Kho kho
Kho kho playing in Govt middle school, Nallambal, Karaikal
NicknamesKho-kho
First playedIndia
Characteristics
ContactPermitted
Team members12 players per side, 9 in the field and 3 extra
Mixed-sexNo
EquipmentNone (except the two poles on the court)
Presence
Country or regionIndian subcontinent

Kho kho is a traditional Indian sport that dates back to ancient India.[1][2] It is the second-most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi.[3] Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connecting two poles which are at either end of the court. During the game, nine players from the chasing team (attacking team) are on the field, with eight of them sitting (crouched) in the central lane, while three runners from the defending team run around the court and try to avoid being touched.[2] Each sitting player on the chasing team faces the opposite half of the field that their adjacent teammates are facing.

At any time, one player from the chasing team (the 'active chaser'/'attacker') may run around the court to attempt to tag (touch) members of the defending team, with one point scored per tag, and each tagged defender required to leave the field; however, the active chaser cannot cross the central lane to access the other half of the field, and cannot change direction once they start running toward either pole. The chasing team can get around these restrictions if the active chaser either switches roles with a sitting teammate (by touching them on the back while saying "Kho") who is facing the other half of the court and therefore has access to it, or runs to the area behind either pole and then switches direction/half. Each team has two turns to score and two turns to defend, with each turn lasting nine minutes. The team that scores the most points by the end of the game wins.[4]

The sport is widely played across South Asia, and also has a strong presence in the regions outside South Asia, such as South Africa and England. It is played most often by school children in India and Pakistan and is a competitive game.[5] The first league of its kind called Ultimate Kho Kho was unveiled in India in August 2022.[6]

Etymology

The name comes from Marathi: खोखो (khō-khō),[7] the word kho is an onomatopoeia of the sound invoked while playing the game.[8]

History

Khelo India and the National Games of India are two major nationwide sporting events in India that have included kho-kho.

Kho-kho has been played since at least the fourth century BC.[9] Certain aspects of kho-kho's gameplay may have been mentioned in the Mahabharata. In pre-modern times, it is believed that a version of kho-kho known as Rathera was played on chariots (ratha meaning "chariot" in Sanskrit). The modern form of the game was invented in 1914, with its rules and formalised structure being given by Pune's Deccan Gymkhana club. Kho-kho was demonstrated at the 1936 Berlin Olympics alongside other traditional Indian games. It is now a medal sport in the South Asian Games, having been played in the 2016 edition.[4] Other international kho-kho competitions, such as the Asian Kho Kho Championship, have been held with the collaboration of organisations such as the Kho Kho Federation of India and the Kho Kho Federation of England,[10][11] with the sport having been spread overseas by the South Asian diaspora.[12] Within South Asia, it has been accepted into major sports events such as Khelo India,[13] with its growth supported by its simplicity and affordability.[14]

Kho-kho's rules and appearance have changed over time; it was generally played on muddy surfaces in the past, but today is often professionally played on matted surfaces.[15][16] Various other aspects of the game, such as the poles and the dimensions of the playing field, were also added over time.[17]

In July 2022, the player draft for Ultimate Kho Kho was completed, which is a six-team franchise-based Indian Kho Kho tournament. Its inaugural season ran from August 14 to September 4, 2022.[18]

Rules

Field

The field is 27 by 16 metres (89 by 52 ft), with a distance of 24 metres (79 ft) between the two poles, and the central lane having a width of 30 centimetres (12 in). Each of the cross lanes (which pass through the sitting areas that the chasers sit in, and go from one side of the court to the other) has a width of 35 centimetres (14 in), with adjacent cross lanes 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in) apart, and a separation of 2.55 metres (8 ft 4 in) between each pole and its adjacent cross lane. Each pole is 120 to 125 centimetres (47 to 49 in) high and 9 to 10 centimetres (3.5 to 3.9 in) in diameter. The poles are smooth and round, with no sharp edges. There are 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in)-long extensions of the court behind each of the poles known as "free zones", in which there are no restrictions on chasers' movements.[4][19]

Gameplay

A depiction of the start of the game: the active chaser (far right arrow) stands next to the pole in the free zone, with the eight other chasers sitting in the central lane, and the three defenders (in blue) scattered throughout the field.

