Different Sort of Martial Arts Influencing Teenagers

A 9th grader of Busan D Middle School “A” (15) was sent to an emergency room in a hospital. He was playing “different sort of martial arts” game with his friend B during lunch time, and had his nose broken.

A used a skill he had seed from Brazilian marital art athlete Wandarei Silva, knee-kick to B (presses the neck with both arms and hits the chin with the knee), and enraged B corresponded with elbow-blow, that hit A’s nose. Elbow hitting is a dangerous skill only used in USA UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and Muay Thai.

This different sort of martial arts competition in which 2 athletes attack each other with blood dripping all over is becoming popular among the teenagers.

They get injured while imitating the game, and some teenagers argue in the Internet with the subject of “how to give more impact to the opponent”. “No-rule fighting” the most brutal sports is only allowed to watch for over 19, but is being broadcasted on TV during the daytime in the weekends. The teenagers are exposed to violence without protection.

Kim (15), a middle school student in Busan says, “Students` fighting used to be light exchange of blows, but the skills shown from TV are applied to result in serious injuries such as breaking the arm.”

Another high school student in Seoul, Choi, was attacked with the skill arm bar (skill that snaps and twists the arm) and injured his wrist. Also, Seoul S High School student C (17) used knee-kick to his classmate and sprained his right thumb.

A 10th grader (16) in this school said, “The fighting skills are becoming a more popular subject for talk than TV dramas or entertainers.” and added, “Stress flies away when we watch the fight, and sometimes I feel like doing that.”

Different sort of martial arts means fighters with different martial arts compete one another to see who is the strongest. Among the matches, there is a reckless “No rule fight” that allows nearly all fighting skills, not much different from street fight.

SKY KBS is broadcasting PRIDE-FC, a no-rule fight from Japan through cable and satellite channels from early this year. (Rated over 19) New fights appeared with the popularity of this program including SPRIT-MC, Neofight, and the TV channels are broadcasting the fights in the daytime in the weekend. SKY KBS perplexed the TV audience by broadcasting the fights on Chuseok at daytime when the family members gathered.

Professor Choi Gyu-man of Sungshin Women`s University Dept. of Psychology said, “The problem is that the brutal sports is exposed to teenagers without filtering. Parents should guide their children since the kids may show hostility as they have the psychology to imitate.”

Sun-Woo Kim sublime@donga.com