Curling is a team sport. Therefore, the exercise is currently not possible. The clubs in the district of Dachau are in the starting blocks.
District – The Stockschützen are a group in the Dachau region that should not be underestimated. There are around 50 clubs. They organize numerous point, cup, invitation or friendly shootouts throughout the year. With the traditional Josefi shooting in mid-March, they start everywhere. Only when the autumn winds sweep the leaves over the tracks do they stop – or switch to the ice. But this year, viruses, not the leaves, paralyzed operations as early as March. Not a stick has whizzed over the asphalt in recent weeks. Corona, stop. Now the stick shooters want to start again. Unconditional. But it's not that simple.
The curling district 305, to which many and especially the competitive district clubs belong, sent out a seemingly redemptive circular mail last Sunday evening. In it, District 305 chairman Franz Frank writes that contactless sports will be allowed again from 11 May. And: "We stick shooters also fall under this regulation and can resume our sport, albeit to a very limited extent, from next week." The clubs would have to comply with the requirements of the Bavarian State Sports Association (BLSV) and the German Curling Association (DESV). Then you can play again. However, the Dachau district office is skeptical about the matter.
Curling is a team sport, not an individual sport, clarifies authority spokesman Wolfgang Reichelt. And sports in a team are still generally prohibited in Bavaria. There are exceptions, for example for contactless training of up to five people.
This requirement, as well as the cancellation of the entire competition in the summer, ensure that nothing will work for the foreseeable future at the sporting figurehead in terms of curling in the district, at SC Oberroth. "In my eyes, it makes no sense to go on the tracks with only five people," says Christian Blimmel, SCO chairman and member of the Bundesliga team.
"I'd have to control that," says Blimmel, who has no desire to attract the displeasure of his activists. If you feel like swinging the stick alone, "you can do it," says Blimmel, who shoots with his teammates on ice in the 1st Bundesliga and on asphalt in the 2nd Bundesliga. However, "we do not do general training under the conditions that the association currently gives us". Here it is simply a matter of waiting until there is further relaxation, according to the SCO boss.
The DESV has summarised the entire conditions for match operations in a ten-point catalogue of measures. In it, the association even allows only four players per lane. Other points are, for example, the well-known hygiene and distance rules, the requirement not to play two lanes next to each other and a ban on spectators. Further, each shooter may only use his own stick. And according to the DESV, the stave may only be "inserted" with the foot.
At TSV Schwabhausen, life should soon be back on the tracks. The association has even developed its own concept for this. For example, fixed position markings are to be placed on the tracks to guarantee the distance. However, department head Dr. Ulrich Clormann believes that the municipality must first reopen the railways. The mayor and his staff are likely to be cautious, after all, many stick shooters are of advanced age and therefore belong to the risk group.
The Schwabhausen community leader sees it the same way. Together with his fellow mayors, Wolfgang Hörl is networked via WhatsApp. And in this group, the stick shooters – and their average age – are an issue. Hörl thinks that in his municipality, the stock shooters have leased the railways and are therefore responsible themselves. However, he also points out that District Administrator Stefan Löwl has contacted the health department. "What is important," says Hörl, "is how the health department assesses the situation of the stick shooters."
Clormann, on the other hand, would be looking forward to a positive decision in terms of release. "Stock tracks," he says, "are social meeting places and thus an essential part of social life in rural communities."