The famed sport of India is now here on Webcast Sport.

Live from the sub continent we bring you some competition from the:

Baradwal (Sangrur) Kabaddi Tournament

For the uninitiated it is sort of like British Bulldog,  but a bit more organised, coupled with the need to hop and chant Kabbaddi once the game is on.

Have a look it is captivating.

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KABADDI – HOW TO PLAY THE GAME?

Team Game:

Kabaddi is a team game. Two teams, each having 7 in court players, compete with each other to get higher scores. Individual brilliance is exhibited when a player raids the opponent’s court. The team spirit, the team togetherness and team strategy comes into play when an opponent raider enters your court. The most important player requirement is stamina and lungpower. You should be able to keep your breath for a long time without any break in between.

What is a raid?

From your team you have to send, one player to the other teams court to raid. The raider starts from the centerline uttering aloud, “Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Kabaddi…” without any break. He would be actually running from one side to the other side of the opponent’s court trying to touch either with his hand or leg an opponent. Once he touches an opponent, he will, without breaking the “Kabaddi, Kabaddi…” rhythm come back to his court through the centerline. The people he had touched are his teams point scored. If he had touched one player, it is 1 point and if he had touched 3 players, it is 3 points to your team.

Defending and holding the raider:

The objective of your opponent, when your player is raiding them is different. They, as a team, would like to thwart the raider’s effort to score by touching any member of the opponent’s team and devise ways to trap and catch him without allowing him to get back to the center line and thence to his court. If the raider is caught and loses his chanting breath “…Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Ka…” he is considered out.

Lona: 

If your team, because of its excellent efforts, makes all the players of your opponent out, your team is entitled to get 2 points as a bonus. This is known as “Lona”

Okay, so we found this on the YouTube Live section.

I have no idea what it is called (Sepak takraw in fact), but it looks like volleyball played with football skills.

This is a competition played in South East Asia by teenagers, but very professionally covered, it is a championship of the sport.

It looks like fun though, perhaps it could be taken up in schools here as an idea?

A Semi Final today – I am getting addicted to this – C’mon England, get a team together.

From the Thai League

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Final – Malaysia V Thailand

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With minimum of research we have found this as an explanation of what is going on:

Sepak takraw (Malay: sepak raga; Jawi: سيڤق راڬا; Thai: ตะกร้อ, rtgs: takro, pronounced [tā.krɔ̂ː]; Khmer: សីដក់ Sei Dak; Lao: ກະຕໍ້ ka-taw; Filipino: sipa; Vietnamese: cầu mây),^[1] or kick volleyball, is a sport native to Southeast Asia.^[2] Sepaktakraw differs from the similar sport of volleyball in its use of a rattan ball and only allowing players to use their feet, knee, chest and head to touch the ball. It is a popular sport in Southeast Asia.

In Malaysia, the game is called sepak raga or takraw. It is also kataw (Lao: “twine” and “kick”)^[1] while in Thailand it is called takraw. In Myanmar it is known as chin lone, and is considered more of an art as there is often no opposing team, and the point is to keep the ball aloft gracefully and interestingly. In the Philippines, besides “takraw” it is also known as sipa, meaning “kick”.

Similar games include footbag net, footvolley, football tennis, bossaball, jianzi and sipa.

Random Sport Generator  brings us Floorball, it is a cross between Ice Hockey and field hockey – it is played on a rink with a solid floor indoors with a round ball and  what look like Ice Hockey sticks, but there is no ice. Nowhere near as violent from what we can see and there is no padding helmets except for the goalkeepers.

So, here we present the European Floorball Championships live from Cesis, Latvia, every day until the 10th.

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Want to know more about Floorball? Check these links:

www.floorball.org/pages/EN/EFC-2015
www.floorball.org

The Vodafone sponsored event, the Windsurf World Cup in SYLT is on live here.

Some of the commentary and interviews are in English – but it is mostly in German, but the action is all you really need.

Have a look the great action here:

Tuesday action here, including some cool footage from a Samsung phone from live out in the water with the competitors

:

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Monday Action:

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The women do it again – this time in American football at the European Championships.

Victory sees Lions through to the final

The GB Women’s team cemented their place in Saturday’s IFAF Women’s European Championship final with a 30-14 win over Sweden.

Quarterback Jo Kilby threw for two touchdowns and the defence forced multiple Swedish turnovers, including a fumble returned for a touchdown, as the Lions won their second game against quality opposition in three days.

Given the strong running game on show in both fixtures, it can be no surprise that the entire GB offensive line was given MVP honours after the game.

Great Britain head coach, Jim Messenger, said, ‘I think we are as ready as we can be now. You can always practice more but there comes a time when you have to experience the game for the team to fully assimilate all the learning and make the next big step forward. No amount of practice will teach the experience of this competition.’

Great Britain’s final game of the tournament will be played on Saturday 8th August. This will be the final s and so match-up will depend on the results of the other games throughout the week, with Great Britain facing off with Finland for the title.

