Kho Kho is a sport that many of us must have played in our childhood— the popular Indian tag game which was invented during the ancient period in Maharashtra.
The traditional Indian game is now gaining popularity among the youngsters in the country and its experienced player Sarika Kale being honoured with Arjuna Award this year gave an impetus to the community.
Recently, the Kho Kho Federation of India (KKFI) and Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK) organised a first-ever scientific High-Performance national camp for its players. The country’s top Kho Kho players for close to four weeks sharpened their physical abilities and explored various facets of the fitness required to excel in the sport with the help of sports science-based knowledge and technologies.
After the rigorous training of the players under expert eyes, the camp also witnessed the KKFI’s 2021 Super League Kho Kho Tournament from February 12-15 at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, which proved to be a super hit among Kho Kho lovers.
The 138 players were divided into ten teams (eight for men and two for women) as the tournament showcased matches with the new playing rules of the upcoming Ultimate Kho Kho which aims to re-brand the game of Kho Kho as never before with its fast and pacey new avatar.
“During the scientific camp, we focused on improving overall fitness and physical abilities of players with required guidance given to corrected techniques and acquiring technology-based skillset. And through this Super League, we aimed to evaluate the standard and level of each player in the actual match situations. The experts are now scientifically analysing all the data and will create an evaluation and performance grade for each player and we will continue to monitor and course correct the players in the coming days till we have a pool of perfect world-class players created over six-seven months,” KKFI President Sudhanshu Mittal said.
The camp has seen players being monitored and analysed based on the findings and parameters ranging from sports physiotherapy, biomechanics, biokinetics, sports performance analysis, posture corrections, and balance analysis of players to make them less injury-prone was brought into action.
“The players have made impressive progress with all the analysis and guidance. They have also trained to get used to the new format of Kho Kho that we are intended to introduce in the league. During the Super League we have captured their moves through multi cameras to see how the game is coming to life as a TV product,” Ultimate Kho Kho CEO Tenzing Niyogi said.
In the Super League Kho Kho Tournament, Pahadi Billas lifted the trophy with a convincing six points win in the thrilling final against the Panthers. The winners and runners-up team in the men’s event received 2 lakh and 1.50 lakh prize money respectively.