Takraw,“the international ball game of Southeast Asia,”
is a team sport played with a rattan or plastic ball in
which players may not touch the ball with their hands.
History
A takraw-like game, kemari, was played in Japan from
perhaps the 7th century, and a similar sport was in evidence in south-central China, in what is now Yunnan
province. However, it is in Southeast Asia that the game
truly came into its own. All of the Southeast Asian
countries where the game is currently played offer some “national origin” myths for the creation of the
sport, but none offers incontrovertible proof that
takraw has one and only one specific birthplace.
In Southeast Asia, where takraw-like games have
achieved their most distinctive forms, evidence of the
sport dates from the 11th century, particularly what are
now modern Malaysia and Sumatra. These games were
apparently very much like the game now called sepak
raga (which in Malay translates as kickball) and were
played frequently in royal courts.
In the Philippines, a takraw-like game called kasipa
or sipa was being played prior to 1380. Before the Spanish colonization, it was apparently an important activity during coronation celebrations and remained,
throughout the Spanish and American periods, a popular pastime at wedding celebrations and village fiestas.
Rules and Play
The ball is traditionally woven of rattan (rottan in
Malay)—a tough vegetable material from the climbing
palm creeper of the genus Calamus.
Sepak raga, the traditional Malay game, is played by
a six- or seven-man team. The men form a circle and
kick or head the ball to one another in a continuous
round, the goal being simply to keep the ball from
touching ground. As in all forms of takraw, feet, knees,
shoulder, elbows, and head—everything but the hand
and the forearm—can be used. The winning team is
the team that keeps the ball aloft for the required period of time—usually about 30 minutes—with the
most kicks. A similar game is played in Thailand.
In hoop takraw, which is very popular in Thailand,
three large hoops are suspended over a circular court,
and the players must put the ball through them as often as possible. The team, usually of seven, is cooperative, attempting to keep the ball “alive”—off the
ground—and flying through the hoop as often as possible during a 30-minute period. Style counts in hoop
takraw: simple shots score lowest and more difficult
ones higher.
Another Thai form of the game is called “flag
takraw.” This requires the player to move as quickly as
possible along a narrow track, all the while keeping the
ball aloft through kicks of the foot and jerks of the head
and elbows.
Yet another Thai takraw game, sometimes called
“in-carrying takraw” requires a single player to catch
and carry as many balls as possible without using his
hands. He may hold them with his teeth or under an
arm. The standard goal is 12 balls, but experts have
caught and held as many 17.
Sepak takraw, one form of which is sometimes
called “net takraw,” is the game that has achieved the
most “international” status, being played by amateur
and semiprofessional teams throughout the region.
Sepak takraw is played on a rectangular court 13.4 by
6.1 meters (44 by 20 feet). Across the centerline is
stretched a net 1.52 meters (5 feet) from the ground. A
“service circle” is drawn in each half-court.
The game is played between two squads—called
regus—of three players each. A regu wins the set with
15 points. As in volleyball, each team is entitled to hit
the ball three times before sending it across the net, but
the three hits can come from the same player. Points are
won or lost when the ball touches the ground in or out
of the court, or does not cross the net after being played
three times by the offensive regu.
The net used in modern sepak takraw was introduced only in the 1920s, and in general the game was
played according to various local rules for many years.
However, in Singapore before World War II, the main
Malay form of the game was included in high school
variety programs, and after the war an association
called the Singapore National Body of Sepak Takraw
(PARSES) was formed.
PARSES, together with the emerging takraw organizations in Malaysia and Thailand agreed, in 1965, on a
uniform set of regulations and on the name sepak
takraw. The final outcome of regional negotiations was
the formation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation, which sponsors competitive events such as the
games in Bangkok in 1965, the first to feature what
could be called “world-class” takraw. Since the mid-
1960s, takraw has been a major competitive international sport in the Southeast Asian region.
Wider acceptance for the sport outside of Southeast
Asia has been slow but steady. In 1990, after vigorous
campaigning, sepak takraw was included in the 11th
Asian Games in Beijing.
With internationalization comes standardization,
and, if sepak takraw continues to grow, the hand-woven rattan ball—one of the game’s most distinctive
features—may become a thing of the past. A company
in Singapore now manufactures absolutely standard
takraw balls, woven in the traditional pattern to be
sure, but of precisely milled plastic strips, not rattan.
The Thais are already playing competitively with such
balls, and the acceptance of plastic seems all but inevitable.
With the traditional rattan ball on its way to the
museum, with agreed-upon international rules and
recognized venues, sepak takraw seems securely established on the international sports scene. Longtime
popularity in Southeast Asia and more recent Chinese
patronage of the game ensure its survival as a major
competitive sport.
—ALAN TREVITHICK