Afghanistan judo boys have lots to prove

The dreams of the judo boys live in a padded room of bruised faces and calloused hands.

Foot sweeps and tosses, bodies slapping hard, they drill into the dusk. The coach hollers, the sweat runs, but the boys and young men endure, wanting respect and medals, not so much for themselves, but for a nation more beat up than they are.

“It’s important wherever we Afghans go to win medals. It lifts the name of the country,” said Siawash Toghyan, a big-shouldered teenager who did well in a recent competition in Uzbekistan and hopes to make the next Olympic team. “People from other places see Afghans as radicals and militants. But in a tournament in Tashkent our team won 12 medals. They saw we could be champions.”

The boys come from across the city to this room tucked into the Kabul University campus, traveling past soldiers and police, around barbed wire and mounted guns. Many of them live second lives as tailors and shopkeepers, taking jobs to support their families and stay beyond drugs and militants whispering at the edges.

It is from these 30 boys and young men in the gym, and others like them, that a future in more than judo will be built. It may be hard to see that now; some boys are muscular, others blocky, a few are spindly, lost in thick judogis tied in white, yellow and green belts. They are unshaped but eager. Many of them were in elementary school when U.S.-led forces invaded to topple the Taliban, and before that they heard stories of other wars told by fathers and grandfathers.

“We are a country destroyed through three decades of conflict,” said Abdul Hameed Rahmanzada, a black belt. “We’re not at the level of our neighbors. We cannot build an economy or even strong Olympic teams in one or two years. It’s a long trip, but we go day by day.”

Shoes wait outside the workout room. The boys crouch, tugging, blocking; the better ones throw one another in graceful arcs; others grunt and struggle, their tosses jangles of elbows, chins and knees. Slap, slap. Hands and ankles hit the mats. Coach Yama Smak gathers everyone and shows them the ways of the master. Grace is not only passion but mathematical precision, the angle of a foot, the tilt of a neck.

The boys and young men watch, and one day may do just as he does. That will take time; for now it’s nice to be in this room, which seems like another country with its cushioned walls and voices of encouragement.

“I think things will get worse in Afghanistan,” said Toghyan, whose family fled to Pakistan during Taliban rule. “If we don’t stop the corruption and the suicide bombers, the militants will keep coming. When I’m out at a market I hear in my head over and over, ‘In a few minutes, in a few minutes more, a bomb will explode.’ ”

He speaks with the honesty of youth. He won a second-place medal in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, and is training hard to lose weight to reach about 160 pounds and a spot on the 2012 Olympic team. He must defeat eight other strong contenders, but he says this is possible; he will work out nine hours a day and watch judo tapes for new tricks.

“I eventually want to get in to politics. I follow all the elections,” said Toghyan, the son of a university dean. “Our government has too many of its people asking for money and bribes. I don’t want the country to be this way.”

Rahmanzada throws hard. His body is tight, like a clenched fist, but then it loosens and he moves intuitively, barely leaving a footprint on the mat. His black belt is a strip of envy for the younger boys. He shows them things, and like the coach, a posture-perfect man with a beard, Rahmanzada is patient and says the rigor and discipline of judo will help the boys face other challenges.

“We have one goal: to develop these young men and keep them from narcotics and other dangers,” he said. “It’s hard for a lot of them to train properly because most have to earn money for their families. We coaches volunteer our time. Judo is not supported by the government. We don’t have proper places to work out and there’s little money to travel abroad for tournaments. These young men want to win medals for their country, but we can’t compare Afghanistan yet with other countries.”

To the south, NATO forces battle the Taliban in Kandahar province. To the north, a feud between Islamist groups leaves the dead scattered in streets. Closer to home, suicide bombers and gunmen recently killed 16 people in downtown Kabul.

But the judo boys are sparring and thinking about the next tournament, in Kazakhstan. There are medals to be won.

The coach shows them one more time how to kick the leg high, roll the shoulders, not straining but with ease of breathing. Repetition. Simplicity. They step forward; head to head with ears scraping, they lock onto each other and wait for that moment, an almost imperceptible gap, when the weight shifts and the balance is broken, and a boy, if he is lucky, can throw a man to the mat.

jeffrey.fleishman

@latimes.com