By Danielle Tam (Girls Captain), Jeremy Ling (Boys Captain), Lim Wan Ling (Vice-Captain)
When you think of bowling, you probably think of laughing with friends and family while chucking the ball down the lane, enjoying the cool air conditioning and hoping the ball doesn’t tumble into the gutter. However, this only scratches the tip of the iceberg of what we do in Tenpin Bowling.
What are training sessions like?
Training sessions are held at either Orchid Country Club or Temasek Club and take place three times a week: Mondays (5-7pm), Wednesdays (4-6pm) and Fridays (6-8pm), depending on our team’s schedules. Transport is provided to and from the bowling alley.
During training, we warm-up and proceed to practising drills, which help to target and develop different parts of our physical game in order to develop our skills. Sometimes, we will play friendly games which aim to foster camaraderie among the team and allow us to put the various skills that we have learnt into practice.
Other times, we might have small intra-team competitions to simulate competition conditions, which helps the team to get accustomed to the NSG environment. In order to encourage each other, prizes may even be awarded to those who do well, as well as those who demonstrate good improvement!
What do you gain from joining?
Bowling trains both your physical and mental resilience, and challenges you to analyse the different lane oilings and adapt based on the conditions. The lanes are oiled with varying thickness and length, and there are different bowling balls that react to these oilings in a specific way.
With many different factors that go into a single shot, it requires you to put your knowledge and skills to the test. In training, you will learn how to adapt to the changing conditions by adjusting techniques like standing position, target area, release, etc.
Not only that, you can meet new friends within a close, tight-knit community! We help one another both during and outside of CCA, learning skills from each other and applying them during training. The team is a family that you can rely on and every training session promises to be an enjoyable learning experience for all.
Some things you can look forward to!
The biggest event of the year would be the National School Games (NSG), which is usually held in the April-May period. Typically, there are 3 events – Singles, Doubles, and Team (consisting of 4 bowlers per team). The scores from the events across three days will be tallied to determine your final placing. There is also an overall school category, in which the placings of each school’s players on the whole are compared.
The 3 days of NSG are guaranteed to be filled with excitement and fun. It isn’t often that you get to bowl in competitions with your teammates, let alone experience bowling for the school. The opportunity to bowl while having fun with your friends is truly an unparalleled one.
For team bonding sessions, we plan to have monthly outings and meetups. Past bonding sessions have included going to the beach, team dinners in school, and playing pool togetherl. We also have an annual March holiday camp that is meant to encourage inter-batch bonding and induct new members into our CCA. You can expect fun games and interesting icebreakers.
Join Us!
If you’re interested in being part of a close-knit family bonded by our common love for bowling, and would also like to further your bowling skills, you should definitely give Tenpin Bowling a shot! No prior experience is needed—we welcome everyone. See you at trials!