Right up on the yahoo.com front page today was an article about kids learning MMA. It of course had the inflammatory title Ultimate fights expand to include kids - Yahoo! News. After the moms of the world finished hyperventilating, I hope they actually read the article. The language seemed a little biased as the reporter wrote (bold for my emphasis):
The bare-knuckle fights are now attracting competitors as young as 6 whose parents treat the sport as casually as wrestling, Little League or soccer.
and
Two members of the group called the “Garage Boys Fight Crew” touched their thin martial-arts gloves in a flash of sportsmanship before beginning a relentless exchange of sucker punches, body blows and swift kicks.
This seems a little ridiculous. The following paragraphs include actual descriptions that are a little less hysterical as they are based on actual observations, such as:
No blood was shed. And both competitors wore protective gear.
and
Lindsey said the children wear protective headgear, shin guards, groin protection and martial-arts gloves. They fight quick, two-minute bouts. Rules also prohibit any elbow blows and blows to the head when an opponent is on the ground.“If they get in trouble or get bad grades, I’ll hear about it and they can’t come to training,” he added.
Madness. Yet they’d let these same kids skateboard, wrestle, box, and sit in front of the TV eating donuts wrapped in bacon.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Jason sexton // Mar 29, 2008 at 10:00 am
Ihad to back off this one for a minute.the shock value hit me as a parent.I suppose that this is’nt any more dangerouse than junior rodeo,but I would not involve my 8 year old in it.I’m not sure that at such an early age these kids can balance that much aggression with the need for personal control in day to day life.is it possible some of these parents are living vicariously thru their kids?what happend to baseball?I may be way off here,and I don’t want to be too judgemental,but these kids have the rest of their lives to learn about fighting.let them be kids.
2 matt // Mar 29, 2008 at 11:20 am
I don’t blame you for being shocked - the article itself seemed to be written for that effect, and I don’t think my treatment of it necessarily diminished that. What I felt needed to be pointed out was that the article was warning of monsters that didn’t exist - organized bare knuckle prizefighting by kids.
As a parent, I wouldn’t be signing up my 6 year old for MMA class, but part of that is because she isn’t interested in it. She’s been bugging me for ages to learn ‘karate’, and after seeing some options has decided that she’s going to be ‘home schooled’ in it. I’ve been putting her off, as I didn’t want to turn her into my vicarious ‘I wish I started at age 6 so I’d be that much more advanced’ subject.
I just found the reaction to be a bit ridiculous considering people find it perfectly normal to sign kids up for boxing, wrestling, or other martial arts but that combining them seems to be crazy.
I don’t think 6-year olds should be competing in this regard, but then again, I don’t think that any league or sport with 6-year olds in it should have its focus as competition. I’m including pee-wee football, junior rodeo, the works…
Baseball is a perfectly adequate pastime, but it has comparitively little fitness value, and causes deaths and serious injuries every year through head injury, commotio cordis, and repetitive stress injuries. Mybe Yahoo! is preparing a panicked article on that too. I took a baseball bat to the head when I was young. I bet that explains a lot.
Essentially, what got me about the article was that the actual description was more like a nice well rounded sparring session, but the headline made is seem like some sort of irresponsible thing you’d find if Michael Vick was running a preschool.
Maybe the kids just need to learn to play kick the can again.
3 Jason sexton // Mar 29, 2008 at 5:53 pm
sure,part of my reaction was that parental knee jerk.I would not be so worried about injury(all my kids have particpated in sports,especialy equine related)Iwould worry more about the psycological,and emotianal effect.I guess I want my kids to learn compassion before they learn how to break bones.this is just my view,and maybe some kids are readybefore others.I just believe we should put them first.
4 matt // Mar 30, 2008 at 6:38 am
I think it’s a valid concern, and I’m not a huge fan of little kids training in martial arts, as it’s got huge pitfalls like you are bringing up. With that said, I think your concerns would apply to all martial training for kids. This is why my friend Nancy’s school (capekempo.com) trains a specifically limited set of techniques removing bone breaks and eye gouges and has such a large ’social learning’ component that is so different from an adult program.
