Limited Re-Opening Monday

Posted on by jeff.shaw

On March 1, we’ll do a limited re-opening of the academy. We’re excited about this — we have some new class offerings, too — and we’re going to be extremely careful over the next month to be sure that we do our part to combat coronavirus and stay open.

During the month of March, we’re going to be extremely careful — which means we’re not accepting new students at this time, at least until after April 3.

We’ve consulted with local health officials to make sure that we’re meeting or exceeding their guidance on best practices. We have a phased approach to re-opening. These phases are designed to keep our members and the public safe, and to be modular — that is, if anything goes wrong in our county during these phases, we may stay at these phases for longer than listed here, or enact more restrictive protocols. We hope that will not be necessary, but that’s why we’re being careful and paying attention.

We are currently in Phase 2, which allows the academy to open at 25% capacity — so, 10 students per class. Our protocols will change as the phases advance, but these changes listed will remain consistent as soon as we re-open and continue until we are able to fully re-open.

Here are 10 things we’re doing to protect health and safety:

  1. We will stream evening classes online for students who do not wish to train in person. People have different risk tolerance, and some of our members are health care workers who must limit their exposure to others. We will also make other opportunities — including private lessons and any workshops or seminars, available to our students.
  2. There will be no handshake or high five for end of class greetings. We will only bow at the beginning and end of each class and clap for each other, with no contact.
  3. We will have shortened and smaller classes, and breaks in between classes for the facility to clear out, be cleaned, and refill.
  4. Students will pair up with members of their household/quarantine groups. The aim here is to allow training while minimizing risk of increasing exposure to new people.
  5. Students will register for classes in ZenPlanner to reserve spots, and to make sure we don’t over-book classes. We will track class attendance in ZenPlanner for contact tracing purposes. Only one member of each training pair needs to register for classes in ZenPlanner.
  6. We will do a temperature check of all people upon entering the academy. We will use a no-touch thermometer to do this.
  7. Only one person or pair group will be allowed into each changing room at a given time, so in the interests of efficient use of time, please show up in your training gear if possible.
  8. There will be medical-grade HEPA filters in all mat rooms. All doors will be opened before and after classes, with fans running, to increase air circulation. Studies indicate that confined spaces may be a contributor to virus spread. We will have medical grade true HEPA air filters in both main training rooms, which evidence indicates can help filter the virus. We will continue to clean rigorously, but will also take this small step to decrease risk. We may offer outdoor classes during this time as well, once weather allows.
  9. All people in the academy will wear masks inside and outside of class until further notice. This includes sparring. This is required during Phase 2 by state guidance.
  1. We ask students not to cross-train at other academies or at public open mats until we enter Phase 5, Full Re-Opening. This is a difficult one for us, because we believe in training with everyone. But during a pandemic, we have to responsibly manage our exposure to other folks.

    You’ll see from the phases below that we will limit the number of training partners people can have even within our academy for several weeks. This means we can’t have people training elsewhere during any of these phases until we’re fully re-open. 

So, what does this mean for you, as a past or present student of Bellingham BJJ?

IF YOU’VE SIGNED UP TO COME BACK ALREADY

  • The schedule is online here. Some of you have noticed that ZenPlanner wasn’t letting people register for classes.  This should be fixed now. So as long as you’ve told me you’re signing up for a membership on March 1, or signed yourself up on ZenPlanner, coordinate with your training partner and try registering for classes starting today or tomorrow, please! Only one person from a training group needs to register for a class.
  • I’m re-starting memberships to charge cards on March 1. (Some of you got charged for a partial month when you signed up online — I’ll just credit that amount to your account unless you’d prefer a different solution). I really appreciate everyone’s support during the closure.
     
  • All of the safety protocols are pasted at the bottom of this email, and are also in a Google doc here. Short version: We’re training only with certain partners, getting our temperatures checked at the door, and wearing masks at all times inside.  

IF YOU HAVEN’T SIGNED UP TO COME BACK ALREADY, BUT WANT TO COME BACK

  • Let me know that you want to come back, and we’ll make sure you have a dedicated, monogamous training partner.
  • Once we have a partner for you, we’ll get you signed up and you can register online for classes in ZenPlanner. 

IF YOU’RE NOT READY TO ATTEND CLASSES IN PERSON YET

  • No problem. I’ll never pressure anybody to sign up or to train. Period. Come back when you’re ready, and don’t worry about coming back before.
  • If you want to stay engaged and support the academy in other ways, sign up for an online membership. In addition to helping us out, I’m confident that it’s a great value. You get access to ALL our online classes, an extensive video library, technique breakdowns, match watch-alongs and more.

This has been a ton of effort, and I appreciate everyone who has helped out — Prof. Mauro, Jesse, Kegan, and Betsy to name just a few. See y’all in the academy this week!