Return to Play update – 19 August 2020
As many team sports are announcing their confirmed Return to Play plans, we wanted to reiterate to members the process that England Korfball are currently required to undertake.
As we set out in our update on 3 August, all sports must submit a Return to Play plan to government to be agreed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Every sport is required to assess the risks against the framework set out for sport. A key determinant of the risk level is the frequency and duration of time spent within 1m of another person. Face to face close proximity is considered higher risk. Therefore, significant video analysis has been required to ascertain the exact risk levels of korfball.
Although some team sports have been able to return with their games virtually unaltered, it very much depends on the detail of how each sport is played and the extent to which there is prolonged face to face proximity within 1m distance. England Netball, for example, introduced yesterday a series of modifications which are designed to reduce the amount of time where players are face to face and within 1m of each other.
England Korfball are currently piloting a range of rule changes which we anticipate will enable us to get back to training and competition within a modified game framework.
We appreciate that many of our members are keen to progress from outdoor fitness training in small groups of six with no equipment sharing. However, equipment sharing is not possible until we have a range of mitigation measures in place such as Covid-19 club officers, screening and cleaning protocols which have to be set out in our Return to Play plan which we hope will be agreed in the coming weeks. We ask our membership to continue to train under the existing guidance in the short-term until our Return to Play plan is agreed.