Update 03/01/22
Happy New Year, and welcome back to all. I hope you had a great festive break with friends & family, and managed to stay safe throughout.
As you know, England has moved to PLAN B in response to the Omicron variant. This means wearing a face covering indoors, working from home if possible, and of course getting boosted as soon as possible.
While my group classes will resume on Thursday 6th January 2022, please ensure you bring a face covering to each session, and keep an eye on the national guidance, this website, and our WhatsApp training group for updates.
Looking forward to seeing you back in training for this new year! 🙂
LPH
Update 15/07/21
Following the recent government announcements regarding the easing of restrictions, it looks like Thursday 15th July will be our last group session which requires the Rule Of Six indoors, compulsory face masks, and advance booking.
As of Monday 19th June 2021, all students may attend to any group class without the need to pre-book. I will keep the booking functionality on the website for a while, just in case things change and we need to use it again.
Regarding face coverings, I believe we should always consider the needs of the most vulnerable person in the group. So please continue to bring your face coverings along to each session. We will check the vulnerability, vaccination status and concerns of all those present, and make a decision on a session-by-session basis.
I have been double-vaccinated and get tested regularly, and I know the same is true for most of our students. However if even one person in the group remains vulnerable and/or concerned, we will all wear face coverings to help them until they get the protection they need. If you have any questions on this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Looking forward to seeing you in training soon.
LPH
Update 08/05/21
Great news! It looks as though the UK remains on-track to allow the reopening of indoor training as of Monday 17th May 2021.
In expectation of this, our evening training sessions are scheduled to take place between 19:00 – 21:00 on Mondays & Thursdays each week during term-time.
The full set of social distancing guidelines from 17th May (Step 3 of the Roadmap Out Of Lockdown) are not yet published and are due to be reviewed, however students can reasonably expect the Rule Of Six to apply to indoor training – no more than six persons at one time – plus the requirements to wear a face covering and use hand sanitizer.
I have updated the relevant pages of this website regarding class times and term dates, and also reinstated our class booking system in readiness for reopening.
Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
LPH
Update 12/04/21
Great to see many of you taking part in my free online training sessions over the past few months. It has been really good to see your faces, workout, and remember why we all enjoy our training so much. Thanks to you all.
As you are no doubt aware, on Monday 12th April 2021 the UK Government will be easing lockdown restrictions. This means that non-essential retail, personal care, hospitality, sports and leisure premises will be permitted to reopen in a limited way.
The revised guidance states:
Indoor leisure and sports facilities will be able to reopen for individual exercise, or exercise with your household or support bubble.
You can read the full revised guidance here, and also the DCMS guidance too.
For our martial arts training in Kung-Fu and Escrima, this means that although personal 1:1 training is again possible, social distancing MUST be observed between the instructor and the trainee. Effectively one person can do solo practice under the guidance of an instructor. Group classes will not be possible, and so realistically our club will only resume relatively normal activities at the next stage of the roadmap, which is due to happen on 17th May 2021.
If anyone wishes to have a 1:1 session with me to get back into their training, please get in touch in the usual ways, and I will try to arrange something mutually suitable for us.
As always, I will be watching the guidance carefully and will communicate updates through all our channels. Online sessions will continue whenever I can, so until our next meeting please stay safe, stay strong, keep moving, and look out for each other.
LPH
Update 05/01/21
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful festive season with your families and/or support bubbles, as much as we all possibly could.
As you are no doubt aware, England has been moved into a third national lockdown as of Tuesday 5th January 2021. This situation is expected to last until mid-February at the very earliest, and quite possibly beyond. All due to ever-rising levels of Coronavirus, including the new variant, which appears to be far more transmissable.
Except for very specific reasons, the current guidance is to stay at home. Please be aware that this has been put into law, and any transgression will incur fines and possible arrests too.
As before, this new lockdown is in place to protect our NHS. The service threatens to be overwhelmed with Covid cases within 21 days if no action is taken, which would be utterly dire. Huge thanks to all NHS staff and key workers who are doing their utmost to save lives and keep things moving. Thank you all.