‘I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and believed in us over the last two years, ‘ said Messenger. ‘It’s been an unbelievable journey and we couldn’t have done it without that support. It’s amazing to think how far we have come already in such a short time, but I know there is even more to come as we open up the fantastic world of American football to our incredible population of  sportswomen.’

The final will kick off at 20.00 GMT on Saturday 8th August.

You can see the final live on  the IFAF Youtube Live channel – there are two other games earlier in the day for the bronze and for 5th place.

We are negotiating with the IFAF to bring the stream to you here live as well.

This week’s AUTOSPORT magazine is a women in motorsport special, guest-edited by Williams development driver Susie Wolff. This is her editorial:

When will a woman race in F1 again? It’s a bold question to ask on the cover of AUTOSPORT magazine – and a strong statement from the editor Edd Straw to dedicate this special issue to women in motorsport. Kudos to him for doing so and thank you, Edd, for the opportunity to guest-edit the magazine.

The way I look at it, our sport is just one small part of the wider story of female participation in all sports. There is momentum behind women’s sport right now – just look at the success of the recent Women’s World Cup football tournament in Canada – and there is no doubt that times are changing in motorsport too.

In the past, we have seen pioneers such as Divina Galica and Lella Lombardi, who were trailblazers for women in Formula 1. In my role as test driver with Williams, I am on the verge of breaking through the glass ceiling. But the sustainable progress will be made when it’s no longer unusual to see women racing and winning in motorsport.

Ultimately, it all comes down to opportunity – giving talented girls the chance to prove themselves in the lower categories. There’s no question that, as a woman, you have to work harder to earn the respect initially, as there is the slight doubt from many people that you’re capable.

But once you do that, it’s all about performance – and in motorsport, performance is power. The stopwatch doesn’t see gender, race or any other factor; it just says whether you’re quick or slow. And that’s what you’re judged on.

When I look at the steps I have taken in my career, they have been all about getting a foot in the door and grasping that opportunity. My time in DTM started with a chance to test the Mercedes car – from there, I got a race seat, learned German and immersed myself in the programme. With the machinery at my disposal, I did a solid job.

It was the same with Williams: my gender opened the door to test the car, but it was my performance that justified my continued involvement. I’ll never forget the young driver test at Silverstone in 2013, when the engineers couldn’t put together a definitive run plan for me because they didn’t know how many laps I could manage. So I prepared well, did my training and I completed the full day.

Of course, there is a physiological aspect to the debate, because on average women have 30 per cent less muscle than men. But I did a full race distance in the pre-season test at Barcelona and showed it could be done. I am 100 per cent convinced that there is no physical impediment to women racing in F1.

Now, I am right on the cusp of breaking onto that starting grid. I can’t speak highly enough of Williams and my experience working with them, beginning with Sir Frank and Claire and going all the way through the company. It’s a team that knows about grasping opportunities and making your own luck – that racing spirit runs through the whole place and it’s something I’ve drawn on many times.

I make no apology for having used gender as a USP in my career. Why should a woman deny her femininity just to conform with the expectations of the racing world? I’m a woman, I drive racing cars and if there’s an advantage in terms of finding sponsorship or support, then I will make the most of it.

That’s what racing is all about: finding competitive advantage and exploiting it. That can open new doors for me and other female racers, which is great. But then we have to stand or fall based on our ability.

I am realistic about where I find myself right now. Unless the rules change to make it easier for less- experienced drivers to test and get themselves on the grid, it will be hard to make the next step. But if I can’t be the woman to break through the glass ceiling, then I want to be involved in making it happen for the person who does.

When I started out in racing, I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of being a role model, because I still had everything to prove as a driver. Now, social media connects me with people around the world and the positive response is amazing.

There are little girls in onesies who want to be F1 drivers “like Susie Wolff” and young women hunting for career opportunities in engineering schemes with F1 teams.

I feel I have a responsibility to pass on the lessons I have learned, to help young women avoid some of my mistakes and to provide inspiration for them to chase the same dream. Female participation in F1 is changing mindsets in a positive way. The more little girls and young women who start racing, the more opportunities they will have at the top level.

We need to make sure girls know motorsport is an option for them. When I feel the time is right, I want to dedicate my energies to a project that can attract young women to the sport and help open doors for them. But it’s early days yet.

We all have a duty to nurture our sport. It has given us so much and we have to put something back to help it evolve in a positive way. In the long term, a more diverse sport will be even richer, healthier and more competitive than it is today.

We need to encourage participation and make opportunities happen for the young drivers and engineers who are the future of motorsport – and that includes the women who make up 50 per cent of the population. It’s great that AUTOSPORT recognises that need as well.

Read the digital version of Autosport’s women in motorsport special issue here

Badminton is big news at the moment and now here are the European championships.

Have a look at the feed below.

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We have some powerlifting for you today from Salo, Finland.

It may be an acquired taste – but I am sure that it is far more difficult and dangerous than it looks at first.

If this gets you hooked have  a look at the fabulous site that has the full scoreboard available at:

powerlifting-ipf.com

Anyway let us know what you think.

Today Live

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Men 59 – 66 kg

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More

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Earlier this week

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