Hi everyone,
I have some news that I wish I didn’t have to deliver.
After looking at the evidence and getting the best recommendations we can from health professionals, we’re going to temporarily cancel Bellingham BJJ classes after the Thursday night classes end. Currently, we’re planning to close Thursday night, March 12, and re-open on Monday, March 23, but that’s also subject to how the reality on the ground changes.
We’re doing this to play our part in stopping the spread of coronavirus. We’re going to respect the Whatcom County declaration of emergency, abide by the Centers for Disease Control recommendations, and pause training. I think everyone knows how much I love jiu-jitsu, and knows that there’s no way we’d close the academy unless we felt strongly that it was the best decision.
TO BE CLEAR: We have had NO cases of coronavirus — or any illness — in our academy. Everyone who has been sick has stayed home (and THANK YOU for that).
But we’d like to keep it that way.
What does this mean for you, as a member of our academy community? We want to make sure we’re keeping everyone healthy, but we also want to be sure we’re providing value to you as students of jiu-jitsu. Let me explain first what we’ll be doing during the closure to make sure you still have access to jiu-jitsu.
Here’s what we’re going to do …
- I (Jeff) will be teaching virtual classes EVERY DAY and putting all of those videos online for members. I’ll send out links to everyone’s email, but the videos will be posted at youtube.com/dirtywhitebelt. We will livestream these where possible, so you can ask questions in real time in the chat.
We may also decide to record these classes for video quality. The stream allows you to ask questions in real time, but the video stream isn’t great (yet — we’re upgrading our Internet). I will also be posting videos by request. If there’s something you’ve always wanted to learn, or aren’t clear on, consider this the chance for a free private lesson, albeit a remote one. Whatever the topic you want to cover — rule sets, solo drills, lineage, academy etiquette — you name it, you got it. Videos every day.
- Intro to BJJ Folks: Our Intro to BJJ curriculum will pause after Lesson 4 concludes Thursday night. When the academy re-opens (hopefully Monday, March 23!), we will pick up the curriculum again with Lesson 5, and your membership will be extended for the amount of days we were closed. This means you’ll get the full 8 weeks of your membership.
- All instructors will get paid for the classes they committed to teach, even if those classes did not take place.
- All regular members will get a $25 credit applied to your April tuition to thank you for understanding and to compensate for the classes you missed.
Believe me, it KILLS us to have to close, even for just a few days. I’m never happier than when I’m at the academy, and I hope the joy I (and the rest of our instructors) feel when teaching jiu-jitsu comes through.
Let me explain why we think closing temporarily is the right thing to do, though.
One thing that convinced us that a temporary closure was this Sam Harris podcast with Dr. Nicholas Christakis, where Christakis discusses the benefits of proactive closure as opposed to reactive closure. If you close when one case shows up in your county, it’s better than when one case shows up in your inner circle.
The way pandemics work: they spread, and they spread fast. Even for those of us in good health, catching a case can overburden the health care system. The growth curve is exponential, and to prevent a crisis, we have to flatten the curve. Taking steps like this slows infection rates, and that can make a huge difference.
And considering Italy had the same number of cases we do in America 10 days ago … and now they have 12,000 cases, almost 900 deaths and 60 million people banned from traveling, we think caution is in order. Or, as the Atlantic reported: On Jan. 23rd China’s Hubei province had 444 confirmed COVID-19 cases. A week later it had 4,903 cases. Another week later, by the 6th of February, it had 22,112.
We’re not alone in this. The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation canceled the Pans, the largest tournament of the year. Locally, the Revolution (the Northwest’s biggest event) canceled this weekend. All of this is awful — but not as awful as helping a disease spread.
Folks, this was a really tough decision. Frankly, I hope we’re overreacting … but we’d way rather overreact and help keep people healthy than help spread a virus that could have real consequences for people. The mats will be here, and your safety is always going to be our #1 priority.
As always, I’m available to answer questions. Feel free to email jeff@bellinghambjj.com and hit me up with queries or video requests.
Thanks for understanding, and thanks for training with us.