Tchoukball Inter-class Sports Module 2008

Tchoukball is played with two 'rebound frames'. These frames measure 90 centimetres square and are situated at both ends of the court. A line runs 3 metres from the centre of the bottom of the frame around in a semi-circle. This area is called the 'D' or 'forbidden zone'. The court size varies greatly depending on the ages of the players; a full size international standard court is 40m by 20m in size. Unlike most other team games you can score at both ends. Players fall into 3 categories: Wingers, Forward Pivots and Centre Pivots. To score a point the ball must be thrown at the end so that it lands over the line of the D.

From the 18th of September through the 9th of October, our school organized an inter-class Tchoukball competition. This involved the 5 class in our standard, each playing every other class once.

My class, 5X, managed to emerge 3rd from the boys-division in this competition. However, we did not set our sights on winning alone – we believed that Tchoukball was more about sportsmanship and teamwork. Thus, we did not focus our attention solely on the ‘better’ players in our class, but worked on the basis and idea of giving everyone a chance. To prepare ourselves for this event, we trained for one session of about 1.5 hours. The aim of this session was to introduce the game of Tchoukball to those who have not yet been exposed to it from other sports modules or competitions alike.

In the process of training for this event, we faced several difficulties. It was difficult for the more experienced players in my class to adequately train every member of the class in the short period of time given. Furthermore, we were only provided with one ball, further narrowing our time-constraints. However, we managed to overcome this and make do with what we had. We devised several training modules ourselves and managed to successfully execute them, allowing each member to have a general idea of the rules of Tchoukball and how it is meant to be played.
Furthermore, because of my experience in the sport, I volunteered myself to play the role of the referee in other classes’ games. I made this decision as I felt it would benefit the year cohort as a whole as team players would be able to be more aware of the rules and game-play of Tchoukball. In addition, I felt that it would benefit me because of the experience I would gain from a different perspective of the game.

Despite Tchoukball being a relatively new sport, many are unaware and apathetic towards the true benefits it has. I believe that the school’s effort in introducing this sport to us as a general cohort has truly proven itself to be the right decision.

Tchoukball Tournament 2008

On the 28^th of September 2008, our school’s Tchoukball team took part in the NLB / SSC Tchoukball Challenge 2008. Our team consisted of 6 players, including myself. Prior to this competition, we trained across a period of several days, inclusive of one intensive 3-hour training on Friday, the 26^th of September 2008.

Though we have little experience in this upcoming and thrilling sport, we put our hearts into our game and managed to emerge fourth out of 8 teams, which is, personally, very commendable, considering the fact that we were put up against tough National Teams such as the Fiery Warriors and other non-academic institutions. This is certainly a memorable and heart-felt achievement and I believe we have done our school proud.

No.	Team Name	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS
1	Fiery Warriors	7	7	0	0	159	96	14
2	Freakshow	7	6	0	1	158	97	12
3	YDC 1	7	5	0	2	166	105	10
4	ACS International	7	4	0	3	130	142	8
5	YDC 2	7	3	0	4	122	127	6
6	KCPSS	7	2	0	5	105	147	4
7	Tampines East Shooting Stars	7	1	0	6	91	146	2
8	Team ITE College East	7	0	0	7	72	143	0

In the process of training for this event, we faced several difficulties. It was difficult for us to find a common training slot due to our heavy work schedule on the parts of each of us. However, with the inspiration from our team captain, Shamus Hwang, we managed to agree on certain time slots, sacrificing time for our exam preparations which were mere weeks away at that point of time. Despite Tchoukball being a relatively new sport, many are unaware and apathetic towards the true benefits it has. I believe that the school’s effort in introducing this sport to us in the first place has truly proven itself to be the right decision. Our team will undoubtedly strive to achieve better in future competitions. However, to do this, the presence of a coach or qualified supervisor would assist us in an exceedingly significant way.