Taipei martial arts students practice in face masks amid less virus concern
VIDEO SHOWS: BOXING STUDENTS TRAINING ON PUNCHING BAGS / SOUNDBITES FROM 'MARTIAL ARMOUR' FOUNDER SUNG MING-YEN / STUDENTS TRAINING IN PAIRS / SOUNDBITES FROM BOXING STUDENT / SPARRING / BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU STUDENTS TRAINING RESENDING COMPLETE SCRIPT SHOWS: TAIPEI, TAIWAN (APRIL 30, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1.
BOXING STUDENT TRAINING ON PUNCHING BAG 2.
VARIOUS OF STUDENTS TRAINING ON PUNCHING BAGS 3.
VARIOUS OF 'MARTIAL ARMOUR' FOUNDER, SUNG MING-YEN, INSTRUCTING STUDENTS 4.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 'MARTIAL ARMOUR' FOUNDER, SUNG MING-YEN, SAYING: "I think during this process, all Taiwanese citizens have felt this way: if our epidemic situation isn't good, for example, if there are new confirmed cases today, one, two or three, everybody will be scared on that day and the next and business won't be good.
But if there are zero new cases, everyone will have confidence.
So that's how it is.
In this environment and atmosphere, we should trust the government and take care of our own control measures, so we can continue to live happily and healthily." 5.
VARIOUS OF STUDENT TRAINING ON PUNCHING BAG 6.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 'MARTIAL ARMOUR' FOUNDER, SUNG MING-YEN, SAYING: "The students here are not professional athletes, so we reduced the intensity on all of our courses, because if you don't get enough air it can be very uncomfortable.
The intensity during sparring has also been decreased, otherwise with these fabric masks, when sparring gets really hard it's easy for them to fall off.
So we have made adjustments to all our classes and decreased (the intensity)" 7.
VARIOUS OF STUDENTS PRACTICING PUNCH COMBINATIONS 8.
STUDENT WALKING OFF 9.
STUDENT SITTING DOWN IN FRONT OF MIRROR 10.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 39-YEAR-OLD BOXING STUDENT, DYLAN HUANG, SAYING: "When doing partner exercises at a very close distance with fellow students, this thing (the mask) helps us not to be so nervous.
In the beginning, I thought wearing a mask was very annoying, but after a while you get used to it and start thinking that your heart and lung function will slowly increase along with gains in strength.
When competing in the future this will come in handy." 11.
VARIOUS OF STUDENTS SPARRING 12.
(SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 39-YEAR-OLD BOXING STUDENT, DYLAN HUANG, SAYING: "After five days without new confirmed cases, I think life in Taiwan is very happy and the government protects our safety very well so that we can go about our daily habits just like before.
There are only some minor inconveniences in our daily lives, but compared with other countries we are already very lucky." 13.
STUDENT REMOVING BOXING WRAPS 14.
BOXING WRAPS BEING DROPPED NEXT TO GLOVES 15.
VARIOUS OF STUDENTS PRACTICING BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU 16.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS CAGE STORY: Martial arts students in Taipei are practicing boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu almost as they did before the coronavirus pandemic began - although they are now wearing a surgical mask during training.
After five days without any new cases in Taiwan, students told Reuters they were confident the face mask would protect them during their high-intensity training on Thursday (April 30).
Taiwan has been comparatively successful in containing the spread of the virus, reporting to date 429 cases and six deaths in a population of around 24 million as of Friday (May 1).
With a major outbreak prevented so far, there are signs Taiwanese are gaining confidence that government prevention measures have worked.
Sung Ming-yen, founder of a group of martial arts gyms in northern Taiwan, said his gyms have been running a mix of classes on location and online and have also reduced the class intensity for students who come to the gym to train as it can be more difficult to work out while wearing a mask.
Boxing student Dylan Huang put a positive spin on the inconvenience of wearing a mask during training.
"After a while you get used to it and start thinking that your heart and lung function will slowly increase along with gains in strength.
When competing in the future this will come in handy," she said.
(Production: Fabian Hamacher)