scatterp wrote: I watched your mindset series and i have a few questions

do you believe you could raise a child to spartan warrior standards with out abuseing the child ?

do you believe you could raise an adult to that standard ?

Steve wrote:

In Sparta, individuals were owned by the state, and were used as fodder for a war machine. You simply can’t compare that with the West today. It wouldn’t even enter my mind to try to take a child and turn him into a Spartan warrior. For that matter, I wouldn’t do it to an adult. People come to me of their own free will and they’re free to go at any time; obviously I hope the training encourages them to stay.

With regard to my own development, that natural born killer brain that I’ve got is the consequence of both genetics and the circumstances of my childhood, and not the result of design by my parents or anyone else. And I wouldn’t want to put anybody through what I went through as a kid.

I’ve got three young kids. I start by playing with them, and gradually as they get older the play will get rougher, but it will never become abusive. I will engage them in challenging activities if they’re so inclined, but I’m not going to force them to do anything. And at that level, it’s always going to be fun.

My personal belief about training children and adults within the martial arts is that they should learn the most important lessons of fighting through situational competitive play. But that play, though designed to be challenging and even punishing at times, must never be taken to the point of being abusive and needs to be adjusted to the psychological, physiological and physical attributes of the student, be they man, woman or child, as well as to their personal level of commitment. And the training has always got to be rewarding, although my idea of a reward isn’t a coloured belt.