[MUSIC PLAYING – “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois]
Ron Krabill: Hello, and welcome to the fifth episode of the Podcast of the Global Sport Lab. I’m Ron Krabill and I’m your host, as well as the director of the Global Sport Lab, and a professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell. The Global Sport Lab is a new collaboration based in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. The lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big issues of our global world, from migration, politics, inequity, racism, and gender discrimination to popular culture, democracy, human rights, and the economy, to name just a few. We are particularly focused on the sport of football, better known as soccer in the United States, during the run-up to Seattle’s hosting of the FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2026. But we are interested in a wide range of sports, well-known and less well-known, from the grassroots to the professional levels, and how they help us make meaning of the world. We would love for you to connect with us at the Global Sport Lab. You can find us on the web or at globalsportlab@uw.edu.
Just a quick note that we’re coming to you from the attic of Thomson Hall, which you will undoubtedly hear reflected in the quality of our audio. We’re crammed into a very small space with too few microphones, and so please accept our apologies for the quality of some of the audio. But I trust that you will find the conversation too scintillating to look away. Today I’m super excited. We have a special treat for you as we get to explore the Southeast Asian sport of Sepak Takraw, which I’m guessing many of our listeners may never have heard of. And we’re so lucky to have with us both the coach and several of the players of the U.S. Men’s National Sepak Takraw team, along with some other players. I’m really glad to have all of you here. It’s such an honor. We’re coming off of two demonstrations that we did here on the campus of the University of Washington this afternoon, which went incredibly well. Audience members were so struck by the athleticism and the skill that the sport involves, and we’re just really honored to have you present here with us. I’m going to let you folks introduce yourselves in a moment. We’re also joined by an alum of the Jackson School, and the executive director of the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington, Sam. I’m going to let you introduce yourself first, Sam, and then we’ll turn to our guests.
Sambath Eat: Hi. Greetings. My name is Sam. And yes, just like Ron was saying, I am the executive director for the Cambodian American Community Council of Washington. And I’m just happy to be here. And, in fact, I would love to learn more about the sport.
True Anthony Cha: Hi, my name is True Cha. I’m 30 years old, and I’ve been playing Sepak Takraw since I was like 12.
Ker Cha: Hi, my name is Ker Cha. True Cha is my brother. I’ve been playing for over 15 years and it’s a pleasure to be here.
Elango Padmanabhan: Hello, everyone, I am Elango Padmanabhan. I am 28 years old. I am playing the sport for almost 14 years, from India.
Jeremy Mirken: My name is Jeremy Mirken. I am a former player, promoter, event organizer and community developer. Basically, I travel the USA with my friends here and we try to grow and promote the sport anytime we have the opportunity to present to a new audience. And between 2023 and 2025, I had the opportunity to coach the Men’s and Women’s USA National Teams.
Ron: Fantastic. Thank you all so much for being here. And I’ll just say, you all are very modest in your introductions. You’re also incredibly accomplished athletes, as we witnessed this afternoon. It’s really fantastic to have you here. To start us off, can you give our listeners a description as best you can in podcast form? It’s really different than actually watching the sport, but can you give us a description of how the sport of Takraw is played?
Jeremy: Okay, I’ll take a shot at this one. This is Jeremy. Sepak Takraw is a fusion of the juggling skills of soccer. Right? We keep the ball in the air using whatever body parts we can that are not hands or arms, and then the play style of volleyball. So, we have a bump, a set and a spike. We pass the ball over a 5-foot-high net, and each player specializes in a particular skill set. One player will take the first touch. We have another player come in and set the ball nice and high. And the third player, who we would call “the killer,” will do typically some sort of acrobatic spike, often using the feet. Maybe like a backflip-style kick or some sort of scissor kick to try to score a point. And a point is scored when you pass the ball over the net and make it hit the inside the court on the opponent’s side of the net.
Ron: And if I can just follow up on that, that’s a fantastic description. For listeners in the U.S., it’s helpful to think about the skills of soccer, the play of volleyball. But my understanding, from what you folks were speaking about earlier, is that it far predates both of those sports in Southeast Asia. Is that correct?
