The Littlest Karate Kid

Don't mess with five-year-old Varsha Vinod – she's the youngest karate black belt in the world.

Varsha, who lives in Allappuzha, on southwest India's Arabian Sea, has been in training since she was two. (It helps that her dad is India's national champion.) Already she's got 15 katas, or disciplines, of karate under her (tiny black) belt. She can also handle deadly martial arts weapons such as the yawara stick and the nunchucks.

The pint-size phenom trains for two and half hours every day at the KoInChi Academy of Martial Arts. (To see a video of Varsha, click here.)

"She is the ultimate karate kid," Juan Moreno, the 36-year-old British Karate Federation Champion, told the UK’s The Telegraph. Moreno sparred with Varsha when she arrived in the UK last week.

"It's hard to remember she is just five. Her skills and concentration are amazing," Moreno told the Telegraph. "I have two young children myself but I couldn't imagine them putting in the concentration and effort Varsha has."

Just how amazing are Varsha’s skills? They’ve been replicated in a computer game called MiniNinjas, says the Telegraph – which comes from Eidos, the creators of the "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" series.

"I was very excited when I got my belt and I like karate very much," Varsha told the Telegraph. "The other children are very proud of me -- I don't think they're frightened of me."

Just wait until she kicks up her skills another notch.

Photo courtesy davidmarcantonio via Flickr.