At the start of play, the active chaser starts off in one of the free zones, and can run into either half of the court to tag the three defenders. Once all three defenders have been tagged out or otherwise "dismissed", the next "batch" of three defenders comes onto the court.[19]

The active chaser can switch roles with a sitting teammate by touching them on the back and shouting "kho"; this is known as the active chaser "giving a kho" to the sitting teammate. For the kho to be valid, it must be given before the active chaser has gone past the cross lane that the teammate is sitting within. Once a sitting chaser becomes active, they may only enter the half of the court which they were facing while they were sitting; additionally, once the newly active chaser steps to the left or right of the cross lane they were sitting in (or turns in such a way that their shoulders face towards either pole), they must continue in that direction until they have reached the free zone.[19]

Violating any of these rules results in a "foul", in which case the chasing team can no longer attempt to tag any defenders. In order to clear the foul, the active chaser must move in the opposite direction of the one they were running in (i.e. away from the defenders they were chasing) until they have either given a kho to a teammate, or reached the appropriate free zone.[19]

The chasing team scores points each time a defender is ruled "out" (dismissed), which happens either when a chaser tags a defender without breaking any rules, when a defender steps out of the court (with no part of the body remaining grounded within), or when a defender is late to enter the court as part of a new batch after the dismissal of the previous batch.[19][20]

Variations

Shortest time wins

In one variation of kho-kho, a team is no longer allowed to chase once it has tagged all the players on the other team. The team that tags all of its opponents in the shortest amount of time wins.[21]

Circle kho-kho

In this variant, the field is modified so that it is simply a 5 m (16 ft) inner circle and a 7 m (23 ft) outer circle, with the outer circle acting as the boundary of the field. Instead of sitting, eight of the nine chasers stand in positions evenly spaced around the perimeter of the inner circle, with each alternate chaser facing into or away from the inner circle; when a chaser is given a kho, they can only run in the inside or outside of the inner circle depending on which way they were facing while inactive.[22]

Competitions

Ultimate Kho Kho

Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK) is an Indian kho kho competition, and its first season took place in 2022.

Rules

This section is an excerpt from Ultimate Kho Kho § Rules.[edit]

UKK rules follow the standard rules of Kho Kho with the following exceptions:[23][24][25]

