Last night the government announced its latest list of countermeasures to curb the threat of the current COVID-19 outbreak. As well as social distancing and self isolating, the new measures include the immediate closure of all bars, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, gyms and cafes. In our continued efforts to reduce and minimize the risks of COVID-19, we have no other option but to close the doors of our Highland branch of Yee’s Hung Ga.
The closure of our school doors has triggered our pre-planned special operations directive called ‘Project: Yard Shark.’ Project Yard Shark is a plan which has existed since the conception of YHGInverness. The idea behind Yard Shark was to transform a disused piece of wasteland, at the rear of our school, as an outdoor training space. It is named after a toy shark found amongst the weeds of the area and yes, we just made that name up!
Work on the area started before the internal work of the school began in 2011. This was whilst we were waiting for planning permission to be approved. The work needed to transform the area was far greater than we first anticipated. We managed to make a start, clearing the area of weeds, overgrown roots, rubble and rubbish. This included over 20 bin bags of empty cans and broken bottles. Amongst the weeds and rubbish we also found the treasured toy shark. Once planning permission was approved it was ‘all systems go!’ to get the internal work of the school complete. This was in order to commence classes as soon as possible. Project Yard Shark was put on the backburner until more time was available to carry out the work necessary to transform the area.
Over the years various attempts to re-energize Project Yard Shark were attempted. The lack of available free time and man-power necessary to continue the project fell woefully short on every occasion. Project Yard Shark was due to be reestablished later this year, at the end of spring.
COVID-19 has now emerged as a dangerous threat to our community and potentially our lives. Inevitable restrictions necessary to attempt to control the spread of the virus have meant that closure of our school has granted us 3 things we have been lacking in previous attempts to complete Project Yard Shark:
- The first is manpower. Since we are unable to train in the school, we now have fit and able bodies to tackle the work. We could, of course, continue our classes in a public park, like many of our branches in warmer climates do regularly. This seems a little counterintuitive as we already have our own outdoor space to train in.
- The second is time. If we aren’t training, then we should use our downtime constructively and positively. This will give us the perfect opportunity to use our energy in such a manner.
- The third is necessary for any large undertaking and that is willpower. We are no longer able to train indoors, however current government guidelines state that we can, and should, exercise outdoors in small groups. Adhering to the social distancing guidelines, of course.
Project Yard Shark – we just like the sound of it – is due to be reestablished instead of regular timetabled classes until the outdoor area is in a suitable and safe state to be used for outdoor classes. The work begins….
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