To fight against drug menace, Tral’s young athlete starts Sqay Martial Arts club for young generation

Basharat Rashid

Tral, 12 December: In order to fight against the drug menace and to inculcate the Martial Arts skills and techniques among the young generation, a young athlete in the Tral area of South Kashmir has started a Sqay Martial Arts Club.

Feroz Ahmad Bhat (37), a resident of Lurow Jagir Tral is an emerging athlete and a Mixed Martial Arts trainer, who has been in the field for over two decades and played martial art games in and outside the state.

Two years back, he started his own academy to revive the traditional martial arts ‘mainly with the motive to curb the drug menace and to impart martial arts training’ among the young generation.

While talking to Arising State, Feroz said that he has around sixty Martial Arts aspirants enrolled in his academy, which are getting different training at different locations.

He further said that he’s trying his best to train them with extraordinary skills, which would help them in managing fitness and other things in the future.

Feroz said, “I started my own academy titled as Leeniv Martial Arts Club Tral, with the motive to revive traditional marts arts, & to curb drug menace by inculcating the skills & techniques of Sqay Martial Arts among the young generation. The club is all set to impart extraordinary skills to all the aspirants, who would deal with any situation in the future with the help of this training.” Feroz told Arising State, he usually prefers to admit the aspirants in his academy, who are under-16, as they show more interest as compared to adults.

Interestingly, Feroz was coaching a team of J&K in 2019, which bagged 10 medals and secured the second position in Nasak Mumbai, in a sports event held by Sqay Federation of India, where three of his players have been selected for South Asian games as well.

He started his career some twenty years back at Diver village of Tral, “where a man from Sikh Community used to give basic martial arts training to the aspiring athletes”.

Soon after that he ‘learned & performed’ at Pampore town and later in Srinagar, following which he gained extraordinary skills, and became an emerging Martial Art player from Tral.

Feroz said that he faced a lot of hardships in the beginning, but he never lost hope. He stayed calm with a positive attitude that eventually helped him to carve a niche for himself.

“I had faced hardships in the middle of my career, but the events like Khelo India helped me to rejoin my profession back after a long break. This era is a sports era, where we see the overwhelming response of young sports aspirants,” Feroz said, adding sports activities have immense benefits.

It’s pertinent to mention here that Feroz had ‘once saved many lives Chandri-Nallah Tral’ following which he was ‘assured of bravery award by some officials’ in the district, however, no award was later given to him.

He said that in order to create infrastructure for the training of young aspiring athletes, he needs support from the local and UT administration so that he is able to impart major skills of Martial Arts to his trainees.