Team Support During COVID-19

To help you during this unique time we’ve created this area packed with specific information to support your team / league.


During the COVID-19 pandemic we hope this area can support all the brilliant teams and leagues who are playing an important role keeping the Rounders family active and connected.

In case you haven’t seen it, the latest official statement from Rounders England regarding the extended suspension of all Rounders activity in line with Government guidance can be found here.

  • Finances & Funding

    Now is an ideal opportunity to take the time to review your finances. We hope that for many teams and leagues there may be opportunities to cancel or move any hire costs that were reserved prior to the lockdown.

    There are some great resources that can assist you with planning and monitoring, most notably Buddle.

    Funding

    Sport England have released a Community Emergency Fund that aims to help community sport and physical activity organisations who are experiencing short term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

    GiveToLocal aims to put £10m per year into community sport, bringing together grassroots sport, local businesses and the wider community to ensure that everyone is a winner.

    Using GiveToLocal’s app, anyone can purchase vouchers to be redeemed with local traders on anything from discounted cappuccinos to carpentry. Access to vouchers is granted to those who provide a small donation to their local team, which in turn creates the pot of funding that clubs can access to continue their work.

    Through GiveToLocal, people support their local clubs not only because it’s a great thing to do but because they can also be rewarded with access to offers and discounts at local businesses, meaning donating to their local club can end up saving them money.

    Clubs can receive up to £2,000 each, and getting started simply requires registering with GiveToLocal and providing some initial details. Do note though, GiveToLocal is only available to clubs that have a current affiliation to their National Governing Body.

  • Top Tips to Keep Your Players Moving and Engaged

    Keeping in touch with your players, volunteers and umpires and helping them feel like they are still united with the team is particularly important right now. It is really important to try and continue running your team however possible. In the current climate there are opportunities to hold virtual meetings, including your AGMs, to support long term decision making and planning for the future.

    Any information such as this still needs to be shared with your all of your players, which is one way to continue engaging them. It will also reassure them that the team is working hard to get through this tumultuous period. It is important to continue to be open and honest about any challenges that you are facing. You can also mix up the communications by dispensing interesting news and content from the larger Rounders community or in relation to your local area.

    Below are some mediums you can use to share team information and announcements:

    • Sharing newsletters or email updates with your players.
    • Setting up group chats or closed groups on social channels to share information with specific groups of people.
    • Make full use of the team’s main social media channels.
  • Encouraging Activity

    Being active is the greatest way to support your mental and physical wellbeing. Within your team you may be able to draw on the expertise and experience of your coaches and more experienced players to share ways to carry on being active? A conversation point around the importance of staying active at home is worth having with your players and a great topic for engagement.

    There are a number of ways your team can continue to encourage players to stay active, from directing them to Sport England’s #StayInWorkOut Join the Movement campaign, to developing your own virtual training sessions. Some teams will find these tasks easier than others, but you can explore some of the ideas below and adapt them based on your capabilities.

    • Use social channels or internal communications to encourage people to get active. Encouraging interaction is also a great method to consider.
    • Publicise any drills and skills or small workouts people can do from home on social channels. Why not ask your coaches to film themselves explaining a set of exercises and upload this to Youtube?
    • Explore using a virtual meeting space, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, where you can run activity sessions from your living room or garden! Your players can follow along in real time, which will really help everyone feel connected. Alternatively, Whatsapp video chat or FaceTime is a simple alternative to set up and operate.
    • Join in with Rounders England’s MyVirtualRoundersTeam or Keepy Uppy challenge.

    A fundamental consideration for all teams and leagues is what your own safeguarding procedures say about online use. At this time, you may need to apply some of your existing guidance and procedures to any new environments you are using. However, the principles of online safeguarding still apply.

    The Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) has created some useful safeguarding guidance on remote coaching which can be found here.

    For all online coaching and activity the guidance set out by the CPSU needs to be considered.