I have long been eager to introduce a unique kind of sport as a present to all of you. This is not a totally new sport, as I have been playing it with my friends since I was a child. I call it EFTOKTON or: Effendi’s memory of a sport with a lot of TOK TONE (TOK TOK TOK). As a matter of fact, a lot of children in Indonesia could get used to playing badminton with a wooden racket. Most probably in your country too. “EF” also means EFFICIENT, because this sport can be efficently played anywhere.
So lets use any WOODEN RACKET.The size should be about 15 centimeters (6 inches) across and 25 centimeters (10 inches) long including the handle.
You may need to cover the wooden racket with any material or rubber to let the ball survive quite long. To add fun for this sport, please paint your racket with any logo and colour of your school, your club, or your country.
What about the COURT? We will have a simple and quite small court. It shall be a rectangle of 5 meters in length and 4 meters in width. There is a line dividing the length to make two playing sides. The net shall stand on this “Middle Line”. Please draw two lines in both playing sides, exactly ONE METER from the Middle Line. We call it the “Short Serving Line”. All services coming to these areas will be regarded “too short” and counted as a point to the receiving player.
Both width of the court shall be divided by a line to make the Left and the Right Serving Sides. In the official game, all the marking lines shall be 4 centimeters in width and included inside the size of the court. We can use any colour as long as it's easy to see as marking lines of the court. And please be aware that in this sport, there are NO SECOND LINES that make the difference between a single and a double-player match.
What about the NET? The top of the net from the surface of the court shall be around 152.4 centimeters, and the depth of the net is around 76 centimeters.
Now the most important thing about EFTOKTON is the BALL. Please find any kind of shuttlecock. I prefer the plastic shuttlecock. We test this shuttlecock and up to now it has been used to more than 500 matches. And it is still OK to use again. We have also conducted some research for the alternative ball. We cut the front part or the head of the plastic shuttlecock and glued it to a table-tennis ball. It is the real one that is used in the table-tennis game. We are now checking the balance, stability, and durability of some combinations between various table-tennis balls and shuttlecocks. Maybe in the future, it could be an addition to the variety of the balls used for this game.
OK lets see the EFTOKTON IN ACTION! But wait a minute... Why am I really happy to register and promote this unique sport?
First, it is NOT EXPENSIVE at all. You can make your own racket of any wooden material and let it be colourful. The shuttlecock only cost you around 1 US dollars. But it can be used for quite a long time and with a lot of friends. I am in contact with some companies to make it as a mass product with a better balance, stability, and durability. So in the near future you can easily find and buy the ball.
Second, as the court is so small, you can make one ANYWHERE: in backyard, at school, in the garden, on the beach; the possibilities are endless. Use any simple kind of rope or duct tape as lines.
Third, EFTOKTON is really good for your HEALTH! And so easy to play! You can play it at your own pace. You can play EFTOKTON slowly...tok-tok-tok-tok, or you can play it quickly toktoktoktoktoktok! But you have to make sure that you are the better player than the opponent in predicting the playing area as it is only 20 meters square! The more you hit the ball outside the court, the easier your opponent gets the point!
What about the RULES of EFTOKTON? For now, the rules are similar to badminton. We are conducting more research and will inform you of more details on recent rules, as well as recent varieties of the balls.
OK lets play EFTOKTON! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, any childhood experinces with an almost similar game, please CONTACT US: eftokton@yahoo.com, eftokton@gmail.com, eftokton@hotmail.com, and twitter @eftokton. My dream is that this unique sport will be playing in Olympics someday. I hope it would be in your dream too!