Our Reopening Plan

Should you have any questions about our plans, please email us at info@aurorafamilymartialarts.com.

Update – As of May 25th, 2021

With the most recent announcement of Ontario’s 3 Step Plan (remember when there were Phases, then we went to Colours and here we are now in Steps), we are planning on reintroducing Outdoor Classes once the province has entered Step 1 which based on their estimates, will be June 14th. Outdoor classes will mimic the online schedule (i.e. same class times and length).

As part of the reopening guidelines, classes will be restricted to 10 people with spacing requirements. During the first week, we will offer two days of outdoor classes to gauge interest and adjust any issues should they arise. Depending on class attendance and feedback from staff and students, we will expand the schedule as soon as we can. Just like our other classes, you will need to register for these through Zen Planner.

Depending on how everything goes in the province, we could enter Step 2 as soon as twenty-one days later. At this time, we will be able to expand outdoor classes to 25 people.

Moving to Step 3 is again based on the province’s performance and at that time, we will be allowed to hold classes indoors with capacity limits.

Update – As of May 26th, 2020

Karate Canada has provided us with a guideline to assist karate club / dojo owners in Canada to mitigate risk in the return to karate training during the COVID-19 pandemic. To view it, click HERE. The strategies provided by Karate Canada follow the advice and recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Canada. The guidelines set by Karate Canada do not supersede or replace any requirements or recommendations from government health authorities. As our knowledge of the virus is rapidly changing, this document may be updated to ensure that the information provided respects current medical advice.

As the province announces some of their plans for making changes to current social distancing regulations and the reopening of businesses, I thought that it was important for us to share with you what our plans are.  Obviously our greatest priority is safety for all.  After that, it’s important that we get back to training without injuring ourselves after such a long layoff and getting the most out of it.

Reopening Survey

If you could take just two minutes to fill out this survey, it would really help us have a better understanding of you and your family’s expectations when returning to training.  To do so, just click HERE.

What are we doing right now to prepare?

To ensure that you’re returning to the safest possible environment, the school has been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.  We will also be including more spots for hand sanitizer throughout the school.

What will change in class?

We’re currently considering making changes to:

• The schedule to create smaller classes and requiring students to reserve a spot ahead of time,
• Implementing staging areas where upcoming classes will need to wait before their class begins,
• Creating spots on the mats where students will stand to create distance between the staff and fellow students,
• Limiting the number of spectators in the school,
• Having drills and classes evolve and transition through a number of phases including from small groups to large groups and no contact to controlled contact,
• Speaking with other coaches, government officials, physiotherapists and more to determine the safest, most effective way to return to our training.

How will we know when it’s safe to return and when to make other changes?

We’ll be taking our lead from the Province of Ontario.  On top of that, we are currently speaking with a number of groups to make sure that we have the most up to date information on safety.  Those groups include York Region Health, the Town of Aurora and Sport Aurora. Ultimately, change will happen when it is safe. We are in no rush.

What’s the good that’s coming out of this?

This time has actually been really good for us as well. 

• We’re adding some great things to our curriculum for our Black Belts and MORE.
• We’re introducing a new Kickboxing instructor that has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the sport that will make the program even better.
• We’re exploring new training methods and drills to enhance our program.

How long will the adjustments and changes last?

At this time, we see our Return Plan as a roadmap or blueprint for our reopening and returning to training.  That is, we don’t have specific timelines for when things will change but feel that these are the appropriate steps.  What we will do is make adjustments as we see fit while being guided by local and provincial authorities.