Kick ball
Thailand
Thailand has several sports where kicking is important. Kick boxing is one. The other is this sport in which a small ball is kept aloft with kicks, sort of like hacky-sak in America. These fellows are playing outside on a temple courtyard.
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Tommy Shiekman writes:
This game is called Takraw. It also uses a net like a volleyball net.
Benjamin writes:
This game is actually called 'Sepak Takraw". There are a few ways of playing it.
1. As you mentioned; like volleyball with 2 teams consisting of 3 people a side.
2. For fun, like Hacky Sack
3. a sorts of points system where a basketball style hoop is hung from the ceiling and the idea is to get the ball though the hope on it's way down.
The volley ball style is actually played at the asian games and is a registered sport of asia. I think Laos actually holds the current world championship, much to the detest of the Thais. :-)
Michael writes:
I dont have much experience with this but this simple and natural game of hacky sack purely displayed here makes me smile.
Panupong Panpattanasil writes:
In correction to Mr. Benjamin, the two rival countries in the Sepak Takraw contest is actually Thailand and Malaysia. Sepak is actually in Malay and Takraw is in Thai. The sport was originated in the border of Malaysia and Thailand. The sports look simple but it actually require alot of skills. When played with net in official rules, the players somersault to spike like in volleyball
Mark writes:
Burma has another version called Chinlone which is played by six players in a circlle. The players make incredible moves as thay pass the ball back and forth keeping it in the air.
An extraordinary documentary called "Mystic ball" was made on thsis subject. The web site www.chinlone will leady you to the movie site where it says "Mystic Ball" follows Greg on his visits to Myanmar over a period of 20 years, as he evolves from an awkward beginner to a teammate capable of soloing with the greatest chinlone players in the country."