Kimura lock applied at the 2015 Pan Kids.

A petition surfaced this Wednesday on the website Change.com that affects the Jiu-Jitsu community.

William Murphy, of Sarasota, FL, is the author of the petition started August 10, 2015, asking the US Senate to make illegal chokes and locks on grappling competitions in the USA for children under the age of 12.

Murphy argues that: “If the referee is poor, this can result in permanent harm to the child. Even if the referee stops the match quickly, children’s brains are still developing, and deliberately cutting off the blood supply to a child’s brain is a dangerous and ridiculously negligent practice. These same tournaments often allow children to apply joints locks to the wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, ankles, or neck until the child “submits” from the pain of the lock. If these locks are applied with too much force or for too long, lasting damage to the child’s joints can occur.”

The text also says that teaching children this “dangerous” techniques open the possibility of accidents when they use those techniques on friends as play in unsupervised moments.

The petition has 48 suporters so far.

Click here to read the full text of the petition.

What do you think of the initiative?

Saturday of Jiu-Jitsu in Ontario. Photo by Kenny Jewel (Grapple TV)

Close to a thousand kids gathered at the Citzens Bank Arena this Saturday, July 25, for the Kids World Jiu-Jitsu championship.

From toddlers to teenagers, the little ones battled hard for victory both in gi and no-gi divisions.

At the end of the day, Gracie Barra earned 1st place as a team both at the gi and no-gi divisions.

The Gi podium was:

1 – Gracie Barra – 350 pts.

2 – Art of Jiu-Jitsu – 280 pts.

3 – United BJJ – 141 pts.

The no-gi standings were:

1 – Gracie Barra – 126 pts.

2 – Checkmat Mafra – 106 pts.

3 – Art of Jiu-Jitsu – 93 pts.

Click here for more info.