Jeremy: The roots for these cooperative kicking games go back many hundreds of years. On some of the older ruins, some of the older historical sites, you can see examples of people standing around in a circle kicking rattan balls. We know that it’s been around for hundreds of years but not played dynamically over a net as we do now. It has historically been like a cooperative, community-building sort of activity. Not a sport, but more of an activity, something that people will do together.
Ron: Fantastic. And where is Takraw played, and who plays it?
True: This is True here, mainly where Takraw is played is usually in Southeastern Asia. We’re aiming our goal to make it a little bigger out here on the West Coast, over here in the US. But as you guys can tell, it’s going to take some time.
Ron: And do men and women both play?
Ker: This is Ker speaking. Yeah, I would say in Southeast Asia, a lot of women do play. The same amount as men does play. Out in the Western world here in the U.S., not as much play as the women’s.
Jeremy: I’m going to add to that. This is Coach Jer. There are probably about 40 Takraw-playing countries around the world. In Southeast Asia, we may have about 15 to 20 of those countries. Sepak Takraw exists in non-Southeast Asian, but Asian, countries. You can find it in Bangladesh. You can find it in India and Nepal. It’s even popping up in countries like Egypt, Middle Eastern countries like Iran, Syria. The International Takraw Federation is making a push to develop Takraw also in Africa. There are a couple of African nations, maybe Gabon and Nigeria, I believe, that have newly formed federations. The push is to get to 55 countries so that we can qualify for Olympic status. We’re not quite there yet, but it’s definitely spreading outside of Asia. We also have a lot of countries in Europe that are playing, but they’re not highly organized at this time. But you have France, Poland, Germany, Switzerland. Maybe a couple of players playing in Finland. And then you’ve got Canada, United States… but it hasn’t made its way yet to South America. South America and Africa is really where the growth needs to happen.
Ker: This is Ker speaking. There’s actually, I think, one team which is in Brazil. And Argentina? Is Argentina down there as well? I believe it is, right. But Brazil and Argentina, they’re definitely out there.
Ron: Fantastic, great.
Sam: This is Sam speaking. I have some questions. How did you all, individually, how did you get involved? How did you get started into the sport?
Elango: This is Elango speaking. I started playing the sport from India. In India, almost all the schools start having this sport as a background to play sports, because cricket was one of the main things, and they wanted something apart from cricket. They started exploring sports like football, where Sepak Takraw came into the mix. And each individual one from their school age, whether it be sixth standard or seventh, they started playing the sport. So that’s how it started booming in India.
Ker: This is Ker speaking. Me and Anthony are brothers. We basically played– you could say we basically grew up following the footsteps of our older brother and our dad. We basically learned how to play the same way. Back in the mid-2000s, I would say. They would play at the park and we’d just follow along and just go on from there.
Jeremy: This is Jeremy. My origin story is very different from these guys. I was actually playing a completely different foot sport, which is more like hacky sack over a net. I got introduced to Takraw because the main organizer of my sport said, “if you want to get really good at hacky sack, you have to learn how to kick this bigger ball. I want to bring you over to a new place.” And he brought me to a local area where a bunch of Laotian refugees would play together every day after work. Those guys brought me under their wings and taught me the rules of the game. And basically gave me an opportunity to play every single day for about five years, until I knew enough that I could start traveling around to different tournaments around the United States and testing my skills against younger, higher-level players. So, I didn’t even know that the sport existed until I was I think 26 years old. And I’ve been playing ever since.
Ron: I’m struck by—all of those stories are so interesting, right? Because they reflect what are often the ways people are introduced to sport. Through school, through family, oftentimes an older brother. That’s why I’m a soccer player or a soccer fan is because my older brother played. But then also a chance to be introduced from a completely different angle and learn about it in a different way. That’s really fantastic.
Sam: You were saying that your dad played it.
Ker: My dad played it, yeah.
Sam: That’s how you got it.
True: We have the same dad.
Ker: My dad played it in RV.
