kabaddi kabaddi kabaddi kabaddi kabaddi...

February 28, 2010 3:24 PM

Kabaddi is an ancient team sport, originating in South Asia, that requires nothing but an open area and a bunch of people [wikipedia]. It combines the skills of tag and wrestling with the ability to hold your breath while doing so: raid your opponents' side of the court, tag as many of the defenders as you can, and then run back to your side, avoiding the defensive tackler--all in one breath, while chanting "kabaddi-kabaddi-kabaddi". [extended rules].
Footage: [ 2006 World Cup (with music) • 2005 World Cup 1 2 3 • 2004 • 9 minutes of footage from a Tauranga, NZ tournament • From the USA 1 2 ]
"Kabaddi Kabaddi" by Babbu Mann from the film Hashar • Another song
The British Army uses Kabaddi as a recruiting tool. • Representing Team MeFi
posted by not_on_display (35 comments total)

Maybe I'm weird, but I'd like to see this on the high school or college level.
posted by LSK at 3:34 PM on February 28, 2010

MeFi's own Regional Junior Champion
posted by battlebison at 3:35 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

No kidding. I was expecting this to have been posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion, but I guess that would be too perfect. I learned what Kabaddi was when I wanted to figure out what the hell his or her name meant.
posted by DecemberBoy at 3:38 PM on February 28, 2010

Would it be a self-link if EMRJKC linked to it?

I totally want to get a game of this going somewhere, but I have a feeling it won't be in South Carolina...

(Also, if you had posted that text without any links, I think I probably wouldn't have believed that there was such a game, much less World Cups)
posted by This Guy at 4:13 PM on February 28, 2010

You have not lived until you've seen an Indian film where the fate of a small village and/or young woman's affections rests on the outcome of a Kabaddi match. And they show the entire game. In it's entirety.
posted by piratebowling at 4:18 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I played Kabaddi for my school, despite my protests that I was more of a football kind of guy. Got drafted in, and the inevitable happened with surprising speed. No more contact sports for me, at least the overt kind.
posted by dhruva at 4:44 PM on February 28, 2010

From the USA

I know you're upset about us beating you at hockey, but that's no reason to annex Surrey, BC.
posted by CKmtl at 4:48 PM on February 28, 2010

"...and the inevitable happened with surprising speed. No more contact sports for me, at least the overt kind."
posted by dhruva

What was the inevitable happen-ing, please?
posted by not_on_display at 4:51 PM on February 28, 2010

CKmtl: "I know you're upset about us beating you at hockey, but that's no reason to annex Surrey, BC."

Ooh, is this the Canada/US hockey derail? You know, the US was actually 1-1 vs Canada in the Olympics. Canada happened to win at the right time. Congrats and all, but no smugness is needed. Let's have a tie-break game (which I'm sure NBC and CBC would be cheering for all the way to the bank...). OK. Derail over.
posted by This Guy at 4:53 PM on February 28, 2010

heh. got captured ignominiously, and sent out of the arena, that's what happened.
posted by dhruva at 4:55 PM on February 28, 2010

dhruva - that's a bit of an anticlimax. I was expecting a tale of broken limbs, teeth or at least several litres of blood.
posted by Miss Otis' Egrets at 5:10 PM on February 28, 2010

You know, the US was actually 1-1 vs Canada in the Olympics. Canada happened to win at the right time.

Uhhh, yeah. That's kind of the point. I'm not really sure how we could deny the great North a little bit of smugness.

Regarding kabaddi: I have learned something new today, that's cool
posted by Think_Long at 5:12 PM on February 28, 2010

My memory is fading: but the thing is, it happened in like 3 seconds or something.
posted by dhruva at 5:12 PM on February 28, 2010

So, how come I can't seem to hear anyone actually shouting "kabaddi" in any of these clips? Do they say it quietly to save air? Does this require refs who follow them around listening closely? Is this sport ripe to be overtaken by musician-wrestlers who can do circular breathing?
posted by agentofselection at 5:27 PM on February 28, 2010

I can't be the only one who first heard about kabbadi through Japanese teen drama*, courtesy of this guy. Japan has a knack for identifying the weird and distilling it down to pure concentrated insanity.

