Sepak Takraw

DEFINITION:

Sepak Takraw (Kick Volleyball, or just Takraw for short) is a sport native to Southeast Asia, resembling volleyball, except that it uses a rattan ball and only allows players to use their feet and head to touch the ball. A cross between soccer and volleyball, it is a popular sport in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia. Played on a badminton doubles-sized court, the game evolved from a hacky sack-type practice, into the aiming of a kick into a high, suspended net. Eventually, competitive takraw developed, pitting teams of players versus each other across a volleyball-type net.

Modern competitive takraw allows three players to a team, one to serve, one to gather the ball, and one to deliver the ball at high speed across the net; the killer (like the 'spiker' in volleyball.) Modern contests play to 21 points.

In Thailand, the game is simply called Takraw (Thai: ตะกร้อ, meaning "ball" or "basket"). It is also thuck thay (Lao: "twine" and "kick"), or sepak takraw (Malay: "kick" and "takraw" from Thai)

Similar games include bossaball, footbag net, footvolley, jianzi and sipa. Another version of the sport involves the use of bamboo scoops to both toss and catch a ball in a simple game of "catch."

HISTORY:

Sepak takraw dates back to the 15th century when it was played by indigenous Thais and Malays. Back then it was called Takraw in Thai or Sepak Raga (literally "Kick rattan bowl") because the ball is made of rattan) in Malay and played mainly by men and boys standing in a circle, kicking the ball back and forth between them.

In Bangkok, murals at Wat Phra Kaew depict the Hindu god Hanuman playing takraw in a ring with a troop of monkeys. Other historical accounts mention the game earlier during the reign of King Naresuan of Ayutthaya.

The game remained in its circle form for hundreds of years, and the modern version of sepak takraw began taking shape in Thailand sometime during early 1800s.

In 1829, the Siam Sports Association drafted the first rules for takraw competition. Four years later, the association introduced the volleyball-style net and held the first public contest. Within just a few years, takraw was introduced to the curriculum in Siamese schools.

The game became such a cherished local custom that another exhibition of volleyball-style takraw was staged to celebrate the kingdom’s first constitution in 1933, the year after Thailand abolished absolute monarchy.

By the 1940s, the net version of the game had spread throughout Southeast Asia, and formal rules were introduced. In the Philippines the sport was called "Sipa", in Myanmar, or Burma, it was dubbed "Chinlone", in Laos "Kator", "da cau" in Vietnam and in Indonesia "Raga."

Need more details, go to >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_Takraw