Sepaktakraw: Korea is winning games, but what actually is it?

Korea defeats China in a women's team regu preliminary match at the 19th Asian Games in Jinhua, China on Sunday. [XINHUA]

Sepaktakraw — known as “kick volleyball” — returns to the Asiad for its ninth consecutive year, and Korea has a shot to again medal in a sport many Koreans have likely never heard of.

Watch a game, and it’s like a back-and-forth trickshot battle of which team has the most football flair. To strike, players jump and launch their legs into the air, doing full splits to send the ball over the net with almost ballet-like grace — which really comes out during the slow-motion replays.

The rules are similar to volleyball where the goal is to get the ball over the court in three touches or less and the team wins a point when their opponents fail to return the rally. But players are barred from using their hands, instead blocking the ball with their heads and feet.

The sport has origins in Southeast Asia. “Sepak” translates to “kick” in Malay, and “tekraw” is the Thai word for the woven rattan ball used in play on a badminton-size court.

The Korean women’s and men’s sepaktakraw teams kicked off this year’s tournament with a win each in the first preliminary round of the team regu category on Sunday.

In regu, three players take each side of the court: A feeder, striker and tekong. To start each rally, the feeder throws the ball to the tekong, who leaps up and smashes the ball across the court in a serve. The tekong will typically stay near the back during the match, while the striker is the one primarily responsible for blocks. The first side to 21 points wins.

In team regu, each of the rounds in a three-set match is played by different members of the national team.

Teams competing in this year’s Asiad have a shot at medals in three contests: Regu, team regu and quadrant, which is played with four players on each side of the court. Korea has a men's and a women’s team registered in the team regu competition, a women’s team in regu and a men’s team in quadrant.

Both teams had two more preliminary rounds to go as of press time. The Korean women’s team was scheduled to meet Laos in the second preliminary round on Monday and the men’s team had a matchup against Malaysia on Wednesday.

At the last Asiad in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2018, the Korean men’s regu team took home bronze and the Korean women took home silver in team regu.

Korea’s sole gold medal in sepaktakraw at the Asiad was in the “circle” version, which is played without a net and involves players attempting to pass to their teammates while ensuring the ball crosses the center of the circle, at the 2002 Games in Busan. It is no longer played at the Asiad.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]