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KABADDI AND YOGA
Dr. M.J.Sundar Ram, M.Sc., Ph.D. Kabaddi coach, Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation(Coach to Japan and Sri Lanka national teams) ''[The author started playing kabaddi in 1959. He has played for Karnataka for five years and was the captain of the state team. Later he qualified as a national referee and a national coach. He was deputed to Japan in 1979 by Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation to introduce kabaddi in Japan. He was later deputed to Sri Lanka to coach the Sri Lankan National kabaddi team which participated in the Asian Kabaddi Championship, 1982, held at Bombay.''

''During 1970-71 he came in intimate contact with Dr. Gitananda of Ananda Ashram, Pondicherry. Dr. Gitananda was a great exponent of yoga. He was conducting regular yoga classes for foreign students at Pondicherry. He started teaching yoga at Bangalore. The author became one of his first disciples and became proficient in yoga. Later he began guiding other disciples of Dr. Gitananda.''

''It was during this period that the author realized that kabaddi has a close link with yoga too. He discussed this with Dr. Gitananda who also concurred with him. But he said that a scientific analysis is needed before arriving at a definite conclusion. The following information tries to establish the relationship between kabaddi and yoga]''

INTRODUCTION
I was sent to Japan in 1979 by the Amateur Asian Kabaddi Federation to introduce and familiarize our most popular game – KABADDI – among the youth of that country. A few days after kabaddi was played on the Japanese soil, a get-together was arranged to get a feedback on the game. One elderly gentleman stood up, stared at me and said ‘you have done disservice to kabaddi’. I was taken aback. With a feeling of guilt I meekly asked him how. With a broad grin on his face he said ‘why have you people been hiding such a manly game in your own country for so long? Our boys like the game immensely!’

We have imported many games from other countries and have excelled in them. Now we have begun to offer to the world a game of our own. A game which heralds our culture. A game which the youth like immensely, a game which the elders admire intensely. A game that inspires valour, inculcates a spirit of challenge and dare-devilry, a game that inspires a feeling of togetherness.

Kabaddi is a game with a difference. You exercise not only your body but also your mind. The game is played under different names in different parts of our country but the common feature is breath holding. It is a team game, played for recreation, relaxation, physical fitness and mental alertness. It is loaded with thrills and action-packed encounters that make the spectators roar in excitement. Among the Indian games, Kabaddi has grown up to international standards and is rated as number one in popularity. Kabaddi is also played in neighbouring Asian countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Malayasia, Singapore, etc. Bangladesh has officially declared kabaddi as its national game.

WHY IS KABADDI SO POPULAR?
What makes kabaddi so popular among the youth? The reasons are many. Some of them are listed below: 1)	Kabaddi requires no equipments; a level piece of soft ground is all that is required; it is, perhaps, the only team game not employing any equipment. 2)	 When people play for fun or recreation it has no restriction on dress. 3)	It has great recreational and entertainment value in addition to its emphasis on physical fitness and mental alertness. 4)	It provides lots of excitement and thrill to both players and spectators. 5)	People of all age groups, can adopt the game to suit their requirements. 6)	Kabaddi is an ideal game to be played under moonlight on sand. 7)	The rules are simple and can be twisted to suit the occasion, when playing for recreation. 8)	The rules are simple and can be easily followed by the common man.

KABADDI IS A CONTACT GAME:
It is said that first impression is the best impression. When you watch a kabaddi match for the first time your impression is not worth remembering. It seems to be a rough and tough game, played only by ruffians. You think that the muscles are overworked, the brain is sitting idle. Now-a-days, when the youth cling to glamourous games such as cricket, they shudder to think of the physical injuries in kabaddi and swear never to play kabaddi in their lifetime. This impression is, however, deceptive.

You get such an impression because kabaddi is a contact game. Most other games are ‘touch-me-not’ games. The players dare not touch an opponent. If they touch it is a foul and the player is penalised. But kabaddi is a ‘touch-me-if-you-can’ game. The actions begin only when opponents come in contact with one another.

QUALITIES OF A KABADDI PLAYER:
A kabaddi player should possess exemplary qualities of sportsmanship. First of all he should possess a lion’s heart to dare the opponents in their own den. He should have the guts to enter the opponents’ court single-handed and face all the seven antis who are poised to pounce on him and pin him down. Did not Hanuman dare enter the domain of Ravana single-handed and return with resounding success? The raider should keenly watch the manoeuvres of the opponents. Some times he has to rely on his strength to escape from the opponents; some times he has to use his intelligence, choose the line of least resistance to escape from the opponents. All this requires split-second decisions. The raider should suppress his ego and strictly play according to his captain’s instructions. As he practices playing the game he slowly inculcates these qualities into his day-to-day life and emerges as a better citizen.

TEAMWORK AT ITS BEST:
Kabaddi is perhaps the only team game where teamwork is at its best. The seven players of the team have to move in a well-planned way as a single unit, which means that they should practice regularly for long periods. One wrong step by a player and the entire team collapses. A team of average-looking players can combine so effectively that they can effortlessly pin down a giant.