Ron: No, my dad! [LAUGHTER]
Ker: Our dad, our dad. And he pushed our older brother to be like, ‘I need you to become the best.’
Jeremy: They didn’t really talk about the intensity.
Ker: Yeah, yeah.
True: We didn’t want to get into—
Jeremy: the family pressures—
Ker: –but we didn’t like our dad to that degree.
Ker: “Better player. You’re not eating.” Right? I mean, that’s between the Asian culture. So, I mean, you just kind of kept it, like. But my older brother had a whole different level of discipline compared to us.
Ron: Does Takraw carry with it any political or cultural connotations, either in Southeast Asia or in the U.S.? Like are players— do they tend to be from a particular group, a particular class? What kinds of interests come into Takraw? Or is it—Yeah. How would you describe that?
Jeremy: This is Jeremy. Within the United States, the majority of our players are Asian or Southeast Asian. A lot of our current athletes are either Hmong or Laotian or from Myanmar. We’ve got Burmese people, Karen people, or Karenni. There are a few people from the Philippines who play. A couple guys from Cambodia who immigrated over, but they’re kind of on the fringes. There are very few white people. Almost no Black people. Very few Mexican people. Really, within the United States, it’s the Asian population that’s keeping this game alive. It’s what their fathers used to play. And it’s a way to maintain community when you’ve been uprooted from your home. None of these guys came here because they wanted to, right? War uprooted them, and they were forced into a new life in a different country. And I think playing the sport of Takraw is what they do to keep the community dynamic alive. It’s like a safe and fun activity that they can do and not have to worry about integrating. That’s maybe not the case for the youngest generation of players, because some of the Hmong players were born here in the United States. But certainly, the case for people who are between the ages of 30 and 45.
Ron: Yeah, those connections to stories of war, stories of violence and displacement are, again, common stories in sports, right? The way people get displaced and then the way sport can be a place to either connect or feel disconnected in some cases. If you can’t play the game that’s being played in a new place.
Sam: My question to all of you is what do you do to prepare yourself? I know that you all play professionally. What do you do? Do you have a routine? Do you guys have a place that you go and train to get better? And what is your goal? Two questions. The last question is, what is your goal at the end, ultimately? Would you want to win a championship, or what is the final goal?
True: This is True speaking, also known as Anthony. [LAUGHTER] But yeah, how I start to prepare for a big tournament that’s coming up. It takes a lot of mentality to get yourself ready. And not only that as well it takes a lot of physicality because like everybody else here, we all have a 9-to-5 job. And having that 9-to-5 takes a lot of time out of your day just to find time to train. And not only that, we also have families. We also have kids. We have events. There’s a lot of sacrifice that you’ve got to do in order to get what you want. But that’s just kind part of how life is. For you to succeed, you’ve got to sacrifice. For me personally, when I’ve got to get physically ready and mentally ready, I literally have to cut everybody off. And the only people I get to see is just my coworkers, my brothers, my wife and my kids. Friends, cousins, anybody else at this certain time does not matter to me. Not in a bad way, but it’s just because you know what you love, you know what your passion is, and you’re going to aim for that. Everybody else that comes in saying, “hey, man, let’s go, we got to go do this, let’s go party,” I’m like, sorry, man, Takraw is calling my name right now. You guys got to wait. [LAUGHTER]
Mentally, it’s probably one of the hardest things to get through because after an eight hour shift you come home, you’re tired. You don’t want to go out there. But you have to go. Because you know that the end game is going to be way more successful. It’s going to feel way more better than you just saying, “I’m going to do it tomorrow.” The mentality part is really, really hard. But once you get locked in and you’re ready to go, and when you’re out there performing, there is no other better feeling than knowing that, even if you win or lose, you put your all into it, and understanding that everything that you sacrificed was well, well worth it.
