I agree with the mom..kick the snot out of him. How many years of bullying is one supposed to take? (Since bullies seem to grow up to be SEIU/Acorn types lets teach them lessons earlier in life.)
So the kid should just shut up and allow himself to be used as a punching bag?
How lame.
If you want to stop a bully, let him know you're willing to stand up and fight.
Good for mom!
We've mystified the (Asian) Martial Arts so much in the west, its pathetic, which is why I was such a huge fan of Mixed Martial Arts, when it showed that hey, its just another way to fight.
This kid needs to be shown how he can be quiet, confident, and avoid confrontation when he can. But when he can't, he needs to be able to defend himself with whatever means neccessary.
I have two young sons, whom I plan on personally teaching some wrestling skills, as well as enrolling them in martian/mixed arts classes, and hell yes, they'll know that if they must, then they have my permission to defend themselves, and that incluces kicking the snot out of someone.
However, something that I found out is that, once you have that confidence, you will seldom, if ever, actually need to do it. Other kids will just know..
Self defense is just that. You defend yourself if attacked. Discipline means that you don’t go looking for confrontation, but you handle it if it comes Your way.
Discipline also means that you only use the force necessary to eliminate the threat, be it warning, bruising, breaking, maiming or killing.
So the kid, when confronted by the bully, says “I don’t want to hurt you”, and if pressed follows it up with a warning block and counterblow. After that the bully gets to choose if and how badly he gets hurt!
The kid should know how to defend himself but the escalation of the violence isn’t the answer. Where are the teachers that allow a kid to be bullied for years?
How about this. Send the kid to martial arts school, have a sitdown with the school, the kid’s parents and the local police. If it happens one more time, the bully goes to juvie, the parents of the brat get sued, the teachers get suspended.
"If it builds his self-esteem, it can be a good thing," said Brenda Morrison, professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. "[But] it's better to walk away. Aggression usually breeds further violence. You can't get to a good place in a bad way."
Golly, Brenda it never occurred to ANYONE to walk-away...thanks for that. But here in the real world the bullies usually take that as a sign of weakness and it only encourages them.
"Martial arts is not about kicking and punching," said Sonny Pabuaya, instructor at Iron Fist Tae Kwon Do in Winnipeg. "That's a misconception people have because that's what they see in the movies."
So says the man who spends his days teaching people how to kick and punch.
"Violence only invokes more violence," said Diego Beltran, who runs Guardian Dojo-Kyokushin Karate Canada Inc. in Winnipeg. "I'm in total disagreement with the lady."
Violence, aimed at the appropriate person or persons, usually results in peace. I think Mr. Beltran must moonlight at the U.N. crafting "strongly worded protests" to tyrants that are busy murdering.
One of my Squad Leaders taught his wife’s son from a previous marriage how to hit since he was being bullied at school. My Squad Leader told him to go to school the next day and beat up the bully. Not only walk up and hit him, but hit him until he was too exhausted to hit anymore.
The kid did, he got expelled, but I’ll bet that bully thinks twice before screwing with other kids.
***Martial arts instructors are condemning a Winnipeg mother’s decision to enrol her bullied son in kick-boxing classes and give him permission to retaliate against his tormentors. ***
And what is wrong with that? Even Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim machine gun, would frequent bars just to beat up the local bar bullies.
There are two kinds of martial arts schools. One kind is derisively called a “McDojo”, because it plays to the illusion that martial arts is about something other than a dirt-dog brawl, and is more like a dance class. In a real fight, a black belt from such a school is useful only in holding someone’s pants up.
To understand a real martial arts school, is to leave the popular illusion of the idealized America, and see the vicious brutality of the world, often life-or-death brutality. For many years, such schools were forbidden in the Soviet Union, and their practitioners faced death, so practiced and taught students in secret. Finally it was realized that these brutal and sometimes murderous techniques would be of great value, and they were legalized and embraced. Even Russia’s ex-president Putin is a serious Judoka, a skill he had to learn as a member of the Soviet Army’s intelligence service, the GRU.
But both styles of America school discourage learning for “immediate revenge”. The McDojo’s, because it will become painfully clear that what they teach is worthless; and the serious schools, because they know that it takes much practice, strength and endurance, to learn how to fight.
The irony of becoming a serious martial artist is that it changes ones “countenance”, that most villains will spot and avoid, seeking easier prey. This means that unless they go looking for trouble, martial artists rarely get into fights.
The exception being those with fools who are blurred by alcohol, who would offer to punch a 500 pound gorilla, or a police officer with a Taser.
Martial arts also teaches diplomacy, because students learn who not to fight, because they would likely lose, so they had better be adept at avoiding conflict.
Bunch of weasel “martial arts” instructors you got there up north.
A real one would have imparted this wisdom:
Never strike the first blow. Always strike the last blow.
My martial arts instructor never said not to defend yourself, just told us to avoid fights when you could. Some people don’t respect you unless you stand up to them was my experience in school. I made friends, of sorts, with one real turd of a bully by being willing to stand up to him. The public schools really drum pacifist attitudes into the kids nowadays I have noticed as my son has gone through school.
the whole point of martial arts is so you get a kick in and then either have enough time to run away or pull out your weapon. But a martial arts ‘fight’ is stupid. You’ll probably get thrown on concrete or screwed if the bully has friends and/or weapons.
Okay.