Students to resume team sports outside

Student sports associations that practice outdoor team sports are allowed to resume their activities as of March the 3rd, and members from associations for individual sports will be able to train together with a number of people from that date onwards. Indoor sports associations can look for a location outside. Finding space and the night-time curfew are limiting factors. Cursor asked badminton, rugby and indoor soccer players how they intend to go about this.

Bas Weggelaar, chair of student rugby association The Elephants, is very happy with the government’s decision to allow people younger than 27 to take part in team sports again. “We truly feel the need to practice outdoor sports again. Apart from the social aspect, training is a good way for us to let off steam. We hope to see as many members as possible, although it will be a bit more difficult for those students who went back to live with their parents.”

The Elephants play their games at Sportpark Noord and have to share their time with civic associations. “Our goal is to offer training sessions to all sixty active rugby players.” Besides the measures imposed by the government, the associations also have to deal with the rules of the Student Sports Center. Weggelaar: “An important demand is that we prevent group formation when people arrive and leave.” Their plan for dealing with this – and with other issues, such as cleaning and disinfecting of materials – is outlined in a protocol, which will hopefully be approved on Monday.

Wind

Playing badminton in a parking area? That can be quite difficult, says Quinty Peters, chair of student badminton association Panache. “We trained on a gras pitch with outdoor nets a few times in the summer. But wind and a lightweight shuttle don’t go well together. We had a few indoor training sessions with just 16 members for a very short period of time at the start of this academic year, even though we have 63 members in total.” Nevertheless, Peters is very happy that she is allowed to go outside again, if only because it gets her out of her daily grind. She hasn’t touched a racket since December, but she is really looking forward to it. “If we can’t put up the nets because of the weather, we can do cardio and weight training. It’s very important to stay fit, so that you won’t have to work on that once we’re allowed to start playing matches again.”

Panache will spend this weekend coming up with other games and exercises that involve badminton rackets. “It’s an advantage that everyone has their own racket, and that no one needs to touch the shuttle with their hands. The fact that we still don’t know everything about corona makes it hard, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Every little bit helps.”

Different shoes

An indoor soccer player would rather sprint, dribble and score on a grass pitch than not play soccer at all, according to Ruby van Rijswijk, chair of student indoor soccer association Totelos. She is also a member of Puspharia and therefore has both indoor and outdoor shoes, “like most of our almost two hundred members probably.” Apart from the shoes, the balls and rules are different as well, but many exercises are the same, she says. “We already gained some experience in the summer, everyone enjoyed that.”

Van Rijswijk hopes to offer each team one training sessions a week. “In normal times, everyone has two training sessions a week, but everyone understands that we have to share time and space. Something is better than nothing at all.”

Schedule

Student sports umbrella organization ESSF has the task of putting the pieces of the puzzle together. “The associations that normally practice indoor sports will submit a plan as soon as possible, which we will assess in consultation with the SSC,” chair Eleonoor Jordans says. “I still think it’s rather strange that individual sports have more restrictions than other sports, with one and a half meter distance and only in pairs, but I’m very happy that we can increase the number of people allowed to practice sports simultaneously from eight to twenty.” She wishes much creativity upon the indoor sports associations. “You need to be able to successfully improvise, it certainly isn’t easy.”
By the way, the pool remains closed for now.

The main photo shows Pusphaira training (summer 2020)

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