Blue Lake BMX returns to restricted training sessions under state regulations

Bmx Kids  TBW Newsgroup
BACK ON TRACK: The Blue Lake BMX Club has re-opened with limited coaching sessions held Monday and yesterday for the youngsters of the club.

Bmx Kids TBW Newsgroup
BACK ON TRACK: The Blue Lake BMX Club has re-opened with limited coaching sessions held Monday and yesterday for the youngsters of the club.

IT was good news for the Blue Lake BMX Club, with the return to training this week, albeit in a restricted format to abide by current COVID-19 regulations.

The club has completed a total of five 10-person sessions this week – two Monday night and three yesterday – to accommodate for the high demand of young members eager to make their return to the track.

South Australia BMX released a COVID-19 action plan last Thursday which allowed clubs to resume coaching and gate practice sessions as of Monday.

“The last probably three weeks we have been trying to get an approved COVID plan in place so we can run something again,” Blue Lake BMX Club president Stephen Jones said.

“We have been able to get a state-wide plan approved to allow us to run 10 kids and have 10 parents on site as well.

“At the moment we are not allowed to do any racing, but we can use our facility and run the gate and get the kids out and about again.”

The announcement of a return to training was made on the club’s social media over the weekend and the interest from club juniors was overwhelming.

“I put the post up to try and get the numbers organised and we had 45 kids for the first lot of sessions,” Jones said.

“We had to do five separate sessions to cater for everybody.”

Sessions run for 30 minutes, with 15-minute intervals to allow for the movement of people and sanitising between groups.

The flexibility of training sessions is clearly affected by the restrictions, but for now it is the only option for young riders to have some supervised track time with coaches.

One of the changes has the starting gate limited to four people opposed to the usual eight due to social distancing rules, while there is also to be no unnecessary stopping on the track.

“They pretty much have to do full laps,” Jones said.

“In the past we might stop on a section of track and talk about how to go through a jump or something, but we are not allowed to do that.

“Once the gate has dropped they have to continue their lap and finish their lap before the next (gate) is allowed to go.”

That has affected the club’s usual coaching practices and forced it to adapt the program to fit the times.

“We cannot really do our coaching the same as normal in that group situation,” Jones said.

“It is not going to be the same, but it is a start.”

As a coach himself, Jones said it is not the ideal scenario, but it is a necessary precaution as the state eases its way into step one restrictions on the road back to normality.

“It is a lot of effort, but I think to be honest it is going to be the new normal,” he said.

“I think we are going to be bound to these sort of restrictions for a while, especially with the sanitising and distancing.”

Despite all that, racing could return to the Blue Lake BMX Club calendar sooner than expected, but will no doubt be in a restricted format.

“It is believed we might be back as soon as mid or end of June,” Jones said.

“We might be able to do some racing with restrictions.

“It might not be too bad for us just because of our numbers – a club meeting for us has between 40 to 50 riders, whereas in the city they might be close to 100.”

However, the club will continue to take things one step at a time and for now riders will enjoy the chance to push pedals in small groups.