Back in the Club: Sports and Fitness Reopen Tomorrow

LOCAL gyms and sports clubs are set to reopen tomorrow, allowing 10 people per class and 100 people at an outdoor venue.

The NSW Government made the announcement to reopen fitness clubs earlier in June, with Health Minister Brad Hazzard stating that COVID-19 safety plans for each activity or sport are critical in enabling the re-start.

“Sport and businesses will need to do things a little differently than in pre-COVID-19 times and following their safety plan is key to keeping people safe,” said Minister Hazzard.

Chris Comerford who owns Crossfitt2337 said tomorrow will be “almost like a reopening”.

“We only started in November last year so it’s almost like a reopening for us but we are lucky because we have two rooms, so we can split the members that way and have 10 people in each room or people can use the rooms by themselves in the spare time outside the classes,” said Chris.

“We’re currently offering a 1 week free trial for anyone who wants to sign up to a class or stick their head in and see what we’re about,” he said.

During restrictions, Crossfit2337 offered online classes through zoom and allowed members to borrow gym equipment to help maintain their fitness at home.

“We gave out equipment for people to continue training at home with us, things like rowers, bikes, dumbells and barbells,” said Chris.

“We were extremely lucky to have trainers and members who supported us through the restrictions, people who are committed to health and fitness,” he said.

Junior sporting teams have also been given the green light to begin training again with contact training allowed from the 1st of July.

Healthy Minister Brad Hazzard said the extra month gives sporting groups and local governments “time to work through all the new changes”.

Bob Davidson President of the Junior Rugby Union Club said the club was very excited when the government announced that junior sport could go back.

“We had a meeting and decided to get the kids back into it as soon as possible so we had them back at training the following Friday,” said Bob.

“I was really worried when they were talking about no scrums to get us back…we’ve had to be fairly inventive in the skills were doing at training to make it sort of game based without contact and not just a boring fitness session,” he said

“It’s been a challenge keeping them interested, but in the interest of not causing any harm to children we need to train them properly regarding contact before competing in games,” he said.

Despite the new no-contact training methods, Bob said the juniors are just happy to be outside enjoying the fresh air again and welcomed any new players who may be interested in joining the club.

“Were very excited to be able to give the children an outlet through sport again and we’ve got a lot of keen boys and girls who are very happy to be back out at that park again kicking a rugby ball,” said Bob.

“Anyone who wants to, is more than welcome to come down and see if their children may be interested and we can talk about registration down at training or over the phone, it’s very easy,” he said.

People looking to start sport again can visit the Scone Sports Store which is now open for full-time hours.

Adam Brooks owner of the Sports Store said business is starting to pick up again now that sports clubs are back in action.

“The day they cancelled contact sports we had $10,000 worth of boots and headgear come in and they’ve only just started going, so hopefully well start moving some of that stock,” said Adam.

Boots are well and truly in stock at Scone Sports Store.

“I think people are looking forward to having a bit of contact and a few tackles again because social distancing has made people a bit frustrated and they just want to play sport,” he said.

“We’ve been open the whole time but this is the first week were open again from 9-5 Monday to Friday and 9-12 on Saturday so we just want people to start coming back and put money into the community so we can put money back into the sports teams,” he said.

Contact scone.com.au to get the word out about your sporting club.