ON the afternoon that theSun met archery coach Jeffrey Kok and his team at BEST Archery Center (BAC) in Glo Damansara, Jeffrey was in the midst of a class with a scrawny girl in her early teens.
Focused and attentive, she followed the instructions and pointers from her coach to a tee.
We learned afterwards that she actually has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
It became quickly apparent that BAC’s students consisted largely of children and those over the age of retirement.
More surprisingly, these individuals often had – the past tense is crucial here – trouble coping with life, either due to certain disabilities that require special care.
The reason “had” is imperative here is due to how training under BAC has helped these students.
Developing students beyond archery
The capability of BAC, or more specifically Jeffrey’s ability, can be seen in the progress of Elle, the student we observed him training.
According to her father, Su Lit, Elle was enrolled at BAC almost a year ago as archery was recommended by their doctor as a way to help with her ADD.
On top of that, she had an upcoming school event at that time which included an archery competition, which Elle was eager to try.
“So, we enrolled her, with zero experience, and surprisingly, after (BAC), she got first place at the event after only three months or so of training, and there were archers there with more experience than her,” her father explained.
He also noted that thanks to archery, Elle’s focus and attention span has seen marked improvement that has helped in her studies.
Over in America, two of Jeffrey’s students, a married couple in their late 60s, are competing in state and national-level competitions.
Of the two, the “crown jewel” is Terry, who at 65 years of age was diagnosed with polymyositis, an inflammatory muscular disease that affects basic, daily movements.
After picking up archery in BAC’s first facility in Shenzhen, China, she continued her training, which progressively strengthened her and allowed her to compete at the level of younger archers in their prime.
It is worth noting that currently, BAC’s youngest student is four-and-a-half years old, while the oldest is 94 years old.
Focused on holistic enrichment
After Elle left, an even younger girl came for class. This time, the other older students – including Jeffrey’s sister, Julie – took her through BAC’s regimented warm-up as a group.
He explained: “All of them have different levels, but we put them together so that the new ones can watch what the older ones are doing and learn from them.
“Although [the training] does not apply to them yet, it accelerates the learning [process].”
Before establishing BAC around six years ago, Jeffrey was involved in engineering, and at the same time he was coaching since 2010.
Asked about why the complete switch to archery, he explained that he wanted something different.
“Archery was something that I had been doing, so I decided to pursue it professionally. After jumping into it, I really enjoyed it and it did really well,” he explained.
Jeffrey defined his success as coming not from his students winning in competitions, but from their holistic development.
“I would see students who have a lack of focus and a lack of motor skills, and then I saw them transform, improve and become confident. To me that’s the reward.
“Winning is not the goal. The goal is enjoying what they do and being able to execute the shot beautifully. It’s like dancing,” he said.
Though Jeffrey humbly says winning is not the goal, it’s hard to ignore the reality that those who become his students end up becoming winners, both figuratively and literally.
For more information, visit bestarcheryacademy.org.
