Not too sure about this...

Hi all!

     Well, dirrty, you took the words right out of my mouth. Football is just as bad, or worse, than MMA.

     Karate, boxing, hockey, or any of the other billions of things a child does that could be labeled as harmful. Any athletic endeavor is going to have injury risks. Hell, waking up has risks.

     I am not saying I would put my kid in MMA, but I wouldn't necessarily banish him to chess club, either. To each his own on this one.

     Montana to Rice, I am out.

I'm not one to advocate mass censorship or try to take privledges away from people, but I do not see how MMA fighting for kids would pan out positively. Here is what I see: The best MMA fighters in the world have done martial arts training for most of their lives, including when they were children. They may have performed either supervised grappling drills or engaged in point sparring when they were younger, but chances are, there was nothing close to what makes up MMA fighting. If the kids were put into a situation where a win would either come from submission or a knockout, I don't see children or younger people having the natural restraint needed to know when they have hurt their opponent or when they know that they should stop because they are in danger of serious injury.

Yes, I know that supervision would be extremely high but I still see the sport itself as too risky for children. Do children know the gravity of putting their opponent in a chokehold? Do they know when they need to tap out because they are in serious danger, or would their competitive instincts be so high that they don't want to lose no matter what? Refs should not have to coddle combatants to a point where nothing actually "happens" in a match so that all safety precautions can be properly enforced. But that's the only way I see MMA being remotely viable for youngsters. Truthfully, for me, it's right up there with letting children drive on the highway. Yeah, they get the concept, and they've seen it done on TV and by their parents and played driving video games, but they do not have the maturity to understand the situational parameters of what they are doing. Call it a stretch, but I see the same thing with kids and MMA.

I say it's fine the way it is now; children should learn martial arts and utilize that as a foundation for MMA training once they hit at least that 14-15 age bracket. Bad, bad, idea.

This is the worst thing I've every heard of. Even the grown men are idots that do this sport and know there letting little kids do it, what a joke and I would love to see one of these tough guys rodeo for a hole and get broken bones and live on the road and not puss out.

There ARE judges......just from Southwest Missouri in Carthage to be exact.  Go ahead Mapquest it.  I am sure the "judge" is this same Dad that allows this to be how he teaches his kids 'discipline'. 

My question is:  Can the judge drink his MGD and reff at the same time?

I get that all the youth sports involve some injury risk but not at 6.  I am not sure about hockey but I know that in most areas you don't start full contact football (you play flag football) until atleast 4th grade.  Which is about 11 years old.  And in some states (and those bordering Missouri) like Arkansas its the 5th grade.  The human body is just not ready for that bone jaring even at that age.  Its not a matter of which one is safer but what happened to being parents and making sure your freaking kid is safe?  i have a four year old and can not wait for him to suit up.....but only when his body is ready and not when I am!

This idiot in the story that uses this to teach his kids discipline is my official nomination for worst parent of the year.  What ever happened to actual parenting?  What happened to teaching your kids right from wrong without them having to smack someone else around to do it?  This story makes me weep for the human race.

And how safe can this be in a 'converted garage' in the middle of freaking no where....ERRRRRR......Carthage, MO?  Really?  Its 'safe'?  Is the official watching these matches trained or just a fan of the sport that knows a few rules and has a whistle?  I am willing to bet its the later of those two. 

MMA is here to stay and has made giant strides in being 'safer' but that doesn't mean I would let my kids or think it was a good idea to let someone else put their kid through it. 

I like the car example......cars are much safer today than they were just 10 years ago when can 6 year olds start driving?