Category: safety

Buckeye’s reopening after COVID-19

David Holcomb has been planning how to safely reopen Buckeye Gymnastics (Gabby’s former gym) — and the plan has evolved over time based on government recommendations in Ohio.

The club hopes to start opening mid-May or shortly after.

Only one parent or non-participating individual will be allowed to enter the building with their child.

Parents and staff are required to wear masks as per Buckeye Gymnastics policy. Gymnasts are not required to wear masks but are welcome to do so.

Webcam viewing will allow parents to watch from home, at work or in their cars.

The number of children in class will be reduced: school-age classes will be 6:1 max and pre-school 4:1 max. Buckeye will not offer classes for preschoolers age 4 and younger for now.

No Open Gym or Birthday Parties for the foreseeable future.

No hands-on spotting for at least the first month. We will then reevaluate.

We will stagger class start and end times to insure time for the students to get in and out of the gym safely, to provide time to wipe down the equipment between each class and for teachers to thoroughly wash their hands.

There will be touchless temperature checks for all staff members.

The communal drinking fountains will be closed. We plan to remove them and replace them with sinks to provide more opportunities for washing hands.

Open David’s April 28th letter to Staff and Families for details. (Word doc)

Thanks for sharing this, Dave. 

If your club needs help with reopening, I’d recommend consultant Frank Sahlein and his company 3rd Level Consulting.

For example, your revised release form will need a new paragraph talking about the risk of contracting a virus or other disease while at the Gym.

Maggie Haney suspended 8 years

Former U.S. Olympic and national team coach Maggie Haney was suspended by USA Gymnastics on Wednesday for eight years for verbal and emotional abuse …

The suspension comes nearly four years after Hernandez first filed a complaint against Haney with a top USA Gymnastics official (Rhonda Faehn) …

Haney is expected to appeal the decision. …

Hernandez and McCusker joined at least a half-dozen families in filing complaints against Haney with USA Gymnastics. …

Click through for details.

related – Assistant coach Victoria Levine is on interim suspension and is currently under investigation.

Gymnastics training in Sweden during COVID-19

Sweden has, unlike many other countries, not imposed any lockdown, with most measures being voluntary. …

Most schools and Universities are closed, but not Primary schools.

The Swedish government has tried to focus efforts on encouraging the right behaviour and creating social norms rather than mandatory restrictions. And voluntary has worked in many cases.

Most public sports competitions were postponed, but Gymnastics Clubs could continue training if they wished.

One Gym decided to close for 10 days to get organized. Then reopen only for competitive WAG and TeamGym.  (Each Gym made their own decision. Some decided to close voluntarily.)

Anton @GymSwedeAnto:

On the WAG side, we have a pretty strict hygiene regimen the gymnasts and coaches all follow. We’ve begun washing our hands like it is our religion:

-When we come into the training hall
-Before line-up at the start of training
-After warm-up
-After each rotation (sometimes 3 or 4 apparatus)
-After break
-After stretch before going home

We also have rotating shifts amongst the coaching and office staff cleaning the gym for three hours every weekday. This includes sanitizing mats after each use in training and during the cleaning shift, mopping floors, and using disinfectant wipes to clean non-pourous training surfaces.

The gymnasts often help out with disinfecting the mats they used during training.

We’ve also taken to using the plastic sides of our mats instead of the soft sides, as well as laying panel mats over our closed-foam pits to diminish the chance of infection transmission on surfaces that are not easily disinfected.

As seen in the photo, we have marked out 2 meter distances on our floor and all over our training hall …

We’ve also set up five chalk stations at bars to keep distance there as well. …

As far as actual gymnastics, the girls are training skills they are comfortable with, a lot of drills and progressions, and a lot of basics.

Coaches have been asked not to spot gymnasts until we get clearance from an assortment of government authorities allowing us to do so. It absolutely does make things interesting; not being able to spot the gymnasts and keep them that extra level of safe.

One of my biggest challenges right now is keeping up motivation. With no competitions or training camps for the foreseeable future and no timeline for them to return, the gymnasts sometimes wonder what they are training for. It isn’t easy, but we are making it work …

We’ve had zero transmissions or infection …

Leave a comment if you have any questions for Anton.

