This Sport is called Sepak Takraw (originated in Southeast Asia) - played all over northeastern part of India too (POV: I didn't even know the human body could move like that)

[u/aryan_jandyal]

[u/HeavenBacon]

I pulled three hamstrings just watching that.

[u/Butt-Hole-Cancer-Dr → u/HeavenBacon]

I pulled a hamstring tying my shoelaces

[u/SnooDogs1886 → u/Butt-Hole-Cancer-Dr]

I scrubbed this probably 50 times before my brain could process that this wasn’t ai and his legs did, in fact, wibbldy-wobbldy like that 🫪

[u/WakaWaka_ → u/HeavenBacon]

Me after a long reddit session

[u/wucrew → u/HeavenBacon]

That's all? Need to pump those numbers up

[u/notaedivad]

These guys casually leap their own body height into the air, kick things with accuracy, then somehow land gracefully...

Strength, flexibility, power and precision.

I pulled something in my neck looking left other day...

Edit: to the anonymous Redditor who gave me the award... Thank you, you magnificent bastard!

[u/HoldEm__FoldEm → u/notaedivad]

Not only that but he doesn’t use the motion & momentum of his jump off the ground to power the kick.

He jumps up, and then generates the power for the kick separately & entirely with his leg, while in the air. That’s incredible.

[u/notaedivad → u/HoldEm__FoldEm]

The strength and control required for that is truly impressive.

Should I be this turned on!?!?

[u/codeXjs002 → u/notaedivad]

Lmao the award is no more. That's petty 

[u/Individual-Ad-2126]

As a Malaysian who grew up in a village environment with the knowledge of this game being played by all Southeast Asians as "the people's game", I am always fascinated by the fact that people outside of Southeast Asia are fascinated by this sport 😂

[u/PMmeIamlonley → u/Individual-Ad-2126]

It takes an incredible amount of agility and flexibility. 

[u/thevenge21483 → u/Individual-Ad-2126]

It's an amazing sport to even be able to play. I played it in sibu, JB, KL, and also in miri, and I sucked so bad. Just getting the ball over the net was a challenge.

[u/Individual-Ad-2126 → u/thevenge21483]

Ya forgot to mention - just because it's played by a lot of people here, doesn't mean I'm one of them - I'm as much a spectator as OP!

[u/sheiswhyididthis → u/Individual-Ad-2126]

Bruh if y'all got this level of ball control, yall should be much higher up in football.

What's lacking exactly?

[u/Individual-Ad-2126 → u/sheiswhyididthis]

My personal opinion?

1. Politics
2. Infrastructure (which is somewhat related to politics)
3. Structural racial and/or geopolitical reasons

But that's just me

[u/sheiswhyididthis → u/Individual-Ad-2126]

Damn, malaysia got infra issues?

KL seems to be the mecca of skyscrapers and stuff. I'm surprised if that's the case.

Unless you are referring to football infrastructure only. That would make sense sort of.

[u/Individual-Ad-2126 → u/sheiswhyididthis]

Ya football infra sorry for the lack of clarity

[u/peppapony]

Can any of these skills translate into playing soccer?

And end up with some crazy Shaolin soccer styled match? :D

[u/Token_Thai_person → u/peppapony]

Small portion is transferrable but they are a very very different sport.

[u/m0j0j0shu4 → u/peppapony]

I think yeah, my older brother's sport is both.

[u/BitterFortuneCookie → u/peppapony]

These guys can probably juggle a soccer ball real good. That’s a great start to building soccer skills.

[u/ajax0202 → u/peppapony]

Probably would be pretty wicked at volleys, but I don’t know how much else translates

[u/thevenge21483]

Used to live in Malaysia, and was amazed at how people couple play this. I'd sometimes just stop and watch, just cause it was such a crazy sport. I tried to play a few times, it didn't turn out well.

[u/TheSquirrelWithin → u/thevenge21483]

Saw this for the first time in a small village in Thailand many years ago, and I was gobsmacked. They were so athletic, and so good! Just some locals playing in the yard. Tried to get me involved, I embarrassingly declined. Heck, I'm lousy at regular vollyball.

[u/thevenge21483 → u/TheSquirrelWithin]

I did it just so I could say I had tried, and also to give the kids laughs. It was fun, but I was embarrassingly bad at it, even though that was like my prime years for athletics.

[u/notaedivad → u/thevenge21483]

I feel like I'd end up accidentally kicking someone... Or maybe myself in the head!?

[u/thevenge21483 → u/notaedivad]

I'm convinced the teenagers who would invite us to play (we were 19/20/21 years old) were just inviting us for comic relief. And I'm happy to say we provided it. We would them challenge them to basketball, and even though I am only 5'10" tall, I was much taller than they were (and the other guys I was with were always about 6'4"), so we'd always win. It was still fun to try their sports though. I played ping pong a lot against a former Olympian who was later in a car accident, got a TBI, and lived in a group home. Even though his brain was permanently injured, he was still amazing at ping pong, and I hardly ever even scored a single point on him.

[u/aryan_jandyal → u/thevenge21483]

I saw exactly that in Paraguay

[u/tarlin → u/thevenge21483]

After 10 years of training, you can kind of knock one spike up into the air again

[u/Portable-fun → u/thevenge21483]

Training to just be able to play would be hard. No shot you would be able to do those spikes without years of gymnastics type training

[u/ImmodestPolitician → u/Portable-fun]

Muay Thai is the national sport in Thailand. They also play a version n Brazil where soccer is the national sport.

