Kickboxing in The Cities and Even Villages of The State of Maharashtra

By Surekha Kadapa-Bose , Womens Feature Service

Beware! There are over 3,000 young women who are currently kickboxing in the cities and even villages of the state of Maharashtra. Most of these practitioners have taken to the sport - which gracefully combines kicks à la martial arts and boxing punches - with the intention of self-defence, general fitness or as a full-contact sport.

A kickboxer of international repute and the President of the India Kickboxing Association, Ziauddin Khatib, 27, who has trained at the Muay Thai Association in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1998-99, states that there are around 40 young women in Maharashtra who are, at this very moment, pursing the sport as a career. "When the School Games Federation of India introduced kickboxing as one of the participating and competitive sports at the school level in 2006, it caught the imagination of girl students who found it great fun to vent their energy in kicking and boxing."

Even young professionals are taking time out from their busy schedules to learn the sport. Thrice a week, lawyer Priti Bakalakar heads for Gold Gym, located in Mulund, in suburban Mumbai, for her late-evening kickboxing sessions. In her early twenties, Bakalakar is thrilled with this newfound activity. "It is great fun to kick and box. I had always thought of doing it and now I am," she laughs.

"I joined it as it sounded enjoyable. I hope it will help me get into better shape," explains Netra Ramakanthan, an LLM degree holder working on a project report on human rights violations.

Bakalkar and Ramakanthan are amongst the many young women to have been inspired by film stars with well toned bodies. "When celebrities, especially stars like Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Tabu, Sonam Kapoor and several male actors, started flaunting their kickboxing abilities; and when the media began writing about it extensively, ordinary women in the age group of 15 to 50 years wanted to learn the sport to get bodies like them," explains Leena Mogre, a Mumbai-based fitness expert. Mogre, incidentally, has learnt the craft under combat kickboxing expert Vijay Alwa.

Mogre, who has a Masters degree in Food Science & Nutrition, has over the last two decades witnessed several techniques that claim to improve fitness. Kickboxing is the one she has endorsed. As she puts it, "Kickboxing helps in strengthening one's core muscles and building up lean muscle tissue." Learning kickboxing helps women strengthen the upper body - such as chest, arms and neck, which "gives a woman confidence... as it improves her posture," she adds. Mogre has been responsible for establishing the Gold Gym in India and Bangladesh and, more recently, her own specialised chain of gyms in Mumbai and Bangalore.

Across the world kickboxing is seen as a therapeutic corporate investment. In Japan and in most countries in the West, kickboxing sections have been introduced into office gyms allowing an "employee to vent his/her anger and frustration... after a bout of practice, an employee can get back to work completely refreshed!" quips Mogre.

Bicky Bora, who has trained in the Muay Thai style in China, and is currently a trainer at the Gold Gym, says, "Our girls can easily defend themselves far better than other ordinary girls until help reaches them." Challenges software engineer, Poonam Agarwal, in between her punches at the Gold Gym, "Ask any of those men practising in the fitness gym to try and attack us. We will defeat them in no time."

But how one can put the craft to use depends on where one has trained. "Kickboxing learnt at the gym won't prepare a person in combat arts. One definitely can't defend oneself when attacked. But with gym training one is better equipped to hold back attackers for some time," explains Ziauddin, the first Indian to win the World Kickboxing Championship, a title he has conquered three times in a row (in 2003 in Greece, 2004 in Russia and 2005 in Cyprus). He also holds the record of the fastest knock out - 29 seconds flat; and is the world's youngest kickboxer to achieve this feat. Currently based in Mumbai, he has trained stars like John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Diana Hayden and Sonam Kapoor for their film performances.

But why do female stars with well-toned bodies and even personal security train in kickboxing? Ziauddin proffers an answer, "Today's female actors love to do their own action scenes unlike in the olden times when body doubles were used. Besides, kickboxing also helps them maintain their bodies."

What delights this instructor the most is when women take up kickboxing for combat or as a professional sport. "Girls coming from economically poorer backgrounds can easily get jobs in the railway, police or army if they have a certificate from our association. Besides, it helps build their self-confidence when they know that they can protect themselves if required," Ziauddin explains.

He points out that sponsorships for women kickboxers will improve only after the sport is included in the Olympic Games. There will only be a demonstration kickboxing fight during the next Olympic Games in 2012. The Olympic Committee is yet to take a call on when it is to be finally introduced as a competition sport.

Enthused about kickboxing? But before you rush to enrol in order to get that 'hot bod', please remember that it would entail a little bit of weight training along with the kickboxing. That, at least, is what Mogre would advise.

Womens Feature Service covers developmental, political, social and economic issues in India and around the globe. To get these articles for your publication, contact WFS at the www.wfsnews.org website.