We hope this correspondence finds you all safe and well.
At what would normally be the time the club returns from its summer break, we find ourselves still in the midst of the greatest challenge faced by recent generations. When we last spoke we were running weekly Skype sessions to engage members, as well as using the time to develop coaches through weekly online modules and exercises.
Reflecting on this now, please allow us again to give our thanks to all who took part in those sessions, especially those who took a leadership role in hosting certain sessions.During the most difficult period, it was a great source of positivity to see how you took on those as an opportunity and experience. After all, the sport is what connects us, but we feel that has been transcended and strengthened due to those sessions. For example, our workshops with Stephen Gertson were a first of its kind and have since been commissioned by Table Tennis Scotland and rolled out across the country!
It was decided to honour our traditional summer period, take a break, and see how we would be placed on our return. Fast forward a couple of months and the outlook is much improved. Nationally we are into phase three of the route map out of the crises, schools returned this week, and most important the transmission of the virus has significantly dropped and allowed many parts of society to return. However there is still a long way to go, so instead of coming back to plan our league season and weekly sessions, we instead have to find a way to plan our return to play full stop.
The current indicative date for indoor facilities to reopen from Scottish Government is September 14th. In comparison to outdoor sport, indoors has been identified as a far greater risk, hence this timeline. Unfortunately it is also far from a guarantee that we will be able to return at that time. In conjunction with other sports, we will need to work closely with both the governing body and facility providers at SLLC to carefully plan a safe return that is viable for all parties.
Our commitment is to manage expectations, communicate clearly with you as frequently as we can, and plan appropriately through each potential phase of return.
Our coaching group have reconvened their weekly meetings and our annual committee schedule will start from August 24th. Both of these will be focused on updating plans and correspondence on a weekly basis. We appreciate that this does mean a continued wait to return playing in comparison to other activities. As such we ask for your continued support, providing a pivotal indicator that will see us return better than ever.
Our intention is still to provide opportunities to connect with members in the interim period, but note that there is scope for more than online sessions now than there was in the spring. We also have the ability to meet in smaller groups outdoors so our first plan is to organise a social catch up to see how we are all getting on, offer up kit to take home for practice, and chat through our plans for the clubs return over the coming period.
Updates on that will follow soon, for now if you can briefly reply to Peter’s email to let us know how you are getting on and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Best wishes to you all
Peter and the team
ektabletennis.com 