How to play: toilet roll ten-pin

By Daniel Dyson, Digital Sports Editor

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sport-lovers have had to adapt their favourite hobbies in order to respect stay-at-home restrictions. As we enter the second month of lockdown 3.0, we are once again victims of the unending boredom that became so familiar last Spring. With that in mind Epigram is here to give you some fun ideas on how you can continue to enjoy your favourite sports whilst staying at home.

Training is part of daily life for professional athletes, even during lockdown when some elite sport remains postponed. Around the world, sportspersons have found creative ways to stay in shape whilst respecting government guidelines.

During the first lockdown beginning in March 2020, numerous global stars posted photos and videos on their social media showing the creative ways they were able to practise, which you could use as inspiration.

Why not resume last March’s craze of toilet roll keepie-uppies to keep you busy?

Amongst many other examples, we saw Hungarian canoeist Eda Zsofia Szabo train on an improvised canoe made from three of her dining room chairs. Further, triathlete Lasse Lührs performed dry swimming on beer crates at home.

However, new and creative ideas for exercising during lockdown have not been limited to elite athletes. French citizen Elisha Nochomovitz made the news in March last year when attempting to occupy himself by running a marathon on his balcony.

Wanting to celebrate France’s health service and show it is possible to stay fit at home, Nochomovitz ran 26.2 miles back and forth on his 7-metre-long balcony, completing it in six hours and 48 minutes.

Physical activity and relaxation techniques can be valuable tools to help you remain calm and continue to protect your health during this time.

Although an outstanding feat, here are some slightly more fun ways you can adapt your gardens, living rooms or bedrooms to fill these cold winter days.

First, why not resume last March’s craze of toilet roll keepie-uppies to keep you busy? When all global sport was postponed last year, footballers had a lot of time on their hands and started a challenge which instantly became viral, performing keepie-uppies with toilet roll.

Never played football or not sure if you will be any good? Just give it a go! After all, everything is behind closed doors now and toilet roll is no longer the rare commodity it once was.

You might even surprise yourself and discover you have a hidden talent for toilet roll keepie-uppies. Equally, this is a particularly good activity for students given it can be done without the need for much space so perfectly suits our small student bedrooms!

If you are a keen golfer and miss days out with your mates on the course, or for those of you lucky enough to have a garden, golf at home could be for you.

A quick Google search will bring up a golf chipping practice net to buy and put in your garden and improve your chip game.

Simply save your empty loo roll tubes, arrange them as pins in your house and use a full loo roll as a bowling ball and let the games commence.

Alternatively, you can purchase an indoor putting mat or use the budget option – a mug. Putting is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of golf and, thankfully, it is the easiest element of golf to work on at home. Dedicating time to putting practice can therefore make a real difference to your scores.

Finally, a slightly more fun activity that you can play with your family or housemates is homemade ten-pin bowling, which can also be done solely using loo roll.

Simply save your empty loo roll tubes, arrange them as pins in your house and use a full loo roll as a bowling ball and let the games commence.

The Buchabest intramural rugby team

The stress and challenge to mental health that lockdown has brought can be significantly aided by exercise. According to the World Health Organisation, physical activity and relaxation techniques can be valuable tools to help you remain calm and continue to protect your health during this time.

Bristol graduates become youngest women to row across Atlantic

We hope that this article will give you some ideas on how to look after your physical and mental well-being whilst abiding by government restrictions.

Featured Image: Eddie McAteer