http://www.isfsports.org/). The meeting was facilitated through the School Games Federation of India and the Indian Olympic Association. While AIMMAA is fast developing as a national body for MMA in India it is also focusing on specific departments which act as wholly owned subsidiaries. One such division is the AIMMAA’s ‘Sport MMA’ division led by President Sharif Bapu, hailing from Mumbai. ‘Sport MMA’ is the name given to AIMMAA’s youth MMA rule sets of light contact and semi contact sparring.. Daniel Isaac presented AIMMAA’s youth rules, ‘Sport MMA’, to the schools federations delegates and they received it with great interest. The topics of conversation included the development of MMA at a youth level and inclusion in school combat games in India. While MMA was orginally born onto a professional platform for highly trained and skilled martial artists, as the sport has increased in popularity there has been growing demand for safe progressional pathways into the sport for beginners and for minors – as in taekwondo, judo and every established discipline. It is widely understood that full contact MMA can only be participated in by very experienced athletes. In some countries, beginners start by training in core sports such as grappling, for example, and then adding other disciplines (e.g. stand up striking) as they evolve. In other countries, including India, Northern Ireland and Cameroon, national governing bodies have evolved training systems and modified rules tournaments that allow youths and beginners to train in MMA from the outset but with advanced techniques and risks removed. AIMMAA’s ‘Sport MMA’ is such a system, and it is a government requirement for sport recognition in India that a sport has its own progression pathway and is accessible to all. In Northern Ireland the government is funding youth MMA training camps, under the umbrella of charity ‘Fight For Peace‘; while in Cameroon, “Educational MMA” is being taught in state schools for its health and mental benefits. In Sport MMA competitions, under 14s compete under light contact ‘Sport MMA’ sparring rules, and under 19s compete under semi-contact sparring rules. Full contact MMA under IMMAF Amateur rules is permitted only for those of the ages of 18 and 19. MMA community opinion is divided both on youth progression pathways and on modified rules, with different cultural perspectives and martial arts heritages coming into play. IMMAF is yet to endorse any youth schemes. [caption id="attachment_6675" align="alignnone" width="1280"]
AIMMAA and ISF delegates[/caption]]]>
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