Attacking Or Defensive Strategy-What Works for Kabaddi?

    Normally in any Kabaddi team, there are 7 players- two defenders, 3 raiders, 1 cover, and 1 all-rounder. While this is the usual way of arranging any team, a team may shuffle these positions or the number of raiders or defenders based on its strategy for the game

    Attacking Or Defensive Strategy in Kabaddi Image credit: PA Images Attacking Or Defensive Strategy in Kabaddi

    The team could either play in a defensive mode or in an attacking mode. The defensive mode would mean that the team used most of its strength in defending, i.e. most emphasis has been on the defenders, while the teams that adopt the attacking strategy make the most use of their raiders. 

    In a particular season, to understand which teams have played defensive and which ones have played attacking, one needs to see the average points of all teams. After calculating the mean points scored by any team in a season, the average points scored by each team in a season are calculated. If the average points of a team lie above the season's average, it has played with an attacking motive and if the average points of a team lie below the season's average, it has adopted a defensive strategy throughout the season.

    It is hard to say which strategy works best for a team. It all depends on the teams that are playing against each other and whether they have good raiders or good defenders. Just like initially, every cricket player wishes to be a batsman, in Kabaddi as well, every player wishes to be a raider. However, depending on the skill and the swiftness of a player, a coach may feel that a player will do better as a defender. While on one hand, raiders are required to be swift and pacey, the defenders are expected to be bulky and strong to be able to stop the flexible raiders. Many believe that though it is a great sightseeing raiders elegantly raid and score points, it is a good defence that makes a team win. A team can't expect to win with strong raiders but a weak defence. 

    Anand Dahiya, a 42-year-old coach, who has been coaching Kabaddi for over 15 years expressed the importance of strongly built stoppers in Kabaddi. He believes there is too much emphasis on agility and flexibility in Kabaddi that people often forget the importance of a good defence. "There is too much focus on agility. But if you look at some of the better players that we have - Rakesh Kumar, Sandeep Narwal, Jasvir Singh - they are all strongly built," said Dahiya. 

     

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