Ker: Hello, it’s Ker speaking. Let’s see. I mean, as what my brother Anthony said– True said– it’s a big mental battle to begin with. Well, I’m going to look at it as just right now. Not in the past as I was younger. As of right now, it’s more of a mental battle for me because your body gets older. You have to take care of your body more. I’m just going to add what Anthony said. Waking up each day to try to hit the gym is pretty difficult. And it’s the hardest part. It’s just getting up and getting to the gym. But once you’re at the gym, take some pre-workout, take some creatine. Your mind’s in the right place. You’ll kind of get where you want to be. That’s how I see where my mental takes in. I would say the physical body is, just listen to how my body feels every day because my body’s getting older. Coming here, my back was aching, my hamstring was aching. We just take one day at a time. And just going from there.
Elango: This is Elango speaking. The right way to do it is, since we have been introduced to sport in school ages, during those days, it was like studies, apart from that is sports. Those are the two main things which are running in our mind. The second thing is, it’s not about off-season or on-season. It’s like, you have to put in effort during Monday to Friday, even on a weekday. You have to play. You have to train yourself after an injury or after a tournament. You have to keep on repeating. Think about what went wrong, why you do it, all the sacrifices. The next day you have to go back to the pitch, start rectifying the mistakes that we did. This keeps on running in our head, battling in all the scenarios. And the next match or next tournament we win, we can celebrate for a day or two. But it’s just a step. It’s not the end. Each time you go win, each individual tournament is not the end. There’s one more. There’s one more. It’s like, long, long battles. We have to keep on doing it. And age is also a factor, so the lifestyle. You have to change, keep on adapting and everything. It’s important in sports.
Ron: One of the things I noticed– this is Ron speaking– during the demonstration, was after each point you would slap hands. It’s a very connected sport. You’re very aware of each other. There’s lots of communication. Which is very different than many huge global sports that are just so competitive that people are yelling at each other, as opposed to having each other’s backs. It’s more of a competition within the team as well. And I didn’t pick up on that in the demonstration, recognizing this wasn’t the World Cup or anything.
Ker: Yeah, this is Ker speaking. Yeah, I agree with that. I think this is more like a team communication. Let’s say, for instance, if we touch hands—I mean, yes, it’s also a culture thing that’s built into the culture of the sport—but I would say for us, it’s to rub off in saying that you’re not mad at me or I’m not mad at you. When you’re mad at somebody, you’re not touching their hands. [LAUGHTER] But I mean, for us, it’s a sign of saying it’s okay. We’re fine. We’re going to be okay. I forgive you, you forgive me. Let’s move on. That’s how I see it.
Ron: Yeah, it’s beautiful. I wonder, I’ve heard all of you talk about what it means to get older, to have to take care of your body in a different way. And also you’re all involved by nature of being here and spreading the word about the sport, getting more people involved. I know Ker and True, you’ve been involved in the Blaine Academy of Takraw. And I just wonder if you all could talk about both the Academy and what it’s trying to do for the future of the sport, but also just what it means to try to promote a sport that may not be as well-known in the United States at this point.
Ker: This is Ker speaking. Yeah, very good question. [LAUGHTER] I started this club just because in the U.S. there’s none. And I will be the first one. So, I say you know what? Since I’m an active player, I’m still young and my body is only getting older, I might as well do it. And besides that, I do truly love the game to its fullest. I enjoy teaching kids, just showing them how to play the game the right way, trying to introduce this to everybody who tries to go through with what I go through. I mean, that’s how I like to see with this Academy that I do open up.
True: This is True speaking, also known as Anthony. [LAUGHTER]. So I am only just a sub-coach for Ker when he’s not really around. Unfortunately, life gets in my way. I can’t be there as much as I want to. But at the end of the day, Ker and I, we already have one goal and it’s to share the love of Sepak Takraw to the world. If everybody was to see in our eyes of what we experience through the pain, the struggles, the hard work, the discipline that we threw into this sport. You guys can also get to experience the joy of this sport. How hard this sport is versus any other sport. I’m not saying any other sport is easy, but anybody can shoot a basketball. Anybody can hit a volleyball. But can you do that with your feet now? I mean, to me, it’s by far one of the hardest sports I’ve ever seen. And to see anybody else do that with us, or even against us as opponents, it brings me some type of joy because this is not easy. This is a challenge. But once you overcome this challenge, you see anything else that you do in life tends to be a little bit easier on you because you’ve already– it’s like in a video game, right? You’ve already beat the final boss. So, life now is just nothing but a bunch of mini-bosses now. [LAUGHTER] That’s just how I kind of see Takraw. It’s helped our lives so much to the point where I said, nowadays everything’s just a mini-boss. But the real big boss is still Takraw at the end of the day for us.
