Anyone see the OTL first report on kids in mma that was just on ESPN?

Question

this to me is no big deal. I am a MMA fan, i can see where people are concerned when the kids are like 5 or so and can agree that they should wait till they are older, but how is putting a kid into MMA diffrent from putting a kid into Karate or another type of martial arts? there is no diffrence, they are both martial arts just mma doesnt focus on one style. saying mma only teaches how to fight and hurt other people is just crazy it is still martial arts and discipline is taught. My friend is doing mma, he started at the camp about a year ago and they arent going to have him fight until they think he is ready so the guy saying that younger mma fighters arent trained well enough is stupid. the guy doing the arguing on OTL for the "against" side had no idea what he was talking about, he was saying that ju jitsu and tia kwon do are ok for kids to go into but not mma? its the same thing just not one style against the same style its whatever style you know against the others. but before i get to off track, what do you think about kids in MMA

Answer 1

@THE

That's very ignorant of you to think that way, You're basically saying MMA is better than traditional Martial Art which FYI is not true. Many Dojo have excellent, effective training.

Answer 2

C'mon guy...

There is a huge difference between judo, ju jitsu, tae kwan do, etc and MMA. MMA in its current form is a combative martial art, its practical use is fighting / competing. Children do not have a clear grasp or respect for the discipline that go with martial arts early on.

Also the techniques used are tremendously different. To say that MMA is a combination of several martial arts is a true statement, but to believe it is that simple shows complete ignorance. Not to mention the huge emphasis on striking, specifically to the head.

As a last comment, martial arts are usually scored/won with points which is a clean blow to the body. Scoring a point stops the match and both fighters reset before the next round (point) begins. MMA is won by submission or tko through which children could sustain serious injury detrimental to thier development.

Answer 3

Just like how kids in a certain age group should't be allowd to play tackle football, the same goes with MMA.  It takes a great deal of maturity and lots and lots of technical practice to train mma effectively and safetly.  Karate and TKD are a different story-all they have to do is wear gi's and they can run around the dojo all day and call that training.  Not the case with MMA though

Answer 4

I believe just like myself, and as I am doing with my son, start with a single discipline something like TKD, or Kung Fu both have very good techniques to teach discipline, patience, and how to care for aggression. Once you have down this and you feel that they are responsible and mature enough for the next step then I believe MMA would be great, But to start out I feel would be a mistake you cant just jump into MMA it needs to be progressive for children.