Cheerleading, gymnastic clubs scramble to meet changing pandemic restrictions
When new restrictions on athletic programs were announced on Wednesday, Carley Weisbeck knew she wouldn't be getting much sleep that night.
As co-owner of BOSS Athletics, a cheerleading and dance company in Regina, Weisbeck knew many of the company's COVID-19 measures needed to quickly change once again. She cancelled the practices that had been scheduled for the evening and called up her co-owner Sienna Borland.
“We said, `Meet you at the gym,'” Weisbeck said in a recent interview.
They were joined by three of their employees, and together the team stayed up until 1 a.m., rethinking COVID-19 measures, dividing athletes into the newly required groups of eight and reworking practice times.
On Wednesday, the provincial government announced new restrictions set to last until Dec. 17 in an effort to curb the rise of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan. This included suspending all team and group sports, although athletes and dancers 18 years old and under can continue training in groups of eight or less. They must wear masks at all times and maintain at least three metres of physical distancing.
Many measures at BOSS — like frequent sanitizing and requiring all their athletes to wear masks — didn't need to change. The most challenging part to reconfigure was the smaller allowable practice sizes and the requirement to be three metres apart at all times, even between athletes and coaches.
“We just took our Velcro and we mapped out large boxes on the floor that were three metres apart from each other so that we can have eight athletes in the gym properly distanced,” Weisbeck said.
But trying to train cheerleaders without allowing physical contact between the athletes is difficult.
“In a traditional sense of the word cheerleading, we can't really practice to the capacity that we would like. However, there's lots of things that we can do to kind of keep the athletes fit and involved and engaged,” Weisbeck said, noting that more individual skills like strength, flexibility and dance will become the focus instead of the group skills like lifting and throwing.
For Eric Bestvater, owner and head coach at Rebels Cheerleading Athletics, adjusting to smaller group sizes has also been challenging. But he knows his athletes will make the best of it.
With more groups now requiring gym time, Bestvater said practice times have had to be shortened. But the silver lining of having smaller groups and the same number of coaches is that each athlete now receives more one-on-one coaching. He also plans to have athletes focus on the individual aspects like tumbling, jumps and dance.
Still, it isn't really cheerleading, Bestvater said.
“There's quite a bit that we can do, but it's kind of like ... playing hockey without a stick. It's not really the same,” he said. “You can still work on your skating and you can still work on all the skills, but you're not really playing hockey at that point, and that's really where we're at.”
While gymnastics is much more focused on individual than group skills, Jeff Toth, a board member with Queen City Gymnastics Club, said any training that requires spotting — when physical contact is required between a coach and an athlete while practicing a stunt — is now off the table.
But instead of letting the new restrictions get him down, Toth said this provides the athletes with a chance to focus more on developing other skills he believes will make them stronger competitors in the long run.
He is thankful to see his athletes approach the season with a similar mindset.
“We've really got to just stay positive and just take it one step at a time, and when something like this happens ... we can take this opportunity and really focus on some of the skills that take a long time to acquire,” he said.
“If we kind of keep that in our mind's eye as the goal, then I think we can come out of this positively.”
We can take this opportunity and really focus on some of the skills that take a long time to acquire.