Ron: I’ll just say, for all of you basketball and volleyball players who might be listening to this and might be thinking, ‘I don’t buy it,’ look it up on YouTube. Take a look. Because if you watch the sport, you’ll realize the skill level involved is really remarkable. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Sam: This is Sam speaking. I’m also a volleyball player. It’s not easy.
Ron: And Sam– was Sam was playing today?
Sam: I was, yes. I was playing today too. I’m just curious of, since my day job is working with the community. I know that you guys are just starting this. How has the community responded? Have you gathered throughout these years that you’ve been doing this, specifically in the U.S., how has our community responded? Have they been supportive, or are they more just, ‘oh, they’re just kids playing’? Is there any sort of support from the community at all?
Ker: This is Ker speaking. Actually I’ve opened up my Academy for like a year. And yeah, the community does come out. They do come out and they do support. And then in some type of way, even financially as well. I mean, if I ever do go up and ask them, ‘hey, I need some funds for this’ to help me out with equipment and stuff like that, they do respond to that to some degree, too. That’s how I see it.
Jeremy: This is Jeremy. I think that long-term we have a vision that we would like to see all of the cultures know the game. And we’re not near that at this point. One out of every 10 people that you talk to about Sepak Takraw says, ‘oh, I’ve seen that.’ Or ‘oh, I tried that once,’ or ‘oh yeah, I went to Thailand and I saw people playing.’ So, we have a long way to go in terms of the growth and the promotion. There are certain communities around the U.S. that have strong Takraw communities. Like, you can go to the Twin Cities and you can find people playing on courts built by Minnesota Parks and Rec. And you can see that in many places across the city you can find 50 to 75 players. But that is not the norm around the United States. You have to be lucky to stumble upon a place where you find players. We’re always hoping for more support. And I think the truth is that the four players sitting around this table are probably the four most devoted players in the United States.
Sam: Quick question, follow-up with that. Because, I mean, what is your advice or maybe suggestions for those, like say, I, sitting in Washington. And we don’t have, in Seattle, we don’t have a community that are doing this sport. If I’m interested, what do I do? Where do I get started?
True: This is True speaking here. You could follow the Sepak Takraw USA, Inc. on Facebook. We’ll get you started from there.
[LAUGHTER]
Elango: Elango speaking. That’s the same question I asked. When I was in India, moved to U.S. to do my Masters, the curiosity with me wanted to play the sport. I started reaching out to Jeremy via Facebook or reached out to BTA [Blaine Takraw Academy]. I started reaching out to people. Let’s say you want to set up a community where you want to play. The best way to do it is reach out to Coach Jeremy. He’s the best contact, where he will try to set you up with players, who comes in a monthly once or twice to help you out, bringing students, teach you how to do the basic stuff with you, so that you can continue doing it. And whether it be a support of ball, or a net, or a code, anything which we’ll be able to do, we can help you out. We want this sport to be a passion for everyone. Start playing it. We will try our best to help you out in that.
Ker: This is Ker speaking. I would think that power of social media is everything, especially nowadays. Let’s say, for instance, if there’s no players in Seattle, you can open up a Seattle Sepak Takraw page. And guess what? Hmong players, Karen players, or Karenni players, Burmese players, if they come out here to Seattle, they usually, they do like to play, which they do. They’ll look up on Facebook. That’s exactly what I did before I came here. I’m trying to find players and I found nothing. [LAUGHTER] So, I mean, I can’t say much in between that. But yeah, I think I would say that to start, is social media. Create a page and just go on from there.
