It's Time You Knew About Kabaddi: The Ancient Game That's Gone Pro 

Noticed what feels like a weird cut near the start of the video? We needed to trim a short part of the video after receiving a copyright notice from a Kabaddi broadcaster. Although we feel like the way in which we used the footage was protected under Fair Use, we didn't want to risk a Copyright Strike on the channel and decided to trim that section instead. Can you tell that we're new to covering sports on People Make Games? We're still learning, bear with us! -Chris

And, thirty years later, I finally know what game those Indian dudes were playing at the park in Toronto, when I was a kid.

The scariest part is when you enter the court and 7 defenders are from government school. Those guys don't have mercy

Played this with the Indian Army when we did cross training. It’s fun and gets crazy.

Most nervous moment in Kabaddi : When you're the only defender left😂

In Vietnam we also have a similar-ish game kids play, but it never go mainstream. Hats off to the Indians who brought your tradition on stage for the world to see.

Can't wait for the anime

I love this. A simple child’s game is overlooked because it is so common. Thank you India for, once again, giving the world something wonderful. I can’t wait to teach it to the kids in my neighborhood.

Okay this is crazy, because I used to play this game like 15 years ago when I was in the Scouts and I honestly thought it was the insane invention of our scout leader to justify 20 teenage boys throw each other around the hall like a pure maniacal villain. Crazy to learn it's an ancient sport AND only just became popular. Wonder how our leader even knew of the game cause he was your typical british gent type

The game is no joke, it's a literal war. South Indian here, we used to play it as kids and God it was fun. Glad to see our childhood game growing to an international sport.

Just wanted to mention, never play this on concrete slabs, never ends well. I speak from experience 🤣🤣🤣

I learned in 1982 while I was in college at Eastern Washington University. I had a friend from Sri Lanka. It was a fun game then. I am too old now.

Kabaddi-19 rules, everyone holds their breath, nobody touches anyone.

What if we held hands 😳 And we were both Kabaddi defenders 🙈

This looks the match made in heaven between rugby and tag... I'm already in love

Kho-Kho is one of those games every Indian kid played growing up... Would love to see it going Pro 😊

This sports actually looks interesting, that would be nice to have for local high school to use that sport to be more competitive and kids will learn and love sports, can’t wait what future can hold for this.

Kabaddi is the sport I didn't know I needed. Time to get a local league started.

As a rugby player I would love to try this sport. I feel like we there are a lot of translatable skills

Look this game need strength speed awareness and all of it in a single body that's crazy I love kabaddi now love from usa

I just learned that this sport exists today, and I already really hope it gains traction internationally! I live in Texas, and this seems like the kind of mix of strategy and physicality we could really get into.

You forgot the last reason defenders hold hands, It's nice to feel that connection with another person.

We had Kabaddi and Mahabharat on TV in the UK when I was growing up.

During my school days , I had once had caught a raider who was almost twice mass compared to mine , I was 50kg and the raider was like 90kg , the interesting thing in this scenario was "I was the only defender left" 😂😂 .

As an Indian having played Kabadi as a child, I never understood the rules properly. Thanks for explaining that at the start 😂😂

I used to play Kabaddi at school over 20 years ago. This was in a small primary school in the north of England.

Indian guy here. Oh man, its been such a long time hearing about Kabaddi again. Used to play it so much back then as kids in school. I'm really impressed with your research. Not just explaining the feel of the game, but also with its historical background. And your pronunciations for Hindi words were quite good! Thank you for showcasing this wonderful sport. Peace!

I just love how a game we play in our playgrounds here in India is getting recognition in the world. We indian people wish kabaddi becomes a Olympics sport so that I gets widespread across the world.

You would know that kabaddi becomes popular when there's an Anime for it! It there is now!

I think the greatest compliment I can give this video, is that I want to play Kabaddi. I want to find a Kabaddi leagure in Los Angles.

New best romantic line: Let's hold hands as if we were Kabadi defenders.

Kabaddi is like a combination of Wresting + Rugby + Dodge ball + Tag

There is another such equally fun field game called "kho kho". I hope that can go mainstream some day.

Correction: they changed chanting kabbadi kabbadi to 30 sec rule

man this is a heavy hitter for your first video on the channel. great job, i haven't wanted to play a sport so bad since i was like 8.

I played this game in my school. I am a tiny guy. I was always deployed for raids. And when it came to defense, I used to always aim at the legs in order trap the player. The game gets more interesting when one plays it instead of watching it.

I first saw this sport on British Television (channel 4) in the 90s, when they used play on a dirt courts and wore traditional gear. Looked like a great sport and I'm suprised it never stayed on TV. Glad to hear it still receives coverage.

This game is so cool I’ve been watching it for years now and no one in the states know about it. I try and get my homies to play

This game looks amazing. AND it is way easier to understand the rules than cricket. 10/10 would go watch people this game.

