The Sport That Wants Children to Strangle Each Other

[Andrew35]

Hi Im a parent of 2 and a blogger on self defence and martial arts. Recently I wrote about a martial art where children as young as 4 are being taught to strangle each other. Im glad the vast majority of people seem to be against this however as I have only had feedback from within the martial arts world I am wondering if other parents feel this activity is harmless fun or very dangerous on a physical and emotional level. All views are welcome as I am doing a follow up article and would like a good balance of views.

However I will warn you in advance children as young as 4 are choking other children and also how to arm lock them.

What does the average parent think of this activity and would you like your child to play unsupervised with a child you knew could really hurt your son or daughter with techniques designed to kill?

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what exactly are you arguing and why?

I think the OP is hoping to whip up some more visits to his blog.

Am doubtful as to your notices for posting, but ignoring that, what I saw in that video was shocking. The very first time that little child cried it should have been stopped.

I don't get the attitude of adults and parents who see a little girl like that hurt and not wanting to continue, and they force her to. When she did that little wail my parental instincts were to go straight to her and pick her up, not tell her to carry on.

I don't have any issue with martial arts and actually would do one myself if not for my easily injured body stopping me. But my son is a preschooler and I would never teach him what I saw in that clip.

no the issue here should not be clouded. Im arguing here that teaching children to choke and armlock each other is wrong. By trying to bring other sports into this is simply trying to put the light on others. But its clear your views are pretty much fixed as you seem to think its acceptable.

I would be interested in hearing other people who arent martial artists. The general theme here appears be one of utter shock at the footage at the idea, expect from those who are involved in the activity itself. And still yet again not a single person involved can provide a justification for teaching children as young as 4 to either arm lock or choke.

Among the reasons I chose to post here is to try and get a balanced view from the non martial arts public but again here we have a few facebook shares and martial artists pop up trying to justify their actions by saying Judo do it ( nope, not the one that governs Olympic Judo in the Uk) err what about other combat sports (nope thats again not the issue here).

The issue here is if it is either morally right or ethically right to teach children as young as 4 techniques that can kill or seriously injure other children.

This issue gets skirted around by the BJJ community. Its as if its a question people dont want to actually answer with a solid argument. and on that note its time for bed for me personally. But in all seriousness I would love to hear the views of parents who have no interest in martial arts.

I have no interest in justifying the fact judo do teach both armlocks and strangles as I am not a member of either the BJC or the AJA I am merely stating a fact

I think a checklist for parents to ask MA instructors prior to enrolling their children would be a very good idea.

As a side point, what do you think of the McDojo issue op?

Check list!

Great idea!

But I bet it will consist of do they teach armlocks and/or strangles. You need to be asking the following questions of anyone you leave your child with for any sport/club

Can I see;

Your CRB/DBS certificate
Your insurance
Your qualification
Your first aid certificate

I would also ask about their safeguarding policies/child protection procedures.

Yes definitely.

And find out about the national governing body they are affiliated to. That should also help with the McDojo problem. Oh and you could also stay and watch

And then watch out for known UK groups/ instructors that do practise this kind of thing and specifically report those to British authorities and agencies.

Btw I do so enjoy the way you ignored my last post and demanded more posts from non martial arts parents, even though I am one... I guess I didn't say what you wanted. Nice.

my kids dont actually do martial arts, if that helps make me less biased.

my main sport is muay thai and i see what i would consider similar issues in some gyms in this sport. those issues actually revolve around un/under qualified instructors and a macho culture unchecked imo

raising awareness of the need to check quals, first aid, insurance is a good first step. staying and watching is also vital for younger ones. i have seen kids being hit with sticks as strengthening exercises in another combat sport. mind you, their parents were watching!

any fighting sport teaches moves i wouldn't like to see move across into the playground, frankly. again, a good gym/dojo would put a lot of effort into stressing this. many parents use martial arts/boxing to build confidence and as a 'protection' against bullying. classes here use it as a plus on their adverts. sadly, again, i am sure we have all seen the odd knucklehead bully martial artist as well. not all gyms care.

tighter regulation sounds a good idea. i have no idea what the actual rules are around setting up a gym/dojo for kids. anyone know?

As long as you have insurance anyone can set up a class.

Ishin ryu ju-jitsu in the south and east of the country is an organisation set up, as far as I can see, just to make money from, primarily, children. They are nothing to do with the British Ju-jitsu Association which is the national governing body.

They start children at the age of 4 and until they are 8 they are classed as infants and progress on the Infant syllabus.
They then become juniors and they start again from the bottom and work their way up until they become a senior.

I run a judo club affiliated to the BJA which is the national governing body for judo.

They have around 150 children attend the 3 different sites I know of locally, I have around 25 members.

They were charging £18 per grading when I was charging £5 and that included a belt if applicable, theirs didn't.

They put on a judo competition each year for their players to practice their techniques. One year I took my players, just out of curiosity you understand, and out of 9 players, each having at least 3 fights each I think we lost 1 fight all day.

None of the grades earnt by the members of this club are recognised by the national governing body of the sport.

The point I am trying to make is that if you can get sufficient insurance and have enough drive to succeed anyone can do it

My dp is an aikido instructor and teaches children. His classes consist of teaching the basic body movements through games and fun activities, and promoting the idea of cooperative training.

I can see absolutely no excuse for teaching children to fight each other. There is no way a child of that age has the required level of control to be practicing chokes.