Taekwondo emerges as popular sport among J-K's Poonch youth

Poonch (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], December 19 : Taekwondo has emerged as the first choice of youth in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district with a majority of the girls are taking up the Korean martial art where they are being taught self-defence, said, the coach Rajendar Singh, physical education teacher, Department of Youth Services and Sports.
Taekwondo characterized by its emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping spinning kicks and fast kicking techniques.
Talking to ANI, Singh said, "I have introduced Taekwondo 3.5 years back in Poonch with four children. People of the area do not know about Taekwondo, even being included in the Olympics game. But today I receive 30 to 40 calls on a daily basis from the parents stating that they want their kids to be trained in the martial art. The game took over most of the sports in the area."
"My aim is to launch a maximum number of female players in the field and train them self defence. This way we can make our girls participated in the games and make our nation proud," he said.
Talking about the challenges he faced during the establishment of the game in the border area he said that he had faced many difficulties.
"I have faced many social barriers in my efforts. Since this is a border area, people do not allow their girls to play in grounds or participate in any games. So I have convinced people, removed their misconceptions and suggested to them that they should allow their girls to learn self-defence. I believe feel that I have been successful in convincing them. Two years back there were no girls but today I have more than 50 girls students who are practising self-defence here," Singh said.
Rabiya Anjum a Taekwondo trainee said, "I have been playing Taekwondo for one and a half year. I am a gold medallist. Today I am standing in front of you just because of my coach Rajendra Singh. A large number of children participate in Taekwondo than other games. Mainly the girls participate in the game more because this helps them in self-defence. We are thankful to our coach who encouraged us towards this martial art training. Since we live in Poonch which is a maximum border area we used to face many difficulties but today we are not afraid of anything.
Asif Hussain another trainee said, "I have been practising Taekwondo for three years. I have participated in the state level, national level and international championships too. I am a black belt holder dan one from South Korea. Since our coach introduced the game in Pooch it becomes very popular in the area. There are 400 children registered in the sports in which 100 children are gold medallist at the state level, 20 to 30 children have played at national and 11 children have participated in international levels so far.