|
|
|
| SPORTS TRIBUNE |
|
Kicking
hard ‘Talent
hunt by English clubs a gimmick’ Fitness
Mantra |
|
|
|
Kicking
hard
Beware! There are over 3,000 young women who are currently kickboxing in the cities and even villages in 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 20s, 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 and 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, which "gives a woman confidence... as it improves her posture," she adds. 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 , "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. 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. — WFS |
|
|
‘Talent hunt by English clubs a gimmick’ India’s chief football coach Bob Houghton is facing the challenge of defending the Nehru Cup title. He feels it would be tough but not impossible to repeat the 2007 success. The Englishman took some time out from his team’s training session and spoke to A. Roy on the importance of the tournament and his other targets
Training at the Nou Camp in Barcelona was a great experience for these boys. In fact, it will be a motivational factor for them. Our preparation has been good. Actually being the defending champions will make them feel that they are the team to beat. But we have to make sure that when we get down to play, we give our 100 per cent. I can assure you the boys are well prepared for the tournament. You will be missing your ace striker Sunil Chettri for this tournament. How big will be this blow for you? Missing a player like Chettri who has been in fine form in the last two international matches will always be a disadvantage for the team. But he has a long career in front of him. I think his participation in the Santosh Trophy, where he picked up the ankle injury, will be the main reason for him to miss the Nehru Cup. You can’t allow your professional players to play in non-descript local tournaments. Do you expect Steven Gerrard to play for Lancahsire in a local tournament after the Liverpool’s season gets over? It’s ridiculous. Bhaichung is now 33 and you will be missing Chettri. So do you have enough back-up strikers, who can score goals? We are still exploring all our options. East Bengal forward Shubash Singh will be one of the guys we will be trying out. Abhishek Yadav has also been in fine form and Sushil Singh has a little bit of niggle in his hamstring but I feel he would be fine. Shubash is a young guy and he will be also in our scheme of things for the 2011 Asian Cup. How important is this tournament for the national team for its preparation for the 2011 Asian Cup? In the Nehru Cup we will be playing against good teams. Syria, Lebanon are good teams and winning against them will also boost the confidence of the players. Tournaments like the Nehru Cup will not only help us in preparing for the Asian cup, but will also improve our rankings. My target is to take India among the top-16 in Asia. You have taken China to the World Cup. Can you replicate that with India? If only India makes a conscious effort to replicate the Chinese methods of developing football infrastructure they can fast track their World Cup dreams. I see no reason why India can’t match China when both the countries have double-digit growth rate. One major difference between the two is that in China every club has its own training grounds with all the facilities like hotel, gym and swimming pool for all age-group players. If you go to Shanghai Shenhua training ground any day in the afternoon, you will find all the grounds packed with kids and qualified instructors. Do you feel the clubs are doing enough for developing the game? Our club culture has to be more mature because it is the clubs that provide profile of the game in any country and they have to be truly professional. All the clubs should have qualified coaches, a young team, a physiotherapist and a doctor. Show me how many clubs playing the I-League have them. Teams like Dempo and JCT have set some examples by developing their junior teams. I think if other clubs concentrate on youth developments, it will bring a big change in Indian football. Lot of English clubs are now coming to India with their talent hunt programmes. How are you looking at this development? Do you really believe these clubs are hunting for talent in India? They are actually hunting India and are a menace for Indian football. They are doing nothing for the sport, all this is a money-making racket, nothing more than a marketing gimmick. If you think that a 12-year-old or a 13-year-old will go and play and get spotted by Manchester United, you are in a fool’s paradise. As for a player over the age of 16, he has a chance but then he should have played 75 per cent of his international matches in the preceding two years. That means he should have played for India at 14 and then only can he apply for a work permit. But getting the work permit is not the issue. They can easily go to places like Leicester and Birmingham, where there is a huge concentration of Indians. But the Professional Football Association will oppose their recruitment on the ground that there are better players in England than the chosen Indians. Do you think some Indian players in the national team can play in foreign clubs? Yes, why not. Steven Dias,
N.P. Pradeep, Chettri all can look to play in lower division clubs in
Europe. In fact, I have told their agents to look for clubs in Sweden,
