Is there anyone here that has a child that fights? How hard do you push them? What is their training regime in the build up. I don't want to push my baby too hard but if I don't think he's ready he's not fighting, what do you do?
mixitup,are you your childs coach as well as his/her parent? if not do you trust your childs coach to,a)train your child to the required competitive standard in both attack and defence?, b) place your child in a well organised competition with a opponent of equal age ,weight and experience,if the answer is no to questions a and b perhaps you should find a gym where you would trust the coach to do these things,if the answer is yes then leave it to the coach,as a parent you will naturally be concerned and nervous for your child,but be as suportive as possible of the instructors decisions while obviously voicing your opinions if you think something isnt right,on a foot note if your child is taking part in a no head contact bout,and is wearing full body armour,it has been my experience over the years that the children are very safe(so long as they are well prepared) and the worse they will suffer is a few tears if they loose or the occasion gets to them,that is where you will be needed! good luck
I'm also interested in finding out what parents' views here (although they will be slightly biased I'm sure) are regarding full contact bouts. Say your child is now 18, and can now fight under proper adult rules, how apprehensive would you be to let them fight?
It's a bit of a grey area, we have recently (last year) moved from another gym where the instructor was inexperienced in setting up fights, so he's had silly miss-matches in the past. That coupled with my wife and myself are the only people that know what he can do (he does 4 M/A's and has been fighting since he was 6) He trains a lot at home as well but I do trust this coach but most fighters would train at home/at the gym more(he is only 12), but timeslots are limited for the gym and my son, but it is the extra training I am interested in, how much and how far (we've had the tears more in preparing for a fight than in the fight) but the more you sweat..............etc Full contact and he wants head shots, I insist on headgear and body pad but it will proberly be compulsery. Had the tears, he's been fighting F/C for 2 years now, I hate the fights, they make me ill, but he's good and enjoys it.
Had his 1st F/C fight at 10 (no headshots) This is his 1st fight with headshots, which I'm actually glad about, at 12. I hate it, I don't mind him fighting, but I can't enjoy it.
Yeah, to be honest I think if I had kids I don't think I'd want them doing it lol. The reason I ask is because my rents are pretty much dead set against it, my Mum especially, it's going to take alot of convincing.
This is an interesting topic as it took me monthes of chatting to to my rents to alow me to even consider muay thai as an option but once they spoke to the coach they were ok with it. My Mum is pretty much dead set against but my Dad is happy for me to do it as long as I enjoy what I do and know what I am getting myself into.
We're a weird family, it's a long story about us and M/A's but if you're going to train F/C then you should fight F/C (at least once). Martial arts, Muay Thai more than most, from an outsiders point of view looks brutal, but we know different (at the end of the day they're kids, a good shot will proberly result in a 10-8) edit: His Mum started Muay Thai because 1. she liked the look of it 2. He needed a training partner that could hold his pads when he hits them
I understand you thought on if you train full contact you should fight full contact but I beleive that kids should where padding as you do want to limit the damage at a young age but this is my opinion. How hard you push them is all dependant on the fighter because they must listen to their body and figure what works best. When I fight (I'm not a kid) my mum and sister goes to the show but does not watch the show as they hates watching me get hit.
