How has COVID-19 affected your training and other parts of your life?

Suffers from chronic bronchitis and still as successful as he is.

I'm not sure what my excuse is now

 

So the Covid here was relatively under control and we had only a few dozen new cases a day and nearly all the restrictions were lifted. However, there were some local sperads and for the past couple of weeks. The new case count is growing yet again, more or less to the numbers we had at the peak of the pandemic here. So some restrictions are being put back in place, though not nearly as harsh, yet. Nothing really affecting me, although I think the masks will be made mandatory again in closed spaces soon. It seems the second wave is coming. I hope it won't get too bad.

 

Well you went to school, and didn't have your parents bankroll you to train at a world class centre of excellence....... So theirs that!

Gordon's a big proponent that it's all a big hoax... And lives with his sick dad, so it will be interesting how this plays out, if Gordon's got it, most of Renzos team will have it too.

 

It can't be a cult, it's not state approved! /s

 

Well I've been doing a tonne of solo training but I can't really grapple on my own, so I'm working on all the things I remember:

My goju ryu kata I need for my next grading (gekisai dai ichi, dai ni, saifa, seiyunchin and sanchin)
The drills I remember from kalaripayattu I picked up in India
the piquan and stance work I'm learning from Ziranmen (I was due to go to a camp this summer to study it for 2 weeks, but with the lockdown my sifu is teaching me online and doing corrections and 1 to 1s with me)
any little things I picked up from seminars, like some capoiera and the weapon drills I rememeber from escrima.

Other than that it's running/sprinting and yoga

 

Been reading back over this thread and it's been a crazy few months. The way the situation developed.
One upside for me has been being able to put time aside and work my way through the couch to 5k running plan and I'm now up to running 5k twice a week and one sprint session. So in fitness terms I feel I've really got somewhere. My pace is way off what I'd like for 5k (need to knock 45 seconds/a minute off each kilometre!) but at least it's regular and consistent.
I also used my runs to mentally go back through my martial arts experiences over the years and put things into perspective. I've consolidated a lot of the TKD applications and bunkai stuff I've been working on over the last few years and made more online links with other people doing the same. Hoping to visit a few people when things are a bit more normal.
I've been able to do several online sessions (both physical and theoretical) with one of my main martial influences (Iain Abernethy) and so that's been great. Normally that would be one or two sessions a year (but it's also meant I've missed doing those face-to-face session of course). In particular Iain was going to teach publicly a kata he's created for the first time. Something to look forward to for next year perhaps.

 

Garage gym training is rough atm. That said Im eating better and now I can nearly get my head to the floor in catterpillar pose (yin yoga) and its carrying over into my kick height and speed in kalari.

My post quarantine training is going to be interesting.

 

you ever need any lower back or hip work I can dig out some of my yoga stuff for you and DM it your way?

 

Well apart from some direction from the Joint Aikikai Council regarding how to go about starting up again when we can there's no news on getting back to aikido soon. Being honest with myself, I can't get into the mindset to do some home training though seeing as I was almost up to speed after seven years out in two sessions I can't see that being a problem.

Climbing walls have been open a week and I'm letting those who practically live at the walls get their fill before I think about going back. As the line from X-Men 3 goes, "in chess the pawns go first".

One good thing about no climbing and no aiki is that I have evenings free to go fishing instead and I've probably fished more this year already than I have in years (fishing was one of the first sports allowed to resume). It's quite nice to sit next to a pond at sunset getting eaten by midgies with only birdsong and the sound of another fish going in the net.

 

Judo is probably a long way off coming back for me so Im focusing on what I learned from Glima, Karate and Kalari for now. Lots of stick, kata, weapons and jumping around doing kicking combinations.

