Yes, and we've been "open" the whole time. For the first 3-4 months, it was virtual training only. Then we started doing hybrid training, which was simultaneous virtual and in-person with social distancing measures (masks, 6 feet apart, temperature checks, lots of hand sanitizer, no parents in the audience, no sparring or drilling with a partner). A month ago, we're back to virtual only. It's been really hard.
Virtual classes suck. I'm just going to say it. They suck. For the good students, it's hard. For the bad students, it's impossible. Not the bad students in terms of ability, but the ones who are too immature for virtual class (usually 4-6 years old) or who have discipline issues and simply won't participate. It's a lot harder to help them do the correct technique. In-person, we could simply grab them and move the right limb into the right spot until they figured out how to do it on their own. On virtual, you're counting on a little kid to properly understand commands like "touch your right arm to your shoulder, step back with the right leg and turn, and down block with the right hand." They'll do the left arm, turn the wrong direction, and you can't just easily fix it.
On top of that, there's technology issues. Problems with Zoom. Problems with internet. Problems with video and sound. Students who have such bad camera angles you can barely see what they're doing. Microphones that buzz, echo, or are just really loud when people talk. You mute them, but then they unmute themselves. Parents are a huge problem. They have conversations while their kids are taking class, and it comes through. Even worse, they start arguing (or in one case, swearing). Then there's parents who will be yelling at their kids, even if the kids are doing what we expect. For example, we'll have the green belts idle while the green 1-stripes do a more advanced form. One of green belts will have their parent yelling at them because they're not participating. (But that's what we expect, it's not his form).
Partner drills are impossible, outside of a select few students who have a brother or sister in class. We can't do pad work. Most students don't have a bag at home to do bag work. We can't work on throws or grab escapes. We can't spar, or even do sparring drills. We're basically limited to forms, technical drills, shadow boxing, and exercise.
Social-distancing classes suck. They're almost worse than virtual classes, in my opinion. Trying to manage social distancing within the class is a nightmare. We spend 1/3 of our time just cleaning. And while it's slightly easier to see people, it's still just as hard because we can't do 99% of what we couldn't do virtually anyway.
Oh, and hybrid classes? The worst of the bunch. Because now you have to pay attention to in-person and online.
