Sudbury MMA making most of virtual learning

SUDBURY -

A Sudbury mixed martial arts studio is having real success when it comes to its virtual offerings.

Ontario is days into another lockdown but for the team at Sudbury MMA, it's just another day.

Head instructor John Cole say they wanted to be innovative at the start of the pandemic so they immediately made a shift to online.

When they are able to open their doors they'll still get some connecting through Zoom while the rest come in-person, on days like today, with gyms shut down, it's 100 per cent over the computer.

"I'll be honest, back in March 2020 there was a lot of apprehension and concern not just for us but for everybody," said Cole. "Nobody knew really what to expect but in the last two years, a lot of martial arts academies and academies across the province have had to do a lot of shuffle and pivots and become a little more innovative and that's what we've done."

Cole says they're able to shift now quite easily depending on current restrictions and it's giving his 200 plus members options they never had before.

"Martial arts and fitness, we believe it's essential for mental health and we didn't want to be an academy that would turn their backs on students if they had to isolate or if some reason we got shut down again," he said.

One of those students whose been taking online classes, along with his son, has been Sudbury realtor Adam Haight.

"To have the option in being able to go in and joining the club or still being virtual and still feeling like your part of the team it's great to have those options as a parent or as an individual yourself so," said Haight.

"As far as a learning curve, getting on the Zoom meetings and doing this kind of stuff, it's a little different," he added. "But at the end of the day, it's providing us a really great outlet to get in our training and our martial arts."

Cole and his team have since been able to build on their online martial arts video library, with more than 350 videos and counting. He also does a podcast.

It's been a big success for the team, they've had students logging in from cities across the country, places like Regina, Halifax and Kincardine.

"Some students literally in the last two years have not come into the academy," said Cole. "We've had some students that have solely chosen to do online classes for personal reasons and they're thriving in that environment. They have all the equipment, the bags, dumbbells, they can do everything that someone can do in person here."

And as far as the pandemic is concerned, it will likely end at some point, even still, when it does, this instructor believes online learning will in one shape or another continue to be part of their future.

"Online learning is not going anywhere and of course it's something that we're going to continue to foster in our academy with or without the pandemic," said Cole.