Learn to play: Thursday September 4th @ 5:00 PM outside the Residence Commons!   

 

Sepak takraw or "kick volleyball" is a sport native to Southeast Asia, resembling volleyball, except that it uses a rattan ball and only allows players to use their feet, knee, chest and head to touch the ball. It is a tremondously popular sport in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, the Philippines, and Indonesia and is growing all over the globe, from Brazil to Germany to the USA and Canada.  Think of it as an organized game of competitive hackey-sack.

 

International play is now governed by ISTAF, the International Sepak Takraw Federation. The King's Cup World Championships are held every year in Thailand.

The official rules and regulations of "kick volleyball" can be found here, but, for the purposes of Campus Rec, it's sufficient to say the game:

• is played on a badminton sized court with a badminton height net
  
• can be played with teams of 3 up to teams of 5 (or even 6), depending on people's abilities
• starts with a kick serve to the other team from the middle of the serving side's playing area
  
• has a three hit maximum for a receiving team, similar to volleyball, though a single receiving player may take all three hits (put another way, the player can bump-set-spike it all his-/herself
• only allows contact with the ball in the same way as soccer (head, feet, knees, and legs are good; arms and hands are not)
• is both challenging and a lot of fun