Should MMA be a High school Sport?

[diamondback]

I am all for it. Wrestlers go on to be wwe and ufc stars so why not start even younger?

[apmarine]

i wouldnt be against it but there is no way that it would get approved for schools

[Guest]

No. Too big risk of getting your head pounded to death.

[Guest]

The brain is still developing at an insane rate during the teens. Let's compromise that by institutionalizing a sport that opens for massive head trauma.

Also let's ban high school football.

[bjornmma1]

Not MMA, but a lighter version of it could be good. A mix of bjj, wrestling, boxing (with light sparring) and kicking ( not to the head)...

[Guest]

The problem is that any kind of head striking opens up for the possibility of head trauma, which is fucking stupid for teenagers. Add competition to this and you're just asking for a bunch of concussed messes who don't know their kid's names in their 40s.

[GBK16]

You get a lot of martial arts which people can join from an early age. To throw them into MMA means a lot more learning at a young age, which might not necessarily lead to bigger interest when growing up.

 

Let them learn the basics of one or two disciplines, and then they will progress onto MMA if they are interested.

[Guest]

No, football already does wonders at ruining kids lives.. last thing we need is MMA to join in the fun.

[UniConor]

There is a chance you could be teaching a psychopath how to choke somebody out... You know for the 10 people who are genuinely interested for sport or self defense, then there is the bully who will use it for worse ways.

 

Stick to the girls sports, basketball and hockey

[Teza13]

No way!

 

Let them keep training individual sports- cut out all weight cutting for sports and make sure headgear is a must in combat sports where you have to punch/kick.

 

Its all well and good until your 30/40 and cant walk or develop mental problems... But whose really thinking of the children and their futures when we all need to be entertained :-/

[Scooby]

Hell no, too much of a skill difference would persist... Plus every other sport goes by a schedule. Parents wouldnt be accepting fights they think their kids would lose

[Guest]

Soccer parents are fucking ridiculous enough, imagine those stupid assholes forcing their kid into cage fights instead.

Yeah.

[Guest]

You get a lot of martial arts which people can join from an early age. To throw them into MMA means a lot more learning at a young age, which might not necessarily lead to bigger interest when growing up.

 

Obviously this doesn't translate directly, but all research shows that kids who learn multiple languages at a young age have an easier time learning other languages and expanding on languages they already know later in life. The reason for this is because they develop an innate understanding for the different frameworks different languages operate under and thus avoid the broken syntax and "engrish" one usually associates with non-native speakers. There's also the fact that children report that varied working methods create more enthusiasm for any given subject and that kids with a high level of competence in what most school systems consider basic skills (reading, writing, calculus etc) generally do much better in all subjects than students with a lower level of competence in these subjects.

All this seems to point towards the conclusion that giving children and young adults a broad skillset early on will lead to a stronger overall skillset later in life. I don't know a lot about sports science, but I'd imagine there's a lot of crossover here. Giving children a broad frame of reference when it comes to physical movement early on in life can't be anything but great for their future athletic development.

 

So in conclusion, I actually think exposing children to MMA style training early on can be great for their athletic development due to the sheer range of physical movements they need to learn how to master. The head trauma makes any kind of kid MMA competitions beyond ridiculous though.

[Scooby]

Look at what happens in Thailand to their youth MT and Kickboxing kids, that shit is messed up

[skull]

There is no way in hell this would ever happen. WAY to much politics involved in school to ever allow kids to legally fight, School would have to incorporate some kind of insurance policy for all the broken hands, feet, jaws, etc. that will happen so that alone would probably stop it from ever happening

[Kanis]

I studied MMA in high-school,..it was a normal day to have to wrestle, punch and kick.

[Rain]

I'd like if they started teaching Wrestling here in Europe for self defence It's a man's sport - let's compete and see which one of us can show our strenght and technique to put one of us down. Being down in the street usually is "the beginning of the end" in the fight So it teaches you some legitimate self defense as well

[warlord]

A big NO for this

[PBR]

dont ever see mma being a high school sport -- college sport either -- wrestling and mma are two total different deals

[Kanis]

I tried to start a Kick-boxing team in H.S. , and was told by my wrestling coach "No, we already see too many broken noses".

Wrestling is plenty for H.S. , it teaches a mental toughness and great work ethic.

[Guest]

And how to fondle other men through their onesies to get a competitive advantage.

[KingEpicity]

MMA? No. No way that ever happens. BJJ? Maybe.

