Teck Whye Secondary School’s Top Shots

Here’s a familiar sight that takes place at Teck Whye Archery Range twice a week: more than 80 students from Teck Whye Secondary School take turns to nock arrows, aim true and shoot – all in a deadly serious, disciplined fashion.

Meet Teck Whye Secondary School’s archery club, which has been training aspiring archers since 2000. It was established as a CCA by the then principal Mr Adrian Cordeiro, who felt that archery as a sport could develop good character and build leadership qualities in students.

The spirit of an archer

Starting the archery club from scratch was not easy. “The school did not have proper facilities for archery then,” says Mdm Jennifer Malar, one of the teachers-in-charge for the CCA. “Students had to train in the hard court behind the classroom blocks, and carry the target boards in and out of the storeroom. On rainy days, they had to look for suitable areas in school to practise in, and chairs had to be stacked up to form a barrier” to demarcate these temporary shooting areas.

Nonetheless, the students were passionate about the new sport and pushed on enthusiastically with their training. Subsequently, with the help of external coaches engaged by the school, a full-fledged archery range was set up in 2007 on an unused plot of state land next to the school.

Resilience continues to be a value embodied by the archers. Sec 3 student Jasper Goh joined the club only in Secondary 2, as he had initially been allocated another CCA. However, his passion and interest in archery finally convinced the school to allow him to switch CCAs. “When I first joined the club, I was eager to shoot straight away!” he recalls. “However, I had to be patient and pick up the theory about archery first. Shooting in Singapore’s climate is also tough, and I have to persevere to be consistent with every shot, despite the humidity and heat.”

While archery may look like a glamorous sport, it is not simply a case of nock, draw and release. Many of the young archers have mild scars and temporary bruises on their forearms, as a result of being hit by the bowstring after the arrow is released. Sec 2 student Christine Joy says, “My fingers used to hurt from pulling the string.” Sec 3 student Nicholas Tan adds, “There’s a way to twist your arm to minimise being hit by the string, but that technique takes time to master. Building strength in our arms and backs is also important in the sport, and regular push-ups are necessary.”

For Christine, taking up archery has trained her to be more focused. “I used to be easily distracted,” she confesses. “Someone laughing or an insect going past me – these things can distract me. I have learnt to focus on the range. Time management is critical as well, and I have to learn to judge how long I should take to aim and to shoot well.”

The club also has a peer mentoring system, which students have found beneficial. Nicholas says, “Before I can coach someone else, I have to train myself and make sure I can help my mentee. This system has taught me about leadership and responsibility.”

Needless to say, discipline is taken very seriously in the club. “Students have to be committed,” says Mdm Malar. “No coming in late, no absenteeism without good reason.” Despite the heavy training schedule of four-hour sessions twice weekly, discipline and tough training, archery is easily one of the most popular CCAs in the school. “Every year, more than 100 students apply to join, but only about 40 will be accepted,” notes Mdm Malar.

Shoot, with excellence

Above all, archery has nurtured a strong desire to excel in the students. “There is a lot of joy in shooting well,” enthuses Nicholas. “It feels good to see your score improving, and when the coach feels that we can move on to the next level in shooting – for example, from the biggest target board at 122 cm to a 40 cm board. We may also increase our shooting range as we get better.”

The young archers also get excited over technical details about the types of bows, arrows and sports gear they use. Some have upgraded from the basic wooden bow to better bows – such as the recurve bow – to enhance their performance. A few have joined archery clubs outside the school for further training and exposure.

To push the students to progress and excel, the club’s coaches make sure that the students gain exposure by joining competitions and archery meets. Nicholas has taken part in archery competitions and explains, “There is a lot of pressure to shoot well, especially if the competitor before you has performed well. Learning how to handle that stress and pressure is important. There is a lot of drive to perform better as well.”

Indeed, Teck Whye Secondary School’s Archery Club has been putting up stellar performances in competitions since its inception. In 2009, it made a clean sweep of the titles in the first inter-school archery championship, in which more than 35 schools took part. And just last year, its archers came in champions in four team categories in that tournament. Not bad for a club which started without its own range!