  • Only 7 players from the attacking (chasing) team are on the field.[26][27][28]
  • The playing field is only 22 meters long and 16 meters wide.[26][27][28]
  • 2 points are scored per tag.[29]
  • If a batch of defenders can avoid being completely dismissed for at least 3 minutes (known as a "Dream Run"), they earn 1 point, and then an extra point for every 30 seconds survived afterwards.[30][31]
  • One attacking player (known as the wazir) may run in any direction when acting as the active attacker.[23][24][25]
  • The attacking team can take a powerplay in each of their attacking turns during which they have two wazirs. Each powerplay lasts until all 3 defenders of the current batch are out.[26][27][28]
  • Each team's turn to score/defend lasts 7 minutes, with the break time between turns also shortened.[23][24][25]
  • Tiebreaker (named "Minimum Chase"): Each team gets one additional turn to score (with the powerplay being active), and the team that scores its first point the fastest wins.[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hard Bound Lab Manual Health and Physical Education, p. 41
  2. 1 2 "kho-kho | Indian sport | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  3. ↑ Peter A Hastie (2010). Student-Designed Games: Strategies for Promoting Creativity, Cooperation, and Skill Development. Human Kinetics. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-7360-8590-8.
  4. 1 2 3 Nag, Utathya (24 June 2022). "Kho Kho, a kabaddi-like sport linked with Indian epic Mahabharata - know all about it". Olympics.com
  5. ↑ ahmed, usman (14 August 2011). "Trip down memory lane: The games we play…". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  6. ↑ Scroll Staff. "Ultimate Kho Kho: Squads, format, fixtures – all you need to know about latest Indian sports league". Scroll.in. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  7. ↑ "kho-kho". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Molesworth, J. T. (James Thomas) (1857). "A dictionary, Marathi and English. 2d ed., rev. and enl". dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "The Evolution of Kho Kho Mats in India: A Historical Overview". English Jagran. 30 May 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
  10. ↑ Indigenous kho kho goes international https://www.tribuneindia.com/ Vinayak Padmadeo
  11. ↑ Karmakar, Rahul (23 March 2023). "Indian men, women bag 4th Asian Kho Kho titles". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  12. ↑ "British Indians fall in love with 'Kho Kho', reconnect with roots". The Indian Express. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Kalpana, Kommi; Cherian, Keren Susan; Khanna, Gulshan Lal (30 August 2022). "Energy availability and RED-S risk assessment among Kho-Kho players in India". Sport Sciences for Health. doi:10.1007/s11332-022-00996-z. ISSN 1824-7490. PMC 9425793. PMID 36061453.
  14. ↑ THE STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECT OF INDIAN TRADITIONAL GAME KHO-KHO IN WEST BENGAL https://www.researchgate.net/ Nita Bandhopadhyay
  15. ↑ Taneja, Nidhima (27 January 2023). "Pro kabaddi, kho-kho leagues chase IPL viewership. India rediscovering regional sports". ThePrint. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  16. ↑ "The Evolution Of Kho Kho Mats In India: A Historical Overview". English Jagran. 30 May 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  17. ↑ EFFECT OF DIFFERENT INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING ON ANAEROBIC EFFICIENCY OF STATE LEVEL MALE KHO-KHO PLAYERS https://www.researchgate.net/ Mrinal Das
  18. ↑ "143 players picked in the Ultimate Kho Kho Season 1 players draft". TimesNow. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ultimate Kho Kho: Rules and Regulations". Google Docs. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  20. ↑ Chhabria, Vinay. "Scoring, fouls & more - All the rules of Kho Kho you need to know before Ultimate Kho Kho 2022". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  21. ↑ "Kho Kho: How to Play and Rules". Gone Outdoors | Your Adventure Awaits. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  22. ↑ Enjoy Health and Physical Education Text Cum Workbook Std.3. Jeevandeep Prakashan Pvt Ltd. ISBN 978-81-7744-543-5.
  23. 1 2 3 "Ultimate Kho Kho: Shorter duration, more points for acrobatic tags among new rules for the league". Scroll.in. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  24. 1 2 3 Understanding The Game Play - KHO-KHO, retrieved 15 July 2022
  25. 1 2 3 "Ultimate Kho Kho Rules | Update New rules of Kho Kho". KHO KHO. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  26. 1 2 3 Chhabria, Vinay. "Scoring, fouls & more - All the rules of Kho Kho you need to know before Ultimate Kho Kho 2022". sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  27. 1 2 3 "Ultimate Kho Kho: Squads, format, fixtures – all you need to know about latest Indian sports league". Scroll.in. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  28. 1 2 3 Sharma, Avinash (14 August 2022). "Ultimate Kho Kho 2022: Revamped format, changed mat dimensions, tickets; all you need to know". MyKhel. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  29. ↑ "Odisha: Cuttack gears up for Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2". Odisha Diary, Latest Odisha News, Breaking News Odisha. 23 December 2023. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  30. ↑ "Ultimate Kho Kho revolutionises traditional sport: Expanding, innovating and inspiring". Sakshi Post. 24 December 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  31. ↑ "Ultimate Kho Kho Season 2: All your FAQs answered". Ultimate Kho Kho. 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  32. ↑ "rules-season1.pdf". Google Docs. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
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