NEW DELHI: The Kho Kho Federation of India's 2021 Super League tournament will be held at the national capital's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium from February 12 to 15.
The country's top Kho Kho players have been exploring various facets of the fitness required to excel in the sport with the help of sports science-based technologies in a first-ever scientific high-performance national camp.
The month-long camp is being organised by Kho Kho Federation of India and Ultimate Kho Kho.
A total of 138 players have been divided into 10 teams (eight for men and two for women) and the tournament will be held under new playing rules framed by Ultimate Kho Kho, which aims to re-brand the game.
"During the ongoing scientific camp, we have focused on improving overall fitness and physical abilities of players with required guidance given to corrected techniques and acquiring technology-based skill-set," KKFI president Sudhanshu Mittal said.
"Through this Super League we aim to evaluate the standard and level of each player in the actual match situations."
"The experts will then scientifically analyse all the data and 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 a period of six-seven months."
The ongoing camp which 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 in order 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," Ultimate Kho Kho CEO Tenzing Niyogi said.
"During the next few days, as the players play matches, we will be capturing them through multi cameras to see how the game is coming to life as a TV product."
The KKFI's 2021 Super League Kho Kho will have prize money for the winning teams.
The men's teams, which will see 120 players in action, are named Jaguars, Ninjas, Rhinos, Cheetahs, Frisky Rangers, Panthers, Pahadi Billas and Sharks, and are divided into two pools.
The teams will face off against each other in their respective pool before the top two sides progress into the semi-finals, which are scheduled for February 15 with the final also set to take place on the same day.
A total of 18 women players have been divided into two teams and they will be playing one match a day and the team with maximum wins will be declared winner.