gerry

Wow, you really have great perspective and obviously are speaking from much painful experience. You are correct, Austria has much to be proud of; they have had a culture for centuries rich in music and art - but then again Austrian society has also given the world horrors such as this.

I agree with you about a society which is more concerned with ‘obeying the rules’ and thank you for letting us know about that aspect of Austrian/Viennese society. It is pretty much the same in France I found - ‘the rules’ matter more than the people who have to follow them and sadly the French seem to follow many silly and restrictive rules without questioning why they even exist!

I can relate to your comments and experiences and, once again, thanks for sharing them here.

No wonder cases like this happen. Until REALLY, REALLY human rights rule this society above “rules” (very often with no sense) and they stop being slaves of rules rather than using them to protect PEOPLE (not only citizens, but all), these monsters will continue poping up, abousing their own people.

That little girl crying is enough for me. Yes, martial arts are good for people of all ages; in a natural training environment sparring is the way to improve one’s skills. But surely there has to be an age limit with regards to fighting tournaments?

And what about ‘consent’?…in my opinion that little girl is not consenting in any way shape or form. I have seen plenty of aggressive parents; in sporting areas and in the entertainment industry - in all cases they are just plain ugly.

I am just glad that there are people out there who find the idea of adults paying money to watch very young children beat each other up in the name of ‘toughening them up’ sickening. Call it what you like but Thai boxing in this form is just a polite and legitimate term for kiddie-bashing.
Thai boxing might be fine for teens and adults - but five year olds?

But in the end who gets the most out of all this…? certainly not the kids from the look of it.

Undoubtedly the images are uncomfortable, but the sport is tough, there is no easy way through it - its better to get it out of the way at a young age (as they do in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar in their respective sports) than stuggle through the pain barrier at an older age. Most people who take up this sport would agree.

On a scale of child cruelty I think this ranks undoubtedly below spoiling a child by feeding them ready meals, sweets & treats everyday and letting them rot in front of the box.

The British inability to reason with topics will once again shine through with automatic calls to ‘BAN THIS EVIL SPORT’ instead of a more logical approach regarding the regulation of various aspects of the sport, such as the physiological aspect of training 6/7 days a week (we all remember how this was not the done thing when playing football as a youngster) or allowing the kids to fight in front of crowds of stranger (thats too much for a young mind to take in - in my humble opinion).

Another topic for discussion is the driving force of the parents motives, its similar to the massive increase in parental side-lines aggression in junior football.

However, I have no doubt that these youngsters will be a lot better of nutritionally than many many of their contemporaries and are unlikely to feature in future news reports about fat unhealthy kids.

I just hope the British public can discuss this logically instead of the usual “as a parent I am going to immediately subscribe to a point of view that makes me look like I’m a better parent”.

Please remember that Thai Boxing for youngsters has been going on for years, but in this case it is the zeal with which the parents pursue it that is disturbing as opposed to the idea of the sport for youngsters. Which is part of the wider issue i mentioned earlier.

I suggest people visit Thai Boxing gyms that cater for children before they make their judgement.

But I know they won’t. This is the UK after all. We don’t like the look of it. So we’ll ban it. The end.