Yesterday, the Victorian Government made announcements relating to the easing of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this included allowing people to participate in outdoor activities or train in community sport in groups of up to 10 people.
Basketball Victoria supports this approach, as it recognises that sport and exercise play a critical role in the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of Victorians, but importantly this must be balanced with the risk of transmitting coronavirus.
As such, the State Government has developed the following principles to guide the lifting of restrictions around sport and exercise.
Sport and exercise can resume if:
- you keep your distance while performing the activity (at least 1.5 metres apart),
- you are not doing your activities indoors and they are not competitive (team vs team); and
- you can do them with a maximum of 10 people (plus coach / support person).
For the sake of clarity, the Government (DHHS) stipulates that “you can participate in training for all sports, but it must be non-contact, with only 10 people participating at any one time in addition to those people running the training (e.g. coach, manager)”. Further details can be found at DHHS here.
While this provides an opportunity for many of us to get back into participating in basketball outside of our home environment, Basketball Victoria wants to emphasise that how we all collectively act in the coming weeks will directly affect the health of our community and our sports ability to return to more regular indoor activity in the near future.
We are being provided an opportunity to enjoy a level of sport and exercise outdoors in the short term, but we must not compromise safety, nor the reputation of the sport at this vitally important time.
Purpose
The purpose of any outdoor, non-compulsory training session should be:
- Player Health & Wellbeing – to get participants interacting/socialising with their friends, following social distancing rules
- Fitness & Conditioning – start with a slow, modified reintroduction to fitness and conditioning (eg 1 vs 0 drills, shooting etc) to be ready for any formal indoor activity when it is safe to do so.
Considerations
We suggest that all clubs, associations and participant groups consider the following:
- Please use common sense and be considerate to members of the public
- (If you’re a club or association) – do you have the ability to properly monitor organised outdoor trainings?
- Formalised trainings should not be compulsory
- Follow hygiene and social distancing rules
- If you are feeling unwell, do not attend
- No physical contact:
- No High-5s, handshakes, screens, boxing out, bumping, one on one play etc
Insurance
Please be mindful of the below before conducting outdoor activities:
- Only Basketball Victoria and Association “sanctioned” training or competition activities are covered by Basketball Victoria’s insurance policy
- Only registered participants are covered for personal accident insurance
- Activities must be in line with and adhere to government laws, rules and regulations.
Activities that fail to comply with these requirements may not be covered by insurance under this policy – eg if there are 11 people training, or people are proven to not be social distancing or sanitising their hands etc.
For those wishing to participate outdoors we suggest you refer to Basketball Victoria’s Outdoor Training Guidelines that have been developed in line with Government restrictions and the AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport.
Should you choose to participate outdoors, have fun, but please do so in a safe and respectful manner.
The next review date for the easing of further restrictions is in line with the Victorian Government’s State of Emergency – Sunday 31 May.
Please visit the Basketball Victoria website – www.basketballvictoria.com.au/covid-19/ – for up to date information.