Ting Ting Tang Tang Tournament

written by 10311 Oh Seungri

On August 22, during the 8th period, Ting Ting Tang Tang (TTTT) held its first badminton tournament.

Members have been practicing since the first semester, and now it was time to show off their skills. 13 of the 21 members participated in the tournament.

TTTT is one of the school’s free, non-official school sports clubs. During the first semester, the members would meet on Wednesdays. Every Tuesday, starting in the second semester, members set up four nets in the gym and started playing badminton freely. The club consists of first-grade students, but they are not the only people who play badminton there.

Anyone interested in sports can join the class despite not being an official member, including second-grade students and even some teachers.

Fisrt-grade Chinese major Kim Minkyul, the leader of TTTT explained why he formed the club. Kim stated, “It’s mandatory to join at least two clubs in SAWL. I joined one academic club and one hobby club. Since I liked sports, I wanted to join something sport-related for the hobby club. But there was no sports hobby club, so instead, I decided to make a free club by myself.”

Badminton isn’t the only sport that is played. Occasionally, students play big volleyball or basketball.

Nothing about this club is rigorously structured. It is a club and place to play freely and relieve academic stress for all participants.

“TTTT is run very loosely,” Kim stated, “because I didn’t want to pressure the members in any way. If the club has strict rules, the members might feel stressed because they are already so busy. My foremost intention for this club was to form a friendly environment where students could release stress.”

This may be part of the reason why this club has a lot of members and a high participation rate despite not being an official club in SAWL.

The tournament on August 22 started not long after the 8th-period bell rang. 13 players were roughly split into groups of four to five. Within the group, each student picked which player they wanted to play against.

After the match was made, the tournament began. Whoever won was able to move up to the next round, and those who had lost the game already or weren't playing at the moment became judges.

After several rounds, the final round was held. The two finalists were first graders. English major Im Jeongbin and Chinese major Park Taemin made the game suspenseful and exciting. The badminton shuttle went back and forth between the two players. Each player did his best, but in the end, Park became the winner.

Park commented on his win, “The game was long, but I’m glad I won in the end.”

Park expressed that he enjoys being in this club since he believes it to be a breaktime from all the self-study sessions at school.

Park said, “I think it is great that I get break times like these at least once every week. And another thing is that TTTT’s atmosphere is very free and friendly.”

The other members of the club agreed with this as well.

First-grade Russian major Ko Hyun said that the best thing about TTTT is that it helps with stamina.

Ko said, “The thing about badminton is that you don’t know where the ball is going to land, so you always have to be running around. It is important to have a lot of stamina to study, and I think playing badminton here helps me with that. Besides that, I like that I get to find new friends to talk with.”

Not only that, TTTT fills out the lack of P.E. classes in SAWL.

“There is only one P.E. class a week in this school. TTTT is a good alternative for that. It is great that TTTT ends around dinner time because I am always hungry for dinner this way. But above all, I would say making new friends here is the best part of TTTT.” first-grade Chinese major Kim Chanmin explained.

Thanks to this tournament, Ting Ting Tang Tang has become more fun and exciting than before. TTTT has more plans for the future.

It plans to hold more competitions in the future, with different sports.

Anyone is welcome to drop by and join the game. You could be the next winner of the TTTT tournament.