The situation in a kabaddi field goes on changing. When one or more players are out, the remaining players change their strategy. They recombine in different ways and prevent further collapse. At the same they slowly stage a recovery. When six players of a team are out, there are many instances where the remaining single player has skillfully managed to revive all the other players and the team goes ahead to win the match! All this is possible if there is perfect team work and constant practice.

KABADDI IN OLYMPICS:
Kabaddi took a big stride when it was introduced as a regular discipline in the Asian Games. Another big leap forward will land it in the Olympics too. The game has to spread its youthful charm to many more nations. But, before that, the several lacunae that exist are to be filled up and some amount of window dressing is necessary before it is made acceptable to the western world. Blaarren de Kabalt, the brain behind the Olympic Games, has said that games of ancient Greece, Egypt, India and Rome should find a place in the Olympics. Kabaddi is the only Indian game at present which has come of age to be  considered for the Olympics.

The official rules book of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India defines cant as the repeated, without break and at a stretch and clear sounding aloud of the approved word KABADDI within the course of one respiration. Respiration and breathing are two words which are loosely used as synonyms by the common man but, in reality, they are not. Breathing is filling the lungs with oxygen-rich atmospheric air and eliminating the carbon dioxide-rich air from the lungs to the atmosphere. Respiration is something more. Breathing, in fact, is the first part of respiration. The oxygen in the air enters the lungs. It is then absorbed by the hemoglobin present in the red blood corpuscles and is supplied to all the cells of the body. The food in the cells is burnt as fuel in the presence of oxygen to release energy. During this process carbon dioxide and water are released as byproducts. The carbon dioxide is transported from the cells to the lungs and from there it is eliminated to the atmosphere.

The entire process - entry of oxygen into the lungs, its absorption by the red blood corpuscles, its transportation to all cells to burn the food to release energy, transportation of carbon dioxide from the cells to the lungs from where it is finally released to the atmosphere – constitutes respiration. While all living organisms respire, all of them do not breathe. Breathing is seen only in those animals which possess lungs. A child respires when it is growing in the womb of the mother, but it does not breathe until it is born. Breathing is also known as ventilation. Breathing has two parts - inhaling the oxygen-rich atmospheric air into the lungs – inspiration, and exhaling the oxygen-poor air from the lungs into the atmosphere or expiration.

A motor vehicle moves by burning petrol. The petrol has energy trapped in it which is liberated when it is burnt as fuel in the presence of oxygen. A similar situation occurs in the body. Our body requires energy to carry on with its day-to-day activities. The food that we eat contains energy. The digested food is supplied to all cells of the body. In the cells the food is burnt in the presence of oxygen and the energy hidden in the food is released. Water and carbon dioxide are produced as byproducts. Carbon dioxide is taken back to the lungs and exhaled. If breathing stops the cells of the body cannot oxidize the food to release energy needed for the chemical process of living and they die. Thus life is solely dependent on breathing.

Breathing is important to our body for two reasons: i.	Breathing is the only means of supplying oxygen to all cells of our body for the release of energy. ii. Breathing is one major means of getting rid of toxic substances from our body.

The definition of cant as stated in the official rules book is technically not correct. The raider does not chant the word kabaddi during the course of one respiration. If you closely observe a raider’s cant, you realize that he chants the word kabaddi during the course of one expiration or exhalation and not during the course of one respiration. He repeatedly utters the word kabaddi while he is breathing out. Hence, if his inhaling is deep, his cant will be longer. A player who wants to shape himself into a specialist raider must therefore improve and increase  his lung capacity.

But, what is the meaning of the word ‘cant’? How did this word take its origin in kabaddi? It seems to be an English word but no dictionary gives a meaning suggestive of breathing or breath. The author strongly feels that the word ‘cant’ is a corrupt form of the word ‘chant’ which in course of time might have lost the ‘h’ and has been reduced to ‘c(h)ant’.

Kabaddi is related to yoga:
Running, jumping, squatting, kicking, muscular actions of the limbs, falls, sudden turns and twists, bends etc. are quite common in team games. Kabaddi has all these actions in plenty. But one unique feature that places kabaddi head and shoulders above all other games is cant. It is controlled breathing. It is this exercise that stimulates and sharpens your brain. It is this exercise that relates kabaddi to India’s ancient science of yoga, the science of the mind. Such yogic exercises can be achieved by ‘pranayama’ or breath control. Pranayama believes that the life of a person has to be measured not in terms of years but in terms of the number breaths one takes. Even to this day we refer to the death of a person when we say ‘he breathed his last’.

Yoga is the science of the mind. It is a system of harmonizing the mind and the body together and blending their activity. While psychology is a science of mental symptoms, yoga is the science of the whole mind. Pranayama is modified breathing brought about deliberately or consciously or voluntarily.

