© Marc Wickert,
www.knucklepit.com

Internationally acclaimed fighting events such as UFC, Cage Rage, and IFL provide avenues for some of the world's elite mixed martial artists to compete and hone their skills.

However, not all martial artists originally take up a fighting system to compete in sporting events. Many partake in a self-defense system as a means of protecting themselves from bullying and assault.

When The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man, Charles Atlas, asked: "Are you tired of getting sand kicked in your face?" millions of people started sending away for his bodybuilding, exercise and health secrets.

Over the years, other victims of bullying have chosen to visit their local dojo to defend themselves by learning judo throws and karate chops. It appears being pushed around dates back to the Stone Age. From time to time, even Barney was a victim of Fred's standover tactics.

In their book, Be Aware, authors Bill Wakefield and Ros McCarthy call bullying the 'silent nightmare'. Bill says this is because kids who are victims of bullying often keep it to themselves.

"The thing is, one in six kids is subject to bullying on a daily basis. If they're from an ethnic background, the chances are increased by 25%. Over 3,000 Australian children commit suicide every year. And 80% of those suicide cases are boys," says Wakefield.

"The reason for this is because we put out this persona that boys can't show their feelings. So when a boy is being picked on, if he goes to his dad, Dad says, 'Just give 'em a smack in the mouth.' There's this perception the kids have of how their parents are going to react. Mum's going to come up to the school and embarrass them. Dad's going to say, 'Don't be a wuss, just go around there and punch him.' So the bullied kid keeps it to himself."

Bill admits this could be exactly how many parents would respond to such a situation. And the home life of a child has a very strong bearing on the person he develops into.

"Well everything comes back to association and environment. We're working with the kids in the schools, and the teachers are working with them. But that's just for eight hours a day. For the other 16 hours, the children are with their families and friends. If they're hanging around with idiots, they're going to be idiots. If they're associating with intelligent people, eventually they're also going to act intelligently."

Because the damage caused by bullying is not always physical, the symptoms are not always easy to detect. A child free of bruises and black eyes is not necessarily untouched by this cruel behaviour.

"Bullying – both physical and emotional – is the number one behavioural issue in schools. Because a child doesn't have any marks on him, or he's not being touched, that doesn't mean he's not going through the emotional anguish and suffering.

"It's the same with a woman in a domestic-violence situation: The guy could turn around and say, 'I've never touched her.' And maybe he hasn't physically, but emotionally, he's just taken away her self-esteem. 'You're useless. You can't do anything right.' It's the same with kids, 'You've got no friends. You've got germs.' It's just as damaging as physical bullying."

Some kids have a high tolerance of physical pain, but are not as strong emotionally.

The exclusion from a social circle, or pressure from a peer group, can be a form of emotional bullying – particularly where the isolated victim is made to feel worthless.

"There was a case of a young girl who went on a school camp. She was a little overweight and she'd fallen out with the other girls. All weekend, they were sending her text messages and calling her 'Fatty'. Silly little things that to most adults would be water off a duck's back, but to a teenage girl…

"Her mother picked her up after the weekend. The girl was really upset. Her mother went to wake her the next morning, only to discover she'd hanged herself. These tragic incidents happen all the time. Emotional abuse is every bit as damaging as physical abuse – if not more. The scars and bruises heal. But the mental anguish doesn't. It goes on for years. People tell the children to just get over it, but they can't."

Bill, what factors cause some kids to become bullies?

"Environment and association. If you live in a violent domestic situation, and you're upset by what your father does to your mother, or vice-versa, you can then take that frustration out on someone who's less physical than you are. Or you can be from a wealthy background, but you want control. So it's a power thing.

"Every bully is affected by different circumstance, but what it comes back down to is power control. There's no difference between domestic violence later in life and bullying at school now."

How important a defence mechanism is posture?

"I was over in the States doing a workshop, and this guy was telling us about the early days of profiling. He said 100 of some of the worst lifers over there were shown a photo of people standing around an accident scene. Ninety-five percent of the lifers selected the same people in the crowd who they would pick to be their victims. It came down to body language – how they held themselves, their posture, how they held their heads… The results were amazing."

Are children who participate in sport less likely to be victims of bullying?

"The ones who don't do sport seem to be more exposed to bullying, because the people who are bullies are often the best sporting people, or your class captains."

You conduct classes at a large number of primary and secondary schools on Queensland's Gold Coast. Have you witnessed this to be the case?

"I walk into classrooms and I say, 'Who's really good at sport?' Kids will put their hands up. I'll ask, 'Who's the class captain?' Someone will put their hand up. I'll then ask, 'Now, who are the bullies?' The rest of the kids will point straight at them. And they can bully for all different reasons – for attention, a power struggle, to blend in and be accepted…There's a multiple list of reasons for why they're bullies."

Where do you do your classes?

"I run self-defense and anti-bullying classes here at the Hombu in Nerang, and at most schools – both public and private schools – on the Gold Coast. Within one month of our going into the classrooms, there's a dramatic decrease in the incidence of bullying in those classes."

Read the full article on Knucklepit.com.