Hafiz Younis launched Power For Women in York a year ago after a successful career as a sports coach with the Metropolitan Police, the latter of which saw him protect top celebrities, politicians and royalty.
The 51-year-old grew up in Rotherham, but avoided its gangs by joining the Royal Air Force Cadets aged 12 before attending university in London, leading him to work in management and coaching in sports centres in the capital.
Hafiz then joined the Met in 2006 as a community support officer and then as a police officer in 2008, spending 14 years with them.
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Westminster-based, his work included guarding King Charles several times, as well the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince William. He also helped guard Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Clinton and he was personal guard one day to former PM David Cameron, walking him from Downing Street to Parliament.
(Image: Supplied)
A successful Met career also saw Hafiz win a Commissioners Commendation for restraint under immense pressure during the student riots of 2010 at Millbank.
During the Pandemic, Hafiz left the police to be near Family and took the first job offered to him, train conductor for TransPennine Express.
However, despite them being “a great employer”, Hafiz decided to start a career in self-defence coaching, a passion of his, using his skills in martial arts, a BSc in Sports Science, not to mention expertise gained from sports coaching and his police career.
Hafiz said: “So I have all this experience and knowledge that very few others can match, and with the need for women’s self-defence, I feel as if I am destined to be here right now coaching women and girls to become stronger from within.”
Female family and friends told Hafiz of the need for self-defence, which led to much research and further certification from experts Dave Turton, Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine.
Earlier this month, Hafiz was keen to share his story by attending a ‘Meet the Media’ event in York organised by PR and communications experts Linda Harrison and Jo Leatham, which was attended by 30 small businesses.
Hafiz told the Press: “I love coaching, all roads have led to here, and it’s become a mission to help empower as many women and girls as want it.”
His company offers in-person coaching sessions, but will also launch an online course on March 17.
Hafiz continued: “The in-person sessions are short courses, running for an hour or one-and-a-half hours. They can be done in almost any workplace. We’ve coached in school classrooms.”
“The sessions are active but we pause to chat and talk psychology and tactics and pass on knowledge from my policing career and research. So it is all stop-start, interactive and covers psychology, tactics and real insights that not many others have.”
Hafiz has also written a book Introducing Women’s Self Defence.
His courses, he says, are based on reality and research, rather than ancient Chinese martial arts, giving a scientific approach to self-defence.
His aim is to prevent any attack, but should self-defence be needed, he works on “powerful and effective shots that have immediate and powerful impact.”
Hafiz continued: “All women and girls have the ability to fight back within them. We don’t really teach much in our sessions. We coach to bring out what is already there, and so they own this power when they walk out of our session.”
In York, Power For Women holds regular classes at the York Railway Institute and York St John University, with classes soon to start at York Vale Academy.
In its first year, the business has taught more than 2,000 women and girls overall.
Initially, delivery was meant to be mostly online, but the demand mainly came from in-person training.
Studies claim a £66billion cost to the UK economy from violence against women, due to legal and medical costs, slower career progression from victims, etc.
And those who take self-defence courses have a better social life and careers. They also avoid attacks better, escape attacks earlier, leading to lower medical costs and time off work.
Hafiz said: “The wider we can reach, the more we can help the individuals, companies and the economy itself.”
For details, go to: www.power-for-women.org.
