“Clubs need to be thinking outside the box”
THINKING outside the box will be key for many sports clubs hoping to survive this period of uncertainty that the Coronavirus outbreak has brought according to South Dublin Taekwondo Head Coach Robert Taaffe.
Like all clubs across the entire sporting spectrum, South Dublin has seen its training and competition programme severely curtailed by this pandemic, but is set to meet the challenge head-on.
South Dublin Taekwondo Head Coach Robert Taaffe insists clubs need to quickly adapt to the challenging times they now face
“Our club is not stopping. We’re going to have live remote training for our members online” explained Taaffe.
“While we won’t be having physical training in the club, it will give our members a chance to upskill in areas that can be forgotten.
“We had a contingency plan in place for this and so we just set about implementing it. There’ll be live tutorials online for our members who’ll all have a link and can just log on.
“We didn’t want to be just posting a video saying just do this or do that. This way, when our members log on and see, the instructor and others training, it’s like a real training session.
“There are clubs that train recreationally in a school hall or somewhere and some of them may be glad of the break and there are other clubs and coaches for whom this is their bread and butter and they need to keep it going” he pointed out.
South Dublin Taekwondo is home to Ireland’s top competitor in the sport, Jack Woolley who has qualified for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
While the COVID-19 outbreak has scuppered his immediate plans to train and compete in Spain, he has already garnered 30 of a possible 40 ranking points this year with superb victories in the recent US and Sofia Opens.
What’s more, there remain a couple of other events, just a month out from the Olympic Games in July, that could see the Tallaght man further increase his points total.
