Dear Members
As we are now in the middle of week 6 of our Return to Training, we thought it time to update members on where we are currently.
While huge strides have been made in getting numbers of athletes back on the track and to training sessions, we remain restricted in what we can do by ever-changing guidance and regulations from Government, National Governing Body and Stadium Management.
After a slow and careful start, our approach has been acknowledged by the Stadium as being in line with their COVID Secure Environment approach and this has allowed us to increase both numbers and disciplines allowed at the track.
As a result, we now have groups training on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays both at the track and off-site. All have been fully risk assessed and comply with all current guidance. We would like to reassure you, the health and safety of our members remain paramount and our planning and procedures are being constantly reviewed to ensure they remain best practice.
However, we are still a long way off training as normal as many of you will be all too aware of your experiences to date. So we ask your patience and understanding continues.
Training nights and training groups continue to evolve and are likely to remain an ever-changing picture for some time to come.
Our specialist training groups are now full due to the restriction in numbers allowed at the track at any one time. Priority was given, as far as possible, to those who had competed for the club and the level at which they had competed. Age group athletes were not allocated a specialist group, are being allocated, general training groups.
For all athletes, this is not necessarily with their previous coach or training group, again due to restrictions in place. The allocation of training groups has been further complicated by a number of members leaving it to the last minute to rejoin.
If you are yet to hear from us, you will and hopefully very soon. The allocation of training has been an enormous undertaking by our volunteers and our thanks go to them.
Both vertical and horizontal jumps remain off the menu, but we hope to review this with Stadium Management once they move into Phase 2 of their reopening in the near future. Unfortunately, the Stadium has had their throws cages condemned and caged throws are likely to be unavailable until late 2021. We are currently exploring a solution with the stadium.
Plans are in place to hopefully see Kestrels return and we hope to be able to provide you with an update in the near future.
Finally, from some emails we have received, it would seem some members do not realise the sheer amount of work that has gone into getting the club training again and how complicated and time consuming that has been for our volunteers to organise in what is an ever-changing picture.
While we may not get everything right in the eyes of individuals, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying. Please continue to be prepared to train with different coaches, new groups on different days going forward and please remember we have only charged your England Athletics Registration fee this year to help support our members and in anticipation of training being anything but normal.
We would like to say a huge thanks to you to our coaches who have adapted brilliantly to the current situation and our small number of volunteers who have undertaken everything from Health & Safety, allocating training, Track & Trace compliance, to gate and sanitising duties on a training night. It has been an enormous task, but we are certainly heading in the right direction,
Best Regards,
The VoAAC Exec