Even after being Big fan of FIFA and IPL_T20, I can say every second of Kabaddi is ENTERTAINING, BREATHTAKING and INTENSE especially in PKL series They also show Heart beat of Coaches which will be around 115 in last minute of the game

I used to watch this on ch4 in the UK as a kid and I was always impressed by this sport.. The local kids and I used to play this on our local field... It's a sport that requires alot of endurance and wit! Glad to see this sport becoming more reconised across the globe.

Honestly I grew up hearing "kabaddikabaddikabaddi" with having no clue what the game actually was

Back in my secondary school in the UK we played Kabddi in PE for international week, it was so popular the kept playing it for the rest of the year

I am from Bangalore India. Left India 30 years ago to US and now in Canada. I use to play this game when I was kid (till 18 years old). My body shivers even now with fear remembering playing this game. I do not know how many times my breath stopped while opposite side( 5-7 of them) fell on me , 2-3 pushing me and throwing out of court like rag doll, catching me like dog (rear legs) by legs and dragging me like dog and so many sleepless nights getting hurt. There is 30 seconds window, raider trying hard to score and opposite team try to totally subdue you till you surrender ( All the hell breaks loose. Only mightiest survive..ha..ha) Always we use to play against our enemies from different area. So much at stake, honor, bet we place, prestige and area rivalry etc. It is a war when we played Kabbadi. We always use to be ruthless to opposing team. Thanks God I survived without loosing leg or arm or something..ha..ha. But this game made me mentally and physically tough rest of my life.

I am from punjab, India 🇮🇳🙏 . kabbadi is my favourite sport since childhood followed by MMA and soccer ⚽.I still play kabbadi 💪.

3:10: "I can't think of a team sport that has quite as many scorpion kicks" Sepak Tekraw says hi!

Having grown up in Gravesend, which has a large multi-generational Indian community, Kabbadi was something we all learned at school. There were local leagues and organised tournaments. Really great to see a video about it here. As a Rugby player, I particularly enjoyed defending...

Small correction: Abhimanyu was told about chakravyuha by his father, Arjun not by Krishan, when he was in his mother's womb. Abhimanyu's mother Subhadra while pregnant asked Arjuna to tell her a bedtime story, so Arjuna told her about chakravyuha. She was able to hear the first part about entering the chakravyuha but fell asleep before hearing the exit. Abhimanyu wanted to learn about exiting the chakravyuha, but his father Arjuna was in exile in the whole time and when Abhimanyu asked Krishna he was told to learn by Arjuna when he comes back but they never got the time to tell him.

Ngl that looks fun af, but professional tag looks like a death sentence for me. I'd crack my head so fast😂

Quinns' first video is already excellent insofar as it's made me feel clever for already knowing about this lovely sport! Cheers to Nish Kumar on that one episode of QI.

i don't have that much interest in sports but i find high energy sports with simple rules really entertaining to watch! like volleyball, badminton etc. really interested in kabbadi and it think it's very cool that it's a traditional sport from my southern brothers and sisters

There's an anime about Kabaddi out this season called Burning Kabaddi.

Well done Quinns, you really came out swinging on your first doc! And then immediately got tackled onto the ground, sure, but it's the effort that counts!

I'm imaging soccer players playing this, 80% of them (speaking from experience) hate it and will start fights over the smallest touch

Holy crap I never thought I'd see a video about Kabaddi in my recommendeds. I grew up watching this game on Channel 4 on Sunday afternoons. My brothers and I would try and play it based upon the rules we could figure out from watching haha

After I saw this I immediately had to look up full matches of this sport. It is amazing

this sport seems more interesting to me than any mainstream sport, i hope it replaces them or joins their ranks in the future

This is awesome. It's like being able to watch the athleticism of one on one sports, while retaining the ability to get behind a team and seeing team synergy at the same time. Fantastic

I love when this happens. I am 28 years old and have never seen or heard of this sport and I already know that the next few weeks i'll be binge watching it, lol. Life is full of surprises

That legend sounds like the background story of a modern game you'd find in the description of the game and its rules. "Will you succeed where he failed?"

"no one's gonna want to play this sport" he couldn't have been more wrong, I think everyone wants to play this sport after watching this video

Another Great Indian game. Vadamvali. I think you may find it interesting.

It's played all over South Asia. In Bangladesh it's called Hadodo. The chant is ha-do-do-do.

Chess & kabaddi were invented in India for warriors clans : 1. Chess for planners or commanders. 2. Kabaddi for ground troops & commander.

The best ad read ever. Some extremely huge Limmy energy.

I grew up playing kabaddi could be cause I was born in Patna (that happens to have one of the best Kabaddi Teams, Patna Pirates). But you have to be built quite strong to play this, it's not all fun when 5 people jump on you. But it's super fun when it's you among 6 others defending. Although, it was a shame that such a fantastic sport wasn't getting the attention it deserved. An Anime like Haikyuu! would be super fun to watch.

