Kabaddi

[arebelspy]

I had never heard of this crazy Indian sport, but this article on it was awesome, about USA throwing together a ragtag team, getting totally destroyed, but having fun.

Kabaddi is kind of like schoolyard tackle football, without the football. Or like red rover played by overzealous wrestlers. The PKL version of the game is played indoors on a large, rectangular mat and the teams are broken up into two sides, blockers and raiders. A raider must foray into the opposing half, tag a competitor, and then make it back to their own half without being tackled. The raider must do so with only one breath, repeating the word “kabaddi” so the referee knows they haven’t inhaled. Points can be gathered in a number of ways, but basically it’s just a bunch of big dudes tackling and evading with combinations of brute strength and agility. It’s fast-paced, visceral, intuitive, and a very big deal in India.

Worth reading, and possibly watching the YouTube video (or at least part if it--it's like 46 minutes long) for any sports fans.  :)

The world cup finals, between India and Iran is on today (10/22) at 11:30 a.m. ET on ESPN3.

[dividendman]

I remember playing this as a kid! I didn't realize it was a real sport... just assumed it was something made up.

[Silverado]

Watched it all the time growing up in Northern California with a large east Indian population. This was back in the eighties.

[CowboyAndIndian]

We used to play it as kids. The best part of the game was you needed no special equipment. Just a playground

It can get physical, I remember getting a black eye playing this :-(

[marty998]

We played a similar game at school called bullrush(?) I forget.

You needed a lot of breaths to outrun people so there was no holding any air in...

[cerat0n1a]

I was working in India last week, and watched the India v England game in the hotel restaurant. Fair to say that even in India, it wasn't exactly high profile in comparison to Cricket.

[Russ]

Yeahh we used to play this in Ohio (high school, along with ultimate fris on the weekends)! I forget what it was called. No breath holding, also

[arebelspy]

We played a game where you just tackled people, with a homophobic name (smear the *), but nothing structured with rules and points like this, or the breath holding.