Sepak takraw – also known as kick volleyball –
has always been a regular feature of the Asian
Games. Its origins are hotly contested among
nine Southeast Asian states, each with its
own regional variation and claims to its true
inception, but there is general agreement that
the sport was first introduced to the region
by the Chinese, who had a similar military
exercise involving players keeping shuttlecocks
airborne with just their feet.
The earliest record of sepak takraw in
Southeast Asia is in the Sejarah Melayu (Malay
Annals), which describes a 15th-century game
in the royal court involving one player hitting
another with a kicked rattan ball. Eighteenth-
century murals in Bangkok’s Phra Kaeo
Temple also depict the Hindu god Hanuman
playing sepak takraw with a group of monkeys.
above Singaporean
players competing in
the national sepak
takraw premier league
in Mayright A sepak takraw
player executes an
overhead kickSepak takraw may have been around since the 15th century, but
it’s no forgotten relic. We look at the history of this fast-growing
sport – and its bid for Olympic recognition
Alive and Kicking
PLAYING BALL
Text and photos Lee Jian Wei
In 1835, Thailand included a volleyball net in
gameplay, and in 1945, Malaysia introduced
the badminton court and net. But it was not
until the impending inclusion of sepak takraw
as a medal sport at the 1965 South East Asian
Peninsular Games (now known as the SEA
Games) in Kuala Lumpur that the Southeast
Asian states were forced to agree on an official
name and single set of rules for their common
game. They christened it sepak takraw: sepak
means “kick” in Malay, while takraw means
“woven ball” in Thai – the two countries had
the strongest claims to the origins of the sport.
Coupled with upgrading of the traditional
rattan ball to a plastic ball (the latter does not
have a nasty tendency to splinter), the game
grew immensely popular. Today, it is Malaysia’s
national sport.feature | aSian gameS
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