By Ben Tompkins

Karate Fever

Nechako Karate Club continues to fight despite COVID kickback

Jun 11, 2021 | 4:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE– The Nechako Karate Club has been one of very few sports organizations, that has been able to run some form of programming throughout the pandemic. That programming however, has been a lot different than the Club was accustomed to providing.

The Club had to adapt and overcome in ways that they had athletes train and instructors teach, all while having to abide by COVID restrictions.

“We’re a contact sport, so we rely really heavily on working with our partners. We ended up gathering a bunch of punching bags and gave everyone their own little personal space, but then as instructors we had to learn how to teach all over again,” said Warren Grafton, Instructor and Owner at the Nechako Karate Club.

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Despite the adjustments the Club had to make, there was actually some positives that came out of the experience that they never would have seen otherwise.

“There was actually some benefits to it in the end, so when you’re not wasting time getting partners, just the volume of your activity increases and all of a sudden we saw the skill level come up.”

For the Club, they were a benefactor of the Local Sport Relief Fund, which they know has made a lot of this possible, preventing them from going into another shutdown.

“Although we were able to continue operating, we just had less students paying less fees and it just covered our expenses and took that pressure off of us to not have to worry about shutting down.”

For the Club however, they know the best is yet to come as the most recent announcement from the PHO regarding BC’s four-step restart plan, has the Club ready to host an actual season, with tournaments, for the first time since 2019.

“It allowed us to start planning a season which is really exciting, then all of a sudden I know that the tournaments are starting to be planned again. Hopefully we’ll have our National Championships again and then maybe even lead back into Worlds in November.”