From setback to breaking records: The story of Chinmay Sharma

The 21-year-old Tang Soo Do player recently broke the Guinness World Record of most elbow strikes in a minute.

When Chinmay Sharma was born in a quaint neighbourhood in New Delhi’s Hari Nagar, little did anyone expect that he would one day be breaking a world record at the age of 21.

The youngster is one of the biggest exponents of Tang Soo-do (Korean karate) in India. On October 11, he registered his name in the Guinness Book of World Records. He now holds the record for most elbow strikes in a minute.

However, the journey to this achievement has not been smooth for Chinmay Sharma.

The beginnings

“I was always an aggressive kid,” said Chinmay Sharma. “I used to get into fights in school, and felt an adrenaline rush in it,” he added. It was his elder brother, a martial arts trainer himself, who suggested that he should channel this aggression in a positive way. It is here where Chinmay’s tryst with martial arts started.  Within no time, he rose up the ladders and won the gold medal in the very first tournament he participated in, the Delhi Taekwondo Championships, at just 10 years old.

“When I used to kit up and get ready for my fights, it felt like I was a soldier going to battle. The adrenaline rush I got from it was unmatchable,” he continued.

He went on to achieve several state and national level recognitions in Taekwondo over the years.

However, he changed his martial arts discipline after coming to know of Tang Soo Do. “I was fascinated by the kicking techniques and fighting methods used in the sport and decided to take this up,” he revealed.

Chinmay Sharma then went on to win four back-to-back gold medals at the School National Games from 2013 to 2016. There was no stopping him.

However, it didn’t take long for things to fall completely apart.

The setback

It was in the summer of 2017 that the dreams of Chinmay Sharma came to a grinding halt. He usually practices his martial arts techniques with weights tied to his ankles. This helps him in landing harder kicks. Generally, before a fight, he would remove his ankle weights. But in a practice fight in 2017, he somehow didn’t remove them.

During the fight, when he lifted to jerk his leg for a kick, he felt a loud pop in his waist. In fact, the pop was so loud, he claims, that a person standing 30 metres away from him had heard it. In fact, at first he thought it was just a muscle pull, and continued till the fight was over.

When Chinmay woke up the next day, he was in for a shock. “I couldn’t feel the lower part of my body, and the pain was so unbearable that I woke up as early as 5 am,” he recalled.

He was immediately rushed for treatment, where the doctor discovered that there was a bone dislocation in the lower part of his spine. In fact, the dislocation was such that it created a gap between the vertebrae and the tissue. Doctors said that this could only heal in two ways. They would either have to operate his spine, which had high risks, or he would have to take heavy painkiller doses for a significant amount of time till the pain subsides.

“In fact, they told me that even if I ran, it could worsen my injury, and the consequences could be severe. So practicing kicks and martial arts moves was out of question,” he quipped.

According to Chinmay Sharma, this was the darkest phase of his life. “The nature of my injury was such, that I couldn’t sit or lie down without feeling pain. I used to stand for hours at a stretch, as that was the only position in which I felt no pain,” he added.

The comeback

The process of recovery was very hard for Chinmay Sharma. “Being on heavy painkillers for four months, walking around with a medical belt strapped to my waist was very stressful and depressing for me,” he said.

However, the right medication and yoga helped him get back to shape. After four months of the injury, the pain slowly subsided and Chinmay decided to return to Tang Soon Do. “Staying away from the thing that I loved the most felt incredibly depressing,” he said.

The National School Games was just a month away, and he decided to participate in it. This was the last time he was eligible to participate in the competition he won four consecutive gold medals in, and he decided to end it with a bang. “But, I made a decision not to practice hard for the tournament, as the physical exertion would increase the risk of injury again,” admitted Chinmay Sharma.

So without practice and a medical belt attached to his waist, Chinmay participated in his fifth National School Games. At the end of an incredible tournament, the then 17-year-old walked out with his fifth straight gold medal.

“When I told about my gold medal to my doctor, he was pleasantly surprised as to how I  managed to even fight, let alone win a medal,” Chinmay reminisced. “They termed this a miracle,” he added.

Breaking records

Since his miraculous comeback from injury, there was no looking back for Chinmay Sharma. He won a number of state and national level championships, and even went on to represent India in the International Tang Soon Do Championship in Portugal. However, tournaments came to a halt from 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

In the period without any Tang Soon Do, Chinmay was looking for ways to quench his thirst for competition. It was then that he came across a Guinness World Record he thought he could manage to break. Manipur’s Yambem Gobin Singh held the record for the most elbow strikes in a minute (alternative hands) with 275 strikes. “I thought I could easily reach 290 strikes. Hence, I applied to the Guinness Book authorities for permission to attempt to break this record,” he said.

However, by the time the authorities sanctioned their request in April 2021, Yambem’s record was already broken. Pakistan’s Muhammad Rashid had made 292 elbow strikes in a minute. The bar was high this time around, but Chinmay was determined to break the record. “I decided to increase my daily training from three hours to six hours, as breaking this record would require a lot of skill and precision,” he reminisced.

He officially attempted the record on July 22, and he managed to break it by a big margin. With 334 elbow strikes in a minute, he shattered the previous record by 32 strikes. “This felt great. Beating a record created by a Pakistani made the moment extra special, knowing the rich sporting rivalry the two countries share,” he opined. The record was officially recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records on October 11.

What next?

For Chinmay Sharma, this is just the start of a spree of breaking more records. His next target is to break the record of most backward lunges in one minute. Ali Mounir of Egypt currently holds the record, with 53 lunges in a minute.

“Breaking that record is now my sole focus, and I’m training day and night for it,” he said. “Hopefully, I get to break more and more records, and make the nation proud,” concluded Chinmay Sharma.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.