Apr 21
Sheer Awesomeness: Kids Kicking Ass
Look, i won’t bullshit you by waxing prophetic or philosophying or anything like that. I came across an article earlier today discussing kids in Britain who are kicking boxing at age 5. I mean Mai Thai Kickboxing with no pads. I can not tell a lie: i think this is fucking awesome. In my opinion, we’re rasing the softest, punkest, weakest minded group of pussy whipped kids in the history of man-kind. We can’t yell at them or we’ll bruise their little egos. We can’t spank their bad asses because it might teach them that aggression is the way to solve problems. We can’t even challenge their egos because it might make them gay.
I’m excited that a group of parent has taken it upon themselves to teach their kids some discipline. Used to be, you could play ball and get your dose of responsibility. But now-a-days, kids are crying if they bat 8th and parents are stalking coaches if their brat doesn’t start at wide receiver.
And thats all if you can get the fat little bastard off the XBOX360.
One child featured in the article is Thai Barlow, who is already a veteran fighter at 10 and named after his parents burning passion for Thai boxing. Along with his schoolwork, Thai runs over 15 km, does 400 sit ups, and spends at least 10 hours on the bags and sparring every week. Take that Madden 08! HIs mother is a former Thai boxer and his sister is a former champion. Little Thai is 58-3 with 2 knock outs.
The fall out:
Looking at the blogosphere, nerd across the planet are slamming this sport. I can’t agree with them. Every guy I know has had a moment when his mouth wrotes a check his ass couldn’t cash. Fighting has become ubiquotous. Every movie, every television show, every cartoon shows some kind of fight. Lets get over ourselves. Lets stop pretending like we’re civilized. Secretly, we all wanna kick someone’s ass - most people are just scared to take a lick.
My only reservation is that these kids are being pitted against one another before they’ve mastered the technique requiredto defend themselves. I imagine watching to kids Mai Thai is a lot like watching church league basketball… just a whole lot of flailing. Mai Thai is a heavy handed fighting style which frequently uses Elbows and knees. If Thai has only knocked out 2 kids, then they suck at fighting and are too undeveloped to be sent into the octagon. That’s what I think. I’d wait until the kids had more than a few years of sparring and technique under their belts.
I my send my kid in at age 12, if I was sure he could keep his left up and his head down.
But go check this article on sites like Digg or Reddit, where the tree-hugging pussies are out in force. “It should be banned!” they say. “It’s child abuse!” they cry. Fuck that. Kids fight, its what they do. Little boys are always rolling around in the dirt. i say make a rule that they can’t fight unless they’re in a ring with gear on. Make them square off and keep it controlled. Keep it productive. Redirect that hurtful energy into respect and discipline. Much like guns, people who are properly trained to fight do it less often.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Demon…
I saw something about this a few weeks ago. They are letting kids as young as six years old participate in bare knuckle MMA matches in Missouri. Here’s the AP story link….
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VLPIPO2&show_article=1
I guess Missouri is the Show Me–How to Whoop Some Ass—State.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 am
DUDE!!! I am not familiar with the disciplines of kick boxing. After spending a chunk of my life in SE Asia, I was exposed to several martial arts and the first thing I learned was that the arts were about respect, discipline, strenght of mind and body and at it’s most natural form…self-defense.
Then on a trip to Pattaya Beach, Thailand…I was able to experience the “sport” of kickboxing. This had nothing to do with respect, discipline, mind/body, etc… I don’t know if I’d chose it over one of the true martial arts.
Although, I do agree with you that we’re raising a generation of limp wristed, wussy fucks. I just don’t think that we fix that generation by throwing them onto a wrestling mat and teaching them to kick the other guy in the groin. How about making the little fuckers rake leaves, cut the lawn, clean the garage and sweat their little asses off for a few bucks. How about demanding academic exellence and setting boundries? Maybe if we stop inventing psychological disorders every time our 10 year old has a meltdown in the grocery store?
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am
I don’t have a problem with these kids fighting, you could look at it from the perspective that it’s just like every other sport that Minivan Moms take their kids to.
Kids can get hurt doing anything, if a kid gets his bell rung maybe he should keep his defense a little tighter next time. There’s no reason to ban little kids from doing this.
By their logic we should cut down all the trees so little Johnny’s clumsy ass can’t fall out of any more trees.
I’m not familiar with all the different disciplines but don’t most of them teach you how to defend first?
My son is 5, and within the next 2 years or so I hope to get him into some sort of Martial Art school. (I’ll be in the adult class while he’s with the other kids probably) I’ll be looking for something that will give him an outlet for all of that damn energy that he has, also something that will teach him discipline.
And FP you’re strategy will also be a part of the mix, raking leaves picking up sticks in the yard, and when we get the barn built his little ass will be mucking stalls(my wife tells me that’s cleaning up horse shit)
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
Just as long as they aren’t trained under an evil sensei from the Cobra Kai dojo, it should all be OK.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 am
Sweep the leg!!!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 pm
demonicume
Muay Thai boxing is a proficient art and one of the best forms of the martial arts to learn. As to the kids learning it there’s nothing wrong in it . As long as they’re learning it in the right way and the discipline regimen that goes to the substance and etiquette expected of them. I still teach Wu Shu Kwan and Ishin Ryu art forms of karate to kids aged 5 to 15 years of age. And they seem to enjoy it.
Muay Thai boxing at its finest is a pure art form.
tophatal ……….