Ask any kabaddi player from Haryana about their first proper tournament and most of them will say the same thing. It hits differently. The crowd is louder, the referees are stricter, and the boys across the mat have been getting ready for this day for months. If you are about to play your first serious Sports Tournament in Haryana, or you have played a few and want to do better at the next one, here are the kind of things the coaches at BRS Kabaddi Academy in Jhajjar tell their own players.

BRS is a licensed Kabaddi Academy in Haryana. It trains boys and girls from villages and towns across the state, and everything below comes from how the academy actually prepares its athletes through the season.

Start earlier than you think

Two weeks is not enough. Tactics, fitness, mental preparation, match practice, none of these things come together in a fortnight. At BRS the training runs through the year and works on all of it together, strength, endurance, agility, speed, game strategy. There is a reason for that. A raider who is fit but weak on tactics will still lose to a defender who reads the game better.

If you are training on your own, split the run-up into blocks. In the beginning, put your time into base fitness and skill work. As the tournament gets closer, shift more time to match situations and less to general conditioning. Peak too early and you will show up flat on the day.

The mental side is where most players lose

Kabaddi is decided in half-second calls. Practice is one thing, but a real tournament makes those calls much harder. You have to hold your nerve when the game is slipping.

Mental training at BRS works on this directly. Resilience, focus, staying composed under pressure. You do not need a sports psychologist at home to work on it. Practise your breathing before a raid. Play out difficult situations in your head the night before a match. And when you make a mistake, learn to move on right away, because carrying it into the next raid usually costs you the next one as well.

Food and Water, get these right

More matches are lost to cramps and fatigue than players want to admit. In the two or three days before a tournament, be careful with your food. Stay hydrated. Skip anything heavy or unusual, and stick to what you normally eat before training days.

At the boarding house at BRS, meals are put together with athletes’ nutritional needs in mind. If you are travelling to a tournament, pack your own water bottle, some fruit, and simple snacks you trust. Do not try something new on match day. Your stomach is not the place for experiments.

Do not push through injuries

Every kabaddi player has played through a sore ankle or a pulled muscle at some point. It is part of the sport. But ignoring an injury in the week before a tournament is the fastest way to make it worse and end up out of action much longer.

BRS follows a strict injury protocol. Any injury, big or small, is reported to the coaching staff immediately, and players follow medical advice before they return to play. Do the same for yourself. If something hurts a week before the tournament, do not test it in practice hoping it will go away. Get it looked at, rest it, and give yourself a chance to actually play.

Kit ready, night before

This sounds like the most basic thing in the world and it is still where players slip up. Someone always shows up on match day without proper footwear, or without a spare jersey, or without a water bottle. Sort it out a few days early. Check your gear. Pack your bag the night before. And bring your own kit, because at the academy or the tournament ground, your equipment is your responsibility.

Uniform is compulsory in training at BRS and the same discipline carries into matches. Turning up properly dressed and ready sets the tone for how you play.

Referee is the referee

Selection at BRS, and at most serious tournaments in Haryana, comes down to performance, commitment, and how you play with your team. Arguing with a referee, losing your temper on the mat, playing selfish kabaddi, all of it hurts you more than a bad raid ever will. Follow the rules. Respect the officials. Hold yourself to good sportsmanship even when the calls are going the wrong way. Unsportsmanlike behaviour can get you penalised, benched, or thrown off the game entirely.

The coaches watch how you behave when the game gets tough. Often that matters more than your raid count.

Play with your team, not for yourself

A tournament is not the place to try and become a star. Kabaddi is a team sport. The best sides are the ones where players trust each other and cover for each other. A raider trying to be the hero on every raid will burn out by the second half. A defender breaking the chain for a solo tackle leaves his own side exposed.

Talk to your teammates during matches. Cover for each other. Take the wins together and take the losses the same way.

Every Tournament is a lesson

The moment a tournament ends, do not just move on to the next one. Sit with your coach. If you can watch your matches back, do it. Be honest with yourself about what worked and what did not. The players who improve the fastest are the ones who treat every tournament as a lesson, not a scoreline.

At BRS, this kind of review is built into how players move up, from local matches and junior tournaments in Haryana to the goal of a PKL Pathway Academy in India for those who reach that level. Every tournament is a step. None of them are the whole story.

One Last Thing

Preparing well for a tournament is not glamorous. It is small habits done consistently, on food, on sleep, on training, on discipline. Get those right and the results usually follow.

If you want to know more about how BRS trains and prepares its players for tournaments, have a look at the About Us page or the main BRS Kabaddi Academy website.

Tournaments in Haryana are tough. That is what makes doing well in them worth something.