Just recently I wrote about my disgust at the scenes of very small children being coerced into fighting tournaments by their parents. Some of these kids go as young as five. These kids are involved in what is known as Muay Thai and out of interest I asked my cousin in Australia for his informed opinion.

My cousin has been involved in martial arts for twenty five years and has a long established career as an instructor of people of all ages and a well earned high reputation and profile in the sport. I mailed him the link to the report. He was appalled at what he saw and read; he called it barbaric. And so it is.

In the homeland of muay thai there is very little regulation and discipline on the commercial side of things – very young children are forced to fight and are often badly injured - so does that mean it is okay for the same thing to happen in the UK? my cousin says he has never seen anything like it happen as yet in Australia and claims that the parents, officials and organisers of these events must held accountable.

Questions need to be asked:

* what are the safety practices in place?

* are the ‘schools’ these children train at fully insured for injury?

* do instructors maintain a line of discipline with regards to sportsmanship which also extends to parental involvement so as to avoid pushy and aggressive parents and family members?…

not by the looks of things in this case. Only two things stand out to me: the lack of enthusiasm from the kids and the ruthless attitudes of the parents.  A bad combination.