BMAC Calling

As the Coronavirus has tightened its grip on everyday life, BMAC ended classes in mid-March and a return date still feels like it is some way off. 
 
Last time we mentioned that our black belts have been putting together a series of videos demonstrating ways to keep training and moving during the lockdown.  After two weeks, these have already covered a variety of practices including balance, strikes, takedowns and ground movement, whilst keeping the focus on how to practise without a partner.  These were posted on our Facebook members page but we wanted a more interactive way to discuss them.

So on Tuesday 7th April, in our regular training slot, we held our first video conference virtual lesson and 17 people attended.  Pretty good going and relatively few technical hitches, other than the always comedic moments where someone forgets to mute their phone and starts a conversation with other people in their house.

For the first call Hugh, Emma and Ross spoke about their videos and what skills they were demonstrating before inviting questions from the group.  Encouragingly there were plenty of questions that generated good conversation and ideas of how else we can practise during this period of self-isolation.  We originally thought we might go about an hour but instead the call lasted almost two hours.  Obviously, it doesn’t replace our normal training but just being able to practise some moves, talk martial arts and see the BMAC gang, feels like a small piece of normality in these abnormal times. 
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We’ll do another virtual lesson this coming week, with Martin and I providing the voiceovers for videos that we published over the weekend.  It should be a good session.  Smile for the camera, mute your phone and stay safe everyone.

The new version of Celebrity Squares got off to a shaky start.