After many months of being limited to running around our backyards or keeping active with fitness in our living rooms, we’re excited to be returning to school sports after a pause from COVID-19!
Sports and physical activity has such a positive influence on children’s confidence, competence and motivation which is why we’re looking forward to bringing players together for another inter-school sporting competition!
To make sure you and your family stop the spread of coronavirus and stay healthy this sporting season, we’ve put together a guideline below for COVID safe fitness as recommended by the Queensland government.
General Hygiene
Whether you’re a coach, parent or player, you should be washing your hands thoroughly and often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds to prevent passing on germs.
If hand washing facilities are unavailable, facility coordinators should be placing alcohol-based hand sanitiser at the entry and exit of sporting venues and training equipment.
Physical Distancing
With the recommendation of at least 1.5m social distancing, we encourage the separation of spectators from athletes and marking of spaces between players on the sideline or bench. We see this as a great opportunity for smaller group training and use of downtime during games and training for individual skill building work or conditioning.
If schools have player mascots, they’ll need to walk out separately from the players while we also encourage verbalising cheers and celebrations instead of high fives, fist bumps or hugs.
If your situation permits, limit the use of carpooling with friends and instead ride to events, games and training with people living in your household bubble.
Environmental Cleaning & Sharing Equipment
To control the spread of germs, we’d prefer limited sharing of sporting gear, food, drinks, towels and clothing. If possible, we encourage all players and coaches to bring their own equipment such as gloves, balls and helmets while it’d be great for spectators to bring their own seating.
We’ll be frequently cleaning and disinfecting shared play and sports equipment and appointing a staff member or parent volunteer to ensure proper cleaning.
We also recommended keeping players belongings separated from others and individually labeling containers or bags.
You can read more about COVID safe plans for sports, recreation and fitness here. If you have concerns about hygiene protocols or handling of sporting equipment upon return of training or games, please reach out to your school to learn more about their policies and plans as restrictions continue to change.