Stay Healthy!

In today’s society it’s sometimes hard to find the time to exercise, be that walk 10,000 steps, get your heart pumping harder for 30 minutes or just see the daylight when you’re sat in an office behind a screen. On top of that there’s the usual seasonal bugs and viruses going around.

At the moment there are many news reports, infograms, facebook posts etc about the Coronavirus (Covid-19).

At TASK we want our students to stay fit and healthy and we understand that the worrying information about this virus may cause concern about what we as an association are doing and how we will continue to train – given that we have many students in reasonably close proximity.

General common sense and good hygiene is a good place to start!

Firstly – follow the guidelines:

1. If you are ill – stay home. This could be a cold, tonsillitis, temperature, coughs etc. When you train and you are ill, you will share those bugs. Get well then return to training.
2. If you display any of the Covid-19 symptoms – stay home. You may think you don’t have the virus, and you may well not have but follow guidelines, call 111 and get well.
3. Wash your hands! It may seem simple, and it is. Soap and water and washing for at least 20 seconds is the best way to help prevent the spread of the virus. We all need to be sensible and washing hands is just good practice – regardless of the seasonal bug / virus going around. If you don’t have access to soap and water, use a hand sanitiser.
4. Don’t touch your face. The easiest way to keep germs out your body – don’t touch your face!
5. If you sneeze or cough – use a tissue. The phrase “Catch it. Bin it. Kill it” has been round for many years – and is still true now. If you sneeze on your hand, wash your hands.
6. Avoid unnecessary physical contact. You may wash your hands, but someone else may not have done.

Talking of shaking hands… think about what we do when we enter and leave the dojo … we BOW!
What do we do when we greet a fellow karateka? … We BOW!!
What do we do when we’ve had an instruction from Sensei or Shihan?… we BOW!!!

Bowing is the traditional way of greeting in Japan, the home of Shotokan Karate. Now is the perfect opportunity for you to adopt this into your everyday life but especially improve etiquette in the Dojo and Honbu.

So what’s going to happen to TASK and it’s clubs?

Where possible we are going to keep training. We will keep clubs open as long as we can. Utilising school halls, leisure centres and village halls will mean that if the halls are instructed to close, the clubs will temporarily have to stop training … but that doesn’t mean you stop training.

The clubs we have don’t run just because a few black belts are there – it’s because of the students who train there. If our students continue to train at home, there’s no reason we won’t remain strong, and when the clubs re-open we’ll hit the ground running!

Why not ask your Sensei for ‘homework’. If you have the association book, what are you working on for your next belt? What do you need to improve yourself? Is it your front stance, is it your blocks? are you struggling to get the turns right in your kata? Whatever it is, practice!

And this brings us back to the start – how can we stay healthy? Well, doing your kata for 10 minutes at home WILL get your heart rate up, it WILL get you moving, and your karate WILL improve.

Looks like a win win situation!!

Keep watching this website for updates on what we are doing at TASK to support our students and clubs in these uncertain times.

Oss!