Srinagar: Ashfaq Wani sports a warrior attitude while imparting counter violence training to Kashmir’s youth. As Kashmir’s first certified combat instructor, Wani is the Valley’s lone wolf when it comes to teaching self-protection and counter violence techniques.
With a never-say-die attitude, he has been trying to master multiple martial arts for 21 years. The multi-media journalist started training when he was 7.
“I was seven when I enrolled in an academy in Baramulla. I owe a lot to Dr Shabir Ahmad Bagwan and Professor Khursheed Ahmad Bhat. They have proved their credentials in martial arts of Jammu & Kashmir. I am indebted to both of these pioneers,” Wani told Gulf News.
Ankle-weights
The rigorous training left bruises on his knuckles, fists, shins, and foot but he did not give up, perfecting the martial art in a single-room academy in Varmul. Ashfaq’s training routine involves running on an empty stomach to ascend the stairs while carrying ankle weight. “When I talk about combat or self defence, I mean the pragmatic methods to counter violence. I believe if you want to survive a violent confrontation, you need to be better at violence than your attacker,” Ashfaq said.
“The psychopathic criminals out there don’t care about your morals, ethics, career goals or your gender. They are there to wage violence and inflict as much damage as possible. The question is – are you prepared to deal with such unfortunate situations if you ever encounter them?”
“I take great pleasure in it, and it is a proud moment for me to become the first from J&K to get certified by Special Forces instructors and to become certified instructor,” Wani said.
He has trained himself in jeet kune do (Bruce Lee’s fighting method), kung fu, Taekwondo, muay thai, judo, sanshou (Chinese kick-boxing) and MMA before making it big on his own.
Apart from serving as a combat instructor in Kashmir, he is also black belt in kung fu and taekwondo and a certified jeet kune do instructor.
Wani has dared to tread an unconventional path. To top this, he has been imparting self-protection training to the youth, including girls, in the Kashmir Valley, often free of cost.
“As a combat instructor, I have developed a programme called Counter Violence Training or CVT. It is an amalgam of principles and tactics sourced from various reality-based combat systems; and real life CCTV violence-based footage. We analyse and read the real life violent encounters and update our programme accordingly,” Ashfaq remarked.
But now, Wani has emerged as a contact-combat instructor. Though he is doing a very tiring and exhausting job, he cherishes the gruelling training.
“The beautiful part of training was to live and experience military code of conduct and to train like commandos,” Wani said. “Such training offers many life lessons and ethos. They transform you into a ‘fighting gentleman’.”
His blend of reality-based techniques aims to transform people into human fighting machines to counter urban violence. “Indeed, it’s a massive achievement to get trained in a military-style combat system,” he said.
He added: “We use to get up at 6am and training would continue and stretch out for around 10 to 12 hours each day.
It included endurance training, hand-to-hand combat, armed, unarmed combat and counter violence training under real-life scenarios, followed by first aid treatment, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and nutrition to name a few,” he said.
“Training has been brutal and ruthless, and at the same time, it has been scientific and efficient,” Wani noted..
