On their Sunday Night news program, Channel Seven aired a segment discussing the issues surrounding children participating in mixed martial arts.
Australia’s most infamous MMA detractor Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield once again derided the sport, stating in the program that any parent who allows this is unfit to take care of their children.
Overall, the segment conveyed the same narrow-minded sentiments said about the sport since its inception. To name a few:
It’s a violent sport
Well, yes. And so are a lot of other sports, as Olympic injury statistics would suggest.
Reporter Denham Hitchcock experienced “a world of pain” while sparring with Mark Hunt. An average-sized, untrained journalist sparring with a world-class professional heavyweight? Naturally it would feel uncomfortable. I’m sure taking a tackle from one of the Fainga’a twins wouldn’t tickle, either.
But Anderson Silva broke his leg!
Sure, Silva broke his leg from his own kick, but citing one freak injury is hardly reflective of the big picture. Accidents happen in sport and in life.
Is the tragedy of Alex McKinnon a sign that rugby league should be banned?
“Our school yards will become battle grounds”
While it’s true that children imitate what they see, this problem isn’t exclusive to MMA fights. There are countless violent and dangerous scenes on television, in the cinema and video games for children to copy. The Classification Board has its hands full.
I’ve spoken about these misconceptions before but they aren’t the issue here. The bigger problem is the idea of kids participating in the sport.
The event shown on the program took place in Harrah’s Casino in California, located on a Native American reservation.
In children’s sport, safety is of the utmost importance. Children’s mixed martial arts is banned in the state of California and the reason it takes place on a Native American reservation is because these areas don’t fall under state legislation. It’s the same reason there are casinos on these tribal territories – to skirt state gambling laws.
The crowd witnessed displays such as overmatched opponents and even a mixed-gender fight. It’s not the sport that’s the problem; it’s the lack of regulation. The organisers simply found a loophole in the system.
Children can safely participate in mixed martial arts – within reason.
Strict regulation and enforcement must take place to ensure the safety of the children. In a similar manner to children’s games of AFL, rugby or American football, precautions and rule changes need to be made.
Here are a few of my suggestions:
Safety equipment
The program showed kids fighting in MMA gloves and shin pads. Headgear with a face protector should be added to the mix.
Age minimum
Controlled sparring at an early age is fine but competition should be limited to children aged around 10-12 and above. For younger kids, participation in components of mixed martial arts, like amateur wrestling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, are good substitutes and skill developers.
No strikes on the ground
Striking on the ground requires a modicum of control that children may not have. Hence, ground fighting in kids’ competition should be limited to working for submissions.
Sparring and competition limits
The amount of sparring a child participates in during training is at the coach’s discretion. However, a limit should be placed on the number of fights a child can participate in each year.
A maximum of two a year in the younger age brackets is optimal, with a minimum of three months between fights.
Strict matchmaking criteria
Matches must be made fairly on size, age, experience and gender. Mixed-gender fights don’t take place in the UFC, hence they shouldn’t happen on any amateur level either.
The concept of children fighting isn’t new. Professional Muay Thai fighters in Thailand start from an early age, as do many amateur boxers in countries like the US and Cuba. Kids often participate in karate and tae kwon do tournaments too.
The sport of MMA itself is not to blame for these lapses in safety regulation. Every sport contains rules to keep participants safe, with modifications in place for children’s competitions. It’s simply a matter of enforcing them.
If today’s professional football players started by playing in modified games as kids, why can’t future UFC champions do the same?
Martin
Guest
My son has started MMA to continue a fitness regime while his Rugby League games has finished. I have watched my son's Rugby league games, and on numerous times observed how aggressive some children his age (under 8's) have used some form of physical attacks to my son and team mates. My son is a very big 8 year old who does not like hurting other children period, I felt the need to put him into MMA as the children will get much bigger next year and nastier, so when he returns to RL next year at least he will have some form of self defence skills when the need does arise. He trains three days a week and he is still a gentle soul when he spa's particularly with the new comers or girls. I don't believe he will ever be a bully as he talks a lot to his peers, he leads the RL team on the field each game, it's the Christian values he has been brought up with that keeps him a caring soul :)
PaulW
Guest
I agree with langou the sport is totally barbaric and would create bully boy kids, as one intelligent sports reporter said it is 'Senseless Violence'
langou
Roar Guru
I'm with Rothfield. The sport is barbaric and kids shouldn't be allowed to watch it, and certainly shouldn't be able to participate in it.
Bondy
Guest
Well said AR, let them be kids..
AR
Guest
I saw the Ch.7 program on Sunday night. When they showed the start of the fight, and the 8y.o boy was immediately kicked in the face, and he started to cry as parents cheered - that was enough for me. Then the 6 y.o girl was getting choked out by her competitor, and she started to cry. I thought it was sick.
