A NY Times advertisement led me to the Responsibility Project (which looks like an advertising campaign from Liberty Mutual…though the site is suprisingly slow) where they discussed MMA and kids–two subjects which interest me. I’ve blogged about kids and MMA before, although my previous blog post was about kids at the high school level, not little kids. The RP blog post led me to this site, where they host the video above.
I found this article highly disturbing. Little kids don’t have adequate self-control to use dangerous techniques responsibly. In judo, we don’t teach armbars or chokes until a person is at least 12 or 13. It’s incredibly irresponsible to teach them these moves earlier than that. Kids are kids. You can’t expect them to exercise that much judgment.
I think that there’s a problem teaching small kids chokeholds and armlocks. From the commentary, it looks like even Dana White, the guy who brought MMA to the forefront, is uneasy about the laxity that people are displaying with MMA and jujitsu. People need to exercise more common sense. If they don’t, I think the government needs to step in and regulate the hell out of them.
Edit: If the Boston Globe site is down, you can also get the article on the author’s webpage.
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
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That was disturbing to watch. MMA in this particular form perverts the art and spirit of martial arts. It’s one thing to have your 7-year-old kid learn Shaolin. It’s another to have that kid learn *this.* Ugh. Disturbing.
Akrypti,
This story was bothering me all day. Seriously, it’s so irresponsible for these clowns to be teaching kids how to choke and armbar other kids. I know for a fact that they don’t do it in judo, and I’m pretty sure they don’t do it in Brazilian Jujitsu either. It’s totally against the spirit of martial arts.
John McCain was pretty tough on MMA when the UFC first emerged. Part of me wants to write John McCain to ask him to close these people down, while the other part of me is thinking that no amount of legislation will cure people of stupidity. Sigh.
The little kid in that picture above has a funny “Help, Mommy. I’m being crushed!” look on his face.
How long before we see Pay Per View channels promoting events like “8-year olds in the Octagon!”
Larry,
I might write to Sen. McCain anyway. He might not be able to legislate against stupidity, but it won’t hurt to make sure people are aware of it.
I just finally got around to watching the whole thing – and reading the article. It’s disturbing mostly because the parents are so rabidly encouraging – and, for most part, don’t seem to be truly aware of the philiosophies behind martial arts. The instructors do seem to be aware of dangers but reading about parents who are teaching their kids to do a chokehold on them is quite alarming. This isn’t “self-defense” for their kids. The kid at the end who says something about being into violent sports… yeah, totally NOT what martial arts are about.
I agree, this has nothing at all to do with the spirit of martial arts.
What may work is if one of these champions were to say something about it. It may take a while, but some of these professional guys could be decent role models in the future, and they could say something about the proper way to train/learn/teach the martial arts.
Here’s something I wrote on a friend’s Facebook “wall” with regards to this same issue–and I must say that some of my thoughts come from another friend and aren’t originally all mine:
“There are basically two reasons for my objection to these teachings: physical and emotional.
On the physical level, kids are growing. As your dad might say, they don’t have the same physiology as adults. Their bones and joints are soft and pliable. You never know what kind of damage that training might cause for them. It could easily affect them later in life, and it most likely will in the case that you mentioned.
On the emotional level, kids just don’t understand the same concepts that adults do. They don’t understand death, they don’t understand paralysis, and they don’t yet have their own system of morals and ethics. As with their physiology, their emotional state is pliable.
Teenagers are a bit more similar to adults in that they have some experience with life and can make some decisions, but with little kids, we need to do more to protect them from ideas and actions that are harmful to their emotional and physical well being.”
Edited to add: My Facebook friend’s dad is a world famous martial arts instructor who doesn’t teach kids, not even at the junior high level.
Fanatic parents are a disease in America. For the most part, it isn’t just MMA. It’s anything the parent wants their child to do. Certainly this is a true minority representation of the American parental psyche, but a vocal one, and one that gets a lot of media attention because the media is a dirty word that I shall not use.
I see this as just another example of how parents are trying to thrust their children into the limelight, and also trying to make their children some fantasy life the parent wished they had.
I remember just a year or so ago when this one father had his 7 year old daughter fly a plane. He wanted her to break some kind of age record for flying. She crashed. Both she and the copilot died.
I agree with you, papa, these parents have problems. They make no sense. These parents need to learn how to let kids be kids. Let kids deal with kids issues; let adults deal with adult issues.