Sepak Takraw: Playing Volleyball with the Feet
Sometimes you come across a sport that is just so strange that you wonder how it could ever have been imagined. A sport very similar to that is called Sepak Takraw and it is a Thai version of volleyball that is played with the feet. The players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands and have to use only their feet to get the ball over the net. Anyone witnessing a match of the sport being played would see players doing flying manoeuvres and back flips all while kicking the ball in the air to the other team.
Some of the rules of this unique and interesting game can be found on a website. “The rules are very similar to those in volleyball, with the following five important exceptions: The use of hands is not permitted, each player may touch the ball only once before it is kicked over the net, there is no rotation in the defence position [and] it becomes a score (net in) even if the ball touches the net before falling into the companion court.”
This sport seems to have its origins in ancient Thailand and was invented about 500 years ago. There is a strong martial arts tradition in Thailand with Muay Thai Boxing originating from and still being widely practiced there today. Because of this strong tradition of martial arts which relies on powerful kicks, the sport may have come about as a side project of a few Muay Thai boxers. The kicking aspect of Muay Thai and the kicking aspect of Sepak Takraw are fairly similar and agility and dexterity in kicking very high objects and flexibility all play a part in both sports.
The spectacle of the sport is what makes it so entertaining to watch, the players doing crazy stunts with their feet very high off the ground. Now the sport of volleyball is difficult to play and anyone who has ever played it before will confirm that fact. It takes years of practice to master the techniques and get everything right. Football is also a difficult game to master and it is so hard to become great at it that footballers are paid hefty sums of money. Now imagine combing these two very difficult sports into one crazy sport and what you get is Sepak Takraw. The players have to be very physically fit and limber to be able to do the high flying moves that they do in order to score points and win matches. There must be some martial arts training required when a person is learning to play the game. The high kicks and acrobatic moves are heavily borrowed from kick boxing and are probably incorporated into the training regimes of the players.
The sport is growing in popularity these days with it being exported to many different countries and now it can be found in America, the UK and many others as well where they have their own governing bodies and hold tournaments. It is very interesting that sometimes a hidden gem of a sport can be found hiding away in a foreign country just waiting to be found. Imagine the surprise of the first person to go to Thailand and see a game of Sepak Takraw being played. This person must have jumped for joy and went back home and told everyone who would hear about this new crazy game that is like volleyball but played with the feet. It is interesting to think that just how popular will this game become, will it be played in university competitions all over the world, will there be heavily sponsored tournaments being played in the future and will it ever become an Olympic sport.
The one factor holding its popularity back will be just how difficult it is to master and get a hang of. It is a lot harder to learn and play well than a lot of other sports out there but with training people may be able to pick it up fairly quickly. We will just have to wait and see.
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