Jayanth Reddy, who holds several records, believes in not only improving the state of Indian martial arts, but also says that people can live upto 150 years if only they are aware of the potential their bodies hold
Watching 53-year-old Jayanth Reddy dishing out a flurry of kicks and punches during his morning training session at Jalagam Vengalrao Park can make one question if age was ever a factor for this 8th Dan (degree) black belt Taekwondo Grand Master from Hyderabad. He’s been making headlines for the past few years, notching up individual Guinness World Records almost at will — a total of 12 records, including two team awards. Apart from that he’s also the winner of eight US Presidential Sports Awards.
Although his personal achievements areoutstanding, Jayanth’s main goal is to help Indians achieve world records in martial arts. A total of 2,000 people who have undergone training at his academy ever since its inception in 2010. He is now coming up with a first of its kind martial arts league in India, right now in early stages of planning.
“Martial arts has given a lot to me, and I want to give back in any way possible to increase its popularity. In the next three years, I wish to help another 10,000 Indians achieve world records. This will improve India’s reputation in the world of martial arts, which is currently dominated by countries like China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. I plan to do this not just through my academy, but also through the International Taekwondo Champions League that I am working to establish. This will feature top athletes from the world over spread out in four weight categories, and will be held in city wise franchise model that is so popular these days with most sports. If cricket can garner the amount of excitement it does, I’m very sure this martial arts league will be able to match it on every count,” says Jayanth, who is also a practitioner of Kung Fu, Karate and Thai Boxing.
Jayanth started his run of clinching Guinness records on August 31, 2010 by clocking 171 round kicks in just one minute. His latest record was clocking 4,344 round kicks with one leg in an hour on December 19, 2014. He plans to break three more records in the future. When asked as to what his toughest challenge was, he says, “The record attempt when I broke 34 eight by four inch cement blocks with spinning cartwheel kicks in one minute would have to be the most gruelling experience I’ve had to date,” says the father of two.
For Jayanth, it was the search for a healthy lifestyle that preceded his tryst with martial arts at the age of 12. “Bruce Lee was a huge inspiration for me and one thing led to another, and I chose to try it out. My parents were initially sceptical about it and thought that I’d end up as a gangster, but as I started to win awards in the martial arts circuit, their attitude changed. They were proud of me, and I haven’t looked back ever since; I have no regrets! What’s more, I was able to charm my wife too!” says Jayanth with a laugh.
He is also a proponent of how the mind and body can be fine-tuned to achieve healthy living, and has authored two books. “I want to help people overcome their addictions and live a healthy lifestyle. With right kind of diet and organ strengthening exercises, I believe people can live for 150 years. People find that hard to believe. I tell them to make a judgement after I achieve that,” says Jayanth.
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