Ron: I think you’ve got no excuses.
[LAUGHTER]
Ron: The Global Sport Lab will help. Let me ask, what does it—this is sort of an odd question— but what does it mean to you, or what does it feel like, when you step out on the court representing either your community, or the United States on the national team? What’s the experience of taking on that role through Sepak Takraw?
True: This is True speaking here. Having that on your shoulders is a new, different kind of fear unlocked. Because, I wouldn’t say it’s fear, but it’s more like pressure now, because you’re not only doing this for yourself anymore. You’ve got people like your friends, your family, the whole state. Or not the whole state, the whole country. Everybody’s looking forward to you. There’s a reason why you’re representing what you’re representing. It’s because they know that you’re the best for that position. Therefore, it’s a new kind of pressure that you have to figure out. Also, I feel like if you figure that part out there’s a certain success there that makes you want to just keep going. It just doesn’t die off. It’s just like, ‘oh, I can’t perform right.’ Well, why can’t you perform right? What is the reasoning of why you couldn’t do it? ‘Oh, there’s too much pressure.’ No. You just got to do it because everybody there is looking up for you. They want to see you succeed. You don’t have a choice. You can’t fail. You have to go from there.
Elango: This is Elango speaking. Adding on to him, when these players start playing the sport in the main event, all around the world, whether it would be in a 2 a.m. in the morning or 4 p.m. in the evening, we turn on the television. Support from our home saying that, ‘come on, you can do it.’ No matter what we’ll be there to support them. That weight is also on the shoulder where they wanted to achieve something for the country where they are representing. That’s also the value-added point.
Ker: This is Ker speaking. And I would say just the international experience is a different scene, too. Because when you play at the park, there’s nobody watching. You’re allowed to make mistakes. There is no official referees saying, ‘oh, stop the game,’ right. I mean, when there’s an international scene when everyone’s watching you play, referee gives you the time to go serve, or he’ll tell you what to do. I guess you could say, if you’re not really familiar with the system in the international level, you’ll kind of shake off. And I would say with new players playing internationally, they’ll all feel the same way. I’m pretty sure we all walk through the same path, but we’ve been there for so long. It’s just another day for us.
True: So, if Ker starts to get nervous on the court, that’s when we’re not winning for sure. [LAUGHTER]
Jeremy: I also want to add one thing here. This is Jeremy again. Back when I was a player, which was around 2011, 2012, 2013, Anthony [True] sub- and I traveled around Southeast Asia and we competed in a series of tournaments. And at that time, I was probably about maybe 28, 29, but he was only 15 or 16. And what was exceptional about Anthony at that time was that he was really young, but really cocky. [LAUGHTER] Even though he’d never— it’s true! Even though he’d never competed against players from Southeast Asia, he had been watching them on YouTube since he was little and analyzing their skills and comparing his skills to them. And he honestly felt like he was as good as these people that he’d been watching and that he could beat them when he got on the court. Whereas I had concerns and worries because I didn’t feel, like, am I prepared enough to be on the same court with these amazing people? He was like, ‘eh, just set me the ball.’ [LAUGHTER] Just like, ‘just put it in the air and I’ll take care of it.’ And it was funny to hear that because he’s still a high school kid, right? He’s only 16 years old, and he’s just telling me, ‘We’re going to crush these guys. Just put the ball up and I’ll handle the rest.’ And that is very, that’s an uncommon characteristic for an athlete to have. Only the best players feel like they are the best on the court at any given time and that nothing is too strong for them to handle. But that’s what it takes to be the best. You have to feel like you are the best and nobody deserves to be on the court with you.
Elango: This is Elango speaking. There’s something called muscle memory, which they do over time, they practice it once at a time. Each day you practice that gets stuck in your memory. It’s like you can turn off your mind. You can just, ‘okay, the ball comes here. My work is to do this,’ and this is all going to stick. You start getting used to the fact. Let’s say a Thailand player or a Malaysian player, they used to practice like 3 hours, 4 hours a day, the same routine. Day one, day two, day three. They get used to the fact, so when they compete in a national level or international tournament, it’s like just another day. They turn off the mind and they play. It’s easily said than done, but it takes a lot of practice to stick with that.
