This time 12 months ago, our club was facing the realisation that our sport would likely be put on hold for the foreseeable future. The situation with the pandemic was concerning for everyone, whether from a personal health or livelihood perspective. For many of us, playing touch together had been a way to socialise, keep fit and relieve some of the stress of everyday life. With the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, supporting our members’ mental health became even more of a priority.
It has been so encouraging to see that despite the restrictions, we have found so many ways to stay connected as a club, as well as keeping fit and giving something back to our community in these difficult times.
In the beginning of lockdown, we made the most of the improving weather and came up with a number of activities that could be done individually or virtually!
Some of our lockdown activities included:
Team challenges: We challenged our members with a number of fun activities, including push up challenges, passing accuracy (which involved some creativity in coming up with targets!) and confirmed just how competitive our members are.
Zoom quizzes: If you didn’t do a zoom quiz, was it even a lockdown?? We held a number of fun quizzes which included some great touch related rounds – awkwardly revealing which of our players still don’t really know the rules!
Virtual HIIT: Every Tuesday, one of our enthusiastic coaches, Jen, hosts virtual HIIT sessions, giving us a great opportunity to keep up our fitness up and catch up as a club! Which Jen are you today?
Watch parties: Another lockdown 2020 classic. We held a number of watch parties to enjoy some touch games together when we would otherwise have been playing. We’ve continued these and it has been a great way to learn more about the sport even when we’re not able to get out and practice. We’ve also held watch parties for the Six Nations matches which would have been a regular social for us in pre-pandemic times.
Charity: As well as social events, the members of our club have always been passionate about giving back to local causes. In 2020, we raised money and collected food donations for Refuweegee, a great Glasgow charity working hard throughout the pandemic to support refugees. With our amazing members, we were able to donate just over £400!
While the future of restrictions is never certain, we are looking forward to whatever level of activity we can do together as a club, and hope that we might be able to get back to playing at some point!