Pradeep Ramesh, a 27-year-old freestyle footballer in Chennai, got the certification from Guinness Book of World Records, confirming his second such feat in the last three months.
Three weeks after getting the official confirmation of his first world record in April this year, on April 30, Pradeep attempted to break the record for most football touches with the shin in one minute. The previous record for that feat was 232 touches, set by John Farnworth from United Kingdom. Pradeep broke the record narrowly, with Guinness ratifying his attempt at 238 touches.
“I trained for this attempt for close to a year and three months, because it’s tough to get more than a shot at breaking it,” Pradeep told The Field over phone. “An official attempt requires officials from sports bodies to observe and act as timekeepers, so I wanted to get this done in one attempt. That requires a lot of training and only when I was confident I could break it, I went for it.”
Pradeep’s first world record, which he attempted in December last year, was for the most number of consecutive dribbles with the knees in one minute – his record was ratified at 282.
Pradeep, who runs a freestyle coaching academy called PRSoccerArt, spends about 30 minutes every day training for the world record attempts, and the rest of his five-six hour training schedule is dedicated to football choreography, trick-shots and more such activities with the football. And he is determined to keep going.
“I will be attempting one more record in a couple of weeks. I don’t want to stop now. The recognition coming from owning Guinness World Records is a big deal and I want to continue doing that this year. My next attempt is to break the record for most head-juggles with a football, while simultaneously skipping – the rope has to go between my forehead when the ball is in the air,” he said.