Years active 1960s-present Age range 7+ | Players 3-10 | |
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Other name(s) Pak Tekong
Sipak Tekong Skill(s) required Shooting, running, hiding, seeking | ||
Sepak tekong is one of the traditional games from Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The phrase sepak tekong comes from Minangkabau language, it consists of two words which each of them carries their own meaning. The word "Sepak” means “Menendang” or “Menyepak” in Indonesian or equivalent with the word “Kick” in English, meanwhile the word “Tekong” means “Kaleng” in Indonesian or equivalent with the word “Can” in English, so sepak tekong means “Menendang kaleng” or “Kick the can”. Sepak tekong is a kind of game which is similar to hide and seek, what makes them different is just on the rules and how they are played. In addition, this games is usually played by children aged seven till eight years old in the village, exactly in the place where provides many places to hide. The game is usually done for enjoyment, it needs at least three participants or more, because the more the participant, the more fun and fascinate the game will be. The game is started by drawn a circle with diameter a half meter in the middle of a yard, then put a can in the center of it. If the children cannot find a can, they may replace it with coconut shell or another thing that can produce a sound and does not move or fly while the wind is blowing. Furthermore, although sepak tekong is a game from West Sumatra but it is played in many regions around Indonesia.
Contents
History
Sepak tekong originally came from West Sumatra, but this game had spread to other areas, such as Java. It was widely played in 1960 to 1990, yet in the 2000s it was still popular among kids who live in the villages. The strategy of this game is similar to guerrilla warfare which is used in Indonesian War of Independence.
How to Play
Sepak Tekong is the game usually played by boys about 7 years old and above, and the ideal number in this game is between 3 until 10 people. It is played in the house yard that has many places to hide. The equipment that is needed in this game is a coconut shell or small milk cans filled with sand. The aim of using that kind of thing is to make a sound when it is kicked. After kicking the can, the players must shout “Tekong”, then the children will hide. Before the game starts, the first player sets the best place to set the can and the boundaries to hide. The next step is making a lottery in a way of “Hompimpa” and after two of the players left, they must do such a suit.
There are two ways to start the game for those who won the lottery in hiding: First, all of the children together with the can guard standing near the can, then one of them kicked it and move it by foot as far as possible. When the seeker is pursuing the can, the other players have to go into hiding. Second, the seeker is sitting on the can with closing eyes until the players who go into hiding is shouting the word "ready", if they say "not yet" , then the seeker should not open his eyes, but if no answer, that is time for the seeker to search. When the seeker can find one of the players who hides, the seeker can say his name so that the player will be immediately out of its hiding place and must try to touch the can faster rather than the seeker. Moreover, if the player does not succeed to do that, he was declared to be caught and the seeker will go looking for another player who is still hiding. On the other hand, when the seeker left the can and there are players who come and kick it, the one who is caught earlier can hide again.
Benefits
Sepak Tekong has many benefits, especially for its players. These are some benefits:
The players become more active
Sepak Tekong helps the players becoming more active, because they should run and hide while playing this game. It can be said that they do such an exercise at once indirectly. Hence, it is healthier Instead of playing video games or watching TV which just made them become passive.
Learning how to make a good relation among the players Having a good relationship could be made by playing this game. It erases the differences of social status, skintone, or religion.
Being good in memorising
The players of Sepak Tekong mostly are the children. This game not only helps them for their physical growth, but also in improving their memorising skill. For example, the seeker should memorize the name of the other players.
Improving the players’ creativity
This game would help the players to be more creative, such as thinking faster in order to find the place to hide, and considering whether the place can be easily found or not.
Training the players to obey the rule
In the game, the players should obey the rules that have been made together. If the rules are used well then the game would be so fun.
Learning about how to solve the problems through discussion
The game that has been played together needs the deal of the players themselves. Sometimes the players made their own consideration, such as avoiding to hide in the house because it would be too difficult for the seeker. This action is actually to avoid the fight among the players.
Improving the players’ sportsmanship
In the game, there are winner and loser. Both of them should accept the result at the end of the game, because it was just a game. From this, they would learn about how to be better for next chance.
Sepak Tekong in the Present Time
Today, in this modern period when there are many kinds of modern technology makes our young generation is not interesting enough to play a traditional game for example Sepak Tekong. This happens because there are many modern games which are more simple and easier to use for the young generation. This kind of situation makes the existence of Sepak Tekong start to extinct. We can see with our own eyes that only few children that know and play this game. Another reason why it happens is because when we want to play this game we need a large yard. Then we also know that it is difficult to find a free large land that we can use to play it because most of land was already changing to be big buildings, houses, and others. Besides the technology factor also becomes another reason why this game starts to extinct and young generations start to forget this game. In this globalization era, most of young generation think that play this game is not cool and they choose to play modern game to make them look like more impressive. We know that playing this traditional game has many advantages for our children, so we should find a way how to make this game exist and our children still can know and play this game forever. When we are doing nothing there are big chance for this game to get lost and finally our grandchild cannot find this game and cannot feel how great this game is.