Update – Another Swedish club closed for 14 days.

Reopened with one class at a time, no parents allowed inside the building (1 parent allowed if the child is younger than 5).

  • First 5 minutes is to wash hands, etc.
  • Cleaning between sessions.
  • No hugs, high fives or spotting.
  • No food in the building.

 

Al Fong spotting gloves

On reopening your Gym after COVID-19, consider using gloves for spotting. Of course you’d need to clean those regularly.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

Al sells his own version of those for $25.

 

Coaching clinic for COVID19 Food Banks

Free online. LIVE this Saturday, May 2nd streaming from SHIFT’s YouTube and Facebook Page.

Fund-raising by donation.

  • 10:30am – 12:00pm ET – Dave Tilley – Intro, Fundraising Details, and Strength and Conditioning
  • 12:00pm – 1:00pm – Dr. Josh Eldridge – Fueling For Performance: What Coaches and Gymnasts Need To Know About Nutrition
  • 1:00pm – 2:00pm – Nick Ruddock – Essential Techniques for Yurchenko Vaulting
  • 2:00pm – 3:00pm – Tom Meadows – Essential Techniques for Men’s High Bar Dismounts
  • 3:00pm – 4:00pm – Dr. Ali Arnold – Come Back Stronger: Mental Toughness Techniques for Coaches and Gymnasts
  • 4:00pm – 5:00pm – Jordyn Wieber, Chris Brooks – Developing Healthy and High Performing Cultures
  • 5:00pm – 6:00pm – Jessica O’Beirne, Spencer Barnes, Kensley Behel – GymCastic Podcast Episode
  • 6:00pm – 7:00pm – Colin Van Wicklen – Live Q&A Session
  • 7:00pm – 8:00pm – Madison Kocian, Kyla Ross, Val Kondos Field – Live Q&A Session

After the event, you’ll be able to watch any of the presenters on the SHIFT Movement Science YouTube channel.

TIPS for opening Gyms during COVID-19

A round table hosted by John Min, USECA Video Chairman.

A NEW challenge for each Club. This is a brainstorming session.

The BIG recommendation is not to rush. Come back slowly and safely. We have a new, unexpected meso-cycle in our training year which precedes another Preparation Phase. Slow return to the Gym after weeks of lockout.

Steve Arkell:

  • Inviting back Competitive first, staggering training times
  • Check for temperature of athletes on arrival (this is not foolproof)
  • About 4 people / 1000 sq feet
  • Kids in each rotation group will stay as far apart as possible. Apparatus groups will switch at the same time, in order to keep distance.
  • Take this COVID-19 opportunity for super keen gymnasts to find a better life / gymnastics balance.
  • When skills are eventually introduced, use tumbling trampolines, pits, soft surfaces. Don’t rush.
  • Coaches will wear masks.
  • Coaches will be tested just before coming back to the Gym.
  • Coaches and gymnasts should be challenged to progress with LESS spotting, even on Bars. Slide mats rather than hand spot. (Spotting belts might make a return to popularity.)
  • Adding new RECORDS bulletin board for fitness tests. This will be the focus at first, not skills.

Craig Zappa:

  • Anything you did not like about your old program, should be banished now. This is a great opportunity to reinvent your program. A fresh start.
  • High priority is to STOP the keenest athletes from overdoing it on getting back to the Gym. Injury is a worry after weeks out.
  • Advise athletes that anticipated J.O. move ups are on hold, for now
  • This ‘forced rest’ is an opportunity to fully heal old injuries
  • Watch themselves on video (Mental Training)
  • Reassuring the parents will be a high priority.
  • His club uses a ‘fogging machine’ to disinfect. It takes 10 minutes. He’ll do it 2-3 times / day.
  • Might delay the calendar of competitions for the 2021 season. Don’t rush.
  • Assign one gymnast / Beam for all of each rotation
  • Craig would like to have clear masks for coaches.
  • Craig will allow very few parents into the Gym. Other clubs will simply ask parents not to enter the Gym.

