Latest Coronavirus guidelines (31st May)

England Boxing has today updated its guidance for Members and Clubs following the latest government advice published on 28th May and 30th May.

This will come into force from Monday 1^st June.

As well as exercising on your own or within your household, you can now exercise with up to five other persons from outside your household – provided social distancing measures remain in place. This means that pad work, sparring or contact is not permitted.

This also means you should not play team sports, except with members of your own household, as social distancing cannot be maintained.

People may exercise outside as many times each day as they wish. You will still not be able to use areas like playgrounds, outdoor gyms, or ticketed outdoor leisure venues, where there is a higher risk of close contact and touching surfaces.

With regard to boxing activities and training, it means England Boxing’s guidance for Clubs and Members, is as follows:

• Exercise and boxing activity can now take place as many times in a day as a person wishes, but must be conducted either individually or amongst those within a household in outside spaces for things such as general fitness, aerobic training, running, cycling, agility work. Resistance / weight training is allowed, providing a person has access to their own equipment, as well as bag or pad work if confined to those in the household.
• Additionally, one person from a household may meet up to exercise with five other persons in an outside space (maximum six people in total). Where this occurs, they must maintain social distancing guidelines of being at a distance of at least two metres. So, potentially, a coach or boxer could join five others for sprinting / running, shadow boxing etc, but not hold pads and there must be no sparring or contact between two boxers etc.
• We have been advised that a person such as a coach / boxer could meet up with five others in the morning for exercise and meet another five later in the day, although the advice says that meeting multiple groups during a day should be kept to a minimum.
• For the avoidance of doubt, all safeguarding requirements must be maintained.
• All coaching outside of this context is to be conducted digitally or by other means (such as telephone support), avoiding personal interaction.
• Continued compliance with social distancing guidelines is to remain two metres away from people outside your household and you should maintain good hand hygiene (wash hands regularly), particularly with respect to shared surfaces. Where equipment is shared, it must be fully cleaned with strong hygiene measures e.g. cleaning with a suitable cleaning product between use.
• Those responsible for public places must be able to put in place appropriate measures to follow the new COVID-19 secure guidance. Normal safety considerations should also be considered.
• All indoor gyms remain closed, and all outdoors gyms are also not permitted at this time.
• All competitive amateur boxing bouts and sparring is not permitted at this stage, other than those as defined for elite athletes (boxers on the GB programme or professionals who have completed stages one to three of the government’s elite sport return to domestic competition guidance)  – as previously explained.
• Those who are clinically vulnerable should check for further information on the government website: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus

England Boxing understand Clubs’ desire to get back to training for many reasons. However, it is important that the advice is followed in order to not transmit the virus.

So that Clubs are aware, Government indications are that gyms will not allowed to be open before 4th July at the earliest and even then its unlikely due to the restrictions and conditions that would need to be in place.

England Boxing continues to push its cause and will provide updates on return to boxing as soon as they are available.

You can read the UK Government’s latest guidelines regarding outdoor sport and recreation here.