Europe

Paradosiaki pali (Greece)

Paradosiaki pali (Greece)

  • Name of sport (game): Paradosiaki pali
  • Place of practice (continent, state, nation):

    Northern Greece

  • Description:

    Pali is played on grass, with music, outdoor, during the parish saint days feasts.No weight categories (only age).
    Wrestlers wear only a heavy leather trouser called kispet,where they can grip. Attacks can be done on all the body. Oil makes difficult the attacks. The goal is to oblige the opponent to touch the ground with his back.

    Kispet is the name of the traditional leather shorts worn by the Paradosiaki Pali contestants whose bare chests and bodies are sprinkled with olive oil in this spectacular type of traditional Greek wrestling. The fight starts with a ritual in which the wrestlers douse themselves with oil to prepare for this slippery practice. The contestants begin the fight standing up but it develops mainly on the ground: now performed at very high technical levels, it is a particularly complex practice to be transmitted to the new generations.

  • Sources of information :

     

    Source of photos used in this article and gallery:
    Photo Kazimierz Waluch, Festival Tocati - Festival Internazionale dei Giochi in Strada, Verona, Italy, 15-18 of September 2022

  • Gallery:

Contact

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Fundacja IRSiE

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Warsaw, 00-116

traditionalsports@sportinstytut.pl

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