Alternative Sports and Active Living During Pandemic

Louie J. Bernabe

The coronavirus, known as COVID-19, greatly affects everyone’s life. It causes pandemics and suddenly changes our lives, mostly everything, into a new normal. Economic status decreases due to many businesses and establishments stopping and closing. Schools have been closed too and have become a home-based policy. Learning modalities came up to address the problem and the necessity of education.

As everyone stays home, good things develop, like family bonding, becoming plantitas and plantitos, and online selling, which abruptly emerges to cope with financial needs. "Ayudas" also came as a patch for some necessities. But on the other hand, negative things arise. Some people find it causes depression and anxiety. Children who are active turn physical activities into passive ones, which causes them to gain more weight or develop obesity. Gadgets and internet access become necessities, while family members mind their own business.

With this kind of lifestyle and setup, we need to find ways to reduce our time exposure to gadgets, especially for our children. Indoor sports and games are suggested and observed to be an excellent way to metabolize ourselves, like chess, DaMath, scrabble, and Sungka. It enables our minds to think and process. It helps with mental health problems. Children's "boring time" became viral with Zumba and TikTok.

So, parents or guardians should make a good plan for a perfect time for sports at home and make it a habit to be with them. We'll not just introduce and teach, but we'll play with them and develop good athletes. At home, we can "develop an athlete with integrity, not a player with trophies."

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The author is Teacher III at Quezon Elementary School, San Isidro District, Schools Division of Isabela, Region II-Cagayan Valley