Despite his bright kickboxing gear — cherry red helmet, blue uniform and matching pair of gloves — it’s easy to miss five-year-old Lipson. The pint-sized kickboxer is the youngest in the training academy. You can barely hear him murmur his name when he introduces himself. But when he starts sparring, you can hear his kicks and punches loud and clear, over the encouraging claps of his batch mates. At the Spitfire Kickboxing Academy in Anna Nagar, a group of 19 practises its routine. They are just back from the recently concluded WAKO India Kickboxing Federation Cup 2018 in New Delhi, where they represented Tamil Nadu, and 11 of them won titles (two golds, five silvers, and four bronze medals across sub-junior, junior and senior categories). Suresh Babu (general secretary of Tamil Nadu State Amateur Kickboxing Association and board member of WAKO India Kickboxing Federation) watches his students go about their schedule like clockwork. He started the Spitfire Kickboxing Academy in 2010. An avid kickboxer himself, he learnt the sport as a 15-year-old, from his brother in the Army. “In 2006, I participated in the Asian Kickboxing Championship and won a bronze medal. In 2007, I met with an accident and injured my leg. I then joined Hewlett-Packard as a process associate. Given the passion I have for the sport, I started teaching people,” says Babu, who states that he is pleased with the increase in popularity of the sport. Right now, the oldest student is a 50-year-old. Babu says, “When I used to take part in competitions in 2007, around 800-900 players were participating in the National championships. In 2017, there were 1,950 contestants. You don’t have to necessarily compete... It’s a great physical activity: a mix of boxing and kicking. It helps relieve stress and get rid of anger.” Sixteen-year-old Tanishq Arun, a gold winner at the last event, says he loves the fact that he has to incorporate strategy into the sport. “You have to think and hit at the same time,” he says. “When I was younger, I used to be overweight, almost 70 kilograms. I started kickboxing and I am 57 kilograms now,” he adds. Inspired by his fitness, his younger sister has taken to kickboxing as well. As a result, his parents too felt the need to play a sport, so his mother got into powerlifting and his father started running marathons. Together, they wake up at the wee hours of dawn and practise. At the other end of the facility, Mohammed Irfan (23) shows a few students how to throw punches in quick succession. He charges at the punching master device, with the precision of a battery-operated toy. Irfan is also the star at the academy, having participated at the international level in the -71 kilogram weight category in Russia in 2016 and won a silver medal. Irfan started kickboxing at the age of 16. He enjoys the fact that in this sport, he gets the opportunity to fight inside a ring. “The injuries don’t matter,” he grins, pointing to his front tooth. “This tooth broke four times. This is my fourth fake tooth,” he laughs. Irfan plans to kickbox till he turns 40, and then start coaching. At the competition in Delhi, he accompanied the team as its coach. Twenty-one-year-old Abdul Asif and 13-year-old Navin warm up with the punching bar. The aim is to duck as the bar swings round and miss getting hit by it. Both have won titles at the event in Delhi. “My mother has been a huge support for me. She had a brain tumour; despite that, she used to bring me to class every day, and make sure I didn’t miss a single session,” says Navin, who was awarded the best fighter in Tamil Nadu recently. These young kickboxers, through their achievements, have got others interested in the sport too. Five of Asif’s Computer Science batchmates have also joined kickboxing. Says Asif, “More people should get into it, as it teaches not only self-defence but also confidence and discipline.”

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