We hope that you and your families well and as sane as can be after all the weeks of lockdown. We know that there are many NHS and key workers amongst our membership base, and we’d like to thank you all for the work and sacrifices that you and your families have made over the last few months.
As the government begins relaxing the lockdown rules, we’re looking forwards and making plans for when we’ll be able to reopen and start offering some classes. Currently it looks as if gyms, clubs and community sports will only be able to start reopening from the 4th July at the earliest and that the reopening will be accompanied by some restrictions and the need to incorporate safe social distancing rules etc.
We anticipate that non-contact, outdoor group exercise will be allowed ahead of this date, and we are working on plans with the various instructors, to see to what extent we can offer outdoor group sessions. Clearly this will suit some of our martial arts classes more than others, but we’re hoping we can at least have a few outdoor classes up and running for anyone interested.
It goes without saying that these are very strange and trying times for everyone and is certainly not a scenario that we, as a dojo could plan for. The pandemic has affected many of the plans our martial artists had for 2020. Many gradings and competitions have been cancelled or postponed, including larger events such as the WSAF European Championships in Romania for our aikidoka and the WUKF European Championships in Italy for our karateka. We know that many of our martial artists young and old, had been looking forward to many of these events and had been working hard to participate in them, and that it has been difficult dealing with disappointment and uncertainty.
That’s why we’re working hard to ensure that the dojo can reopen in some capacity as soon as possible and that it is a safe place to train when we reopen.
As soon as we have more information and guidance on reopening, we will send round more certain plans for a phased reopening.
On behalf of all the directors and coaches, thank you to all our members that have continued to support the dojo through these unprecedented times. We’re all thoroughly looking forward to being able to see you all again soon.
If you're new to Ichiban and would like to keep up to date about when we might be reopening again, please contact us through the Contact Us page and we'll add you to our mailing list. Alternatively, follow us via our social media channels to keep up to date with all the latest happenings.
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Please keep safe and healthy,
Kind Regards,
Bob Jones