Buck

I saw a national TV report on this. I gotta tell ya. It really disturbed me to see those kids fighting in a cage beating on each other. Seeing one 5-6 year old kid do a firemen's carriage and throw the other kid head first to the ground was not pleasant to see. All I thought was broken neck.

The Reporter came on after that and said there are rules to protect kids. Oh my gosh, they missed that one. The rules are by adults and supervised by adults, and poor supervision, poor rules, equals injury for kids. Poor adult supervision and lack of adult concern for the welfare of kids over the sport isn't only in MMA, it's across the board. And I think do we really need more of this?

The Reporter after that said it isn't as bad a football, or wrestling. Then they cut to the older kids fighting, oh I guess the age was about 9 -12 years old where one was on top of another really beating away on the kid on the bottom. Reminded me of a school yard fight when I seen as a kid. It is where the bully is enjoying beating up on the weaker kid, throwing a flurry of punches. I can't help to think what MMA for kids does to them psychologically.

Traditional contact sports are so hard on kids mentally and physically because of the parents, and because of the sports they are designed for adults. We see parents lose it and do horrible things because they are too wound up over their kids and kid sports all of the time.

Kids taking martial arts may not have such screwed up parents, but they do suffer serious injury, and even death from sparring. I don't like sparring or randori for young kids. Kata is all they should be doing untill 18 years olds. I haven't heard a good reason to have kids spar so young.

There is no proof starting young will make you a champion. Sumo has kids starting all the time and not all kids become Champions, and not all Champions started when they were kids.

If a parent feels the need to make their kid a MMA champion, they can have them wrestle (better sport on joints), learn karate (kata), learn judo (at least teaching falling). When an adult, they can incorporate jujutsu skills. Of what I have seen of MMA fighters many learn jujitsu skills within 6 mos of training every day to be effective. The other thing I see is in the UFC they match ground fighters with ground fighters, and stand up fighters with stand up fighters often. Parents grooming and training their kids to fight, the parent has a choice for their kid to be a ground fighter or a stand up fighter. The really don't have to start with MMA training first.

I am not against MMA. MMA is for adults ya know. As it stands now most states don't permit kids fighting in tournaments. Maybe it isn't really something kids should do, or really need to do. More discussion is needed.