*All boys school? Check. Adorable cross-dressing girl? Check. Comedic homoerotic love triangle? Check. Random dude in a gold cape prancing around doing kabbadi? Oh, check to the mother frackin' check.
posted by Diagonalize at 5:31 PM on February 28, 2010 [4 favorites]

My thoughts exactly, agentofselection. I feel like this game would have a lot of cheating or at least a lot of accusations of cheating. It seems impossible to prove they were saying "Kabaddi" the whole time and didn't take any breaths, assuming they're not shouting it.
posted by jouir at 5:34 PM on February 28, 2010

One of the comments from the 2004 WC clip:

"they don't have to repeat kabaddi kabaddi anymore in this style. they stopped doing this years ago. they now have a 30 or 28 second timer once they cross the mid line to touch someone and get back"
posted by CKmtl at 5:41 PM on February 28, 2010

dhruva: "heh. got captured ignominiously, and sent out of the arena, that's what happened."

Can you describe what this means for the kabaddi-challenged out here?
posted by This Guy at 5:57 PM on February 28, 2010

Basically (as the wikipedia link points out), there are two teams. One person from one team is sent into the other team's court. The aim is to tag (the way we played it) one of the other tem's members. So if you can touch somebody from the other team, all the while muttering to yourself Kabaddi kabaddi very quickly, and then get back over the line to your side of the court you get a point. Anyway the opposite team tries to catch you and keep you from returning tot he safety of your line. The thing is if you need to draw a breath and you can't keep saying kabaddi you need to get back over the line, and the opposing team sends their raider. And so it goes. So when I went across the line, before I could even try to tag the opposing team members, they had already wrestled me to the ground. No chance of getting back to safety

I don't know how it works at the level of high competitions, but usually the other team is quick to point out if you stop muttering kabaddi. I always thought kabaddi as a weird sport, a bit like a folk sport, that had no business being played outside of villages. Like Kho-Kho.
posted by dhruva at 6:12 PM on February 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

I played kabaddi in middle school and enjoyed it. A lot of accusations of cheating for sure. Coed kabaddi games were frowned upon, but occasionally happened.
posted by peacheater at 6:36 PM on February 28, 2010

THREE VERY GOOD STAR WARS MOVIES LATER...

Brian: An equation so complex as to utterly defy possibility of comprehension by even the most brilliant human mind, but an equation nonetheless.
Tim: Oh my god...
Brian: What?
Daisy: What?
Tim: I've got some fucking Jaffa Cakes in my coat pocket!
Tim: Oh mummy, oh daddy, oh let's all play kabaddi...
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:44 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I still remember the Channel 4 coverage in the UK. Awesome stuff. It's like British Bulldogs/Red Rover for grownups.
posted by scruss at 7:45 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Was reminded of that too, scruss, and where I first heard of the sport. Looks like great fun.
posted by Abiezer at 9:03 PM on February 28, 2010

WHOOPS! Here is the video for "Kabaddi Kabaddi" by Babbu Mann.

It is BAD ASS kinda.
posted by not_on_display at 9:24 PM on February 28, 2010

When I was in Scouts circa '85, we used to play a team sport that might have been inspired by kabbadi. There was no wrestling and no breath-holding, though.

The playing field had two "end zones" that were the safe areas for each team. In between was a large no-man's-land. Once you left the safe zone, you could tag any enemy in the middle area who had been out of their safe zone longer than you. However, you could be tagged by any enemy who had left their middle area after you left yours.

When you were tagged, you were taken to a small area of the enemy's safe zone, where you could rescued by a daring member of your team who got close enough to slap your hand. The game was over when all of one team was captured.

The game involved a lot of short sprints and a surprising amount of tactical decisions: it was a game of attacks and counter-attacks, and playing bait so that you could lure an attacker close enough to your line to be tagged by "fresher" teammates. It was common to be chased across the middle by an attacker, cross the safe zone line and immediately turn and chase HIM back across the field...at which point he either crossed the line and came after you again or you were chased away by enemy attackers.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Is it a distant relative of kabbadi?
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:36 PM on February 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ian A. T.: That sounds awfully similar to a game I remember from middle school phys.ed., except I don't think you could ever tag someone in the no-man's-land in our version — only if they were in your team's territory. I might be mixing it up in my mind with some mutated version of capture-the-flag. I suspect there are a ton of games along these general lines, though.
posted by hattifattener at 10:16 PM on February 28, 2010

Ian A.T.: The game you are thinking of is Dho-dho-dho, one of the New Games developed by Steward Brand and others in the early 1970s.
posted by Araucaria at 10:47 PM on February 28, 2010

Years ago after losing out of a beach ultimate tournament I was hanging out waiting to watch finals when some guy suggested we play Kabaddi Kabaddi (which no one had heard of). He explained the rules, we fell in love with it right away, and we played for a couple hours. Sadly I'd forgotten all about it until this post.

I must say it's a shame they don't have to say kabaddi kabaddi anymore. It was my favorite part that the game had it's own self produced soundtrack.

When people were stalking over there was a slow, deliberate, breath-saving kabaddi kabaddi; kind of a Jaws like suspense builder. After a touch, adrenaline caused the chant to pick up speed and intensity which matched the chase scene. But the best kabaddi is the limp croaking weeze that is barely audible as someone struggles to crawl across the line while a good friend squeezes the breath out of them trying to induce silence.

Just not the same with a stopwatch.
posted by doctoryes at 10:53 PM on February 28, 2010 [3 favorites]

This is a joke, right?
posted by smartyboots at 12:17 AM on March 1, 2010

Funny, this Christmas I talked about Kabbadi with a German coworker. He knew of the game because as a youth in the 80s, he had travelled to Canada with some kind of Marxist or Stalinist group in order to travel across the country with the Canadian counterpart in a series of protests. The Canadian group was run and populated almost entirely by Sikhs who then taught the German visitors the game. He has very fond memories!
posted by molecicco at 7:08 AM on March 1, 2010

The game I described is different from dho-dho-dho in almost every detail, though I encourage everyone in this thread interested in trying kabaddi to check out Araucaria's link, as it describes a simplified version of kabbadi that might be easier to pull off with your friends one afternoon.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:14 AM on March 1, 2010

Can anyone help me out with a similar (I think) Japanese game.

There is a lined playing field, like a yin/yang symbol with small openings on opposite ends of the circle.

Each team starts in one half of the yin/yang symbol. You cannot cross the center line, but you can leave the circle via the appropriate exit, but if you do, you must hop on one foot until you re-enter the circle. You can enter your opponents' side of the circle from the opposite entrance and use two feet.

The goal is to remove all of the members on the opposing team from the game. One way to remove an opponent from the game is to pull him/her over the middle line, i.e. reach across and wrestle.

The other way is to knock them to the ground or make them touch two feet to the ground when outside the circle.

I believe that if you hop all the way around and enter your opponent's half of the circle, you can start tackling people willy nilly. They are out if you knock them to the ground, whereas you have to be thrown out of the circle. It made for some interesting tactics.

Anyway, this game was great fun in PE at age 10-11 until someone badly dislocated his shoulder. And then we weren't allowed to play anymore. :(

Oh, man. I wish I knew about Kho Kho when I was a kid.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:39 AM on March 1, 2010

Oh, man. I wish I knew about Kho Kho when I was a kid.

Is there anything that's stopping you from playing now...?
posted by whatzit at 9:47 AM on March 1, 2010

Is there anything that's stopping you from playing now...?

1. Lack of bountiful childhood friends
2. A good place to play
3. Lack of time (work/family)
4. A 15-inch plate that's attached to my pelvis by 7 screws

(C'mon, please, somebody help me out with the taijitu game?)
posted by mrgrimm at 11:50 AM on March 1, 2010

posted by mrgrimm:
"(C'mon, please, somebody help me out with the taijitu game?)"

Have you consulted this list? Maybe AskMe can also help.

Also, can #'s 1 & 3 on your list be combined? That way, you can play it easy (#4), especially if your family includes small children and if your living room (#2) is large enough.
posted by not_on_display at 2:58 PM on March 1, 2010