Dad's Little Princess Takes to the Ring... At 8?

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Now, I'm certainly a fan of kids doing sports (though obviously I could have used more as a child myself), and there are worse things to do to a kid (boy or girl) than send them to martial arts lessons. However, I believe that is way beyond any normal limits.

Spoiler

FAMILIES flood news websites with angry comments after kickboxing world champion John Wayne Parr passionately defended his decision to allow his eight-year-old daughter to glove up and step into the ring.

"Princess" Jasmine Parr, 8, and her seven-year-old opponent Georgina "Punchout" Barton, 7, slugged it out at the Broadbeach Waters PCYC on the Gold Coast on Saturday night.

The young duo fought in front of a crowd of 500, some of whom were drinking, and at the end the girls received cash tips from onlookers.

Jasmine, cried during the fight and admitted she had been scared of her opponent. After the fight she told the Gold Coast Bulletin she didn't want to do it again until she was at least 10.

The Gold Coast Bulletin website was flooded with comments from angry families after pictures from the fight were released online.

Chris M of Currumbin wrote: "I'm just glad that I'm not the only one who is sickened by those photos of those little girls punching each other and to be actually hit so hard they become airborne. NO wonder the little girl said she doesn't want to do it anymore. In an adult arena and judging by the crowd, all those men. MY GOD."

Some compared the fight to cockfighting and questioned whether an eight-year-old had the mental ability to deal with the fight.

Bulletin reader Louise wrote: "I would say the reason why the girl was crying was that she is way too young to deal with having to hit someone who has done nothing wrong to you. It takes a certain mindset to be toe to toe with someone and to hit them to knock them out for sporting reasons and I don't believe at the age of 8 is a proper age to deal with those emotions. Train - fair enough - but leave the competition ring until they are older."

Health experts had criticised the fight, saying Jasmine and Georgina were too young to be slugging it out and could suffer brain damage.

But Parr, who recently won his eighth world title, said the fight was "beautiful to watch" and Jasmine had "loved it".

"My daughter and I shared an experience which no medical expert will ever understand," he said.

"It was amazing, it was history and something we'll never forget. Jasmine is already talking about her next fight."

With the Courier Mail / Gold Coast Bulletin

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/kic...te/story-e6frfkvr-1226078167645#ixzz1S4BdUlBZ

Seriously, man. Okay, she might have a great trainer and fine genes, but couldn't she at least get of an age ending in "teen" before she goes into a match? Yes, you could get injured running or playing football, but for some reason I wouldn't put either of these in quite the same category as 8-year olds trying to knock out each other.

 

Not sure how I feel about that one.

The problem with sports these days is that if you want to turn pro you have to start very, very young. This becomes a dangerous problem when you get to to sports like kickboxing.

Look at the age Formula 1 drivers start driving and pro tennis players start at sometimes 3 or 4 years old. The pressure to succeed is so much that you don't have any choice but to start young and it is a choice made by your parents not you.

It's just the way sports work these days. On the other hand the crowd at this event were drinking and handing out cash tips to the 8 year old fighters, thats a bit sick.

 

I don't know - you see lots of kids in martial arts that compete in various tournaments when they are around this age. Although I will concede that in a competition setting, most martial arts don't focus on trying to injure your opponent. Then again, I'm not sure that the girls were trying to cause any significant harm to each other either.

I guess my other question is can an 8-year girl actually knock out another 8-year girl with a punch? Especially with all of the head gear on to help prevent injuries. I watched the video, and it didn't look like they were swinging with anywhere near the force necessary to injure each other seriously. Like I said, they have all that head protection on, and the kicks were aimed that their opponent's legs.

I'm having a hard time mustering the disdain and indignation that others seem to have for it. I think some of the anger is because they are girls. 8-year old boys do all kinds of martial arts and wrestling when the are that age all the time.

 

My only real issue would be with doing it in front of a crowd other than parents and close relatives.

 

I agree with that, but perhaps the match was scheduled as part of a larger tournament where there were also non-juveniles competing? The article linked doesn't say either way. I seriously doubt you'd get 500 people showing up just to watch a couple of 8-year olds slug it out.

 

Well... I don't think anyone in their classes will dare bully them

It's a martial art, there are certain guidelines and standards held to that, whilst certain ones are more lax in regard to the level of 'acceptable harm' it doesn't really matter what age you are if your opponent decides to go overboard.

I think I'm with Aldeth, it seems to be more an outrage that it's a little girl enjoying a martial sport, if they were boys it would probably be passed off as more a bit of rough and tumble fun.

In the UK there is a significant difference between the number of people in martial arts that are male and female, there seems to be a preconception that if a woman is doing, or wishes to do, a martial art it should be in the context of a "self defense class"

 

Same in the US. Heaven forbid that a girl would actually want to COMPETE in a contact sport. That's why I said I think the issue is that they're girls, and girls "aren't supposed to do thing like that". That's why I think there's some mysoginistic aspects to the reactions we're seeing. Like I said, we see boys engaging in contact sports at that age all the time.

 

I think that as a society we need to be more careful about the sports we allow our children to compete in, and the intensity at which we push the sport. That applies to both boys and girls. Some examples:

I'm no expert, but I believe that weightlifting at pre-pubescent ages can do more damage than it aids if it's not carefully regulated.

I've heard that ballet should be regulated as some moves can cause serious damage if performed too soon. I've heard that in context of girls it can really screw them up, and I'd bet it's true for boys.

Really rough sports like football and hockey should avoid full contact until skill levels and body development are sufficiently advanced. I'm not super plugged into the world of kid's hockey here in the Great White North, but it is my understanding that bodychecking simply isn't part of the game until the kids are around 13 or so.

In addition to all of that, kids shouldn't be forced into a sport they don't want to compete in just to plume up the egos of stupid parents. That may not be the case here, but it does happen.

 

As far as I know, most martial arts competitions for kids focus on katas and other non-contact disciplines. Sparring is I think reserved for higher belts (and thus likely ages), and is still regulated tightly. There is also (usually) additional protection for the body. Here, I think the girls were going at it a lot more freely than you'd see, say, in a Taekwondo tournament for kids. Then again, I'm surprised (and a little dismayed) at the father of the 8-year old, yet the other girl is 7. Good grief. Yeah, the kids probably get one heck of an adrenaline rush afterwards and were happy as birds, but hey, it's all fun and games until someone gets a concussion. Sure, the chance is low, but I'd rather the kid went into the ring a bit later.

Aldeth, I don't know if I'd feel just the same way if it were boys and not girls, maybe not quite. However, my bigger issue here is the age. I think if it were girls at 12 and 11, I wouldn't care much about it. Now, I don't feel all that strongly about it, but it strikes me as irresponsible on behalf of her dad. Maybe a bit self-indulgent, really - he wants her to do that because he's doing it.

 

Most sports and martial arts can be dangerous at any age, if you fall wrong or misjudge you can get hurt. In my opinion, martial arts are best taught young, where the body is naturally flexable, children naturally fall correctly and the fear of injury and thus hesitation is reduced. Children are also much easier to teach as they are less likely to question or try to 'improve' what they are doing.

On to safety, all possible steps are taken as with any sport to reduce injury, you train on padded mats, and you spar with head protection and various types of hand protection depending on the kind of sparring you are doing, as with anything, people get hurt from time to time, its rarely serious kids fall down on the school yard. Learning martial arts at a young age would be very rewarding, I wish I was given the option.