Kids and MMA

[zen5887]

Like a few of you I've been doing Martial Arts since I was 9 years old. I started with Taekwon do, then moved on to Kempo, then back to Taekwon do for most of my teenage years. Now I have recently started taking MMA classes (for those uninformed, Youtube it) and its great fun. The fitness is intense, the people I'm working with are great and the skills I'm learning are handy. I look forward to sparing and maybe in the future move onto actual fights in the ring (or cage).

But how young is to young?

In my early Martial Arts 'career' I did mostly kicks and punches to the glove, drill work and Katas. I was taught that fighting isn't cool and how to avoid them non violently. However the nature of MMA is a little different, they train for they can spar and eventually fight. Is this something you want your kids to do? Now there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about MMA, it isn't as brutal as it seems, the fighters are constantly working tactically to get the best position, having said that it still a combat sport.

There are pros and cons for letting and not letting your kids do MMA so I would like to hear what you think.

 

[Jekken6]

Well, it depends. MMA is more for competition than anything else, but other martial arts, such as Askrema (sp?) and RAT are for more practical use.

 

[snide_cake]

I wouldn't push competition onto kids when young but I always thought that getting them into martial arts was a really good move.

It helps them become aware of themselves, confident, respectable and less likely to blow a gasket and allow a situation to escalate into violence.

 

[Whispering Death]

Wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, all these are core elements of a complete mixed martial artist. Mixed Martial Arts is about putting it all together, synthesizing all the arts and flowing between techniques and getting into fighting shape.

If my kid was interested in MMA at a young age I'd have him do wrestling at his school or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or boxing at a local gym.

No one allows kids to fight MMA and even if they did there's no way you'd want 11 year olds fighting MMA. That's just not right.

But wrestling matches? Jiu jitsu tournaments? You can do that stuff all day long.

 

[Altorin]

Wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, all these are core elements of a complete mixed martial artist. Mixed Martial Arts is about putting it all together, synthesizing all the arts and flowing between techniques and getting into fighting shape.

If my kid was interested in MMA at a young age I'd have him do wrestling at his school or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or boxing at a local gym.

No one allows kids to fight MMA and even if they did there's no way you'd want 11 year olds fighting MMA. That's just not right.

But wrestling matches? Jiu jitsu tournaments? You can do that stuff all day long.

yeah, a young kid isn't really capable of doing the first M in MMA.