Analysing Kabaddi players' diet and workout with Gujarat Fortune Giants' Sukesh Hegde

One of the most important parameters for a sports star's success is his/her fitness and stamina potential. While most teams hire coaches and managers to train the players with a certain regime, it is imperative that a player follows a diet or workout structure himself to ensure that they are in the best of health.

Especially in a gruelling game such as Kabaddi, the need to be in good shape is only amplified. Most players rely on strength and fitness to excel in the sport and for that, they need to follow the right regime.

With a new PKL season set to play host to four new teams in addition to the eight already existing teams, Sportskeeda caught up with Sukesh Hegde, captain of the Gujarat Fortune Giants, for an exclusive interview as the star raider addressed the importance of diets and workout patterns for the Kabaddi players.

What does the regular diet of a Kabaddi player include?

"For a Kabaddi player, be it a defender or raider or even both, the necessity of a regular diet that includes some certain restrictions is mandatory."

As highlighted by Sukesh, most of the food intake of the players contains very less spice and mild amounts of sweet in order to ensure the right proportion for the body.

"For the most part of the season, breakfast for the players includes eggs, juices, cornflakes or mostly oats. While the breakfast is directed to provide more nutrition than flavour, the morning meal also includes a little variety such as kheer, dosa or idly along with sambhar and chutney."

In addition to this, the famous saying 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away' is followed firmly in the sport as the players are urged to consume three apples in a day starting with one in the morning along with breakfast, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

During the day, most players choose to drink litres of raw milk over tea or coffee as they believe that raw milk gives them more nutrition than tea or coffee.

What does a normal day's workout look like?

As Kabaddi is generally a tiring sport, the workouts and training schedule is spread out, often leaving ample time for each player to unwind after sets of arduous training sessions.

"A typical training session starts at around 6 AM in the morning that involves rounds of jogging, stretching and some basic exercises followed by one or one and a half hours of intense kabaddi practice.

"The early morning kabaddi practice is targetted toward improving the mental stability of the players as most coaches believe that an early morning session brings out the best in players."

After a two and a half hour session on the mat, the players relax in the swimming pool for about half an hour, relaxing and flexing their muscles in the water after a good morning session.

Following a dip in the pool, breakfast is served, taking into account the instructions of the management and the diet. After breakfast, the players take an optional rest or can also choose to spend some time with the physical conditioners and masseuses for the treatment of some minor ailments before the gym session which goes on from 11 PM to 12.30PM.

Post lunch, the professionals take a lengthy break until 8 PM, when they again take to the mat for a three-hour session, involving in lengthy rounds of team combinations and strategies for the matches to come.

What happens on match days?

On match days, players are bound to tire if they have extended sessions of training. In order to reduce the workload on the players and get them fit for the game, trainers often opt for a one or two-hour morning session to work out team strategies and fine tune skills of the players.

Prior to the match day, the teams discuss strategies and counter-attacking methods that they feel would add another dimension to their game. The next day morning, the starting seven generally get an extended session to make sure that they prepare for the game.

As the clock ticks away to game time, the players are given 45 minutes time to apply finishes touches and prepare for the game ahead.

As the clock strikes 7.45 PM IST, the players are invited to the mat and it's game time!