This is my fight song

CHENNAI: He is a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, but Sathish Sivalingam has loftier ideals. The weightlifter from Vellore is determined to inspire kids from underprivileged backgrounds into taking up the sport. “I have trained more than 150 students over the past five years, and many have become state and international champions,” says Sathish, who is partnering with Chennaibased Health and Fitness Foundation to coach children from economically weaker sections in weightlifting.

The Foundation is also trying to introduce weightlifting coaching free in government schools. Across the state, a handful of champs and coaches like Satish are working with children – several of them drop-outs, recovering addicts, or those in trouble with law – using sport to help them reclaim their lives. In Chennai’s Foreshore Estate, V Ragunath, who has been running the Evershine Football Club for the past five years, is always scouting for students from slums with a passion for football. “Passion is all I care about.

The coaching is free,” he says. Parents of many of the children he coaches are daily wagers. With their parents away for long hours, several skip school, and to hang out on the streets, some getting involved in fights. “More than the game, I work on discipline because I believe that is the key to success,” says Raghu, who works as a sales manager in a private firm. “It’s the simple things that go a long way. Every morning, for instance, I check if their nails are cut.” One of Raghu’s students, K Harshavardhan, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work at St Patrician College, Chennai. “Playing this sport has helped me find motivation at every level,” he says.

M Sathyavanan, who trains in judo at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, says his life in Chennai, growing up in the slums, was tangled in vandalism and street fights. “I grew up seeing people around me fighting. My brother enrolled me in a judo academy in Triplicane to teach me how to fight better,” says Sathyavanan. “But judo changed my life for the better. I didn’t want to waste my life fighting on the streets but fight in championships.” Sathyavanan holds a degree in sports coaching and has completed degrees in physical education. G Satish Kumar, a physical education teacher has been coaching girls from Koovathur fishing hamlet in kabbadi for the past few years.

He says now that they are winning championships, their parents have stopped forcing them to quit school and marry. “Most of the girls are from poor families and are forced to marry young. Kabbadi has helped a number of them secure free seats in colleges through sports quota and land good jobs,” he says. M Vignesh, who has been training weightlifting athletes free of cost at his gym Wolfpack in Madurai, says one of the teens he coached from a rural background recently won a medal at the national level. In Madurai, Shahul Hameed, a professor at The American College, says he has been teaching silambam free to students from rural areas for the past 30 years and has partnered with the Heritage Welfare Foundation to train children in 20 villages of Madurai to do the same.

“Panchayat leaders say the art has kept youngsters away from bad habits.” Rajapandi, a 29-year-old silambam trainer, is among those thankful to sport for turning his life around. “My family was poor. I used to cycle 15km a day to learn silambam. The sport helped me get a seat in The American College, Madurai. I would never have made it to college or got a job if not for silambam.” He is now paying it forward and is part of a team that trains rural children in silambam. Kirtanya Krishnamurthy, CEO, Mindfresh Training, who works with teenagers, says sports helps in physical and mental energy management. “Everyone has a set amount of energy available to them.


If this energy is minimally or excessively challenged, then child become vulnerable to self-destructive behaviours such as substance abuse. Sports is one of the best ways to provide continuous optimal challenges to a developing mind,” she says. Poverty forces children to drop out of schools, says Sathish. “That’s when they turn to drugs and alcohol.” Says Abdul Hakkim, Tamil Nadu police weightlifting team coach, who trains police personnel from various districts and backgrounds, “Sports is a sure-fire way to get teens back on track.”
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