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Opinions and Thoughts Please
Should MMA be a collegiate/high school sport?
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unlikely
Yes.
Of course it would not have the same rule set as professional mma. For some reason whenever you mention youth and mma otherwise reasonable people immediately conjure up visions of 12yr olds dropping elbows from mount..
FILA has defined and supports amateur mma for kids in the form of Pankration. Pankration is submission grappling with strikes below the collarbone. It is very popular in Europe. We took a team of kids from the US to Kharkov Ukraine and had a great time over there. Team USA took 3rd place overall in both submission grappling and pankration.
We are way behind here in the US with sensible amateur mma.
Also in response to another poster. I define violence as having the intent to injure someone and successfully doing so. If you accept that definition then based on my observations there is much less violence in amateur mma than there is in mainstream sports like hockey & football.
here is an example of what I'm talking about;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6DQ3tLddcs&playnext_from=TL&videos=kF9jLRsbuWI
Cheers
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No. In my opinion you should be at least 18 before you can have a sanctioned MMA fight. I'm not really sure about the legal situation, but putting your well being on the line should be a decision an adult makes, not a child. Accidents can happen anytime, but they're much likely to happen when some unexperienced kid is trying to suplex you.
Based on your objection I would assume you are also opposed to wrestling in High School and College? I'm not trying to be a smart ass but a suplex is a wrestling move.
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I don't think there are enough qualified people right now that would be willing to coach youth MMA in high school for it to be viable on a national level. Maybe in certain areas you could do it. You would need a proper overseeing body for it and different rules for safety of course.
I think it would be great if it were a collegiate sport though and completely doable. It would probably make more money than most d-1 sports and be sustainable for a lot of schools who can't afford to keep the more expensive team sports that don't bring in money.
I think it would be great if it were a collegiate sport though and completely doable. It would probably make more money than most d-1 sports and be sustainable for a lot of schools who can't afford to keep the more expensive team sports that don't bring in money.
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Yeah, but in MMA any guy can suplex you. Even that small kid next door. For all you know that guy has seen Lesnar pull off a suplex on a giant and tries to do that to you. In wrestling people know what they're doing and injury is less likely. Plus they don't hit you in the head once they have you pinned to the mat.
I'm not advocating that kids be allowed to punch each other in the head at all in amateur mma. Check out the FILA rules for Pankration to see what I'm talking about. This system is up and running and has been for many years now.
I think the point you are missing is that if you examine youth sports you find that sensible amateur mma rules sets make the sport much less risky than other common sports. You are also assuming that practitioners will attempt techniques that they are not skilled enough to pull off and will hurt people. I don't know why you would make that assumption.
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I think they should maybe try how the Army does their competitions going through the levels ...The intermedate allows open hand strikes to the head
One of the fundamental aspects of Modern Army Combatives training is the use of competitions as a tool to motivate Soldiers to train. Realizing the inherent problem with competitive systems, that competitors will focus their training on winning and therefore only train the techniques that are allowed in competition, Larsen designed a system of graduated rules. More liberal rules are used for higher level of competitions.
There are four levels of competition;
One of the fundamental aspects of Modern Army Combatives training is the use of competitions as a tool to motivate Soldiers to train. Realizing the inherent problem with competitive systems, that competitors will focus their training on winning and therefore only train the techniques that are allowed in competition, Larsen designed a system of graduated rules. More liberal rules are used for higher level of competitions.
There are four levels of competition;
- Basic- For competition for new Soldiers such as basic trainees or for squad and platoon level, Competitors start grappling from their knees and no leg locks are allowed.
- Standard- For company level competition and for preliminary bouts in any tournament above company level, Competitors begin from their feet. Straight leg and foot locks are allowed and points are awarded in a scoring system based the way takedowns are scored in Collegiate wrestling and positional dominance in ground grappling from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
- Intermediate- For the finals at Battalion and brigade level and semi-finals at division and above, Intermediate rules allow limited striking. Open hand strikes are allowed to the head and closed fist strikes to the body. Kicks are allowed to any target except the groin while standing and knee strikes are allowed to the body while standing and to the legs while on the ground. The fight consists of one ten minute round.
- Advanced- For finals at division level and above, the advanced rules are essentially Mixed Martial Arts.
You can't suplex an opponent in either high school or collegiate levels. Once you have an opponent in the air, it is your responsibility to take them to the mat without intent to harm. Greco-Roman wrestling which is different than freestyle (high school/college), is tailored for throws and leverage moves exists outside of school sanctioned competition.
Point taken, I should have said HS & College kids competing in Freestyle/Greco outside of school conferences or outside of the US.
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I think anything that allows young people to let out their aggression in a controlled and adult supervised way is a good thing. Most young guys have loads of testosterone in them and if they just spend their entire lives sat in front of a computer (I appreciate the irony of what I've just typed) then they're not using it. Young people not venting their frustrations is a bigger problem than young people getting the odd bump or scrape in martial arts.
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Why not do it based on a point system for winning just like loads of martial arts that kids do. Semi-contact.
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High Impact
If boxing isn't a high school or college sponsored sport I don't think MMA should either!
If boxing isn't a high school or college sponsored sport I don't think MMA should either!
yeah i think boxing will become a high school sport before mma
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Absolutely not. As stated above, boxing isn't even a high school sport, and there are college boxing clubs, but they are sanctioned still and the competitors are required to wear headgear to prevent any head injuries.
Also, like it was said above there aren't enough coaches out there to implement this responsibly. The idea of allowing high school kids to compete in MMA is ridiculous. But even at the college level most of the people interested would have no previous experience and would not be ready to compete in an actual fight for at least a year if not longer.
Also, like it was said above there aren't enough coaches out there to implement this responsibly. The idea of allowing high school kids to compete in MMA is ridiculous. But even at the college level most of the people interested would have no previous experience and would not be ready to compete in an actual fight for at least a year if not longer.
yeah thats another thing, how many fights do you think someone can have in a "season" in high school or college? professional fighters only have 3-4 fights a year, that is not enough for a competitive high school/college sport
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