Leave Your Gadgets at Home, Play Traditional Games Instead!

The children in Pontianak are having fun. They have left their gadgets behind in order to play galah hadang (Kabaddi) during the Traditional Games Festival. The sport is exciting and healthy.

KOMPAS/EMANUEL EDI SAPUTRA

Children play marbles in the Traditional Games Festival in the yard of Radakng House, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Saturday (7/3/2020). Traditional games can develop their character.

Digital gadgets, on the one hand, can have positive impacts. On the other, however, undisciplined use can hamper children\'s development. It is best to enter a new environment on weekends by playing traditional games. Aside from being fun, they don’t cost much and also helps develop children\'s smarts.

Around 160 students from preschool to senior high school gathered on Saturday (7/3/2020) on the field of Rumah Radakng traditional house in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. They did not spend their weekend at the shopping mall, and instead took part the inaugural Traditional Games Festival, held on 7-8 March 2020 in Pontianak.

Dozens of children are playing galah hadang in the field. It involves two teams: one team guards the playing field in rows, some in front, the rest spread from the middle to the rear; the other team tries to run across the field while avoid being tagged by the opposing team.

Traditional games have been abandoned over time to be replaced by mobile games. The benefits of traditional games are that they require physical skill, teamwork and social skills.

It’s exciting. The last time I played galah hadang was when I was in the third grade.

The team agilely attempted to make it across the field, running here and there looking for a gap between the guards of the opposing team. Some players tried to trick the opposing players, but they were swiftly thwarted.

"Watch out! Don’t let them through!" a player on the guarding team shouted. They were all sweating, but their faces beamed. Meanwhile, the crowd shouted their support for the teams.

The sport helps develop teamwork and social skills. "It’s exciting. The last time I played galah hadang was when I was in the third grade. I finally got to play it again a few years later. I would like to play traditional games whenever there is an opportunity like this," said Fadli Hidayatullah, 15, a junior high school student in Pontianak.

Fadli liked playing galah hadang because it involves coordination, and the team needs to stay together to win. In addition, it’s more exciting and full of people.

"It’s fun. I got a small scratch on my hand when I fell, but it was very exciting,” said Renata Apriliantini, a 14-year-old junior high school student from Pontianak, laughing. “It reminded me of the time I played galah hadang when I was a fourth grader. Now, we can just play to be close to our friends."

KOMPAS/EMANUEL EDI SAPUTRA

Children playing taba \'or engklek in the Traditional Game Festival on the Radakng House page, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Saturday (7/3/2020). With traditional games they can develop their character.

Watch out!

In another area of the field, several children were playing taba (hopscotch), also called engklek. The game is played on a grid of interconnected square. The players throw a small object onto a square, and then they hop to it to retrieve the object.

This game involves concentration and throwing skills, but also balance to hop on one leg to a square. The game teaches balance, physical coordination and focus.

Then there is sumpit (blowpipe). Children blow a light projectile through a long, narrow tube towards a target. This game requires concentration and strong lungs. Children learn focus and precision.

The game of egrang (stilts) teaches concentration, coordination and balance. Walking on stilts requires physical balance. There is also terompah (team ski racing), which requires physical coordination within a team.

Then there is lompat tali (jump rope), which requires endurance and strategizing. The children jump tirelessly and if they snag the rope, they will simply try again.

Festivals of traditional games like this would be good if they were held regularly.

Other games played during the festival included kelereng (marbles), gasing (top spinning) and congklak (mancala). There was also buah lima, which means “five fruit”, and involves a player throwing an object into the air, usually a rubber ball or pebble. Before the player catches the object, they must pick up other objects that are scattered on the ground around them.

"Festivals of traditional games like this would be good if they were held regularly. Many traditional games have been abandoned, even though they are good for developing the children\'s brains. I offer an opportunity for children to play galah hadang at school, usually at the end of the semester," said Karnila, a teacher at SDN 24 East Pontianak elementary school.

Playing traditional games also trains children to work with others, as they are generally played in teams. Karnila says that these kinds of games also help develop the students’ emotional intelligence.

KOMPAS/EMANUEL EDI SAPUTRA

Children play galah hadang at the Traditional Game Festival in the Radakng House yard, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Saturday (7/3/2020). With traditional games they can develop their character.

Internalized values

Lukmanulhakim, the chairman of the West Kalimantan Indonesian Traditional Sports and Games Committee (KPOTI), said that the Traditional Games Festival was born out of concerns about the impact technology was having on children. It also aimed to preserve traditional Indonesian values as well as the games as a cultural heritage.

"There is excessive use of electronic gadgets among children. Children tend to become individualistic. Gadgets can make children less social among their peers. Language development can also be affected," he said.

Traditional games tended to be communal, with direct social interaction between children. These kinds of games also develop cooperation, because they have rules and involve teamwork, as well as strong social skills. "Because teamwork and mutual cooperation is unique to us," said Lukmanulhakim.

The games also involve helping each other, and other values that are developed organically, as opposed to being taught verbally.

Aswandi, a lecturer at the Teachers Training and Education Faculty at Tanjungpura University in Pontianak, said that one way of teaching children was through games. They would internalize the values that the game involved.

Fun and relaxation doesn’t have to involve going to a shopping mall, which could be expensive and so only affordable to well-off families. Anyone can play traditional games, and everyone will have fun.