SRINAGAR, Jan 27: Faisal Ali Dar, a martial arts coach from Bandipora district was among the 128 sportspersons who won the prestigious Padma Shri Award for their achievements in the field of sports.
Ali who has set up a martial arts training academy, “Ali Sports Academy ” has several awards in his kitty besides the Padma Shri Award he won for his tireless efforts in the field of sports.
Feeling happy after being conferred the Prestigious Padma Shri Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of sports, Ali said I am thankful to the Government for choosing me for this award after recognizing my hard work in the field.
I won the national award for the campaign against the drug addiction “Nasha Mukht” when I counseled 47 children who had became addicted and bring back them to normal life after putting them in my sports academy, Ali said.
Started his journey in 2003 when he was playing martial arts, he said there was no support from the people initially as the culture of the game was entirely different as of the martial arts.
Even I won the Asian Championship medal in 2010, still I was not satisfied with myself and had passion to do more for this sports, he said and added I started an academy “Ali Sports Academy” and gradually I converted it into the training academy centre for the children, Ali said.
He said he decided to train small kids at the age of 2 years to 7 years in kung Fu martial arts and lucky eight players participated in the international level besides hundreds are participating in national events.
Ali has 17 branches of his academy in different districts of Jammu and Kashmir where children not only learn martial arts but also other sports like Rugby, Water Sports, Badminton and volleyball he has introduced.
I urge the parents to put their children in sports activities for their best future besides education, Ali said and added If they are paying for tuition fee they should also give some money for the sports activities so that their children could become responsible sports persons.
He said parents trying to get out of their children at a very young age, which is not possible, it takes at least 18 years for a child to become a sportsman of any category, he added.
A sports person has to be prepared first on a local basis , then national and after international level following his tireless efforts in the particular field.
Parsing the new sports policy introduced by the Jammu and Kashmir Government, Ali said the policy will encourage sports persons to explore their talent in different sports fields.
The Union Territory Government Jammu and Kashmir recently announced a gazetted job for the sportspersons who won any award in any sports field.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
