Sepak takraw, or Sepaktakraw, also called buka ball, kick volleyball or foot volleyball, is a team sport. It is played with a ball made of rattan or synthetic plastic between two teams of two to four players on a court resembling a badminton court. It is similar to volleyball and footvolley in its use of a rattan ball and players using only their feet, knees, shoulders, chest and head to touch the ball. Sepak Takraw is often referred to as a mixture of volleyball, due to its use of a net, and association football, as players use their feet.
Women's double Sepak Takraw event at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon
A ballgame called "Keeping the ball aloft", Banda, 1601. The ball is made of twisted branches.
A traditional sipà (rattan wicker ball) from the Maranao people of the Philippines, along with kakasing tops and a sungka board
Hamid Mydin, the founder of Sepak Raga Jaring/ Sepak Takraw, and his team
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of Southeast Asia, though they can also be found in other parts of tropical Asia and Africa. Most rattan palms are ecologically considered lianas due to their climbing habits, unlike other palm species. A few species also have tree-like or shrub-like habits.
Calamus thwaitesii in southwestern India
Juvenile Calamus oblongus subsp. mollis in a forest understory in the Philippines
Close-up of the edible scaly fruits and the spiny stem of Calamus rotang in Thailand
Base of a clustering rattan palm in Sulawesi, Indonesia