Me vs. 10-year old black belt-- Who would win?

Factual Questions
1

Let’s assume for a moment that there’s some little 10-year old punk in my neighborhood that I want to smack around a little. And let’s assume that kid is a black belt in Karate (or the martial art(s) of your choice).

Who’s got the advantage in this fight-- me, a fully grown, 30-something adult with no clearly developed fighting skills, or the 10-year old black belt? Obviously, the kid knows all manner of attacks and defenses that I don’t, but I’m certainly going to be larger and stronger. Assuming we’re normal speciments for our ages, who’s got the greater advantage? And assuming that it’s not an even matchup, how much do I have to adjust the kid’s age to make this a fair fight? A 15-year old black belt? An 8-year old?

That’s a pay-per-view I might actually watch: ordinary adults duking it out with martial arts whiz kids.

2

First, any kid under the age of 15 or 16 (16 in my dojo) is going to have a junior black belt. The testing and work involved is just nowhere near what is required for an adult black belt in a good school (now in a bad school … well, don’t get me started).

So, assuming a good school, just about any kid under the age of 15 just isn’t going to stand a chance. There is little they could do to beat you in a stand up fight. Their biggest problem is a lack of power. You could argue maybe that a 14 yr old might be strong enough, but certainly anybody younger is not going to be able to beat you. Escape from you? Yes, possibly so, but fight to the knockout or what-have-you. No way. My money on you 10/10 times.

Now, at that 14-16 yr range then if I assume you both have a good mindset things get a bit more interesting. Assuming all things (especially mindset) being equal and assuming a good school, my money is on the 16 yr old martial artist 6/10 times, the 15 yr old 5/10 times, and the 14 yr old 4/10 times.

I feel obliged to point out that putting your hands on a minor, let alone striking them, is assaulting a minor, and is illegal. So, if you are wondering if you can take the 10 yr old punk down the street you might want to reconsider from a legal perspective.

3

I agree with glitch. But you want to protect your gonads.

4

Yeah, you’ve got the reach on him. If he comes at you with all of his fancy moves, you can just put your hand on his head and watch his flail away.

5

his = him

6

“you can just put your hand on him head” ? I think it’s back to grammar school for you, Ike.

7

Going against the grain, a bit here. I would think that if the kid is reasonably crafty and quick, he stand s a good chance of getting the better of you. If you can latch on and protect your sensitive spots, then you’ve probably got enough leverage to whup the little punk… However, if he’s worth his salt and is thinking on his feet, he’s not going to let you grab hold. He’s going to kick at you and duck away, kick and duck, eventually making some serious connections.

I saw a fight once where a 12 year old, 75 lb. karate kid did some serious whuppin’ on an 18 year old, 200 lb. bully. The bully was bothering the kid’s older sister so the kid stepped in to defend his sister’s honor. After about 5 minutes of continuous blows from the karate kid, said bully was in tears and crawling for his life. Bully boy was not known for his coordination or intelligence, so this is not necessarliy a fair test… but hey, I found it entertaining.

8

If you get in a fight w/ a 10 yr old, you’ve lost.

9

Geez, Arnold W, I was posting whilst in my Huckleberry Finn disguise!

(throwing straw hat down in disgust) Man, I have to explain EVERYTHING around here.

Uke

10

Personally, Whenever I fight ten year olds, I try to get my hands on an equalizer.

A gun, knife, hell, even a broken bottle or a two by for can go along towards defending yourself against the vile scum that is a prepubescent child.

If it’s at all possible continue to beat the child repeatedly about the head if you are succesful in knocking it down. Children these days are remarkably resilient and you would be surprised at the amount of force necessary to put them out of commission.

If that doesn’t work you can always send them to their room.

11

I’m with Joey. ( Putting aside the heinous Assaulting a Minor charge for the moment). I made High Red before I left Tae Kwon Do. My 9 1/2 year old made Black Belt last fall. My daughter (8) tests in three weeks for hers. YES, a Junior Black Belt. The color/rank of the belt is almost meaningless; it’s how much high quality sparring instruction the child has had.
I don’t spar, ever. I loved TKD for other reasons, but I understand the process. A 10 year old can muster enough velocity to shatter a kneecap quickly. She/He can also do damage around the groin, and perhaps one good hard kick higher up at the solar plexus/neck area- IF the sparring techniques have been highly developed. It’s a terribly dangerous sport at that level.
I would never underestimate a child with this kind of instruction. While I abhor fighting ( My kids DON’T spar ever), I have seen kids their age at tournaments. Weight and height are decieving, folks. Two well placed blows would win the fight.
I do repeat, I agree that the idea of this is both immoral and illegal. I don’t promote the idea of a fight with a small child as entertainment. I simply offer some thoughts from someone with some training. I don’t think my kid could win it- thank god. But then, pacifist though I am, anyone who would dare to go after my son or daughter would need to spend some time with me as well. The parents’ prerogative. :slight_smile:

Cartooniverse

If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.

12

Strength, mass, reach, leverage: the advantages of a fully grown man are more than enough to overcome whatever training a 10 year old has been able to internalize. 999,999/1,000,000. One in million shots do happen, but don’t bet your kid’s life on it.

The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
*

13

Don’t mean diddly if you never get a hand on the kid!

