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The MMA Kicks it High School Style
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Written by Matt Blevins, Reporter
“Oh, it’s too violent!” “It’ll never happen.” These phrases have been uttered by hundreds, possibly thousands of parents who are against mixed martial arts becoming a high school sport or club. I understand the argument that kids are fighting in school, but there’s a counter to that argument. It would all be in a controlled environment with safety equipment, and could provide a great anger and stress reliever to kids which would in turn cut down on fights in school. But what happens if someone gets hurt? Of course there is the possibility of injury, that’s the same in every sport. The average football collision generates about 5,000 pounds of force, while the average takedown or slam only generates about 3,000 pounds and the average punch only generating around 1,200. Now, call me crazy, but that’s a pretty big difference to me considering high school football is one of the most popular sports schools offer nowadays.
At first glance, most administrators would laugh at the thought of MMA making its way into high schools. But why not, because it’s too aggressive, too dangerous, too much liability? Well, from 1945 to 1999 there was at least one football related fatality every year, with the majority of those being high schools. Also, from 1989 to 1999 there were 69 permanently disabling head injuries, with 60 of those being related to high school and the rest to college and pro leagues. Now let’s take a look at the stats for mma. From 1972 to the present there have only been two deaths and amazingly only about a dozen permanently disabling head injuries. These statistics all come from The Journal of Athletic Injuries, which is one of the most reputable sports medicine sites on the web.
This sport would also help kids who feel overshadowed by kids who dominate the sports. Junior Allen Stone says “I’ve always wanted to play school sports but haven’t really seen one that I could thrive at. So the possibility of mixed martial arts becoming a sport here at DB could greatly help become greater at the sport I love.” Personally, I agree. I too train and workout for MMA but sometimes it’s not enough to just train a couple times every few weeks! Being able to compete and train here at school could help any student involved become better at MMA.
When this topic first came to mind, I thought that no school would ever have mma as a sport. But after further research, I found a small high school just outside of Boston that’s had this program for many years. In Goo Kwak, the team’s founder, started the program back in 2006 and since then there have been absolutely no serious injuries or deaths. Kwak campaigned for years before the team started but since it has, it’s offered students an outlet for stress and the school has noticed fights on campus have gone down drastically. So hearing all of this info on the positives of this sport would have one wondering about the negatives. Throughout all of the research, I found next to no serious negatives. There’s always the ever-present possibility of injury, but you can get injured or even killed in most sports these days.
So I guess now it’s up the parents and administration to decide where they stand on this issue. I’m sure that I’ve changed the way a couple people view MMA, and hopefully those people could pass it along. MMA is the sport I love, and I know I’m not the only one at DB that trains so hear me out when I say, lets give this sport, and our kids, a chance!
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