Online classes a hit at Warren Hickey's Precision Martial Arts

Running since the first Monday following the lockdown for regional NSW, the martial arts centre has been running classes via video chat program Zoom, with classes attracting up to 20 students each.

Club manager Taylor Sargent said the online classes have been received well.

"They're going really well," she said.

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"We've broken down the classes, so we've made them half an hour. We're changing the activity quite regularly so the kids get a bit of a break, change it up and come in and out.

"They might do a half hour karate class and then have a break before coming back to do a strength and conditioning class or something like that.

"It's been really good. We've been getting up to 16-20 in some of our bigger classes, which is really great. We're really happy with it."

Having already experienced lockdown last year and having had online classes before, Sargent said the change back to Zoom wasn't that difficult for instructors and students.

"It was really handy having been through the situation before, not that we ever wanted to go through it again," she explained.

"We had the infrastructure in place in terms of our online dojo. We had pre-recorded sessions, workouts and tutorials and those sort of things.

"We also knew how Zoom worked, how to get online and everyone has had a bit of practice with it too. We got the notice on the Saturday we were going to get locked down and we were ready to go on Monday."

Unfortunately students have missed out in competing in a number of tournaments this year because of the COVID-19 lockdown, having only attended the one in Canberra earlier this year.

"We've missed a lot of tournaments. We normally go to at least one tournament every month or two months," Sargent said.

"They've all been cancelled obviously. We had one this year in Canberra and by this time of the year, we normally have nine."

And with the current uncertainty around COVID-19, it makes planning things in the future difficult.

"We're taking it day by day," she said.

"No one really knows what's around the corner. We have had events that have been scheduled but they just get cancelled, with what's going on.

"We're just telling the kids, just keep training and things will go back when they go back. No one knows the future, but just keep up the good work and it'll show through in the end."

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