Who doesn’t know world-renowned record holder martial artist Rashid Naseem? He holds 78 world records individually while his daughter and father have also entered their names in the Guinness Book of World Records.
MM News spoke to Rashid Naseem, an internationally acclaimed martial artist, and took the responsibility of conveying his views to the public.
MM News: You have set many world records, your whole family holds the world records as well. How do you manage all of these?
Rashid Naseem: When a person decides to do something, those things start happening. It is not that I started setting the world record immediately, I also had to wait a long time, it took 10 years to set the first world record because Pakistan lacks facilities in this regard. Earlier the target was 50 individual records and now the target is 100 world records. I am moving step by step towards my destination.
MM News: You set the first world record in 2013 and today you have 78 world records in 2022, so how much longer will it take to reach the target of 100?
Rashid Naseem: I am trying to achieve this goal in 2022. I want to complete 100 world records as soon as possible because my 5 world records have already been approved by the Guinness Book of World Records. If this world record goal is not met in 2022, then Insha’Allah I will try to achieve this goal in 2023.
MM News: You hold the most world records in the martial arts category. To whom did you set these records? Why did you set the record with the martial arts category in mind?
Rashid Naseem: When a child comes to us to learn martial arts, we teach him different things like kicking, elbow attack, stick, and sword fighting. The Guinness Book of World Records contains all of these categories. If you have the proper training in martial arts, you too can move towards setting records. I also worked hard at it. I once set 13 world records but was rejected by the Guinness Book of World Records. This made me very disheartened. This year I set 8 world records. This is the level of skill in martial arts, that is, when you increase your skills as much as possible, you go to the world record.
MM News: You set world records in 50 different categories. How easy or difficult is it to set a Guinness Book of World Records?
Rashid Naseem: We have a lot of research on the Guinness Book of World Records, so we find a lot of records that we can easily create. One of my students made a record of push-ups and I made 5 world records of push ups from him. Now if I ask them to make a sixth or seventh record, it will be much easier than the first record because the human body has adapted to it. I have not left any category of martial arts, I have made records in almost all of them. I set records in various categories, including punch, knee strike, kick and stick. He did not let his abilities stop.
MM News: Taj Muhammad is your student who set world records, so do you have any more students?
Rashid Naseem: I have at least 10 students who have entered the Guinness Book of World Records. I have worked day and night on all these children. Taj Muhammad is illiterate, and it was very difficult to register him in the Guinness Book of World Records, but he did it with a lot of love and hard work.
MM News: You forced your daughter to set a world record out of love or intimidation, but your father has also set a world record. How did it happen?
Rashid Naseem: Actually when children come to us to learn martial arts, we have this skill in us that we recognize the abilities. When I tried to break the apple with my hand, my hand started showing three to four times. It occurred to me that my father’s hands were stronger than mine, so I placed an apple in front of my father to show him how to break it. When they started picking apples fast, I said it was amazing. I also showed him the video and got him to practice a couple of times after which Abu broke the record. He has worked hard all his life, including welding, so breaking apples was not difficult for him.