 

Oh, so it is coming. Czech Republic managed the spring wave of the pandemic rather well. However, people complained too much, politians didn't want to do any more strict rules too soon and now the virus is spreading much much faster than ever before. We need to do something about it and the government has yet again declared a state of emergency. Trainings are again going to be restricted to 10 people at a time.
I was a bit reluctant about karate trainings that were happenning in my teacher's school as they did have several covid positive people. And I skipped a couple of classes. My partner, however, did not, and I also went yesterday. I just learned one person at the Tuesday's training had Covid. My partner, sensei and everyone were now ordered to go into quarantine. Actually we had some other Covid positive people before, which means that all the black belts (if I include myself) and the brown belts are either ill or in quarantine. Technically speaking, I did not meet the positive person, but I had obviously had contact with my partner and we live together, so I guess I will have to quarantine myself as well, until everyone I met, who was at the Tuesday training tests negative. Damn. Or maybe we've actually contracted it. Now I will have to cancel the weekend seminars I was looking forward to, all the trainings, and pray I didn't catch it... Luckily, I didn't come in contact with my parents since then and hopefully I did not spread it to Taichi...

 

Thank you, I hope so, too. My partner doesn't know if he is positive or not, yet, so hopefully, neither of us will get it, but... I also just learned sensei has been to some event with another positive person on wednesday. Oh well.

You are taking good precautions. Good for you to be so strict about stuff. I was a bit worried about how the covid can spread in karate, as sensei still had us work in pairs at least for a bit, but I should have been stricter. If I wasn't supposed to help with the children class, I probably wouldn't have gone. But as Sett, my partner, was there anyway... I guess it doesn't matter. Actually, this week was the first time since starting trainings in September, that we were inside as it is getting colder and dark sooner.

I hope things go well for you and you can keep keeping distance.

I know you wrote this before in your log, about grading, I just forgot which of your arts it was in. So you do gradings in Taichi? I wasn't sure if there were any. In our school there aren't, so I just didn't know how it worked in other schools and other styles Cool.

 

Good luck Nachi. I hope you come out healthy and unharmed.

I got out of a two week isolation because one of my coworkers got it. It's worth noting there were seven of us all working in very close proximity all day, every day, but we were extremely regimented about wearing masks, and none of us caught it from him.

My workplace keeps having infections but can't shut down, and the infection rate is rising here because of bars, restaurants, strip clubs, and idiots who think having house parties and big street gatherings is a good idea.

Right now my family is really trying to push for a Thanksgiving gathering. They think we can all stay far apart in the backyard and everything will be fine. I think they're being reckless and they're having a hard time with me telling them no. I think that's the hardest part of this for me, the people who feel like I'm obligated to see them.

 

Good to hear you didn't catch it and wore masks!
Yep, we are closing bars again at 10 pm and there are some restrictions on the number of people inside. I am not planning to visit one, though, so I do not remember the rules well.
I am just having a discussion with a friend, who again thinks people are worrying too much etc. I do not think I have the energy to argue with him right now, but it is people like this that make it harder for the rest of us. If people just resigned to wearing the masks since the end of summer and wouldn't complain about their freedom being taken away and other ridiculous things, this situation wouldn't have come.
I am just getting a little bit angry about those complainers. We are now in a state of emergency because of all of this again. I hope they are all happy. If we were in a state of emergency for something different, say, war, would people also complain about having to sacrifice some of their freedom and staying at home? I don't even see how wearing a mask is a sacrifice of freedom, though. And to me it is all a little selfish of them.
Because of this and the government listening to all thos complaints, we are breaking records in the number of new covid cases three days in a row now. I have a grandma who lives in a different part of the Czech Republic and has been taken to a hospital in August. We haven't been able to go visit her since then because of fear of possibly bringing covid with us. Neither did we visit my grandpa and the rest of the family living with her becasue of the fear we could spread something to my grandpa. My grandma in the hospital seems to not be doing so great mentally. My dad called her and she was angry he didn't even come to visit her and it breaks my heart. Now for the past threee weeks, she is not allowed any visitors at all. Not even the family that lives close to her. They can¨t even send her any food she asked for. She might be getting worse, mentally, and we can't even do anything about that. But of course, why would people have to make such a great sacrifice like wearing masks and keepin g a distance? It is their freedom, after all.