Upon walking into Iskimos Kickboxing Academy in Errumanzil Colony, one is met with greying chipped walls, low lighting and a wall of red battle-ready mats.
When the lights go on and the warm ups begin, absorb the sound of heavy breathing, the squeaks of trainers against the floor and the sharp shouted cues of the coaches. The whole setting makes for an extremely cool and gritty scene where all that matters are fighters and the fight.
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Suresh Patil, a former National Gold Medallist in kickboxing with a black belt in Kung Fu martial arts. Having immersed himself in the field since he was 13, the blended martial arts derived from Muay Thai and Karate has been Suresh’s zest for life. “In April 1993, I started with basic Kung Fu which progressed to kickboxing. I had participated in 107 fights. I was finally selected for an international fight seven years ago but just 15 days before that, I had a bike accident which left me with a scaphoid fracture of the wrist. The injury was still bothering me a year after the accident, and then the doctor told me not to participate in kickboxing. I was definitely depressed for a while because I felt I no longer had everything I had worked so hard for.”
Suresh now runs Iskimos Kickboxing Academy (IKA), showcasing kickboxing in a multitude of capacities, “Some people come for weight loss training, fitness training, some come to try something new, and some want to pursue it on a competitive level. We also do some self-defence classes here and in corporate environments.”
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Popularity of his classes grew with word of mouth, and a lot of them consist of families. Suresh has also trained film personalities such as S S Rajamouli, Nitya Menon, Allu Sirish and Catherine Tresa.
Ravipaty Laxmi Sumalini, who attends the class with her son, shares that in her six months of kickboxing, she’s always enjoyed the challenges of mastering high kicks, maintaining quick reflexes and the required stamina that comes with the sport. The sport has also attracted those in the fitness community, such as Reebok trainer Chitra Banda who explains that she wanted to try something that would test other aspects of her wellness.
Competitive training
Those training on a competitive level require a much more intense strain. “Professional pursuits require a lot more time because it’s an art. A couple of hours can make for a basic warm up. They’ll see a lot more focus on techniques of spinning back kicks, jabs, hook punches, and other similar moves. Improvement of agility is also the key.”
The martial arts form earned global popularity during the 70s thanks to Bruce Lee, and competitions in the States. It has since been perfected into a discipline that requires considerable upper body strength and sprightliness making it an intense cardio experience. This type of training, high intensity interval training, consists of short bursts of energetic workouts over a period of time, which is hugely beneficial in building cardiovascular strength. Professional kickboxers are particularly conditioned through endurance training to ensure they keep their head in the game while delivering and receiving a fair share of kicks and blows. Reflexes are a huge part of this, thus enhancing neuromuscular agility.
The 19 year-old Tushar Singh, who’s been training for a year, and 23 year-old Anand Kumar, who’s been training for six, have both participated in national and state-level competitions. Deterred by the traditional favourites of cricket and football, kickboxing immediately captivated them. They explain the sport has elevated their fitness through variations of fitness training, sometimes hours at a time.
The sport in itself is a remarkable outlet in formulating endurance and building character— and it, of course, looks like a lot of fun.