University sport societies face challenge of social distancing rules
New regulations to accommodate social distancing rules have seen a dramatic decline of students signing up to university sport societies, with member numbers falling by over half.
Covid-19 has had a deep impact on the world of sport, pushing back the Olympics to 2021, disrupting this year’s NBA season and emptying football stands. So how are university sports societies coping with the challenges created by social distancing rules?
Sport societies are recognised as one of the cornerstones of university life beyond the classroom. Megan Conway, a student at Dublin University, said: “Clubs and societies are possibly one of the single most important aspects of student life. They are a place of friendship, personal growth, career development and university inclusiveness. They give students skills and talents that they are not able to learn or develop through normal third level education.”
University sport societies are having to adapt their strategies to keep members safe. At the University of Portsmouth, a new rule to reduce the spread of coronavirus via asymptomatic individuals is being introduced for both the Swim and American Football Societies.
Members will not be allowed to train with their clubs unless they have had a recent negative test or have isolated for 72 hours prior to a session.
Other societies like Tennis and Athletics have also made drastic changes to their training sessions, with first come, first served bookings and available member spaces cut.
Cameron McBurnie, a third-year student at the University of Portsmouth and Vice-President of the Swim Society, spoke about the changes his society has made to ensure all members are safe during training,
“We are only allowed between four and six people training per lane, with masks to be worn on poolside at all times. When we had the competitive trials last week, we had to split the group in two as so many people wanted to join.
“We don’t have a swimming pool as part of the university, so we have to go to a local leisure centre at the very north of Portsmouth and organise our society around their schedule and any members of public.”
Similar to the Swim Society, Athletics organise their training sessions at the local HMS Temeraire Sports Grounds through a third-party company. As a recent member to the group, Daniel Jones — a second-year student — said that he “expected more people” to attend for the first training sessions following Freshers Fayre two weeks ago.
Freshers Fayre is a week-long event run by the university’s Student Union and society committee members to enrol first year students or new students into societies. It enables students to meet one another before signing up, explore the competitive and social teams of a society and learn more about the social events held by those groups.
“We’re still able to train at the same facilities as before the pandemic, but the way it is carried out for those who are training track, which is the part I focus on, is that they are only allowed to use staggered track lanes,” said Cameron.
The Swim Club competitive team have also been warned against using the butterfly swim stroke as it “exerts too much oxygen”, added Cameron.
Although little research has been done into the spread of Covid-19 through water, students are advised to arrive with swimwear under their clothes, to change pool side and wear a mask until they are in the water.
For the 2020/21 academic year, previous members and those who hold committee roles have had priority to return to the Swim and Tennis Society. With the competitive swim team being prioritised over the social team and venues unable to be secured, freshers are being turned away resulting in one of the largest Portsmouth society’s now having “around 35 members remaining”.
A lack of new members for these societies has been deemed extremely worrying for future student recruitment, and for the Tennis Society this brings concern about the running of the club within the next two years as “tennis traditions and rules could be forgotten”.
“It’s first come, first served to book a space for training, and many new members don’t know how to book through our Facebook page. We haven’t had a society night out yet as I haven’t seen any freshers join Tennis,” said social secretary Jack Anderson, a second-year student.
The Tennis Society has been limited to four players per court and a maximum of 16 people within a bubble. Track and trace for the university and the Tennis Club business are also being used to ensure the safety of those who play.
“We’ve had a Zoom meeting about how to deal with social distancing measures and the mental health of our members,” spoke Jack. These include students only having a five-minute window to arrive before a session starts and masks to be worn until a game begins to minimise the amount of contact between students.
With the three-tier proposal being enforced in areas across the country and a maximum of six allowed to socialise as a group, the mental health and wellbeing of students at Portsmouth are being prioritised more as access to recreational sport and social training becomes harder.
