10 Memories of TAF Club That Kids Nowadays Won’t Understand

Last Updated on 2023-03-18 , 3:59 pm

For all the chubby kids back in the 90s, you’ll definitely have joined the TAF club back when you’re in primary school or secondary school, right?

Ever since 2007, the TAF club scheme is discontinued, lucky them, and most kids today probably don’t know what’s that anymore. If you’re in TAF club, you’ll definitely remember these 9 painful memories of TAF Club that only TAF Club members would understand.

TAF Club is just F-A-T spelt backwards
Yes, we know it was called the Trim and Fit club, but kids back then don’t understand the meaning of acronyms. To them, TAF club isn’t Trim-and-Fit, it’s the FAT club. Thank you, classmates, for laughing at me because I’m in the fat club.

Recess time isn’t our happiest moment
Ask any primary school or secondary school kid and they’ll tell you that recess is their favourite period of the entire school day, second only to when school lets out. Well, for TAF club members, we hate recess because it means we got to go run or do other exercises while our friends go to the canteen to eat, play catching outside or just chill with friends.

Going to school early is pretty much the norm
This might not be true for all TAF clubs, but some schools’ TAF clubs make their members exercise early in the morning before morning assembly. While your friends are still at home getting ready to go to school, you’re already there huffing and puffing as you run along the canal.

You don’t get to eat during recess
Hey, to us fat kids, the ultimate torture is probably not allowing us to eat when we want to. TAF club sets impossible standards for their kids to reach, and by the time you’re done with what you’re supposed to do, be it running or skipping, the school bell has already rang and you’ve got to go back to class.

It’s compulsory, not optional
We would love to be given the choice of attending sessions, but we’re not. And unlike CCAs where you can skip out without many consequences (depending on the CCA you join), TAF club teachers, usually the gung-ho PE teacher, enforce attendance so strictly that you won’t dare to miss a single session, or you’ll be called out during assembly.

Being called out in morning assembly
You think being called out for smoking or stealing is embarrassing? Wait till you try being called out because you’re fat and too lazy to exercise. Now that’s embarrassing.

You’ll be known as the kid who stinks
Hey, you try exercising in the morning before you go to class, and exercising again during recess again before you go to class again and tell me you won’t stink with all that sweat? Yeah, too bad kids don’t think all that much about it, huh?

When PE and TAF club comes together
Now instead of exercising twice a day, you’ll have another period of PE class to get through. At least we’re able to console ourselves with the fact that the rest of the class stink together with us for that day, not that it helps our screaming muscles out, of course.

You’ll never get out
If you enter the TAF club, you’re likely to stay for life. In fact, if you’ve ever gone to Maju FCC for RT, you’ll find that the atmosphere is similar. Everyone isn’t motivated to work hard because there’s no way they’ll achieve the objective of the program anyway. And last but not least, while this isn’t really a memory from TAF club, it’s something that only people who’ve joined the TAF club would know.

You’re forever known as the kid in TAF club
That’s right, even when you go back to school for Teacher’s Day, that PE teacher will greet you with a, “Hey, TAF club right, why are you still so fat?!” Even if you’ve slimmed down by 5kg, they won’t notice the difference unless you got 6 pecs and all that. #TrueStory

When you go for RT as a NSman, it reminds you of TAF Club again
For the uninitiated, RT (Remedial Training) is for NSmen (people who have completed their NS) who has failed their annual physical test. They are supposed to complete 20 sessions of physical training after office hours in a year, and let’s just say that each session is relatively demanding (lots and lots and lots of running).

It’s like TAF Club, actually. Just for older people.