The ankle hold specialist is being coached out of the sport

Chain tackles are safer, more repeatable and easier to teach, and they are slowly making a beautiful individual skill obsolete.

A good ankle hold is one of the few things in kabaddi that still looks like a magic trick. The defender waits, does nothing, does nothing, and then the raider extends a foot half an inch too far and a hand closes around it. No wrestle. No chase. Just timing.

It is dying and I think coaching is the reason.

The chain tackle is the alternative and it is easier in every way that matters to a franchise. Four defenders link, they close the corridor, they collapse on the raider together, and the outcome depends on coordination rather than on one man's reflexes. You can drill it. You can teach it to an average athlete in a season. You can replace one member of a chain without the whole thing failing, which you cannot do with a specialist. From a squad management point of view it is obviously the right call.

The cost is that the chain needs numbers. It works with six or seven on the mat and it falls apart at four. Sides built entirely around chains therefore collapse in exactly the phase of a match where they most need to hold, which is after they have lost bodies and the opposition raider is smelling an all out. The specialist is the man who can win a point alone. Teams that have quietly stopped developing one find that out in the last four minutes.

There is a risk argument on the other side and it deserves respect. Ankle holds put a defender's shoulder and the raider's knee in bad positions, and the raider being dragged down mid stride is one of the ugliest injury mechanisms in the sport. Chains distribute force. Fewer people get hurt. If I were a physio I would want chains too.

But there is something worth defending in a skill that cannot be systematised. The specialist changes how a raider approaches the whole mat. He shortens the reach, he kills the casual bonus attempt, he makes the raider think about a man who has not moved yet.

A defence made only of chains announces itself. A defence with one patient man in the corner keeps a secret, and secrets are how you win close matches.