14

My two cents. Adults have a higher pain tolerance. You puch me in the face now, I’m gonna grit my teeth and puch you back, you puch me in the face when I was ten, I run home crying to mommy. Of course, I was kind of a whimpy kid. :slight_smile:

15

I have to disagree with Glitch.

Speaking as someone who achieved the rank of black belt in Tang Soo Do at the age of 10, I can say that this was NOT a “Junior” ranking. I went through exactly the same tests that all of the adults had to go through to get there. My instructor even stated at the end of the testing that after all of the practice and effort I had put into this (over 5 years of training),I had acheived 1st dan, SENIOR CLASS.

As for the OP, I would say that my skills were honed enough then that I could probably have held my own if the situation had come up. I certainly did when sparring a lot of the adults in the club.

-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz

16

First a 10 yr old trained in the martial arts would do better than one not trained.

But I gotta go with Glitch on this one. He is an instructor and has done so for quite some time and has been involved with martial arts for most of his life. I am not saying that the others do not know what they are talking about, but I trust Glitch as I am sure he has dealt with numerous children and has quite a bit of experience with their abilities.

Jeffery

17

I’d say it depends on suprise. If the adult was a molestor trying to grab the kid, they’d probably be beaten senseless, having their kneecaps and groin attacked, then their face and torso when they hit the ground, simply because nobody expects a 10-yo to take out a kneecap and plant a few quick punches to the nuts.

But, if the adult expected it…

As long as you don’t go rushing in like a classic movie bully, you’d be fine. Just protect your vitals and keep your knees safe. Eventually you’ll get a good shot at the kid and they’ll go down.

I really doubt a 10-yo would have enough force to make most fight-ending shots effective. A kick to the nuts, or a non-snap kick to the knee, maybe. Anything else, it might hurt, but would lack the effectiveness the blow would have, were it used by someone larger.
Everyone has heard the saying “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”, but the real ending to that is “the harder they hit.”

In Karate class I was sparring with the sensei… It was interesting. He was 6’2" and 280 or so, just a massive guy. It didn’t slow him down though, or not enough that I could get any benefit from it. But when he did connect it was that much harder to grab/deflect the blows. He could launch a much harder attack without throwing himself off balance.
So, I’d say that a martial art would make your child much more able to protect themselves against being kidnapped or molested, but against a serious opponent, or in the spirit of Grizzly vs Tiger, they’d be toast.

18

Cartooniverse:

Not bloody likely. The average adult can take two to three hits in the center of mass from a pistol before going down. Although true that even a single lucky shot can happen to end a fight the odds of it happening are stunningly poor. Loss of fine motor control, tunnel vision, and hyper sensitive/reactive muscle make fine tune aiming of the fist or foot near impossible in a serious fight.

When I was mugged and stabbed twice in the back, I received several more minor cuts and only collapsed later. I struck my opponent at least a dozen times the last blow being with his head propped against a brick wall (which police told me fractured his skull).

Two average blows from anybody, let alone a small child is not going to stop a determined opponent, which is the assumption here, unless they happen to be dead lucky.

Dragwyr: I would never purposefully insult your training; however, consider the logic behind what you are saying? How difficult physically can a test be if a 10 yr old can do it? I mean it isn’t like we are talking about two 3 hour “torture” sessions (Arigato Shihan, OSU) over 2 days now, right?

Also, please do not confuse sparring with fighting. The two are completely different beasts.

Heck, when the kids spar me they “hold their own” typically because I don’t take their heads off.

Respectfully, I suspect that the test simply wasn’t all that physically difficult if it was in fact the same test for 10 yr olds and adults (are you sure? Did you see the adult test? Or did maybe sensei tell you that to fill you with self esteem?).

And respectfully, I suspect that the adults didn’t go at you full bore when you were very young. If they did, they would be assholes. I mean seriously, just think about it for a second, if you were in a dojo today as an adult sparring with a 10 yr old how hard would you really go at him? I assume we are talking about rough sparring here and not tag sparring. If we are talking about tag sparring … well then sure, feel free to lightly tap the kid as much as you like (in fact, the kid probably has an edge because he has less open target area), but this hardly equates to being able to hold your own in a fight against an adult who is trying to knock your block off.

19

This is a good topic.
I keep thinking of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer decides to take karate lessons, (which he naturally pronounces as “kara-tay”)
but his classmates are all elementary-school age.
When Jerry catches wind of the situation he goes, “You don’t need karate, you can just wring their necks.”

20

I agree with Glitch completely, and I taught Karate to children. This ‘one or two blows will stop anyone’ is a dangerous myth that just has to be debunked whenever possible.

A 10 year old simply does not have much power. He also doesn’t have much reach. I taught karate to children for years, including some high-ranking belts (in my style we don’t give black belts to kids but they can make brown). I could hold a padded shield and let a 10-year old kick it all day and hardly be able to feel the impact. A big man with good technique will rock me back with a good kick unless I’m braced very well.

You could beat a 10-year old black belt by doing not much more than walking up to him while he’s punching and kicking you, knocking him down and sitting on him. End of fight.

Really, these killer-karate kids are a product of moviemaker’s imaginations. They don’t exist in real life. And kids and parents who think they do are putting the kids at risk.