For us, we have not been training together in person since the Tier 2 restrictions came into force. Sadly it looks like this must continue for a while longer, so I ask all students to remain patient, keep exercising at home, and participate in my FREE online classes whenever you are able.
I will communicate details of 2021 online classes via our WhatsApp group as usual. Hope to see you on the screen soon.
All the best, stay strong, and stay sane. 🙂
LPH
Update 16/12/20
All London boroughs, including our own Kingston-Upon-Thames, will move into Tier 3 (Very High) Restrictions as of Wednesday 16th December 2020.
As before, you can read the full guidance here, however as our activity was not permitted under Tier 2, we will continue to suspend all in-person training under Tier 3.
This week would have been our final classes of the 2020 training year, and so I will be running our final online training session on Google Meet on Thursday 17th December. Full details on our WhatsApp group as always.
All the best, stay strong, and I look forward to seeing you online. 🙂
LPH
Update 30/11/20
The UK Government has announced that all London boroughs will once again be placed into Tier 2 (High) Restrictions as of Wednesday 2nd December 2020.
You can read the full guidance here, however as before, the specific application to our group training reads as follows:
Organised indoor sport, physical activity and exercise classes will only be permitted if it is possible for people to avoid mixing with people they do not live with (or share a support bubble with). There are exceptions for indoor disability sport, sport for educational purposes and supervised sport and physical activity for under-18s, which can take place with larger groups mixing.
Sadly, none of the listed exceptions do not apply to our training (including the educational purposes one – I have carefully checked), and so reluctantly I must advise all students that our in-person classes must remain suspended for the time being.
I will continue to offer a weekly free session on Google Meet for anyone who wants to practice. I appreciate this is of limited use, however it does serve to keep the fires burning until we can train together again. As always the meeting details will be posted on our WhatsApp group before the session starts – if you need access to this, please get in touch.
All the best, keep it together, and I look forward to seeing you online. 🙂
LPH
Update 03/11/20
A second national lockdown will come into effect as of midnight on 5th November 2020. As our training is already paused due to the previous Tier 2 restrictions, sadly we are still unable to meet together and train our art.
I will be running a weekly free session on Google Meet for anyone who wishes to practice. This is open to all current and previous students, and a meeting link will be posted on our WhatsApp group each week for you to join the session.
I will review the situation at the end of the national lockdown, when new restrictions are due to be announced.
All the best, stay safe, and see you online!
LPH
Original Post 16/10/20
As you are no doubt aware, the UK Government will bring all London boroughs under Tier 2 (High) lockdown restrictions as of midnight on Friday 17th October 2020.
You can read the full guidance here, however the section that will apply to our training reads as follows:
Other activities, such as indoor exercise classes and other activity groups can only continue provided that households or support bubbles do not mix. Where it is likely that groups will mix, these activities must not go ahead.
Under Tier 1 (Medium) restrictions we put measures in place which included a risk assessment of our training space, the pre-booking of classes (for Track & Trace), limiting classes to a maximum of six participants, and creating new solo progressions so students could practice alone.
We also provided hand sanitiser, required face coverings at all times, and wiped down all surfaces & equipment regularly before, during, and after training.
Sadly, under Tier 2 (High) restrictions these measures are no longer sufficient, and so once again we must pause our training as of 17th October 2020.
Could all students please be aware of the following:
- All group classes and private tuition are suspended until further notice.
- If you pay tuition fees via Standing Order, please cancel your instruction until further notice. (If cancelling & restarting is hassle, consider amending your payment amount to £1 instead.)
- We will try to post some more tuition videos to our YouTube channel in the meantime, to keep you motivated.
- Please watch this website, our WhatsApp group, and social media for more information.
A big thank-you to everyone who has trained since the end of the first lockdown. This will pass, and i’m sure we all look forward to seeing each other again very soon.
All the best, and thanks,
LPH