Jeremy: Quick quickly to add, that’s the main difference between players from the United States and players from countries like Malaysia or Indonesia or Thailand. Those players oftentimes don’t need to worry about having a day job. Their daily schedule is, I wake up, I train for 3 hours, then I go to sleep. Then I eat a little bit of food, and then I rest again, and I’ll do 3 more hours of training. And they live with their teammates, and they do that for two or three months every single day before a major tournament. So, they are, in fact, as close with their teammates as they are to their family. Their teammates are family. We meet up… [LAUGHTER] once every 2 weeks, once every 4 weeks. Sometimes we’re coming from different states and we don’t have those same opportunities to practice regularly. We face challenges that the Southeast Asian teams, especially those with government support, just don’t have. Oftentimes we’ll send a team, and we’ll have four players. We do our best when it comes time to planning the tournaments, but we oftentimes only have about 24-to-48 hours of team training before we’re expected to compete in the group stage of our World Championship.
Sam: Yeah, my question is, can you tell me a little bit of the structure of the sport itself, Takraw? For example, for soccer you have teams, professional teams that play in the Premier League and all these leagues. And then, also, what is the biggest prize you can win? Like, in soccer you have the World Cup. You have the— was it the European tournaments? Some of these bigger ones. And other sports, smaller sports, like badminton they have their World Cup or a world tournament that they have. Does Takraw have something like that? And lastly, you also mentioned some of the countries. What are the big, some of the biggest countries? I mean, obviously, in the U.S. we’re big with baseball, American football, and basketball. But what are some of the biggest countries that are good in this sport?
Ker: This is Ker speaking. I’ll give my input, and you guys can add on to the rest of it. In the U.S., there’s none. There’s none in the U.S. I would say in Southeast Asia, they have the World Cup, which is hosted like every year. And the King’s Cup as well, which is actually going on right now. If—we weren’t invited, but if we were to go and compete, we would not be here today. This year has the King’s Cup. Yeah, I mean they have that and they have a World Cup. They do have Asian Games as well. That happens every 4 years. And SEA Games [Southeast Asian Games], which happens every 2 years. As of the competition level, yes, it’s really, really high up there. And we do get, the world gets invited to go compete for this World Cup and the King’s Cup. But with the SEA Games and Asian Games, that’s strictly Asians, Asian countries.
Jeremy: And then in Malaysia right now, there is a structured league that happens a couple times a year called STL, or Sepak Takraw League. And it used to be that only club teams from around Malaysia competed in that league. However, more recently they’ve opened it up. And now you have athletes from other countries, like Japanese athletes, Korean athletes, Thai athletes, even Indonesians now coming and participating. Are there Indian athletes as well? We’re trying to globalize this sport. And right now, STL is very popular. It’s getting great support from community. It’s televised. The government is participating. There’s money, there’s sponsorship dollars. And it’s kind of a destination. If you’re a good enough player, you’re going to get the best quality competition outside of the World Championships by competing at STL. And it’s always been a dream of ours here in the U.S. to find three players who can get away for a couple weeks at a time, maybe, and go to Malaysia. The USA could, either individual players or as a team, maybe, if we could play in STL. But it’s hard to get away from family for that long.
Ron: You’re such an inspiration. It’s fantastic watching you play. It’s fantastic hearing your passion for the sport and all that you’re putting into it and promoting it. And I just wish you all the best in that work. And as it continues, in any way that we can be supportive, please let us know. Thank you so much for joining us, Sam. It was fantastic to have you here today as well. And special thanks to all of our listeners. Really glad to have you on board today as well. Special thanks to musician and scholar of global football, Laurent Dubois, and Woti Production for the use of our theme music, “Merci Kylian,” which is available on Spotify and Apple Music. And if you would like to join more conversations like this, please reach out to us at globalsportlab@uw.edu. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks so much and keep playing.
[MUSIC PLAYING – “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois]
