My little brother got beaten today

[y2_sub]

I was on my way home today when I say my little brother ( 10 years old fat boy ,loll ) fighting with his friend and the other kids watching them , any way , my bro was bigger than the other boy but that didn't help him defeating him , that’s not the point , the point is , my brother was "Slapping" (open hands ) while the other boy was punching " using his knuckles " , what I did is , instead of separating them , I told my bro to use his fist and was actually cheering him , now , I feel bad about myself , my brother and the other boy since they were both hurt , in the other hand I think that was a good experience for him , I mean fighting in the street may help him build his character , what do u think ??

[Kajukenbopr]

There are better ways to build his character: formal training, discipline, teachings, morals, brotherly support.

However, by cheering him on to fight, you could just make him into a hothead who could get into trouble. Either that or a bully just because his brother told him it was cool to beat up smaller kids...

[Ninjitsu]

I think you should have broken the two guys up. Your little bro is ten he does not need to be fighting, by the way what was he fighting about?

[SubGrappler]

He needs that experience- I would have done exactly the same thing you did.

You can learn alot of things about yourself, your style, and the flaws of you techniques (or better yet, a technique you realize you can rely on).

[glockmeister]

I dont think you should feel bad. Your brother will have to learn to defend himself and stand up for himself. I was kinda brought up the same way. If some bigger kid was giving me a hard time, my father would have insisted I stand up for myself and beat him, I am not sure if I would have cheered him but to tell him to use his fist was good. Now the other kid may think twice before bothering him and it will be a lesson to the other kids before they start anything.

Kid's fight. It happens. may as well accept it. And teach him to defend himself. You described him as a "fat boy" not sure how fat but sometimes kids liek to pick on the "fat kid" so rest assured, some good fighting skills may be needed, then he wont get picked on as much.

[Triddle]

You probably didn't do too bad of a thing, id go tell him now that fighting is bad unless someone else is attacking you, and then teach him abit about fighting if i was you. Perhaps teach him abit of dirty fighting, incase he ever really needs to defend himself, not too dirty though, you dont want him putting the other kids eyes out also, id encourage him to get fit, since you said hes fat, its alot easier to get fit when your 10 than 20. He'll thank you for it later im sure (probably once hes a teenager and his hormones are going he'll really thank you, lol). But yeah, im sure encouraging him to defend himself and teaching him to use closed fists isnt going to turn him into a pure evil fighting machine

[EndlessDave]

I've been assisting my instructor with the younger kids' classes at my school for the last three years or so, so I have a lot of experience in how to do deal with karate re: little kids. Most of my students are around the ages of 8 - 10. In my opinion, I think you should have broken them up. While it is possible to learn much about oneself in a street fight, kids that young really don't have anything to learn about yet. As his older brother, you are a role model to him; your influence is strong on him. After stopping the fight, THEN you should have talked to him and gave him the "fighting is bad, but if you HAVE to fight, then this is the way to do it..." speech.

You shouldn't encourage your little brother to just fight for a couple reasons. At his age he's not particularly likely to get hurt in a street fight, but as he gets older the fights get steadily more dangerous, especially as younger and younger kids these days are carrying weapons like baseball bats or knives. It's also not unheard of for even kids to organize "jump mobs" after a fight - fighting could get your little bro in serious trouble if he doesn't understand what "self defense" means. The law gets increasingly more strict about fighting as people get older as well. Just remember all that.

[tsdtony]

never encourage a chiled that young to fight.He does need to learn to defind him self but there are better ways.I fell he will think you are condoning violance which might make him more liable to fight the next kid.BUt what were thay fighting for over a toy or a bad name not worth it.I agree when you in a battel never back down but you beang his brouther shouldent of cheard him on.you simply should of watched and when it was done tell him there are better ways.Than get him into selfdefince dont approve fightring in children that young.there not muture anuf to relize fighing isint cool and only should be done when you have no choice.

[Meguro]

Encouraging anyone, children or adults, to settle their differences in the street is wrong. Cheering your little brother on, does not build his character. It only reinforces the misperception that violence is acceptable in all circumstances.

Obviously there will be situations when people will need to defend themselves. Thankfully, these situations are very rare for most of us. Adults, MA instructors, teachers should inform kids how to recognize when violence is appropriate and when it is not.

If you want to build your brother's character, spend some quality time with him, invite him to join you in the dojo, have him join a sports club or team. There are better ways for children to build character than brawling.

[JusticeZero]

Well, talk to them afterward. Some fights are reasonable. Some aren't. Hard to tell in a situation like that. If they're already in the fight, best to give them some backup and assume they know what they're doing, in my book, though i'd think de-escalating it while taking his side would be good too. But afterwards i'd want to know what happenned, and if it was lame would probably be a good time to suggest some change.

Something like, "Dude, i'm your bro and i've got your back, but that sounded like a pretty weak reason for a fight, and i'd rather not have to bail you out and have it turn out that you started it for some stupid reason.."

Anyways, slapping can be really, really effective if you know how to use it. Use hip rotation and step-through and you can potentially break someone's jaw, with much less chance of damaging your hand than you would with a punch given the same low amount of conditioning. Mind, most people don't know how to slap, and the way that Boxing is ingrained into American culture means that when someone does get an inspiration to do an "untrained" attack with something resembling structure and body dynamics, it's a Boxing punch and thus closed fist. When it comes to showing people hand techniques, I really only cover the slaps (and elbows, and wrist strikes) as a rule because hey, we all have desk jobs now. We gotta be able to type.