SELIPAR BM

The game

What is baling selipar? The kampung game behind SELIPAR

· 2 min read

Rebuilding the slipper tower in SELIPAR's Classic mode.

If you grew up in a kampung, you may have thrown more slippers than you would like to admit. Baling selipar, which simply means throwing slippers, is a traditional Malaysian playground game. All it needs is a few slippers, some friends and a patch of open ground, which is why it turned up everywhere.

The basic idea

Written accounts of the game differ in the details, because every kampung played it a little differently. Most of them agree on the core:

  • There are two teams. Three slippers stand upright, leaning together into a small pyramid. One more slipper is kept for throwing.
  • The attacking team throws at the stack from a line about ten feet away, usually with a few attempts.
  • When the stack falls, the team that knocked it over has to stand it back up. The other team now throws the slipper at them, and anyone who gets hit is out, or mati.
  • Whoever is holding the throwing slipper cannot walk with it. They can only throw it or pass it to a teammate.
  • A stack that has been rebuilt is safe. The guards are not allowed to damage it.
  • The team that rebuilds the stack most often wins. Some versions end a rebuild by stepping over the finished stack.

Why it works

The fun is in the switch. One moment you are aiming calmly at a target. The next, you are crouched over three slippers with your back to someone who very much wants to hit you with a fourth.

It is also a game about balance, in both senses. Rush the rebuild and it falls. Take too long and you get hit.

How SELIPAR plays it

SELIPAR's Classic mode keeps that shape: two teams of three, three white slippers for the tower and one blue slipper for throwing. The attackers throw from the line about ten feet away. If they knock it down, the race is on.

Two things are changed on purpose. You can rebuild the tower anywhere in the court, and it has to stand on its own for three seconds before it counts, so a rushed job falls down in front of everyone.

Read the full rules for Classic and Perang Selipar.

Further reading

These are the written accounts we used when turning the game into SELIPAR:

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