Kabaddi Terms Glossary: Super Raid, All Out, Do-or-Die & More
Commentary moves fast in kabaddi, and a new fan can be lost by the second raid. Super raid, all out, do-or-die, cant, lobby, bonus — the kabaddi terms come thick and quick, and most of them describe plays that take under thirty seconds. This glossary puts the standard words of the sport in one table, each with a one-line meaning, followed by the one mix-up that catches almost every new viewer: the difference between a bonus point scored on the mat and a league point scored in the standings.
Kabaddi Terms: The Full Glossary
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Raid | One attack: a single player crosses into the opposing half to score and return. |
| Raider | The attacking player on a raid, who must chant “kabaddi” throughout in one breath. |
| Defender | One of the players guarding the half the raider enters; up to seven defend together. |
| Cant | The raider’s repeated chant of “kabaddi”, the proof he raids on a single breath. |
| Midline | The line dividing the mat into two halves; the raider starts from it and must return across it. |
| Baulk line | The line in the defending half the raider must cross, or touch a defender, for the raid to count. |
| Bonus line | The line nearest the end line; crossing it brings a bonus point when the line is active. |
| Bonus point | One match point for a raider who crosses the active bonus line and returns safely. |
| Touch point | One match point for each defender the raider touches before escaping home. |
| Empty raid | A raid in which neither side scores a point. |
| Do-or-die raid | The compulsory raid after two straight empty raids; the raider must score or he is out. |
| Super raid | A raid worth three or more points to the raider’s team. |
| Tackle | A defensive stop that prevents the raider returning, scoring one point for the defence. |
| Super tackle | A tackle by a defence of three or fewer players, worth 2 points instead of one. |
| All out | When a team loses all seven players; the other side scores extra points and the team revives in full. |
| Revival | An out player returning to the mat when his team scores a point. |
| Lobby | The strips along the sides of the mat, in play only after a touch or a struggle begins. |
| Struggle | The physical contest after a touch, when the raider fights to escape and defenders fight to hold him. |
| Chain defence | Defenders holding hands and moving as one unit to close space around the raider. |
| Ankle hold | A tackle that grabs the raider’s ankle and holds him for support to arrive. |
| Dash | A tackle that drives the raider out of the side of the mat after the raid is live. |
| Corner | The defender posted at each edge of the defence, guarding the bonus line side. |
| Cover | A defender in the middle of the unit, backing up the corners and closing the centre. |
| Score difference | Points scored minus points conceded across the league stage; the table’s tiebreaker. |
Read down the table of kabaddi terms once during a match and the commentary slows down. Most live plays combine two or three of these kabaddi terms: a raider crosses the baulk line, touches a corner, survives the struggle in the lobby, and the raid goes in the book as a super raid if two more defenders were caught in the chase. The words are labels for things the eye can already see — they just arrive faster than the replay. The official record of these terms is held on the official Pro Kabaddi League site.
Bonus Point vs League Point: The One Confusion to Avoid
The bonus point and the league point share a name and nothing else. A bonus point is scored during a match, by a raider, when the bonus line is active with six or seven defenders on the mat. It adds one point to the team’s score in that match.
A league point is what the standings are made of. In Season 12, a match win was worth 2 league points and a loss was worth 0, and those numbers — not raid scores — built the table on the PKL Points Table page. When a commentator says a team “picked up a bonus”, they mean a point on the scoreboard that night. When the table says a team has 26 points, it is counting wins, not bonuses.
The Terms Behind a Season
Over a full Pro Kabaddi League season, the glossary words add up into a story told in the standings. Touch points and tackle points shape match scores; match scores shape wins; wins shape league points; and score difference settles the ties that league points leave behind. Season 12 ran 108 league matches and 9 postseason matches under that chain, and every stage of it is tracked from the PKL Schedule homepage. With Season 13 reported to start in late December 2026 and its details To Be Announced, the terms above are the vocabulary the new season will be described in from the first raid.
Three kabaddi terms do more work in a tight match than all the rest. The do-or-die raid decides whether a team protecting a small lead can be forced into the open. The super tackle decides whether a team stripped down to three defenders is beaten or suddenly two points richer with a teammate revived. The all out decides the matches that break open — a four-point game becomes twelve, and the side that was one raid from an all out spends the next five minutes managing the damage. Learn those three kabaddi terms first, and the rest of the table reads itself during live play.
Kabaddi Terms — Frequently Asked Questions
What is a super raid in kabaddi?
A super raid is a single raid worth three or more points to the raider’s team. The usual route is multiple touches: the raider tags three defenders, or combines touches with a bonus point, and still gets back across the midline. It is one of the biggest single plays in a match and can empty half a defence in seconds.
What does all out mean in kabaddi?
All out means a team has lost all seven of its players on the mat. The team that inflicted the all out collects the points for every player put out plus extra points for completing it. The beaten team then revives in full — all seven players come back on — and play restarts with the score damage already done.
When is the bonus line active in kabaddi?
The bonus line is active when six or seven defenders are on the mat. In that state, a raider who puts a foot across the bonus line and returns safely scores one bonus point, even without touching a defender. When the defence drops to five players or fewer, the bonus line is switched off for that raid.
What is a do-or-die raid in kabaddi?
A do-or-die raid follows two consecutive empty raids, in which neither side scored. The third raider must score a point — by a touch, a bonus, or any legal route. If he returns empty or is tackled, he is out and the defending team scores. The rule forces teams to attack instead of running the clock down.
What is a super tackle in kabaddi?
A super tackle is a successful tackle by a defence that has been reduced to three or fewer players on the mat. Because the short-handed side is at its weakest, the stop is worth 2 points instead of the standard one tackle point. The score also revives an out teammate, making it a double swing for the defence.
