Sepak Takraw - Kick Volleyball
Maxim Trevelyan
October 2016
While I was researching sports to include in this article, I stumbled upon a very interesting one, which I thought, after some deliberation, deserved its own article.
This particular sport comes from Southeast Asia and it is called sepak takraw, also known as kick volleyball. It is often equated to volleyball itself, with a major difference that the players are forbidden from using their hands to move the ball across the net. Every other body part is fair game.
Sepak takraw has a long history. First mention of this sport was in the 15th century, when it was mentioned in Malay historical text Sejarah Melayu. It spoke of an incident where the Sultan's son was hit on the head by a ball, kicked at him by another player. The player was then killed by the son and he was exiled because of the murder. While the sepat takraw has been played for almost five centuries, the net version of the game, as well as the official rules, had not been implemented until the 1940s.
A match of sepak takraw is played by two teams, each consisting of three players, on opposite sides of the court. One player, called Tekong, is in the back with two players in the front, being Left Inside and Right Inside. The most interesting part of the game is the ball, which is made from rattan, a type of climbing palm, though it can be made from synthetic fibre to soften the impact of the ball on the player. The winner of sepak takraw is a team which wins two out of three sets, with each set going to 21 points with at least two points difference. If there is a tie (21-21) a winner is declared when there is two points difference or when a team reaches 25 points.
Although primarily an Asian sport, sepak takraw is enjoyed by many countries of the world. All international plays and competitions are presided by ISTAF, the International Sepak Takraw Federation. They oversee events such as ISTAF SuperSeries, ISTAF World Cup and King's Cup World Championships, all competitions which are held every year. The current champion is Thailand in all three competitions. Sepak takraw is also a regular sport event in Asian and Southeast Asian Games.
While I was researching sports to include in this article, I stumbled upon a very interesting one, which I thought, after some deliberation, deserved its own article.
This particular sport comes from Southeast Asia and it is called sepak takraw, also known as kick volleyball. It is often equated to volleyball itself, with a major difference that the players are forbidden from using their hands to move the ball across the net. Every other body part is fair game.
Sepak takraw has a long history. First mention of this sport was in the 15th century, when it was mentioned in Malay historical text Sejarah Melayu. It spoke of an incident where the Sultan's son was hit on the head by a ball, kicked at him by another player. The player was then killed by the son and he was exiled because of the murder. While the sepat takraw has been played for almost five centuries, the net version of the game, as well as the official rules, had not been implemented until the 1940s.
A match of sepak takraw is played by two teams, each consisting of three players, on opposite sides of the court. One player, called Tekong, is in the back with two players in the front, being Left Inside and Right Inside. The most interesting part of the game is the ball, which is made from rattan, a type of climbing palm, though it can be made from synthetic fibre to soften the impact of the ball on the player. The winner of sepak takraw is a team which wins two out of three sets, with each set going to 21 points with at least two points difference. If there is a tie (21-21) a winner is declared when there is two points difference or when a team reaches 25 points.
Although primarily an Asian sport, sepak takraw is enjoyed by many countries of the world. All international plays and competitions are presided by ISTAF, the International Sepak Takraw Federation. They oversee events such as ISTAF SuperSeries, ISTAF World Cup and King's Cup World Championships, all competitions which are held every year. The current champion is Thailand in all three competitions. Sepak takraw is also a regular sport event in Asian and Southeast Asian Games.