COVID-19 UPDATE

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Dear Friends,

On May 17th 2021 (all being well) indoor exercise classes for adults will become legal. I will be starting hoop classes soon after that. When classes restart, they will be different from before in a few ways. Here are the main differences.

• During class, hoops will not be shared (unless by clients from the same household or bubble). This is to abide by the government guideline requiring equipment to be cleaned between use by different clients. The hoops will be cleaned between classes, but currently I think it is impractical to try to clean the hoops many times during the class to enable sharing of hoops.
• The non-sharing of hoops means that class sizes will be very small. (One of the hoops will be mine to demonstrate on.) Four hoops is the maximum I could currently hang (not having my own studio limits the amount of equipment I can transport and set up).
• The surface of the hoops will be the bare, painted metal (i.e., not wrapped with tape) so that the hoops can be effectively cleaned between classes. This can make some hoop work a little bit more difficult, although I have always preferred untaped hoops myself. If you tend to have damp hands, you will find that climbing chalk helps.
• The hoops will frequently be hung at a low height to reduce the need for close spotting. (Spotting is where a person on the ground is standing by to care for the safety of the person on the hoop.)
• Until I am able to try some classes, it is not yet clear whether I will be requiring clients to wear a face covering. The government guideline says that face coverings should not be worn if they negatively impact your ability to exercise. I have looked at what several aerial studios are doing, both in the UK and abroad, and some are wearing masks and some are not.

I am not going to make many changes to the information on this Outoftheblue website until I know the dates, times, and venues of the new  classes. This means that the information on the Classes page regarding times, dates, venues, prices, etc. remains out of date for the time being. It is unlikely that I will be running classes at Westmorland CrossFit in Kendal, but I am hoping to be able to run classes at Lower Holker Village Hall and Bendrigg.

I am very lucky in that I have space in my garage where I can hang a hoop, so I have been able to hoop through lockdown. I have recorded what I've been doing, and put together 15 collages of 135 different hoop moves. I've also labelled the moves with the hoop move name and the grade (Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced). You can see the collages here.

I have also written a personal account of my hooping activity through lockdown. It was a very valuable time for me in several ways. You can read the article here.

If you have any questions about anything at all, I would be very pleased to hear from you. You can email me at hello@ootheblue.com or message me on Facebook.

Yours hopefully and hoopfully,

Debora