable, etc etc
but yea, fuck him[/quote]
did you watch the espn special, they were throwing a ton of punches to the head. Slamming kids and the whole nine. Yes kids do this on their own but not nearly as often or with the consistency of training.
[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
i dont think mma for kids is anymore dangerous than pee wee football. they limit punches to below the collar bone and are always under supervision.
the “experts” like the very ugly and naive dan doyle will tell ya that it is child abuse, its despicable, etc etc
but yea, fuck him[/quote]
Did you watch the video that went with that piece? Those kids were hitting to the head. One of the kids was using his face like a catchers mitt. Besides the cumulative trauma caused by hitting to the body takes a toll on internal organs.
Mixed martial arts is not everything it is hyped up to be. MMA is the flavor of the month and it has been quite popular, but there are much better fighting strategies that can be taught to kids. ie In karate we use a technique called “evasion”. Evasion is far superior to the MMA strategy of grin and bear it, of just standing there and letting a trained martial artist wail away on your body.
In professional fighting there is a factor known as “ring age”. Ring age is the accumulated damage from getting beat on in the ring. Putting kids into MMA is a good way for them to collect so much ring age that they will be having problems by the time they are in their twenties.
Mixed Martial arts should be something that is done to take a trained martial artists experience to another level. With kids it just isn’t neccessary to beat on them like that, when they don’t have a fully developed skill set. Striking or grappling arts are something that you can spend several years developing as individual arts before you really need to combine them and then start going all out.
Then there is the issue of needing to keep parents in check which is a huge problem in all martial arts. In MMA I can see that really getting out of hand.