my current thoughts on the COVID-19 outbreak

It’s a tough time for everyone right now, not the least anyone working in sport and the whole fitness industry.

I make this post understanding the context of the situation being that these closures are going to play an essential role in how we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and will likely be what allows us to recover from this situation while saving the largest amount of lives that we can in this time period. However, I am also raising awareness as to how the people in this sector will be affected and thus show how important it is that we eat play our role in overcoming this virus.

Today’s closure of any “non-essential” businesses is going to leave the people who own and work in various high performance centres and gyms around Australia without work, income and an outlet to express their passion.

The owners of these high performance centres and gyms are left to figure out how they can make income in the meantime so that they do not lose the businesses which they have worked hard to build.

The ban on gatherings means that any and all team sports have shut down leaving everyone involved in those sports from coaches and officials to the operators of those various sports clubs without work.

Students like me are left trying to learn everything that would normally be done in practical and lab classes online in a way not naturally designed to teach those skills. We will also over this time will not get the opportunity to gain experience working in the field increasing our skills coaching and working with the athletes we are passionate to help improve.

This is all left to mention the people the people who train and play these sports will be left without a community to work with and will be left without the resources to put them in the best position to improve themselves.

HOWEVER

All of this being said, we can take this “break” from the usual to improve ourselves and the infrastructure around us.

These businesses can work to build systems online and remotely to be able to help individuals improve themselves even when they can’t make it to the physical location where they would normally train. This can include online classes and conference calls to help plan and program exercise to help more people overall know how to train to achieve their goals.

Student can work to learn as much as we can over this period so that once physical activity comes back we can put our new knowledge into practice.

People training to improve themselves can take this as an opportunity to work on their discipline and ability to get better while not so supported by those around them physically.

My point of making this post is to say that while this is going to be tough, for reasons much greater than what I explain in this post relating to the health of ourselves and those around us, we will get through this. If everyone follows the advice of Health organisations around the world and works to not spread this virus, we will recover quicker. If people work together so that everyone has the resources they require (rather than 12 people hoarding everything) then we will succeed to get through this comfortably. 

However we need to make sure that no one undermines the situation and works against us all getting through this.

When people say “it’s just the flu” or just go about their normal business even though they may be infected, they are putting people who may cope with the disease much less than themselves at risk. If and when a vaccine is developed for this virus, people should take it if possible. Following what government health organisations say is important especially considering they likely have people much smarter and more knowledgable than most of the general population working night and day to figure out how to best tackle this issue. Considering this it is important to listen to their advice.

I and those around me have never experienced anything so apocalyptic. Because of this it is important we don’t panic and rather take this one step at a time and do what we can to flatten the curve and save as many lives as possible. 

As for the sports and athletic development industry, let’s work together to support each other and make sure that we come out the other side of this better than we were going into it.

Those are my opinions on what is going on, let me know what you think using the comments.

Thanks for reading