Youth tournament karate – ie full contact

 

Bob Maxwell

 

Full expecting blow back from many of the Martial Arts community and even from some of my close friends, I want to go on the record about the damage we are doing to young students by allowing be them to participate in training and competition that allows head contact. The evidence has been overwhelming that head trauma, even if only once, can result in long term brain damage that may not exhibit itself until later life. For younger students, repeated head trauma can result in developmental difficulty and long term deficit.

 

The folks that participate in full contact sparring, not to mention MMA, are at great risk of permanent and irreversible brain damage.

I submit, that Martial Arts training and competition can be conducted without adding the danger of head trauma. Martial Arts has do many elements that can be learned and trained without exposing students to unnecessary head trauma.

 

It is my hope that instructors will consider the health and welfare of their students, especially the younger ones. If this will save even one person from a lifetime of brain damage, then I gladly accept the negative comments I am sure to receive.

 

 

Gary Hudgins I agree and disagree. There is no need to have full contact for young students, but the problem comes when the head and face are not a target, nobody protects it. Watch Tae Kwon Do where punches to the head are not allowed but kicks are. So many do not protect their head. . On the other hand some styles of karate have knock down fighting where the head is not a target, but the chest is. For the head, the old fashion pulling of the punch should be enough to keep teaching hands up. And no more than "tag" if you go beyond the "pulling your punches". You have to have some type of training to teach hands up and proper blocking but it does not need to be heavy contact. Just don't want someone to go into a real situation and do some face/nose blocks. Me, you won't find me doing heavy contact. I am just too old.

 

Tom Soterakos When we met you Bob Maxwell in 67 we CHOSE to accept your form of training, but we were young adults. I agree 100% about young kids. But I do agree with Gary Hudgins about training to protect the head.

 

Bob Maxwell Tom Soterakos it is so true that the study of Martial Arts is a lifetime endeavor. I am proof positive that we evolve and get smarter with experience and age. I would like to think that I got much smarter than I was in 1967.

 

 

Victor

Dr Harper always was very disturbed about the kids and contact. His comments changed the way I had been doing sparring since I began (without gear) and that was one of the reasons I discontinued the tournaments for the kids. Not the whole reason.