The COVID-19 outbreak has forced many youth into a more sedentary lifestyle, as sports and most outdoor activities have been put on hold.

That included the North Alabama Elite Wrestling Team, which operates out of Athens. The team’s spring meets were canceled and many of the wrestlers, like other young people currently, didn’t have the opportunity to do much.

That’s when wrestling coach Jason Guyton decided to use technology to find a way to keep the training going while still maintaining social distancing guidelines.

“I was having parents talking to me about how their kids were playing video games a lot, not working out, and they were driving them crazy,” Guyton said. “So I thought, this is 2020, this is a virtual world and society. There’s got to be a way to do some training.”

He got the idea from the parent of a wrestler, who alerted him to a video conferencing app called Zoom, which is being used by schools and businesses to host large groups in a single video chat.

“I went on YouTube and studied two videos from fitness guys who were meeting with their people,” Guyton said. “So I talked to parents and asked them if they would be interested in virtual training for their kids. They told me anything to give them inspiration and hope.”

The first session took place last Monday and had 10 participants. Guyton said the numbers have grown from there.

“The second class was more impressive, because I had three baseball players,” he said. “More parents are hearing about it and coming on board. (The training) is challenging, and it really works them out wherever they’re at in their homes. Every time, they say they’re looking forward to the next one.”

Guyton does video-conference training from 6–7:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and noon–2 p.m. Sundays. Each training session is $9, but Guyton said if someone can’t afford to pay, all they have to do is invite a friend to the training session as well to waive the fee.

“I’m not going to turn any kid away; I just ask them to bring in another kid that I don’t know,” Guyton said. “Just bring another person in, and that will be your $9 fee.”

Guyton said the wrestling practices are for anyone, no matter what sport they participate in normally.

“It doesn’t matter what sport you do. Wrestling is one of those sports that can assist any sport you’re in,” he said. “Football, baseball — we even have a kid that does track and field for James Clemens High School training with us.”

For more information about the training sessions, contact Guyton at jason@guytonwrestling.com.

“This kind of helps with bringing some normalcy back for the kids,” Guyton said. “I just want to help the kids and parents as much as possible with the normalcy part. Us coaches have a job and a responsibility to be there for our kids. Coronavirus is a horrible thing, but whenever you’re in times of crisis, you need leaders to step up and let people know we’ve got a catastrophe but we’re going to be strong and make it to the other side of this. This is the perfect time to stand up and provide leadership for these kids.”