What an amazing explanation. I never thought someone (non-indian) will explain this game so perfectly. Well done. Lots of love from india

Found out about this sport from the anime, I didn’t even know it actually existed.

Come on E.A. lets get an over priced game disk of this

"You want to touch someone... anyone" Story of my life

Yes played this and my friends ripped my shirt off while trying to catch me. All I could say is this is my best Childwood sport.

Ok now I'm mad. I'v been been living over 80 years and played most every contact sport I thought there was, except this one, I just happened across it the other day on utube and was intrigued. Had I known about it I just know I would have been a life long devote as it not only takes skill but does not promote the kind of violence other contact sports do. One can play it without hostility towards your friends. I really like it.

This is so Cool its like a modern Gladiator Tag team game 😁 Now im officially fan of this awesome game!

This is insane! I'm instantly obsessed! It's every kids dream sport come true.

The "you only need a touch" bit reminds me of my stint in fencing. My coach always yelled at me "you only need a touch, not to skewer your opponent!"

Pro tip: Make the court boundaries using your shoes and play bare feet while playing on a nice grass field 😂

I only know about this game because it’s mentioned in Gintama

KCL Kabaddi was my university kabaddi team , can't believe I missed this!

This is one of the sports that plays as much as it looks good. I had so much fun playing it when I was a child. Amazing coverage.

If they had a league here in the states I couldn’t imagine how good states like Iowa, Minnesota, and other wrestling hot beds would be. By wrestling I’m referring to the traditional/Olympic style.

This sport looks AMAZING. Gives me roller derby vibes in how varied its players' body types can be, and all the action.

9:05 "longest poem ever written" English teachers: 👀👀👀👀

My last time I played was after our final exams with the Indian students from different States, and we played half drunk on the famous Coogee Beach, Sydney, Australia on a warm balmy night, around 11pm and we created such a ruckus and noise that the very distant (we thought so) residents started screaming at us to stop or they'd call the police. What fun that night was, what memories, what a sport, just want to play again!!!

As someone who watches the PKL avidly, I have to say that despite being less known, it's surprisingly intense and fun to watch. It's a new league and I'd encourage everyone to atleast catch one game. Also, I'd love to thank PMG here for highlighting a historic Indian sport that is having a resurgence. Thank You

IVE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER THE NAME OF THIS FOR YEARS! THANK YOU

This game looks amazing! If you're a person just scrolling through the comment I would urge you to check out World Chase Tag as well, it's like a mix between tag and parkour, and it has the same vibe and friendliness as Kabaddi seems to have. I have no personal connection to either sport but I just wanted to let people know about another cool sort of "underground" sport.

I played this a few years back with some of my friends. It was awesome

I was looking on ESPN3 to see if they covered the Houston Marathon. After scrolling through 5 pages of NCAA football games I came across the work Kabaddi. I was surprised to see this new word, this new sport, given that I am a true sport enthusiast, which you can obviously tell via my mocking of football and my dedication to running. I did a little poking on the keyboard and came across your very entertaining production. I watched it to the very end without even a snack break. I then took a quick look at the newest comments and they were all talking about their own personal experiences with Kabaddi. Given I have no experience with such, I thought I would take this time to commend your team for putting together a great story about the sport. It was funny but not too funny. Finally, the charity with a tab finale was well done. Nicely done all round- keep it up.

Indin guys here.....this reminded me of my school days when we used to play Kabbadi everyday....because it required nothing but a line drawn on ground.....it is a wonderful game...i wish it became more popular around the world

I've watched a similar sport on TV, but it was outdoors and I believe it was 1 v 3. Perhaps it's a regional variation. In any case, it's incredibly fun to watch. I'd love to try it some time.

This game played in my place in south Iran forever. It called "Eshtiti" here.

Great video. You should also check out kho kho, another ancient Indian game, which also has professional rules defined.. then there is Lagori, it's still only considered kids play. Don't think professional rules are even written for it. But it has potential for an exciting game

This video was so good. PMG doing amazing work as always!

This was fun! My partner who is into sports told me about Kabaddi in the past, so I am really looking forward to sharing this video with him, as I think some of the cultural/historical background to the game will be new to him as well.

This is all I watched in the hotels in Chennai when I was there a couple years ago for work.

I remember watching this sport on Channel 4 (in the UK) in the 1990's and then playing it at school with my mates.

"Pictures of Ross Kemp's face after it's been folded" is my new favourite google image search. Thanks!

I know well enough kabaddi, and I am also a kabaddi player(not professional), but i am loving his perspective and enthusiasm 😍

First saw it on channel 4 in UK in the early 90s. A small group of us started playing it at school, it got quite popular at one point and made a welcome change from playing football during pe lessons.

This has exactly the same energy as competitive Tag and I love it