Denmark and Belgium. It will make a big impact to the profile of the
game in the country. It won’t be long before the first one goes and
does well and then many more will follow. When I went to China in 1998
there were no Chinese playing outside of China and after eight years
there were seven or eight players in the Premiership. So once clubs
become aware that there are good Indian players they will take more of
them. — TWF |
|
|
Fitness Mantra Healthy bacteria ADULT years are frequently a time for a realisation regarding one’s health. Suddenly one becomes aware that being well and staying well are equally important. As, one progresses from childhood to young adulthood, the nutritional needs change. Instead of focusing on growth and development, the focus shifts to disease prevention and maintenance of optimal health. Optimal health is a function of the body’s ability not only to assimilate nutrients but also to limit the accumulation of harmful toxins, both produced within our body and those which we get from outside. The lining of the gastrointestinal tract acts a barrier against toxins so it is very important to keep your gut healthy. The two important factors contributing towards a healthy gut mucosa are: Dietary factors, which include the intake of a balanced diet containing adequate vitamins, minerals and lots of dietary fibre. Gut micro flora though, unseen and unnoticed, has millions and millions of bacteria that call our gastrointestinal tract home. Although we often associate bacteria with illness, the right kind of bacteria in the gut actually protect us from any disease. So how can we be good hosts to our intenstinal guests keeping them well fed and happy? The answer maybe in our own food products and dietary supplements quite commonly known as probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics
Probiotics are microbial food supplements, which beneficially affect the host animal by improving its intenstinal microbial balance, e.g. Lactobacillus acidophilus different strains of Bifidobacterium etc. There is no published evidence that probiotics supplements are able to completely replace the body’s natural flora when these have been killed. But there have been various experiments that suggest a range of potentially beneficial medicinal use of probiotics. Few of which are dicussed below: Some human trials have found that lactic acid bacteria may exert anticarcionogenic effect thus preventing colon cancer. Certain active strains of lactic acid bacteria may also help lactose intolerant individual to tolerate more lactose than what they have otherwise. This can be seen in lactase deficient subjects, who tolerate yogurt in a better way than milk. Further, studies have also shown that dairy foods fermented with specific lactic acid bacteria can produce modest reduction in total LDL cholesterol levels. Several small clinical trials have even shown that consumption of fermented milky products with various strains of lactic acid bacteria might result in modest reduction in blood pressure. Besides this, many studies and experiments have suggested that probiotics may improve immune function. Probiotics may also decrease the incidence of respiratory tract infection and dental caries in children as well as travelers diarrhea in adults due to lactobacillus acidophilus LA1 which binds to cultured human intestinal cell lines and inhibits cell attachment and cell invasion by enterovirulent bacteria. Lactis acid bacteria are also beneficial in the treatment of the Helicobacter pylori infection i.e. peptic ulcers in adults. So where can you find these friendly bacteria in our commonly consumed foods? Curd one of the common food products used in Indian diets since time immemorial is a very rich source. Other traditional fermented foods such as idli, dhokla etc. also accompany. Any foods where fermentation is a part of the cooking procedure are rich sources of these beneficial bacteria. These days, markets are flooded with Probiotics rich yogurts and ice creams and fermented milk. Prebiotics
These include dietary fibre and substances called fructo-oligossacharides (FOS). FOSs have been shown to selectively stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. Food sources of these include honey, beer, onion, asparagus, rye, banana, maple, sugar, oats, soybean, unrefined wheat and unrefined barley. Components of dietary fiber such as pectin, hemicelluloses and insulin also function as prebiotics. Another important and a well known fact says that the composition of breast milk strongly favors the growth of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacterium in the new born gut thereby, reducing the incidence of GI infection in a breast-fed infant. The writer is a dietitian, Department of dietetics,
PGI, Chandigarh |
It
has been a great preparation for the national team in the run up to the
Nehru Cup. Can we defend the title?
Probiotics,
which means "for life", have been used for centuries as natural
components in health promoting foods. The original observation of the positive
role played by certain bacteria was first introduced by Russian scientist Nobel
Laureate Eli Metchnikoff, who, in the begining of 20th century. suggested that
it would be possible to modify the gut flora and to replace harmful microbes by
useful microbes.
Prebiotics
are non-digestible food products/ingredients that stimulate the growth of
symbiotics bacterial species already in the colon and improve the health of the
host.