Accepting the New Normal

How are your programs and facility evolving?

The “new normal” is a phrase that has been thrown around a lot in these past few months. While it may be tempting to downplay aspects of the phrase as alarmist or extremist, there are practical realities you should be confronting in your gymnastics, recreational and fitness programs.

We need to accept participation in normal programs is going to be greatly impacted, due to COVID-19 concerns, financial concerns or school closure concerns. To look past the new normal and focus on what has been done in the past is a recipe for struggle and frustration. Accept the new normal.

Once accepted, however, you will realize within the new normal there are great opportunities for programs and facilities innovative and open-minded enough to evolve:

• Can a gymnastics program evolve overnight into a daycare that offers physical education services and Zoom school login?
• Can a soccer program become a remote, mobile, multi-sport service targeted to local neighborhoods and gated housing communities?
• Can an after-school program offer morning and evening programming targeted to working parents with kids stuck at home?

The key here is having an innovative and creative mindset. Take a look at the equipment you have available to you — foam mats, AirTrack mats, obstacles and education materials — to see how they may be used to offer new or different programs.

Certain pieces of equipment are universal in their applications. AirTrack mats are well known as gymnastics training surfaces, but work just as well for daycare recreational play and movement. A single mat can be used for dance, martial arts, physical fitness, performing arts and even rehab. Foam mats offer the same universal application opportunities.

Take a look at the physical space you have available to you — your gymnastics facility, your fitness center, your office space.

Small, niche dance studios or cheer gyms can rent out an unused gymnastics floor at an unusual time. A closed church can make use of a basketball court. A bankrupt language school can use office space.

Accept a version of the new normal — the strongest of your competitors will be. Be willing to look beyond what you used to do to imagine creative new opportunities outside your comfort zone. See your equipment in a new light and your facility from a new angle. Good luck.

Joe Gram

Joe Gram is the owner of AirTrackFactoryUS and TrueMovementTech, specializing in inflatable training solutions for the highest levels of athletic performance and training. He can be reached at joe@airtrackus.com, or visit airtrackus.com and truemovement.tech.