I was at well known interclub at the weekend, a very well organised event with the correct levels of contacts, great referee, brilliant venue and mutual respect and friendship offered by the organisers and other instructors. I was attending for the first time and had taken half a dozen of my fighters to check out the event before taking all my junior students next time. (a precaution to check levels of contact)
For me a prerequisite for anyone at my gym to fight is that firstly they want to participate and secondly they have the right skill set and sufficient knowledge so that they don't get hurt. Don't get me wrong we have had people taking part in interclubs after as little as one months training, I won't hold people back if they able and willing to put on a good show. For safety sake they do need to know how to throw the techniques correctly and safely for themselves and their opponent.
As I was sitting drinking coffee and chilling before my fighters needed to warm up, I was watching other clubs warming up - In particular one club whose gym is local to mine and who spent a lot of time and money trying to poach my students. I was encouraged to see that their fighters were shambolic, their technique was poor, fitness was non existent, and the fighters that trained with me before being poached had taken a massive backwards step in terms of overall performance since leaving. Oh well you might add - serves them right! - Correct, I couldn't care less what other clubs are doing, that gyms expensive advertising simply increases our numbers.
What annoyed me enough to post this blog was the appearance that this particular gym and the parents involved seemed to be forcing the kids to fight. One girl was crying during the warmup, crying on the way to the ring, the interclub was stopped every ten seconds while she blarted her way back to the corner after the smallest knock and at not one point did her instructor appear to consider pulling her out. Not at one point did they show any thought or respect for her opponent who had been prepared correctly for the fight and was tragically let down though this mismatch. Worst of all five minutes later they put her in for her second fight of the day. This is inappropriate at many levels up to bullying and in my opinion is child abuse. The audience were in shock as they boldly presented her back into the ring crying all the way.
Several years ago a TV media company created a fly on the wall documentary that followed several Muay Thai Gyms, instead of focusing on the good that children get from Thai Boxing training they turned on the Muay Thai community creating a scathing documentary that rocked the art for many years - they focused on kids doing interclubs and seemed to only film kids that were upset or being pushed into the ring by parents. Don't get me wrong, kids will get upset in the ring, I've had children cry in the ring when they have fallen or think they are letting people down. Stopping the fight is always a difficult decision to reach however if the child is unable to continue, too upset, if there is potential for the child to get hurt because they are not prepared its a no brainer!
I hope and prey that nobody put any of these fights onto youtube - Muay Thai could be in for a rocky few month thanks to one idiot and his poor judgement.
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