Touch rugby scene in Singapore | My Tribe - video Dailymotion

AsiaOne

Touch rugby is not just about strength, endurance, and speed. With eyes firmly set on the next Touch World Cup, the Singapore National Touch Team, Touch Singapore, and Broadrick Secondary School show that values off the field are just as important as performance on it.  Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video

Transcript

00:00You sort of get this responsibility to sort of uphold the standard of touch and sync

00:09floor. I always had that desire that I wanted to be the best player, the best

00:23person on the field. It's been about four years now. I first started as a freshman

00:38in NUS. That's when I first picked up the touch. Originally I came from a rugby

00:42background. It was a really high intensity sport. Fewer players on the field means

00:47you're doing more than traditional rugby. All six players on the field are

00:54involved in any one play at a given time. So it's essentially just one hour of

01:01non-stop running and and this is like every time you run a set you have to be

01:06running at like your 90 to 100 percent. Usually for the second hour of training

01:12that's when we really gas out the tank and yeah it's really physically demanding.

01:17As a player we have lots of additional fitness sessions on top of our club

01:30trainings and Singapore trainings. We end up just training pretty much six seven

01:34days a week including all of our gym and physical sessions. It was easier for me

01:42to pick up because coming from a rugby background I had all of the basic skills

01:46down but there was still a lot for me to learn. But gradually after that I

01:49started falling in love with the sport and sticking around. Being in the national

01:53team of course a lot more is required of you on the physical level. You sort of get

01:57this responsibility to sort of uphold the standard of touching Singapore.

02:02I always had that desire that I wanted to be the best player the best person on the

02:10field no matter which category or which whichever situation I'm putting. In my

02:15free time I would be doing my own fitness sessions I would be you know studying

02:20game footage in my hall room just to try to learn the game as much as possible.

02:24That mentality carried through moving up to club which was a bigger level and of course the

02:29international level which was the biggest jump off of them all.

02:36That mentality of being the best player on the field I pretty much apply it to like every

02:41other aspect of my life. I have this thing where I'm not always the fastest

02:46person to pick something up but I always make it a point that I have to put in the

02:51work to you know pick something up. It applies to things like work and even the

02:56small things I think it's like you know if I'm gonna do something I may as well be

03:02putting in my 110 percent.

03:08Performance I think is definitely one of the pillars of sports excellence.

03:15This is the first initiative that we're trying to kickstart our preparation post World Cup.

03:22So we had our recent World Cup in 2024. It's a four-year cycle as we prepare for the next World Cup.

03:27The vision is actually to allow more players more opportunities to compete. So we want to kickstart

03:35this high performance camp to align certain standards and start a campaign a little bit earlier.

03:41Identify young talents.

03:43I participated in my first Dutch World Cup when I was 22. It was an eye-opening experience like just

03:53being part of the whole national program back then. I had so many seniors and mentors to guide me and

03:59help me and I think just being able to represent my country at the highest level like made me super

04:07motivated to continue my journey. Yeah, so I'm just really hoping to do what I can in the next two years

04:15to help out in transition like what my seniors did for me.

04:20I think what I want like the younger players to know is that they can dream big you know and the value of

04:27hard work will one day bring them to their goals. We train so hard like our whole life just to compete and

04:39win right and then at the same time there's certain things that you want to make sure that you are not

04:46compromising. So sometimes when I coach the younger kids like you also try to teach them the correct values

04:54you know like how we win is important, how you carry yourself is important and how you stand up

05:00after a loss or after a defeat is as important as that. When we compete at the highest level your values

05:07will get challenged you know your challenge and that to me is the true essence of sporting excellence to

05:16uphold your values and to play with integrity like to to compete even at the highest level.

05:25There's so much potential you know to represent the country and I think touch is a sport that

05:31we are able to compete. I really hope that we have a large pool of players across all genders

05:38yeah and across all age group. That will be the goal and I'm trying to push us in that direction

05:44so more opportunities, more camps, more outreach yeah hopefully we get more people interested in sport.

05:55Right now what we have in Roderick Secondary Touch Rugby is one of the SILs or student initiated

06:03learning or essentially it's a special interest group. Students voluntarily sign up for these

06:10groups and they take and they train in it once a week and they are given the opportunity to represent

06:16schools in competitions as well. It's compulsory for every student join a CCA whereas for SIL they sign

06:23up on their own. I have students coming from uniform groups coming from the performing arts so it's it's

06:29an opportunity to try something different for them. The ability for them to actually learn a new sport to

06:35actually represent the school for them to don on that t-shirt actually makes a big deal for these students

06:41because that's that's something different that's a new group that they're belonging to. Personally for me

06:47I think I've been very fortunate as well in my current role as a senior teacher. I don't have any

06:53CCA in particular that I have to be in charge of so I take this as my own personal CCA. For me it's the joy

07:02when they learn something and the joy of achievement right when they do well you can see how much they

07:10want it how much they train for it. We're a small group but I'm very proud of them. There's a saying

07:15in education is that we don't teach subjects we teach students. At the end of it regardless of

07:22whichever subjects we're building up for life right I think for us we are really focusing on developing

07:29the characters. For me as a physical educator I really want them to love sports. I mean up to now

07:36I'm still playing and I still love to play right. I think it's so important especially in this day and

07:42age yeah so I think this is key values in which all these students need to learn in which they're

07:50developing their character through actual situations right even though when emotions are high

07:56things like stakes you know you might lose that important game but you keep your values. I think

08:03as as a touch rugby community we've gone through quite a fair bit of changes and quite a bit fair

08:09bit of challenges so on my end I would love to give back to the sport that's given so much to me

08:16and I think the best way that I know how to is to really to pay it forward.

08:20If my students can eventually go on to represent Singapore, hey I've done my job yeah

Touch rugby scene in Singapore | My Tribe

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended