A sport's allure sometimes supersedes all else. One exciting new aspect, and you are hooked. Chia-ming Chang sure was, 12 years ago. (More Sports News)
Then a budding wrestler in junior high school, Chang discovered a YouTube video of a kabaddi match, and was fascinated by the mechanics of the sport. He showed it to his coach, who shared the sense of wonder.
And that was that. The wrestling aspirant set his sights on kabaddi. The lack of coaching expertise, cultural prevalence and career opportunities in Chinese Taipei for the sport did not matter. All that Chang cared about was watching more kabaddi videos on YouTube.
"I enjoyed watching all the catching (referring to offensive skills of raiders) and blocking (defensive tackle) moves in the video, and decided to switch from wrestling to kabaddi," Chang tells Outlook.
The boy kept at it, and has since grown to find a place in the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL). The Taiwan raider has returned to the Bengal Warriors fold for season 11, as he was bought in the player auction for INR 13 lakh. This will be his second bite of the cherry, having featured in just one game in the previous edition.
With more illustrious and experienced raiders like Maninder Singh and Nitin Kumar taking centrestage, Chang did not get the chance to shine last time. He may or may not, this time either, but will be sure to learn all that he can anyway.
For Chang and coaches from Chinese Taipei, India is and has been the sole window to kabaddi. He only had YouTube to lean on, back home and learnt all the technical nuances there. Even the coaches needed to visit India to take in the sport and understand how it's really played.
The importance of physical strength is not lost on Chang, who says that his biggest lesson from his maiden PKL season was spending more hours in the gym to be able to deal with kabaddi's rigours. And that's all he focused on, when he went back home.
He believes he will return fitter and stronger, this time, and is hopeful of getting a chance to showcase his skills more often on the court. Internationally, Chang's primary goal is doing well at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Apart from training and playing, the Taiwanese raider also enjoyed his time off in India, as his Warriors teammates took him out to sample spicy Indian fare and he relished it. The highlight of Chang's trip, though, was a visit to the "really beautiful" Taj Mahal.
English is not his preferred language, but Chang says that does not pose too big a barrier in collaborating with coaches and teammates. When words fall short, especially in the thick of the action, he says, "we communicate through our body language".
As almost every team does in a sporting league, the Warriors will go out with an aim to win the PKL 2024-25 title. But what are their chances of winning it, as per Chang? "I am still new to the system and figuring it all out. Don't ask me, ask the coach."
