Aikido teacher tells why self-defence is no big task

CHENNAI: A little before sunrise, he hits Marina beach with his students. Tabrez Ali teaches women 'Aikido', the Japanese martial art of self-defence which enables them to control and deflect the energy of their attackers. The sole teacher of 'Aikido' in Chennai, his classes are free.
"Just as it is prudent to wear your seat belt while driving, it makes sense to know how best to respond to violence.In fact, it is overwhelmingly likely that some of you will become the targets of violence in the future. Violence against women especially in India is not a recent phenomenon. The violence against women takes different forms from domestic abuse and sexual harassment to dowry related abuses," Tabrez tells his students.
He explains that women generally have less physical power than men. "But even with their limited strength, if they learn Aikido, they can easily defend themselves against attack by two to three men who generally try to grab, punch and kick. I teach how to release themselves from their grip and deflect the punches and kicks," he told TOI.
"Aikido gives women the fitness and mental confidence to defend themselves against violence by husbands or to tackle challenge like dowry harassment," he said. Citing incidents like the attacks on an IT professional in Chennai as she came out of her office and on a couple out for an evening walk, he said they could have had a different ending had the victims known the Aikido techniques. Around 50 to 60 people train with him six days a week, Monday to Saturday on the beach and a ground in Gopalapuram. "It is a packed schedule for me as I have to reach other students including actors, formula racers and sportspersons in the city and suburbs in the course of a day," he said.
It was a chance meeting with a Japanese girl in 2001 which led Tabrez, then a student counsellor at the Institute of Chartered Management in Chennai, to learn Aikido. Ayka's father Shirat Sai Sensei, a student of Aikido founder Moriheri Ueshiba, was in Chennai with his daughter to help her complete her MBA course. Tabrez has over the years evolved into a fitness trainer using the Japanese martial art with agility training, muscle toning, endurance building and weight loss exercises.
Tabrez says the new generation gets easily bored by classical Aikido alone and lacks the patience and perseverance required to master the manoeuvres based on unifying the energies of the mind and body. "So I teach them mixed martial arts with aspects of Karate and Judo," he said.