Rear Naked Choke, Side Mount, Ground and Pound… I might be talking about an interesting evening after a bottle of wine, but I am not. What is on my mind is the wonderful world of mixed martial arts. As an avid lover of the spectacle, my ill conceived and rather airy rebuttal to the question as to whether not not children should be learning MMA was ‘Sure. Why not?’. I went on to outline how mixed martial arts is merely a rue incorporating all disciplines considered a ‘martial art’, seasoned with grappling and wrestling. I heard myself reasoning that if the parent would allow their child to learn one discipline why not all of them collectively? Besides, it is up to the parent to instill sanctity for human life, and to monitor them closely to ensure they don’t get the idea this practice might be a good idea on the playground or in school. Right? Right?
Maybe, but I am not so sure. Take, for example, “Karate Kid”. There are good senseis and bad senseis. Mr. Miaygi instructed Daniel-san in the discipline of Karate. He used everyday activities; paired with a threefold demand for respect (a respect for self, sport, and teacher) to instill the values needed to master the art of Karate. Conversely, John Kreese used fear and submission to train his students in the mechanics of Karate. Fear, pain, defeat, and mercy do not exist in his dojo. Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel to embrace the full spectrum of human emotions when teaching him to defend himself with karate. The Cobra Kai Dojo’s large classes were shown performing series after series of techniques with precision and accuracy, while standing tidy in their stark white gis ready for more berating . Whereas Miyagi had Daniel-san washing cars and nailing boards to promote good breathing, focus, and muscle memory; all pillars for the foundation of Karate. This same yin and yang holds true for the MMA arena of entertainment. There are good instructors and bad instructors. Do I think that learning a wide variety of disciplines, and honing an ability to make them work together would have a negative impact on children? No, absolutely not. I do, however, believe that we are merely a product of our environment, and the MMA environment doesn’t promote the discipline and self-control the art does. Rather full contact fighting promotes the raw physical mechanics and merciless execution of skills, thereby perverting the art into a spectacle.
I am not belittling the amount of training, commitment, blood, sweat, and tears the full contact fighters put in to escalate within the sport in order to get paid big money to beat their opponent into a pulp. I am merely stating that for children there is nothing training for full contact fighting can give them that a single discipline cannot, unless, of course, you want your child to develop a ruthless disregard for another human’s life. The art in itself is not the problem, nor is the practice of compiling the skills into its own entity. The problem lies within the environment. The attitude and approach to learning mixed martial arts is defeat or be defeated, bloody or be bloodied. This has only evolved since the mainstream introduction of bad ass t-shirts, menacing entourages, wanton ring women, and caged men behaving badly. What we watch and love can no longer be chalked up to an art form. This spectacle we pay to view on pay-per-view tells our children that beating the bile out of an opponent until they tap ‘uncle’ is okay.
If you are a parent and you can say with confidence your six year old can determine when it is ok to use the skills they develop in studying full contact fighting and you are at peace with them learning to use any means necessary to beat anyone that opposes them, then fine pay through the nose (literally if your check bounces) for the right to have a micro punishment pusher. Honing a skill of any kind will do wonders for self-esteem, but when the mantra for an entire sport is ‘pure punishment’ how can we be responsible stewards of life when we expose young minds to a no mercy mentality that promotes violence as the new all American pass-time? These boys are the future of America. Where do we draw the line? The Martial Arts offer and teach more than just a defense against bad guys. It teaches respect, self-control, discipline, synergy of body and mind, as well as a healthy appetite for competition where your opponent typically walks away without injury.
So to more accurately answer the question: No I do not think that children should be learning full contact fighting. I do not have a problem with children learning the arts and also learning to incorporate them into a separate art form, but the world is brutal enough without blurring the lines and confusing what is right and what is not. We need to protect our children from the harsh reality of our world while walking the line to prepare them for such a reality.