[clydebankblitz]

I'd be big on boxing for high schools. When people have a discipline such as sports, the fear of that being taken away is huge. Add to the fact that boxing is "cool" so if the coolest guys around are boxing, they are going to be more focused on that than doing things outside. Even if the cool kids arent doing it, what are they going to do, beat up the kids doing it?

 

I don't think people should be COMPETING in boxing, but a form of sparring could be developed. Karate is alright for kids and teenagers but I don't think there is enough focus on actual fitness. It's a "class", not something you could potentially throw your all into. If there was boxing training in schools I think it would let a lot of people really put their all into their training, making their fitness improve massively. Also with something like boxing, the coach isn't going to be all "state championshipy" like wrestling appears to be. There's a lot of bad shit going on in amateur wrestling circles because all that matters is the gold. Boxers are very accepting that a loss can happen, but having the spirit of a fighter is more important. You bring a fat kid into the class and the coach isn't going to stand for him getting his ass kicked by the popular kids, scared to say anything incase the potential "star" leaves or something.

 

MMA on the other hand, OBVIOUSLY not. MMA is much less about the spirit of competition. MMA is almost about finishing fights, so beating someone up until the ref steps in, knocking them out, choking them out or breaking a limb. MMA would have too many people trying to prove themselves by refusing to tap and stuff. MMA has so many stupid personalities that you'd get your McDojo coaches tenfold.

 

If you wanted something more towards MMA, BJJ is always an option. BJJ is VERY heavy on fighters tapping if they are in trouble, plus there is much less risk of longterm injures.

[ArtieBanks]

meh, in Scotland i don't think they let you do combat sports of any kind. I prefer it that way, just as a cultural thing in Scotland, we are a bunch of violent motherfuckers and learning how to inflict some serious punishment to another person isn't a good thing. I am all for it as something you can go to a gym and learn etc but most kids would do it to look "tough" in school, where as what you do in your spare time away from school isn't much of a big deal. I done boxing from late primary to i finished high school, most people even the "tough" ones in school wouldn't go to it, or if they did they lasted a day or two and packed it in. I wouldn't even teach BJJ in high schools either, that is just as dangerous. Most kids don't have the same restraint as someone older, some of the chokes etc applied the wrong way can kill you pretty swiftly. Combat sports as a whole should be kept outside of the schools, if people want to do it they can do it after school because that is them taking an interest in something and going out of their way to do est it and it tends to mean they have a interest in the sport, instead of wanting to learn how to kick some kids ass.

 

However we do have mandatory rugby in certain schools in first year which involves more concussions than any sport i know of including American Football even though Rugby is a bigger sport (in the world as a whole) with many more people playing it.

[Guest]

I'd be big on boxing for high schools. When people have a discipline such as sports, the fear of that being taken away is huge. Add to the fact that boxing is "cool" so if the coolest guys around are boxing, they are going to be more focused on that than doing things outside. Even if the cool kids arent doing it, what are they going to do, beat up the kids doing it?

 

I don't understand this argument at all. What does boxing being "cool" have to do with anything? Why would having the "coolest guys around" focusing more on boxing than "doing things outside" (which I assume means you're drawing a paralell between being cool in high school and being some sort of delinquent, in which case institutionalizing a system where they learn how to fight is a terrible idea) be good? Why would anyone beat up the kids doing boxing?

 

 

 

I don't think people should be COMPETING in boxing, but a form of sparring could be developed.

 

Most of the damage boxers take is accumulated hits from sparring. If you're saying a form of point sparring should be developed in boxing I'd postulate that #1 it exists in the form of Olympic amateur boxing rules and #2 that it's a terrible idea because you develop boxers with no sense of their actual ability who'll get crushed later in life.

 

 

 

Karate is alright for kids and teenagers but I don't think there is enough focus on actual fitness. It's a "class", not something you could potentially throw your all into.

 

Bullshit. I've grown up around several Shotokan junior national and world champions who certainly "threw their all" into practicing their given sport, both in terms of passion and in terms of physical work. If you're claiming that it's not physically demanding enough (which would be absurd) the karate term also encompasses Kyokushin and other full contact branches.

 

 

 

If there was boxing training in schools I think it would let a lot of people really put their all into their training, making their fitness improve massively.

 

I've spent more time than most around boxing gyms and boxers for the last couple of years. Boxing is exactly like any other kind of sport, there will always be people who don't put in the work. Work ethic isn't sport specific. I've seen way harder workers on the soccer field and in the ski tracks than I've seen in the ring and vice versa.