I played sipa as a kid. Back then, we knew it as a Pilipino game…none of the other kids in neighborhood –white or black–knew how to play. Sipa in Pilipino means ‘to kick’. Back then, the hacky sack or bean bag was not quite invented yet by those two young white guys from Oregon.
Ever heard of sipa takraw or sepak takraw or sepak raga? Its indigenous roots is in ‘sipa’ played for centuries in Southeast Asia villages. The sport today is hardcore, popular and most competitive with Asian countries competing professionally against each others’ team.
Played like volleyball with a net, they volley the rattan ball back & forth using only their knees, feet, chest and head. This is no wimpy hacky sack game or the sipa I played as kid. That tightly woven rattan ball can inflict pain. And those kicks? powerful and beautiful… a kind hitch kick reaching over 5 feet in the air, with the body flying into a horizontal position in mid air to deliver the added power and punch to the kick–sending the ball over the net into the opponents side with tremendous speed.
The Maranao people of Lanao del Sur call their version of the sport ‘sipa salama’.
In 2004 and again in 2006, Ate Lucy a spunky, fun-loving, Maranao woman, a devout Muslim and a retired professor of Mindanao State University-Marawi arranged for a demonstration with the sipa-salama practitioners of Calucan.
Dressed in full Maranao regalia of malong and beaded hat, the men formed a big circle. To protect their ankles they wore pads on the right foot… a piece of slightly curved rectangular wood tied to the inside of the right ankle, often embellished with orkir carving. As the player kicked the rattan ball he snapped a belt-like strip of leather with a deafening thunderous crack.
There’s a lead..a kind of team captain…above is Calucan’s team captain! a dandy of a guy! woo-hoo!!!
The team scores when the other team drops the ball. Except for the right ankle no other body part may touch the ball. Style is of importance too. It’s quite an elegant sport. My Maranao friend Jay tells me, back in the day, his mother fell in love with his dad at one of his matches. It’s no wonder, the player looks like a mythic figure with arms open in 2nd position, his right leg in an open attitude devant or dekuatro–leg is lifted and well turned out with the knee bent at approximately 90-degree angle … a figure of power and grace, indeed! Kolintang music, an ensemble of gongs and drum, is played during the game.
