Serbian Martial Artist Vladan Tadic Sets One-Minute Nunchaku Air-Strike Record
- Jul 15
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
A former fighter, boxing coach, and eskrima guro from Serbia completed 164 one-handed nunchaku air strikes in 60 seconds, turning a lockdown-born discipline into a measured test of speed, endurance, and control.
By Atlas Editorial Team
15 July 2026 • Belgrade [Serbia]
The Man Who Kept Testing Himself
Vladan Tadic was born in Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia, now the Republic of Serbia. The map changed around him, but the instinct remained: test the body, test the nerve, test the will.
Tadic began martial arts as a schoolboy, joining a karate section with his classmates. What started in a school gym became a lifetime of combat practice. He moved from karate into full-contact kickboxing, boxing, amateur MMA, fist fighting, grappling, and other less-commercial forms of fighting. He competed across Europe, winning tournaments through organizations including WFMC, AFSO, ICO, and XFC Italy.
He holds a second dan black belt in full contact and is an eskrima guro. Since 2017, he has also worked as a boxing coach in the Serbian Boxing Federation, training fighters after years of being one himself.
Tadic describes his fighting career as a quest. The phrase is simple, but it carries the weight of a man who has spent decades measuring himself against resistance.
A Lockdown Discipline Becomes a Record
The nunchaku did not enter Tadic’s life through spectacle. It arrived during the stillness of the COVID lockdown, when a friend told him about an online speed-striking competition. The friend knew Tadic’s eskrima background. He knew Tadic had a fast right hand. The challenge was offered, and Tadic accepted.
He began training with nunchaku and soon won two online international speed-striking championships: one through the Iranian organization F1 Martial Art in 2020 and another through IFSU Speed Striking in 2021.
The record submitted to Atlas World Records is not a target-hit record. There is no bag, pad, board, or object receiving the blow. Instead, Tadic performed a one-handed nunchaku air-strike drill: the weapon extending outward and returning toward the body again and again inside a 60-second window.
In that minute, Tadic completed 164 valid one-handed nunchaku air strikes.
The discipline looks simple only to those who have never tried to keep speed alive while the forearm begins to burn. Tadic trained in three parts: grip, speed, and endurance. He used springs to strengthen the grip and small weights to build the speed and durability needed for the attempt.
“The hardest part is maintaining the right pace for the full 60 seconds,” Tadic explained, “and relaxing the arm, fighting the cramp in the forearm.”
The Narrow Space Between Speed and Control
For Tadic, the one-handed nunchaku air strike is not acrobatics. It is not a flourish. It is a direct attacking motion repeated under pressure. He describes the discipline as one with no “idling” and no decorative movement. Every repetition must serve the strike.
Speed alone is not enough. If the athlete begins too fast, the attempt collapses before the minute is over. If he conserves too much energy, the best result never arrives. The record exists in a narrow space between aggression and restraint.
Precision matters. The nunchaku must complete the correct circular motion and return properly under the arm. If the return is wrong, time is lost. If the movement breaks down, the repetition loses its integrity.
Tadic’s influences stretch across martial arts and combat sports: Bruce Lee, Dennis Alexio, Don Wilson, Dan Inosanto, Georges St-Pierre, Fedor Emelianenko, and Alexander Povetkin. But his message to younger martial artists is not only about becoming a champion.
“It is not necessary for everyone to be champions,” he said. “But it is necessary for them to become good people. To work on themselves and always be the best version of themselves and an inspiration to others.”
In one minute, a number was created: 164. But behind the number is a longer story: a boy in a karate class, a fighter crossing Europe, a coach shaping other athletes, and a Serbian martial artist still willing to stand alone and measure what discipline can do.
Certified by Atlas World Records on 13 July 2026