Mary Wright:

  • Time to focus on cooperation. Coaches and athletes working together to get back to peak training form.
  • Be smart. Rebuild confidence progressively
  • Conditioning first after a few weeks away
  • General strength before specific
  • Flexibility improvement phase
  • Aerobic base
  • Work ‘shapes‘ before movements
  • Time at home is a chance for gymnasts to make Dream Boards and set goals / objectives
  • Training would progressively advance to BASICS without rush. Up to 2 hours / day to start.
  • If this limited training goes on for months, planned goals for 2021 will have to be modified.

Olivia Estes:

  • Has been working on personal development of athletes while at home. Generosity. Team supporting one another.
  • Has been using a combination of big group Zoom meetings. Smaller meetings in private Facebook groups.
  • To start … will likely only allow top 12 athletes to use the pit
  • Equipment will be cleaned ongoing during workout
  • Coaches only work with ONE group of kids. If anyone tests positive, those coaches and kids will be out of the Gym.
  • Plans on minimum spotting. Only the very top gymnasts will be spotted. And not for the first 8 weeks or so after return.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

disinfecting the Gym with a FOGGER

UPDATE – After posting this I stopped by our local cleaning supply store to ask the experts there what they thought about disinfecting sports facilities. 

They told me foggers were expensive. And would, instead, recommend frequent physical wipe-downs of high use areas and places where people reach with their hands. 

____ original post:

For years Craig Zappa has been using a fogger to disinfect the Gym. He plans to do so even more often on reopening ENA Paramus in New Jersey, a State hard hit by COVID-19.

Craig uses QD64 Surface Sanitizer and Deodorizer with a fogger like this …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Those products are not available right now. And there’s no telling how long it will take for the supply chain to catch up.

Delta Airlines does something like this on their planes.

 

South Korean National Team starts again May 11th

South Korea has done a fantastic job managing COVID-19 after a terrible start.

Gymnasts were asked to leave the National Training Centre March 27th.

According to the KSOC, about 360 athletes and coaches in nine sports, including gymnastics, table tennis, boxing, fencing and badminton, will report back during the week of May 11.

“We’ll try to minimize contact among athletes in different sports in order to prevent infection within the training center,” a KSOC official said. “They’ll only be allowed to spend time in their training facilities and residence.”

S. Korean athletes to be tested for coronavirus before returning to training center

 

IDEAS on reopening Gymnastics Clubs

If and when you can reopen, it would be best to start with Competitive.

Phase in other groups over time.

One club plans to use a Wall-Mounted Infrared Forehead Thermometer Non-Contact Digital Temperature Thermometer with Fever Alarm to allow entry.

That’s not foolproof, of course. Some positives don’t have fever.

Chalk Bucket forum is compiling suggestions.

Here are a few:

  • Initial opening with small groups of 10 or less
  • Following social distancing guidelines (6+ feet) with stations / drills
  • Wiping down equipment after each use
  • Masks (entering and exiting the Gym)
  • Hand sanitizing before each event
  • Starting up with basics and conditioning so there will be no need to spot
  • Each athlete will have their own chalk block kept in a Ziploc bag
  • Each athlete will have their own spray bottle for water
  • Cameras with login for parents to watch from outside the facility
  • Stagger workout times
  • Stagger break times (or if practice short enough no break to limit congregating)
  • One way traffic as much as possible
  • Nightly equipment cleaning of high touch surfaces such as tables, chairs, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, sinks with EPA registered household disinfectant per CDC guidance
Wearing masks to prevent the H1N1 influenza virus at the venue of the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships in Japan September 11, 2009.

Jamie Dantzscher interview

One of GymCastic’s best yet. 

Jamie Dantzscher was a 2000 Olympic medalist, at the end of the darkest era of USA Gymnastics in my opinion.

She went on to a fantastic career at UCLA. One of the greats of all time. She led UCLA to 3 NCAA Championships in four years.

But we know Jamie best as one of the most vocal critics of the Karoli years. And her February 2017 60 Minutes interview alongside  Jeanette Antolin and Jessica Howard accusing the USAG criminal doctor.

What makes this interview so winning is Jamie’s blunt honesty. Down to earth. Saying what she thinks.

I was totally won over. Let’s all wish Jamie Dantzscher well.

You can listen online or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

IT’S JAMIE DANTZSCHER YOU GUYS