The Serve

Essentially the basic of starting a takraw game, the serve. In takraw, a serve happens when the player in the quarter circle on their side of the court throws the ball to the server, who stands in the circle on their side of the court. He kicks the ball up and over the net while his non-kicking foot remains in the circle. During the service, as soon as the Tekong kicks the ball, all the players are allowed to move about freely in their respective courts. The service is valid if the ball passes over the net, whether it touches the net or not, and inside the boundary of the two net tapes and boundary lines of the opponent’s court.


In takraw, a serve can mean a good or bad start to a game


Usually, beginners will find it difficult to serve like professionals, kicking the ball above their heads. With that, beginners usually serve by kicking the ball at a much lower height, around their waist level.

As they progress, beginners will be taught to kick the ball at a higher height, the advantage of kicking the ball at a higher height is so that the direction of the ball will be going downwards and also it is easier to apply power to the kick.

Players must keep in mind, that during the serve, power is not the only method, the serve can be used to surprise the opposing team by giving a drop ball that might catch the opposing team off guard. As with spiking, the serve too needs a certain degree skill, mainly in flexibility.

Probably the most deadliest serve technique, the horse kick serve, created by Thailand players, has reached speeds of up to 80km/h, but the horse kick serve requires  a lot of practice and especially flexibility. The horse kick serve is different to the normal serve as the horse kick is executed by kicking the ball with the instep as compared to the standard serve technique with uses the inside of the foot, giving the horse kick serve nearly double the power and pace as compared to a normal serve.

Each serve technique has a different method of tossing to the server (tekong), in terms of how high the ball is toss and how near or far it is to the server, in all of the techniques, the horse kick serve is the hardest for a player to toss to the server as the ball has to be quite high and right above the head of the server, making it quite a hassle for the tosser.