ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” Feature On MMA For Kids (video)
ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” television show just recently put together a feature on children’s MMA and the morality of it all. Featured in the piece is “Ultimate” Drake Dudley, a 14 year old phenom who has been called the “Tiger Woods of MMA.” The piece is good and takes a look at the good and the bad of children’s MMA. After the jump is a follow-up piece with Frank Shamrock debating Dan Doyle on whether or not MMA is too violent for children.
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Very interesting clips. The more or less full mma matches we saw seems way to much for children. Starting with wrestling and then ramping it up to full contact in the early teens would be a more responsible approach.
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I think this is very interesting, too. I live in central PA, and MMA is illegal in PA still, so most of the gyms are closer to the borders (such as the Fight Factory in Philly). When I was a kid, I would have loved this. My parents would’ve hated it, but I would’ve loved it.
The “more or less full MMA matches” as Jonas said, were very intense. However, I would not say they were “too much” for children. For *some* children, yes, but as a rule, not necessarily. This comes down to parenting, as Frank Shamrock said, and also to each individual child’s personality.
Full MMA matches are “too much” for most adults, too. But a lot of the people in it are people who grew up in some form of Martial Arts already. Wrestling isn’t too violent for kids… Even outside of combat sports, Football, Basketball, Soccer are all enjoyed by children, but they’re all also more dangerous than MMA is. Once people finally start to realize the numbers, it’ll come down to a pure parenting thing. Children’s MMA will do great things for children with great parents, and horrible things for children with horrible parents.
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From a developmental perspective, a very young adult should not be taking concussive blows to the head with anything resembling frequency.
The ideal way to introduce someone to the world of mma, would be Judo, Wrestling and/or Tae Kwon Do in the pre-teen years and then, if the individual (not the parent mind you) still has an interest as a young teen then you could introduce boxing or kicking boxing and jits.
It’s kind of crazy to do any serious MMA style striking until you are at least in high school. You can tell it’s more about the adults being into it then the kids, who will always follow their lead. Their are plenty of mma building blocks that can be focused on in the early years. Save striking (unless you’re talking about points style karate stuff) for when you’re grown up enough to decide whether you want to take that kind of punishments.
In the meantime, if you are under 10, work on your wrestling. That makes the most sense.
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frank handled himself pretty well given the circumstances. if this keeps kids from shooting up there high school im all for it
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OOooo the kid being dropped on his head at a dodgy angle wasnt good!!!!
After seeing the 2 instructors on the video, I’d be more confident in leaving my 8 year old with the ju-jitsu guy as the shark tank guy doesnt seem like he’d be bothered if your kid got hurt/injured…I imagine u’ll be met with the attitude of “its MMA, what do you expect to happen”.
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Since when do adult MMA fighters spar with no head gear and small gloves?? That was kinda crazy seeing that in 5 yr olds.
The sensei in the Gi seems to be teaching the kids with a bit more protection.
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Dan Doyle is an idiot. His position is based on ignorance. There are no knees/elbows allowed, no strikes above the collar bone… He is fine with introducing kids to traditional martial arts but not this? Watch those clips and then watch an upper-level Tae Kwon Do or Karate match between two kids and tell me the difference. MMA is exactly what the name implies: mixed martial arts. If you allow your kids to participate in Judo, BJJ, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, then why would you have any problem with MMA? It is essentially all those skills rolled into a single sport.
And as far as damaging the kids psychologically, he’s got his head up his ass. Losing is a part of any sport, it builds character and trains kids to overcome adversity. Losing does the same “psychological damage” if it comes in the form of punches or a tapout as it does on the football field or on the basketball court.
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Took me a while to put this together. Here’s some MMA fighters’ quotes reflecting their thoughts on kids in MMA. They overwhelmingly thought MMA was inappropriate for high school, let alone for children. Sorry this is kind of late.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/40871-kids-and-mma-review-and-commentary-on-espns-outside-the-lines-piece
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