Last night saw Warwick & Leamington TKD club back inside Everyones Active Warwick site, St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre.
After 2 months of conducting training sessions out in the park twice a week we returned to the leisure centres main sports hall delivering 2 classes. This is ideal timing as the club has a promotion grading test scheduled for the beginning of June so will allow a quality practice environment for the students.
Thursday nights are still being conducted out in the park however this gives the students a fantastic opportunity to practice their skills in a realistic environment wearing clothes and trainers on as they would be if they had to deal with a physical situation for real.
With the C-19 restrictions coming to an end and our ability to deliver face to face classes we have started a new beginners class. This consists of an adult class and a junior class delivering tailored progressive learning for all age groups and enabling parents and children to train at the same time.
This beginners class intake will come to an end next Tuesday as the last few places are taken with a waiting list put in place for when we are ready to take on the next intake of beginners in 2 months time.
We believe in delivering the best quality training. Producing progressive growth and development, enabling our members to learn an important life skill, to be able to defend themselves, which in turn improves self-confidence and self-esteem in a fun friendly, vibrant environment.
With the C-19 landscape changing in a positive way we are very excited to be able to start up face to face classes from the 30th March ensuring safe social distancing.
These classes will be delivered in St Nicholas Park, Warwick behind the Astro turf pitches as we did last summer. Our classes are a great mix of adults and children training in the same class enabling families to train together at the same time.
Self-defence is at the heart of what we deliver. This is the ultimate goal, to give every member of the club a better chance of defending themselves if they are unfortunate enough to get into a physical confrontation. We deliver a syllabus that helps each student to prepare themselves for this.
I have been reading a number of articles today looking for one to post on new year resolutions, however most of them have been a bit poor or annoying. A number of them suggesting that this is a bad thing, that it is negative, setting yourself up to fail!!! I disagree with this and here’s why.
Some sources are saying why make a new year’s resolution, it’s just the start of another year, just another day, you can make these changes any day of the year, why put this pressure on yourself, by doing this and failing it will have a negative effect on your mental state!!! It’s right you can do this any time, any day of the year but the new year is an excellent time after the Christmas excesses, it’s a natural start point and if you do it right and for the right reasons you won’t fail!!!
Why is a resolution to be better or do better bad?! It’s obviously not, trying to better ourselves and improve our life choices has got to be a good thing, it’s just how you go about it and why you want to do it.
During the summer months with the leisure centre closed we were fortunate to be able to continue delivering training outdoors in St Nicholas Park which was great to be in the fresh air. However now the nights are drawing in and the weather is turning we needed to get back indoors.
Everyone Active were able to give us back our old Tuesday times in the Leisure Centre however not our Thursday or Friday slots as they were using the sports hall to deliver their own classes. The challenge we have, as many other sports and activities have, is finding a training venue with enough room to allow appropriate distancing during the class.
As we continue to deliver classes outside in St Nicholas Park in Warwick, enjoying the summer weather and the added safety benefits of open air training and the ability to distance, we are also busy planning forward.
The summer won’t be with us much longer and with the government allowing leisure centres to open their doors again we have been preparing diligently for our return back in doors to our normal training halls in St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre in September.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a deviating effect on our club and our ability to deliver classes. However we didn’t just close down and batten down the hatches we realised that we needed to keep supporting our students as best as we could and come up with a plan to do this until we could return to normal. Over the lockdown we came up with the plan of delivering video classes and lesson plans that students can follow at their leisure and free Zoom 121 personal training sessions after surveying the members as to what was the best options for them. A few weeks ago the Government advice allowed us to undertake 121 personal training face to face outside in a park which many students jumped on straight away.
With the updated Government guidelines last week we are now allowed to deliver small group training classes with one instructor to five students as long as we are outside and social distancing measures are adhered to. Excitingly this week saw Warwick & Leamington TKD club back training face to face for the first time in nearly 4 months following the Government guidelines keeping our instructors, students and the wider public safe and well. However, we are also continuing with support our students delivering the video lesson plans and Zoom 121 personal training sessions free of charge for those that continue to need them due to the need to continue with social distancing and isolation.
Due to the fire damage at St Nicholas Park Leisure Centre we have been forced to move our Tuesday and Friday classes to Warwick School sports hall on the Myron Road. Once the St Nics hall is fixed we will move back there but I’m afraid this doesn’t look like it will haven for a few weeks.
Thank you to Warwick School for stepping up and enabling our training to continue.
The Thursday night class is still on at the usual location Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre.
Saturday night saw the Warwick & Leamington TKD club Instructor team say goodbye over a curry and a pint of Guiness to Mr Brian Feely who has been an instructor at the club for over 9 years as he heads back to Ireland to complete his MBA.
Brian will be missed, his enthusiasm and unrivalled energy and personality will be hard to replace as will his support, technical abilities and council.
Good luck Brian, come visit us whenever you're back in town, you've always got a second family here.
A great day spreading the Warwick & Leamington TKD word along with Paragon Personal Training at TATA European Innovation & Development HQ in Leamington Spa.
A number of different health, fitness and wellbeing companies were invited in to talk to their employees over the lunch time period to assist on getting employees more active. Some great conversations had and hopefully some new members to come from it.
Thank you to Martin Durrant Vice President, EU ER&D & Operations, for inviting us in.
