Let’s Preserve “Gobak Sodor” an Indonesian Traditional Game
Gobak Sodor is one of the traditional game in Indonesia, especially in Java. But now, only few people know this game. Why? Because this game is probably on the brink of extinction nowadays. If you are 17 years old or older, maybe you knew or ever played this game, else you might not even have heard of it. Children these days are playing gadgets, smartphones, and other fruits of technologies. Other traditional games are also hard to find. Usually, this game is played by elementary school students in the old days.
In this game, players are divided into two teams, 3-5 persons each team. One team will be on the defence and the other is going to play offense. The defence team’s goal is to block anyone from the offense team that want to reach the finish line (see the picture above), while every member of the offense team must breakthrough to the finish line and then back into the start line. The offense team considered won if one of the member can reach finish line and back to start line again without being touched by any member of the defence team. The two teams will be switched if one member of the offense team is touched or out of the border field. There are many benefits from playing this game. This game will help you to train your teamwork, strategy, concentration, speed and agility.
To wrap things up, there are various things that we can learn from playing Gobak Sodor. We all can have fun by playing this game. We can make new friends too. It’s better than playing video games in your room all day. Why we need to preserve this traditional game? Because this game is originally from Indonesia, so we must conserve the uniqueness of Indonesia. We are Indonesian people after all. But, how do we preserve this traditional game? What if we can’t preserve it? Will our children and grandchildren know about Gobak Sodor?
BINUS Square Student Committee (BSSC) has a solution. BSSC Sport and Art Division will hold an event called Olahraga Bersama (OBER), and we are going to play Gobak Sodor. By joining us, you have participated in conserving our beloved Gobak Sodor. After playing Gobak Sodor again, more people will get to know the game. Therefore, the game is not going to be vanished in our time and the generation next to us will also know and enjoy the game. It’s the only way to conserve Gobak Sodor, otherwise Gobak Sodor will only be a history. We will also have a handball match. It will be fun, so come and join us in OBER. This event will be held on May 7th, 2017. Hope to see you there!