I also think that if the competition portion of the program is given proper perspective, the emotional component is less at risk. You are absolutely right about putting the kids first - this is not (nor is any competitive sport) the place for parents to live out their ultimate fighter fantasies vicariously.
And I still think kids should learn to play tag, kick the can, stickball and all the other games that we played as kids before video games took over.
5 Jesse // Apr 2, 2008 at 10:11 am
The on going joke that i have with the parents at my school is “So they dont play that anymore either?” this will relate to dodgeball, kickball, and i just found out that they no longer have see-saws because they are just to dangerous. 2 generations ago (our grandparents) learned valuable life skills of speed and the ability to move with good reaction time so they would not get kicked by the horse or something of that nature. The kids now are limited to the games they can play where the consequence could be that of a big red (mushy, soft) ball being thrown at their head. Their options - get out of the way, catch it, throw their ball and knock it out of the air, or, get hit and lose. All of these components are teaching the child something and each of these consequences could happen in karate. For years i could not stand seeing the kids play games in their karate class, but recently i have wanted to play dodgeball just so the kids could have some fun and hit each other with something. Because of these thoughts i now make my kids have more safety gear, head, hand, feet, face shield and chest protector and i let them go at it a lot more. The children now are far less mobile then they were when we were growing up, far less fears because parents eliminate them as much as possible. I know the parents want better things for their kids but i think they are stunting the childrens ability to deal with life lessons for to long of a time. Kids need to learn how to get up when pushed down and how to deal with losing and winning.
Jesse
6 matt // Apr 4, 2008 at 8:48 pm
There is a running undercurrent of nostalgia for things like red rover, dodgeball, and kickball, and often folks will express outrage about schools ‘banning’ these games. What really has happened is that these games have been assessed by groups like NASPE (the National Association for Sport and Physical Education) and included in the Hall of Shame, but not mainly because they might make little Johnny feel bad, but because they have low participation rates, high injury rates, nearly zero fitness benefit, and few transferable skills. They just don’t belong in Physical Education classes. Whether or not a collection of kids choose to play them at recess is relatively immaterial.
I played many of them as a kid, and survived, but I think kids MMA (with a huge fitness component) would serve a kid better than dodgeball any time. However, if that game of dodgeball motivates the kids in your class as a reward at the end, feel free to use it if they are all into it. Just don’t pin too much hope on them getting much fitness or skill benefit.
Eliminating all risk is not the answer, as kids who never experience risk will be little ‘hothouse flowers’.
7 Jesse // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Let me clarify, I always hated when i saw kids caring only about playing the game at the end of class. I remember teaching at a friends dojo every morning the first summer i moved here to make a little extra money. By the end of the first week all the kids asked when they were going to be able to play games.. I looked at them and told them when they can figure out how to do a shoulder roll i would reward them with a game.. We never got to the game. My main point was i could see benefits if used properly. Dont get hit by the big red objuect being thrown at your head. Could help little johnny react better when someone is throwing a kick or punch at them.
Jesse
8 matt // Apr 6, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Jesse, I totally see what you mean, and in a small group with a ball for each kid, things can be exciting, active and fun. There will be some transfer in dodging skill, but of course, it won’t transfer as well as good old fashioned sparring. Like those MMA kids were doing.
See the latest news on it - in our neck of the woods.
9 dalton // Jun 18, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I my self am intested in mma. I fell that if the parents want to let there kids learn mma that is up to them. I fell that every one including the gover ment should not be aloud to tell parents how to raise there kids.
10 ruth // Mar 14, 2009 at 2:19 pm
just wondering thought is mma more aggressive than kempo or something? what is the difference between a kid learning mma and kempo?
11 Local High School MMA Club // May 18, 2009 at 10:38 pm
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