When we’re born, our skeleton is mostly cartilage – very, very plastic. Over time, the cartilage can ossify or those cartilage models turn into bone. I call that ossification – turning to bone. That becomes very, very strong. Then adolescence – 13, 14, 15, 16 years old – various cartilage models around the joints start turning into adult bone, which makes them much stronger. But, in little kids, that’s not the case.
So, what can happen is that you can snap that cartilage off of the interface where the bone is still cartilage – that can be snapped right off and that’s a growth plate.
The other thing I’d be very concerned about with kids – other than armbars and heel hooks, anything that can put pressure on a joint where you can snap the cartilage off of a joint or hurt the growth plate – is accumulation of blows to the head. Because, we really don’t understand concussions very well in adults. We definitely don’t understand it very well in a growing brain – a child.
Parents, coaches, and state legislators/sanctioning bodies need to know these facts regarding MMA and its dangers for all potential participants, but especially for children.
Social Considerations in Teaching Kids MMA
As Bao Quach noted, children are less apt to have the emotional maturity to learn full MMA. MMA is the closest thing to the complete sport of fighting. Obviously, it is not street fighting. MMA includes rules, a referee, and a sanitized structure that make it substantially different from street fighting. Still, there is obvious overlap.
In any sport, whether it be a team or individual sport (including combat sports), children need to learn the value of respect and the skills to effectively use peaceful conflict resolutions (see also newspaper editorial by David Mayeda, Chris Onzuka, and Mike Onzuka).
As Michael Frison and Antonio McKee advise, there is a bigger responsibility that comes with teaching MMA, and that lies in teaching positive values and preventing injury. When parents argue that by learning a combat sport, their child is learning to defend himself, the parents are missing a far more important perspective.
Parents, coaches, and mentors should be teaching children prevention, how to avoid potentially violent conflicts in the first place. Just as injury prevention is critical in sport, prevention from violence in the street or school is equally important.
I support MMA as an adult sport and the teaching of combat sports to emotionally and physically mature youth, provided the instruction is offered with major precautionary measures and in tandem with the development of pro-social values.
Let kids be kids, have fun, and not have such an extreme macho attitude that influences children to view violence as their primary outlet for problem solving.
David Mayeda, PhD, is lead author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society, a sociological and politically-based book based on interviews with 40 mixed martial arts athletes, including Antonio McKee, Randy Couture, Guy Mezger, “Rampage” Jackson, Chris Leben, Travis Lutter, Toby Grear, Cleburn Walker, and Frank Trigg. The book’s Foreword is written by Jason “MayheM” Miller.
(Photo by David Mayeda, of an adolescent being treated by emergency personnel after sustaining a roundhouse kick to the head in an amateur kickboxing competition. He was wearing headgear and still was knocked unconscious for several minutes).
8 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete