Curios Case of Malaysians Lack of Innovation

A few weeks back, I had the chance to watch the Malaysian sepak takraw team in action against Thailand at the Guangzhou Asian Games. It was the team event final. Malaysia lost to their arch-rival 0-2. Thailand have proved that they are a few steps ahead of Malaysia and other countries in this event although sepak takraw is a Malaysian traditional sport. Other countries have also shown progress to catch up in this event while Malaysia remained stagnant. This claim is supported by the fact that Malaysia lost to South Korea in the King's Cup world championship semi-final a few months back. Even during the Asian Games semi-final, Malaysia required tie-breaks in both regus to seal a 2-0 victory over the same team. Malaysia even lost 1 game to China during the grouping match. Other countries are showing progress but not Malaysia. The question is why can't Malaysia take their game to the next level?

Before I divulge any further, I must admit that it has been a while since I last watch an international sepak takraw game. This post and analysis is about what I've seen and learnt in that particular game only and it might or might not represent the whole picture of Malaysian sports in particular. I've been watching and playing sepak takraw since my childhood days. My next door neighbour used to have a sepak takraw cum badminton court behind his house. Generally speaking, sepak takraw is quite close to my heart even though I've not played it competitively.



If a normal Malaysian like me can see what is not right with the state of Malaysian sepak takraw from that particular game, I believe those with experience and know how shall know even better what Malaysia is lacking. Here are a few points from my observation:

• Tekong for the first regu is Normanizam Ahmad. According to reports, he was recalled by the Malaysian team for this Asian Games since he was part of the team which won gold medal at the 2005 Manila SEA Games. If a person who does not look particularly fit for the game (in other words, overweight) can be selected to represent Malaysia, then we must have a serious lack of talent in this game. Talent hunting should be done especially from young age. Then only we will have a bigger pool of talent to select from.
• In late 90's and earlier this decade, the complain was Thailand was superior in this sport because of their servis kuda. But even now, the Thais do not use that service as much to get points. I remember at one point, Malaysia has to specially train just to counter the servis kuda. Now, the Thais have changed their tactics by having a slower service which will land just over the net of the opposition court. Any good tekong should be able to execute the same service but their service is so good that it yielded 6 to 7 straight points for the first regu in the second game. Does that mean Malaysia will have to specially train how to counter that service now? I would suggest instead of taking cue and responding to what Thailand is doing, let's develop on our own strength. Create our own weapon and be good at it. Whatever weapon it is, it must be so good that it can produce easy points during the game. Be creative and innovate lah.
• Malaysia is still playing the game conventionally. A typical Malaysian regu will consist of a tall tekong, a flexible apit kanan and a tiny apit kiri. All the players stick to their own task. No body is able to do the other player's task as good as the designated player himself. Thailand on the other hand, have 3 flexible players on court. They are capable of doing each others job as good as the designated player. The apit kiri could perform overhead kicks when required. The tekong could do blocking and the apit kanan could feed the ball nicely when required. Be flexible to move forward.
• There are two types of overhead kicks in sepak takraw called lipat and gulung. Gulung is harder to perform but it generates more power than lipat. However in sepak takraw, a good killer (apit kanan) is expected to be able to perform both overhead kicks very well. Our first regu killer, Mohd Futra Abdul Ghani mostly only performed lipat as his overhead kicks during the game. This was easily retrieved by the Thais and they were able to counter attack and get points. For any killer, gulung shall be the main weapon while lipat shall be the auxiliary weapon. It can be seen from the game that the Thais dominant weapon was gulung and the Malaysians faced difficulties to retrieve them. It only makes sense to be better with the more powerful overhead kick.

The game has not changed much from the way it was played in early 90's when Malaysia was still a dominant force. The only change that I can think of is the scoring format which now is similar to the badminton scoring format. Since there are not much changes, the only way to take this game to its next level is to innovate. Think of tactics and weapons that we can use to our full advantage during tournaments.

FAM is a clear example of innovation. After more than a decade of slump in Malaysian football, FAM has formed Harimau Muda to compete in Malaysian Super League a few years back. This group of players will represent Malaysia in international tournaments with some addition of senior players. With that group of players, its fair to say that Malaysian football has slowly crawled its way back from the slump. We won the gold medal in the last SEA Games. Regionally we are more competitive and can challenge the likes of Thailand and Indonesia. These are bold steps taken by FAM to raise our football standard and it worked. Sepaktakraw Association of Malaysia (STAM) shall be thinking along the same line. The only way to move forward is by innovating.

So it's time to change and it's change that I would like to see. Innovation shall be part of all Malaysian be it in sports, education, social or economy. In this ever challenging world, we need to be creative and innovative to stay competitive. If we don't others will just move forward and leave us behind. Do we want to see another fall of Malacca Sultanate?