[u/jcready92]

Meanwhile, I sleep on my neck wrong and I can't move for 3 weeks.

[u/TrustworthyChaos]

I was skipping through various sports in the current Asian Games when I stumbled upon a stream of Sepak Takraw. I clicked on it just to see what it was as I'd never heard of it before, and I was absolutely amazed by what I witnessed.

From what little I've watched of this game it's basically foot volleyball, but man this game might as well be what you get if you made gymnastics a team sport. The sheer athleticism, flexibility and stamina you need not just to pull off those aerial maneuvers but to do them about a 100 times each game is absolutely crazy !!!

This is now my new favourite sport.

[u/Legal-Bet-4034]

flexibility you say?

[u/Master-Chemical-3660]

I live in North eastern India. This is my morning workout

[u/mznh]

Easiest way to explain it is, it’s like volleyball but instead of using your hands, you use your legs

[u/heatedwepasto]

Ocelot would tell him "You're pretty good"

[u/Nikmido]

He looks like that one scene in Attack On Titan right before a titan starts sprinting

[u/rizkreddit]

Yeah this is reddits favourite wow-sport. Features every few days with an introduction to it

[u/Abhi_Jaman_92 → u/rizkreddit]

Mandatory comments will be: 1. Why is this isnt an Olympic sport. 2. I pulled [x] just watching this.

[u/New-Experience5507 → u/rizkreddit]

title is also misleading, it claims the clip to be from NE India, but i have never seen it here

[u/WorkMyToesOff]

I don't think you know what POV means

[u/benjacob → u/WorkMyToesOff]

Help is a click away - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/point-of-view

[u/WorkMyToesOff → u/benjacob]

You can be sny, but POV abbreviated like that has a common meaning, not how it is used here

[u/Trivi_13]

Part cat

[u/whatthepho6]

I'm not seeing the other guy going up for the block...

[u/ThePracticalPenquin]

My ankles would have smashed together in such a hurtful way as I descended to the ground for an honorary face planting and tooth loss. He is talented

[u/mid_1990s_death_doom]

Kick volleyball

[u/Warblade21]

This is the opposite of the average american physique.

[u/Hpezlin]

This is one of those sports that you can't just play casually.

[u/serialcloner]

Always find this game amazing. But I always forget the name when I have to search for it. This is one sport I think, if had a different easy to remember name, would have been more popular!

[u/mulled-whine]

Watch the recent Asian Games matches on YouTube!

[u/Silly_Lion_3046]

This is one of the sport where you can see a normally clumsy and slow uncle suddenly doing alot of movement that only peak physique could do.

[u/qorl2002]

I've worked as the audio engineer in charge on Speak Takraw venue during Asian Games 2018 in Indonesia. It was awesome, but have to say pretty boring to watch after a couple of days because EVERY player plays like this. Fantastic moves on every shots.

[u/VirtualKnee2455]

Krasses Timeing

[u/Omnibobbia]

Played all over ne india my ass lmfao. I'm born and raised here i have never seen this irl nor heard a local mention or talk about it.

[u/CoolKeyboarz]

This is played in Central Europe too (albeit not that heated)

[u/Extension-Pick-2167]

we play something similar in romania, it is called "foot tennis"

[u/tuba_dude07]

Reminds me of Blitzball

[u/ratbearpig]

I'm terrible at volleyball and that requires jumping with my feet and hitting the ball with my arms, pretty "normal" motions. This sport requires spiking the ball with your foot! These guys are just built different.

[u/Affectionate_Serve_5]

Back then, it was a huge sport in my village, with people betting their lunch or dinner money. I remember it happening every afternoon under the sweltering sun.

[u/m0j0j0shu4]

This is my older brother's sport; he is now a coach.

[u/25hourenergy → u/m0j0j0shu4]

Curious, at what age do kids start learning this?? I feel like there must be a narrow window at which this can be played agility-wise and without injuring yourself.

Tried this in Malaysia and the only American who could get anywhere close to playing had been doing taekwondo for a lifetime already.

[u/Queasy-Broccoli-6869]

youll find kids playing this around lot of neighborhoods in Singapore as well. It's amazing how easy they make it look, and physically not all of them are as athletic looking as this guy in the video. Pure skill at play here

[u/harry_nola]

the Asian Hackey Sack. but instead of a foam/cloth ball filled with sand or plastic pellets, sepak uses a hard rattan/hard woven plastic ball.

[u/StrawberryFlds → u/harry_nola]

We were introduced this sport for a week when I was in school and I can still remember the pain my ankle felt when it got hit by the ball

[u/panutsya]

Football but rebull

[u/no168_92]

For those interested

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Sepaktakraw_Federation

they are currently at 50 countries out of 75 targeted to be included into the Olympics

[u/popsilolicle]

The baseline level of fitness and athleticism required to play competitive sepaktakraw is incredible

[u/wjmmerea]

This is peak human athleticism

[u/SnooDoggos5292]

OP where did you find this?... You have my upvote.

[u/Buchilei]

I'm from the Philippines. I always stop by when I see people playing this. It's almost like volleyball, but with their feet 👏