Martial arts returns to action
The owners of the dojos also have to sanitise their premises after every class.
After four months of not being able to train there will be many people in martial arts raring to go.Karate and mixed martial arts clubs have been given the green light to start training again after they were closed since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trainers will have to follow strict rules at their clubs.
The karatekas will have to follow the laws of social distancing as they are not allowed within two metres of each other.
This will also mean that sparring is prohibited.
The owners of the dojos also have to sanitise their premises after every class.
“Karate South Africa (KSA) sent us a letter last week to let us know,” said Chris Anthony, who runs the Dan Triangle Club.
“We’ve already passed the special Covid-19 test and have been approved to open. While I will be training some black and brown belt students on Saturday in the park, I will only fully open in August when it will be a bit warmer.”
In the meantime Anthony and his son Christopher are teaching classes on Zoom.
For Dennis Pandaram of Dennis Pandaram Martial Arts Academy classes have already started.
Instead of having a class of 15 students he has decided to split it up into three classes to allow social distancing.
“Because I own my premises I have more control so it is easier for me to start,” said Pandaram.
“I don’t think shutting down the classes was the right move by government.”
Exercise is important to strengthen the immune system in the fight against Covid.
“Government was unfair in that regard.”
The last four months have been hard on the trainers as not being able to run classes means that there was no income coming in.
Raymond Phillips of Xtreme Kickboxing Technologies (XKT) only received the announcement on Tuesday and he did not want to get carried away just yet.
“I want to make sure everything is in order first,” he said.
“I don’t want to jump the gun. I don’t want to tell people that they can start training only to have to go back to them to change. Things can change very quickly as we have seen.”
The clubs opening might not necessarily mean that things are going back to normal.
While the trainers are aware of the safety measures they need to take, there may be some people who will be worried about going to martial arts classes.
A big number of karate students are children and some parents may be concerned about the safety aspect.
This is something both Pandaram and Anthony acknowledged.
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