- Sports
- 20/11/2025
Sports Spotlight | Da Vinci’s favorite number is X
TU/e boasts a total of 38 student sports associations. And every one of them offers its own unique experience: from slamming aces to skimming across the water. At student sports center SSC, you get a wide range of options to choose from: gaming, jumping, running, cycling, rowing, flying, shooting, hanging, playing chess, surfing, punching and pushing. Cursor wants to put every one of these associations in the spotlight. The first question is: what is your favorite number?
Warming-up
The members of student archery association Da Vinci practice in their clubhouse with the unusual—but fitting—name Aan de meet, just north of the Hondsheuvels sports park. De meet refers to the line archers stand behind when shooting their arrows. The target face is called a blazoen. Many people know the “bull’s-eye” as the center of the target, with shrinking rings representing different scores. The maximum score for a single arrow is ten. But if your arrow lands in the smallest circle of the bull’s-eye, you’ve scored an X—worth even more in terms of bragging rights. That’s why X is Da Vinci’s favorite number.
Hasan Abobakr has been a member of Da Vinci since his beginner’s course in September 2024 and describes the club as “cozy, partly competitive, and above all safe.” Fortunately so.
Da Vinci members love to chat. “Sometimes only half of us are shooting while the other half is just hanging out.” Shooting itself is done safely, with clear rules. “We only retrieve arrows when everyone goes together, we don’t shoot if the door is open, you never walk across the field, and everyone is allowed to call someone out.” There’s no hierarchy in this regard. Even beginners can point out unsafe behavior to a trainer if needed. “You need to make sure you don’t startle anyone, and you can only draw your bow when you’re standing at the meet.”
In competitions, members compete against at least two opponents. Each person shoots thirty arrows in ten rounds, and the highest score wins. Da Vinci also awards personal medals. “If your average score is 7 per arrow—so 210 in total—you receive your first medal from a board member. For the second you need 240 points, and for the third you need 255.”
However exciting it may sound, Abobakr finds the sport calming above all else. “It’s a moment to completely clear my head. I’m only focused on the shot.”
Scores
- 20 years Da Vinci has existed
- 84 current members
- 18 meters is the standard indoor distance between the meet and the target
- 90 meters is the maximum outdoor shooting distance
- 97 training days last academic year
- 388 training hours on Mondays and Wednesdays
- 1 head coach: top athlete Emiel Custers, also a TU/e Built Environment alumnus
- 2 trainers-in-training
- 16 shooting lanes in “Aan de meet”
- 30 arrows in a standard competition
- 5 to 25 euros is the price of one arrow
- 11 committees, including the CakeCie (which bakes cakes) and the MatCie (which manages equipment)
- 4 disciplines: compound, recurve, barebow, and traditional
- 2 sister associations Da Vinci has: in Enschede and Wageningen
Analyses
Like all student sports associations, Da Vinci has its traditions. Every spring, Da Vinci organizes a “3D weekend.” Members go camping in the woods and shoot at foam animals. These can be deer, boars, rats, fish, or birds—but also dinosaurs.
A particularly unique tradition is the so-called “Sloopgala.” On the first Monday of the new calendar year, all members arrive at “Aan de meet” in formal attire and bring old junk. “We hang it on the target board and shoot it to pieces.” Unfortunately, the keyboard Abobakr brought was too solid to qualify, but CDs, stuffed animals, and even a chessboard are happily shot to bits.
Discussion