Squidward
Roar Rookie
Yep. Buzz is a goose who is just looking for a way to scam tickets to the next local ufc event so he can then write a puff piece on how he was wrong I didn't like the look of kids doing MMA even as a big fan. Maybe just judo or wrestling. And let them compete when over 12-14
SuperEel22
Roar Guru
The head gear does nothing anyway. Any brain surgeon will tell you that concussion is the brain moving around in the skull. The only thing that head gear would do is prevent cuts and abrasions.
Jimmy S
Guest
Force (F) = mass (m) x acceleration (a) & Pressure (P) = Force (F) / Area (A) so Pressure = (m x a) / A Increasing the padding of the gloves increases the area to reduce the pressure of blows & thus bruising (google 'Hominick haematoma') and decreases the acceleration, as the padding crushes and absorbs some of the acceleration forces imparted to the target, but the mass increases. The difference in force isn't much - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRmOOWPTRBs - but for the largest force, it's bare knuckles, then mma gloves, and boxing gloves delivering the least. Should kids compete in MMA? I think there's arguments that they should compete in separate disciplines as Striker v BJJ could get dangerous for either competitor & competitors need to be mature enough to show respect to their opponents' health. More like the Prison City Fight League where the winning fighter tapped to save further damaging his opponent in an amateur bout and not like Rousimar Palhares who was cut from the UFC for holding on to submissions too long. That said, the 'no-head shot' rules seem like a good start for a safe competition for kids, and i can't see how that would make kids' mma any more inherently dangerous than football's various codes, including soccer's repeated sub-concussive heading of the ball. & finally... Phil Rothfield is the worst.
Marcus
Guest
Kids get upset when the lose a footy game, tennis match, game of hide and seek. It would be wrong to assume the tears were a manifestation of the actual sport rather the result.
Stephen
Guest
+1 for Buzz Rothfield spray
gurudoright
Guest
I'm a fan of MMA but would not class myself as a die hard fan, where I would go to events or pay for pay for view. I do like the ultimate fighter series and watch it regularly. I thought that Sunday Night's program was a good story but I'm half way between either side of the argument. I feel children shouldn't be allowed into the octogon for a full contact fight until at least 13 but perferably 15. I have no problems with training etc at the younger age as many martial arts have children learning from a young age. The program just shows how out of touch Phil Rothfield is with reality banning UFC ffrom his pages but will promote boxing. He stated how terrible the sport was because a fighter had blood through his hair and it was sending a bad image to children. He fails to mention how quickly the MMA referees are to jump in to stop a fight as soon the situation becomes dangerous and unattainable for the other person to escape a battering. But then again, when was the last time anybody took Rothfield seriously? He is up there with Danny Wiedler for joke of the year
nordster
Guest
Anything that gets kids away from a screen has to be a good thing.... As long as people dont gloss over the dangers ...especially in the 'subconcussive' sense, all the light repetitive hits. Much like rugby league though, and plenty of kids play that.
Plainsman
Guest
I went to a boxing tournament on Saturday night in which three bouts involved teenagers who gave a tremendous display of athletic ability and skill. All six left the ring unscathed and happy. Kids go to karate and judo lessons every day at PCYC gyms across the country. While UFC is a step up I have no issues with well controlled bouts between appropriately trained and weighted juniors. The issue is keeping out the cowboys who have scant regard to safety and will push kids too hard too early. Both of my sons have done martial arts, football and a host of other sports all of which contained an element of risk. The issue is training and adherence to appropriate safety rules. It is not that hard.
mushi
Guest
Yep i also think the author's liken it to the violence in a computer game is a stretch. I think being encouraged to physically smash someone for fun, rather than pretending to via another medium, is basically how you breed little child soldiers.
mushi
Guest
bigger, but not heavier, gloves should reduce force of impact
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
" Bigger gloves would reduce the force of impact somewhat." Nope. F=MA, remember ? Gloves will just increase the mass of the hands, slowing down the amount of A and spreading the blow over time, but wont do anything to effect the amount of raw F that the target's head absorbs. And then we get the other side of F=MA, where M is the mass of the head and A is therefore the acceleration it undergoes, leading to the brain, which is at rest, being bashed against the walls of the skull. TLDR : gloves dont do shit to stop subconcussive and concussive impacts
dingo
Guest
The real problem I see is more the mental side of the competition, not sure young children are emotionally capable of handling or separating the emotions concerned with training to go out and pummel or be pummeled by your opponent until one concedes.
kunming tiger
Guest
Agree with all the safety recommendations except the first one concerning head guard the issue being they tend to move sideways on contact affecting vision. Impaired vision is not what you need in a fight situation. If there is no ground and pound allowed and elbows and knee strikes are not allowed the hand strikes to the head would be the most likely cause of injury. Bigger gloves would reduce the force of impact somewhat. MMA is here to stay so better to effectively regulate it than ban it.