Kalwant Sandhu grew up in Singapore and spent many afternoons playing an educational game he learned from his Malay friends. It was Sepak Takraw, which means “kickball” in Malay and Thai.
But “kamikaze volleyball” is more like that, Sandhu said, describing the flying scissor kicks and acrobatic feats of players using every part of their body but their arms and hands to hurl rattan balls over a high net.
Sandhu moved to the Bay Area in 1980 and never saw Sepak Takraw again. Instead, he played and coached soccer in Palo Alto and settled in Mountain View with his family. All of that changed a few years ago when he met Jeremy Mirken, a former sepak takraw player who is now the organizer and head coach of the USA national sepak takraw team.
Together, Sandhu and Mirken introduce the popular Southeast Asian sport to people living in the United States. “We’re trying to reach out to sports leagues and let them know that it’s a low-cost sport that doesn’t take up much space and is very entertaining for kids,” Sandhu said, adding that some enthusiasts like to describe the sport as a “martial art.” denote ballet.”
Sepak takraw players are traditionally played three-on-three in an arena the size of a badminton or pickleball court. They use different parts of their bodies — their heads, knees, feet, and occasionally their chests — to kick, set, and spike a small ball into a five-foot-tall net, Mirken said.
Each player has a specific role. A server initiates the rally by taking the first kick. a feeder or setter gets the ball airborne; and a spiker ends the point. “It’s played very much like volleyball, with martial arts-style acrobatic kicks,” Mirken said, adding that top players jump between two and nine feet in the air.
The arrival of Sepak Takraw in the US could be traced to groups of refugees displaced by conflicts in Southeast Asia, Mirken said. Many ethnic groups, such as the Lao and Hmong, learned to play sepak takraw in Thai refugee camps; When they came to the US about 40 years ago, they brought the game with them. Other refugee groups, like the Karen people of Myanmar, have recently arrived in the US and play sepak takraw to keep their culture alive, Merkin said.
Although sepak takraw is an extremely popular sport in Southeast Asia, it is relatively unknown in the United States. Mirken, who lived in Oakland, only found out about it from a friend when he was 23 years old. “Even if I had walked right past it, I wouldn’t have noticed,” he said, explaining that the game took place in the parking lot of an apartment complex shielded from the street.
Almost 20 years later, the sport’s invisibility is still the biggest barrier to entry. “You can play with almost any pair of shoes. All you need is a ball and a net,” Mirken said. “But man, finding the people to play can be a challenge.” There are only around 500 active tournament players and most clubs don’t have coaches or coaches.
Despite their limited resources, the USA Sepak Takraw national team has made headway at international level, where they play against teams that enjoy strong support from sports federations. In July, the US team took part in the King’s Cup Sepaktakraw World Championship in Thailand, which is considered the most prestigious international tournament in this sport.
The men’s team won two gold medals in Division One competition, just one step behind the Premiere Division. Because of those victories, they’ll likely compete in the Premiere Division next year, taking on teams with superhero status like Thailand and Malaysia.
This was also the first year that the USA National Sepak Takraw Team sent a women’s team to the King’s Cup. While other countries regularly practice women in the sport, the US has lagged behind, Sandhu said, adding that they hope to change that by raising awareness of sepak takraw in the US
Meanwhile, the US team plans to celebrate its gold wins in Oakland with former national team members who taught Mirken the game.
“Now we’ve won some things and I want to thank them for their support to me and other players, which ultimately helped us continue to develop the game and inspired us to try and bring it to communities outside of the Laotian population to do.” Mirken said.
“And that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re keeping the legacy alive and building on it,” he added.
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