The coronaviruslockdown brought our personal, social and business lives to a standstill for some weeks. It confined everyone – be it kids, teens, adults or the elderly– to their homes. It not only deprived us of socialising with the people we love, but also deprived us of movement around of neighbourhoods. Confining us to our space and forcing us to choose between sleeping, eating, drinking, and of course browsing the internet. Some people love to be at home doing nothing but eating, drinking and taking the back seat once in a while over the weekend – but having to do for such an extended period of time, was definitely difficult.
As the spread of the coronavirus is losing momentum in Australia, governments are gradually lifting restrictions. This is good news considering that we might be able to regain some of our liberties- namely socialising, working, and most importantly playing. But this is certainly not going to be immediate and instant considering the way the government is cautiously lifting up lockdown restrictions based on data and analysis. So, while the government decides, let’s do what we can to get over it – relax, refresh and recharge!
Experts have warned that the one-month lockdown imposed around the country could have devastating mental and physical health. Engaging in physical activities and social games has become more important than ever before to recover from the physical and mental distress of the COVID-19 lockdown. Here are some of the ways engaging in physical activitieswith your friends, kids, family, co-workers can help you bounce back after restrictions are lifted:
Improving Physical Health:Engaging in group physical activities and sports benefit our health in many ways. They help us to manage our weight, lower blood cholesterol levels, build strong bones and joints and lower the risk of falls if you are elderly.
Playing social games that demand moderate-intensity physical involvement, for at least 30 minutes or more, can help you get rid of the fat and lethargy accumulated during the lockdown. So, with the lockdown gradually easing in many territories across the country -we recommend that you start hitting it out and start working out by playing physical games, with your friends or family.
Improving Mental Health: Forced isolation, loss of contact with friends and loss of jobs has incurred a huge toll on the mental health of people across Australia. It increased anxiety and loneliness among people of all age groups. Financial loss has pushed many into poverty and debt, and experts are warning that going ahead this might lead to big upswing in the burden of mental health as a legacy of the pandemic for Australians.
Engaging in physical activities and playing with others is considered one of the best ways to prevent our loss, isolation and frustration from taking the best of us. Organising team building activities will become more important for corporates as these help their employees to catch up with their peers on an emotional level and re-instil in them the spirit of teamwork and collaboration. The same stands true for schools as well to aid students in forgetting the fear induced by the pandemic and re-integrate with their classmates, peers and studies.
Regain Confidence: A 2019 study by Swinburne University of Technology claimed that more than half of young people said that they were lonely sometimes or always. This was well before the pandemic forced everyone to isolate. For children and adults alike, who were already fighting to overcome confidence and trust issues, the lockdown has been a serious blow. When offices, schools and society open and returns to normalcy – they will be once again fighting their personal battle to overcome social isolation.
Sports and physical activities have long been endorsed as an effective remedy to combat loneliness by bringing people together and reduce feelings of loneliness andpeople are aware of it. This is the reason that people across the globe have invented many makeshift sports like Window Tennis, Roomba Curling, Turtle Tic-Tac-Toe, Sock Pac-Man, Ping Pong Ball Trick Shots, Rube Goldberg Challenge, and many more. Since the lockdown is almost nearing an end in Australia – its crucial for us to look at options we have to bring our population to engage in sports and help them regain confidence to interact with their peers and colleagues and do business as usual.
How To Avoid Transmission of COVID-19 While Playing?
This is the biggest fear that has forced people into isolation. The fear of being infected while engaging in group or team sports is so much that it has been discouraged by governments and individuals alike. While the fears are well founded, they are not the ultimate reality.
Human sports have evolved over the course and coming now we have a range of group sports and fun activities that are not only exciting and exhilarating but also safe. Yes, you heard that right safe to play even in times like this.
One of these games that is a great choice for kids, teens, adults alike and is a great option to play with your peers, colleagues, friends and family on any occasion is Bubble Soccer. In Bubble Soccer the objective is to get a goal, like in soccer, but to make it funnier and harder, every player’s upper body is encased into a fully sanitised bubble made of sturdy PVC material.
This ensures that players cannot transmit anything from their mouth to other players. Because of the encasing, even if the players sneeze during the play, the droplets are not released in the open air and rule out the transmission of any virus to other players.
Players hands are encased within the bubble and it is not possible to touch other players or any surrounding surfaces. This ensures that players’ hand don’t touch any contaminated surfaces. And most importantly the diameter of the bubble’s ranges from one to two meters. This means that the minimum distance between players is always at least one meter.
According to COVID-19 information, the virus can also spread by touching hands. In some sports like normal football or cricket, touching sports objects is essential but that is not the case in Bubble Soccer.
The COVID-19 frontline fighters are working day and night to save lives. Let’s do our bit. Let’s get out of isolation, play sports with our peers, colleagues and friends and get our body and mind into shape.
To organise a Bubble Soccer match in Melbourne click here and for Sydney click here. Interested to know more about how we safeguard the health of our players and keep COVID-19 away? Click here
