YANGON - Zay Koko Shine and Zay Nyinyi Shine, 11-year-old twins from Myanmar's Karen state, are glad they listened to their grandmother.
A Buddhist monk kicks a rattan ball during a game of Chinlone in Kawhmu, Myanmar, Sept 29, 2013. (AP Photo)
The two boys were among 222 players selected to take part in a mass display of Myanmar's traditional chinlone wicker-ball sport at the opening ceremony of 27th South-East Asian Games, which Myanmar will host from Dec 11 to 22, 2013.
Chinlone requires dexterity, concentration and years of practice, which will make the twins stand out as the youngest participants at the gala opening.
Zay Koko Shine and Zay Nyinyi Shine, from Hpa-An, the capital of Karen state, have spent the past four years honing their chinlone skills, after kicking their video-games habit.
"We were real video game addicts," Zay Koko Shine said. "At the age of eight we started to suffer from short-sightedness and grandma told us to abandon the video games and try chinlone instead."
Myanmar, as host to this year's games, is allowed to select some indigenous sports to include on the agenda at the event, held once every two years.
It has decided to include chinlone, the first time the local version of the sport will reach an international arena. There will be eight gold medals up for grabs in the chinlone contests.
"We have included traditional chinlone in the SEA games, not for the medals but only to bring attention to one of the oldest traditional sports in the world," said Ye Aung, secretary general of the Myanmar Chinlone Federation.
Takraw and chinlone are similar but there is no net in chinlone. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)
The sport is similar to takraw in Thailand, versions of which are also popular in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Both takraw and chinlone are based on fancy foot work and a wicker ball that needs to be kept in the air.
Takraw has been included in SEA Games and Asian Games for years, but has never made it to the Olympics.
Unlike takraw, in chinlone there is no net. Instead, a team of six form a circle and use their feet and knees to control a ball that makes a distinctive clicking sound when kicked. There is no opposing team.
"You can't play this game without concentration," said U Kee, 72, a lifelong devotee of the sport. "You must concentrate on every touch of the cane ball. Sometimes in a higher state, you have to touch a ball without seeing it."
Often players kick the ball behind their backs.
The objective of the game is not winning or losing, but in how skillfully it is played, experts say.
"It is not a competitive sport. The point is how to play the game beautifully, and help your fellow players to do so," Ye Aung said.
The winning team is decided by accumulated points for skill, he said.
The participating countries have welcomed the introduction of chinlone, he said.
"There are similar sports to chinlone played in the region so this will strengthen unity among the countries," U Kee said. "Try it once and you will like it. It will unify us."
That would be a new role for Myanmar, which was for years a divisive factor among the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), a regional economic and security group it joined in 1997.
Myanmar's entry into Asean sparked international criticism, given the poor human rights record of the country's former ruling junta that came to power in 1988 in the wake of a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that left an estimated 3,000 dead.
The country has been under the rule of a nominally civilian government since 2011.
The SEA Asia Games will be Myanmar's first major sports event in 44 years.
The country, formerly called Burma, hosted the 2nd SEA Games in 1961 and the 6th SEA Games in 1969, before it entered a period of isolation and economic decline under military strongman Ne Win.
After 1990, Myanmar's bid to host the Games was rejected several times due to the lack of large stadiums.
The upcoming SEA Games will be held in the capital Naypyitaw, where a new stadium has been built, Yangon, Mandalay, and Ngwe Saung Beach, featuring 33 sports.