It is not respiration but expiration Pranayama lays more emphasis on exhalation or breathing out than breathing in because the most important tenet of pranayama is: only when we have emptied ourselves can we take in a fresh breath. It is during exhaling,  that impurities and toxic substances generated in the body are eliminated, making room for prana to enter. In kabaddi too we concentrate on the process of slow and controlled breathing out.

Kabaddi incorporates two aspects of yoga. They are: a)	Pranayama or breath control b)	Chanting or orally repeating a particular word (‘kabaddi’ in this case).

When a player chants the word ‘kabaddi’ repeatedly he is not holding his breath as is generally believed,  but is exhaling or breathing out slowly in a controlled way. By constantly becoming aware of the respiratory activity and by trying to regulate it, we can, not only acquire robust health but also control our mind. Yoga says that mental and respiratory events are interdependent processes and are complementary to each other. The air or ‘prana’ flows along the various yogic ‘nadis’ of our body and gives rise to vibrations of prana. When prana is controlled mind automatically becomes silent. Man can thus control his mind by controlling his breathing.

Importance of chanting
Chant is a short, simple series of syllables or words that are intoned to the same note or a limited range of notes. It is a word constantly repeated, especially loudly and rhythmically. Chanting is an integral part of yoga. It attunes body and mind admirably. We all desire a sound body and sound mind and sound alone can create this. Sound has a large effect on the layers of the mind. Chants may be composed of names, words or syllables, including nonsensical ones. To put it simply, to chant is to be enchanted. Sound vibrations purify the mind and return it to its innate stillness and brilliance. The power of chanting unites body, breath, voice and mind. The mind itself experiences a high degree of unification when chanting.

Among other things, chanting 	Opens and warms up the body •	Stabilizes the mind and the emotions •	Strengthens and tones the diaphragm muscle – the most important respiratory muscle •	Creates vibratory resonance that awakens psycho-neurological centers in the body and activates our own internal healing force •	Brings great healing to the throat and voice. •	Draws us into the feeling, the awareness part of the mind where we can access our own, inner wisdom. Chanting allows us to positively affect our internal atmosphere. Chanting oxygenates the body and improves body- mind connection, lowers blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates, reduces cardiac complications and increases the immune response.

Why should we control the breath?
Our breathing slows down while we are at rest. During increased physical activities the rate of breathing also increases, increasing oxygen supply and faster discharge of carbon dioxide. The brain needs more oxygen than any other organ of our body. If it is starved of sufficient oxygen it becomes inactive resulting in mental sluggishness, depression, negative thoughts, impaired vision and hearing.

Why is our breathing fast and shallow?
Humans, by nature, are shallow breathers. In one minute we breathe about 15-20 times or about 1000 times an hour. A shallow breath consumes about 20 cubic inches of air and results in oxygen starvation. This leads to premature ageing, inefficient immune system, reduced vitality, and many such problems. A long deep breath can take about 100 cubic inches of air. Fast breathers are easily excitable. Monkey and dog are typical examples of fast breathers. They respire about 30-40 times per minute. They get easily provoked. A slow breather such as the tortoise completes only three respirations per minute. It is calmness personified and has a life span of about 100 years. Quick, shallow breathing is an aging factor – when breathing rate increases longevity decreases. The Journal of Royal Society of Medicine in one of its editorials has suggested that shallow breathing can cause fatigue, sleep disorders, anxiety, heartburn, muscle cramps, heart palpitations, blurred vision, etc. Our body possesses nadis or invisible subtle yogic channels through which the pranic current flows. The nadis have established contacts with the gross nerves and plexuses. The vibrations that are produced in the physical nerves have the desired effect on the nadis. A knowledge more secret than the science of breathing and a friend more reliable than the science of breath control has never been seen or heard of. The ancient yogis discovered that by practicing pranayama we can efficiently remove pranic energy blocks, thereby allowing our body to regenerate more efficiently. Pranayama is not meant for mainly controlling the mind and to achieve peace of mind. It may be a distant goal, no doubt; but the immediate goal is maintenance of physical health, efficient functioning of the various body systems such as respiratory system and overcoming respiratory problems such as asthma, hypertension, diabetes, and so on. Our elders concealed the fundamentals of pranayama in the guise of a game. This seems to be the most logical explanation about the origin of kabaddi.

The advantages of pranayama or playing kabaddi:
1.	Controlled breathing keeps the body fit and healthy. 2.	It increases longevity. 3.	It improves memory power and eliminates mental disorders. 4.	It tones up liver, stomach, intestine and digestive system and kindles gastric fire. 5.	It strengthens the nervous system, improves concentration and calms the mind. 6.	It eliminates negative thinking.

User:Mjsram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia KABADDI AND YOGA. Dr. MJSundar Ram, M.Sc., Ph.D. Kabaddi coach, Asian Amateur Kabaddi Federation (Coach to Japan and Sri Lanka national teams)