Skip to main content

Second Lockdown November - December 2020

Sports classes have been closed since 26th October in Belgium and the past month has been tough. I haven't felt like blogging and to be fair I probably haven't had time to focus on expressing my feelings regarding the current situation. I'm someone who always looks for the positive; my theory is that events are always leading me to where I should be and I try to look for opportunities along the journey to benefit from my experiences. The last lockdown was long and full of disappointments, for example cancellation of competitions, which were to be my focal point of 2020, however if it were not for these roadblocks I would not have launched Momentum Pole Sport this year.

This time, it is the cancellation of my classes at Momentum at the source of my concern. I initially hoped to reschedule the classes and in the meantime I launched online videos and challenges to keep my students interested and motivated. I feel like a community was created during the two months that I was able to hold classes since my launch and my worry is for how long the connection will last while lockdown continues. The current measures are officially in place until the 13th December, however nothing guarantees that they will be lifted on that date. France, for example, announced yesterday that sports clubs will be allowed to reopen on 20th January, so Belgium could easily follow suit. My initial optimism is turning into pragmatism and I am preparing my plan B.

Mentally (not to mention financially), it is tough to be home and to be prevented from exercing my professional activity and I have tried my best to keep busy so as not to waste the time. I have offered a light schedule of online lessons during the past month, while I was still hoping that the majority of my face to face lessons could be rescheduled. I decided to spend some lockdown time working on my own training and competitions, along with some other professional and personal projects that require my attention. However with the growing realisation that we may be in this for longer than planned, I am extending my online lesson schedule and am offering these classes as a replacement for studio lessons to my Momentum students as from next week. Having sent round a questionnaire to my students, I am feeling extremely reassured to discover that many of them are happy to accept the offer to continue online and I am grateful for their confidence in me. I am very much looking forward to (virtually) seeing them again as soon as next week!

On a personal note, we are sad that we will not be able to visit our family for Christmas this year. We are grateful though to be together: my husband, daughter and myself, and in good health. Since we will not be travelling, we have decided to adopt a cat, who we will pick up tomorrow. So now, we are looking forward to some cosy and festive time at home.

Who could have predicted the events of this year!? It would have sounded like Science Fiction just 12 months ago. I hope that next year, our projects will evolve and that I will have lots of happy announcements to post here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leaning into lockdown extension

The announcement came on Wednesday afternoon; lockdown until 3rd May. And after that? We will find out next Wednesday. I'm a bit late in offering online classes. I think that there was more enthusiasm to follow these in the initial weeks of lockdown, when everything was feeling a bit more novel and everyone was figuring out how they wanted to live their confinement experience. Now, 5 weeks in, a routine has set in, with less spontaneity and increasing disappointment. Unfortunately, I took a few weeks to catch up, being ill at the start, and so here I am with my ideas and enthusiasm! I hesitated before planning these classes. Maybe we would have our normal classes again in a couple of weeks anyway. Was the hassle worth it? What if people didn't sign up? How would I take that? With all these big names and top-level pole dancers offering online classes, what can I offer of interest? Weighing up the options, I felt it was worth a try. My philosophy is to try to see an opportuni...
Post a Comment
Read more

IPSF

In early 2019, I discovered the IPSF. This was a huge event in my pole journey, and one that has helped me to focus and develop my own practice. The IPSF is a highly structured organisation (which suits me down to the ground :-)), that has already encouraged federations to be opened in 30-40 countries worldwide. Their aim is to bring Pole Sports to the Olympics, and it is not an empty goal; they are actively working towards this aim and taking the appropriate steps, one by one. Pole Sports within the International Pole Sports Federation, adheres to a 150-page code of points, for which I have already passed an exam to attest to my knowledge. Competition participants must demonstrate strength, flexibility and the ability to perform spins on both the static and spinning pole. The rules provide a structure to preparing for a competiton and an important point of reference; on the other hand the realisation of a competition routine can be tricky when trying to adhere to all the rules! This...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adapting to lockdown

Presently, one third of the world's human population is in confinement - it's an incredible statistic, and a situation that many of us did not see coming until it was upon us. As I hesitate even to write this post, our lives already saturated enough with corona-related news, I feel that it would be omitting a key event not to accord some space here to the elephant in the room. So I decided to let myself vent a little and record some of the frustration I am feeling as well as the questions I am asking, as I am certain we can all currently relate! In Belgium, we are now on day 12 of lockdown. I have not been outside for any of that, as I fell ill with the virus on day 1 (obviously picked up at some point when we were all still going about our lives). This had a stressful impact on my life. For one, I had quit my safe, employed job to focus on developing my pole teaching, coaching and competition preparation. In a time where all pole classes are cancelled until further notice, t...
Post a Comment
Read more