By Moh Jin Yin (19A01A), Captain, Faith Chung (19S06R), Vice-Captain, Theng Xuan (19S03N), Quartermistress, Emyle Ng (19A01B), Secretary

Perhaps what best encapsulates the spirit of Raffles Touch is one of our coach’s favourite refrains, that you will catch the ball if you want it badly enough. She believes it’s all in the mind, and we on our end believe the same — and because we believe the same, we push ourselves to try our hardest at every training, every drill, every dive.

Our trainings take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 4.30pm to 6.30pm with additional conditioning sessions during season. Trainings focus on ball-passing skills, and learning different forms of attack and defence strategies, as well as general game tactics. All our trainings take place under the guidance of Coach Marli, known outside as the National Under 20s Women’s Coach, known in RI by others not in the CCA as the one who occasionally shouts ‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT A RUN IS??’, but known much more affectionately by us as the coach who cares very, very much about the team, but who also makes a loud TSK sound every week at our team name suggestions (some include Raffles Rubber Ducks, Raffles Raccoons, and Raffles Ruckus! but ok we’ll have a better one by the time u join. hopefully).

The Inter JC League is the most important competition for us (though there are multiple fringe ones and friendlies in between), and in the lead-up to it, and even before that honestly during normal trainings, things will get tough because Touch is a sport which requires a great deal of agility, speed, and stamina, and sessions do inevitably prove to be physically demanding.

If you’re feeling a little afraid at this point, don’t worry though: half of our members were not initially from sport CCAs, and Touch is a developmental sport so everyone enters new (and often confused!). We learn, grow, cry, laugh, and become together over the course of the roughly year and a half we have in this CCA, and perhaps it’s this shared navigation of often very unfamiliar waters (some of us enter without knowing that you don’t kick the ball in Touch, for example, unlike Rugby) that brings us much, much closer. And because this team is tight, we each play knowing that we have the wholehearted support of everyone else behind us, and we push ourselves knowing that it’s not just about the mindset of trying always to do your best, but even more importantly perhaps about honoring the trust your batchmates, more friends now, have placed in you.

Interested? We look forward to seeing you at Touch trials :-)  

Touch Rugby was a developmental sport, hence it represented an opportunity for me to try something new. Having been in the same CCA for the past 7 years, I wanted to try something different and having tried trug in PE before, I was keen to learn more. A simple interest in this sport quickly became a passion because of a committed team and a coach who really believes in us. Seeing the team learn and grow together is a truly heartwarming experience!  

– theng xuan

Even if you don’t like to run, trug is still for you! I’m someone who hates running (I would not even run in my free time) but because of the adrenaline of the sport, cuts from the grass and love from the team, I’m now in love and addicted to the sport. Joining touch is not just entering another sports CCA, but it is giving yourself a chance to push and learn more about yourself, to grow, to love and to be loved! Don’t worry if you’re not big (our team is mostly made up of super tiny and skinny girls), have no stamina, can’t catch a ball or can’t run fast enough, those are secondary and can be picked up! If you have the interest in this sport, then give yourself a chance to try it!

– faith chung

Remember the exhilaration you felt when you played ice and freeze when you were younger? Trug has given me the exact same feeling and more, constantly pushing me to my limits – getting me to throw the ball with my non-dominant hand, running and throwing the ball backwards. But it is precisely this counterintuitive element that made me fall in love with the sport. With the addition of a ball, I get to play ice and freeze at 17 with some of my favourite people every week and not get judged — what’s there not to love? :” come down for try outs and experience it for yourself !

– emyle