What is kabaddi?
Kabaddi is a tag/wrestling sport played predominantly in the eastern world. Since the advent of the Pro Kabaddi League, the sport is now more renowned than ever and has gained more traction in the last decade. Popular in places like Nepal, Srilanka, Japan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the sport has multiple names depending on where it is played, yet the rules remain the same. Although historians do not know too many details about the history of this South Asian game, they believe the game is nearly 4,000 years old (P, 2020). Originating from Tamil Nadu India, the team sport kabaddi is played on a court or field occupied by two teams of seven. Taking turns sending over a “raider” onto the opponents half, it is their job to tag out their opponents and return back to their half while holding their breath.
In this sport, foot movements are most important alongside tactics by both the raider and opposing team playing defense. Many considerations to make include body positioning, stance, speed, agility, and style of play (Kabaddi – Game Tactics). Furthermore, the raider is also holding their breath while executing this raid so time is of the essence. For the majority of the game, the raider is the highlight of the match as they have to use their bodies to gather points from their team and keep points away from their opponents. When tagging their opponents the raider can tag their opponent with their hands and their feet. When they acquire their needed points they must avoid being wrestled to the group before they reach the midway line onto their side. These offensive and defensive techniques help the raider accumulate as many points as possible in a single raid.
Biomechanically, it is easiest to understand this sport from a wrestling perspective with the inclusion of tag. In most cases, the athletes are not running linearly, causing multiple difficulties to effectively record exactly what forces are being applied. On the foot joints, this includes inversion and eversion in various degrees that shift the athlete’s center of mass. To stabilize this change in center of gravity when tackled or tagging, we see increased dorsiflexion of the ankle, and trunk, hip, and knee flexion (King et al., 2018).
Current footwear includes specially made mid-cut shoes that resemble wrestling shoes. However, the patents revolve mainly around the sport of wrestling and are seemingly knock-offs of the sport’s footwear.
USD233805S – Wrestling shoe
US9173448B1 – Wrestling shoe assembly that includes an auxiliary overshoe
US7325336B2 – Wrestling shoe with separated outer soles
The goal of this traction research is to develop an outsole that allows the player to rotate freely with grip on the parameter of the outsole for grip when pushing off and fleeing their opponents.
References
P, L. (2020, April 24). Kabaddi : Origin, History and popularity. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://medium.com/@LuckyWrites/kabaddi-a-viewpoint-8b85e180a7c3
Kabaddi – Game Tactics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.tutorialspoint.com/kabaddi/kabaddi_game_tactics.htm
King, E., Franklyn-Miller, A., Richter, C., O’Reilly, E., Doolan, M., Moran, K., . . . Falvey, É. (2018, August 01). Clinical and biomechanical outcomes of rehabilitation targeting intersegmental control in athletic groin pain: Prospective cohort of 205 patients. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/16/1054
USD233805S – Wrestling shoe. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://patents.google.com/patent/USD233805S/
US9173448B1 – Wrestling shoe assembly that includes an auxiliary overshoe. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://patents.google.com/patent/US9173448B1/en
US7325336B2 – Wrestling shoe with separated outer soles. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://patents.google.com/patent/US7325336B2/en