Covid 19 coronavirus: Touch New Zealand launch national passing challenge amid lockdown

Touch New Zealand are determined to help Kiwis continue "passing on the good vibes".

The sporting body have launched a national passing challenge to keep New Zealanders active and connected during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Their goal is to reach a collective five million passes.

Touch New Zealand Community Coaching Manager George Jahnke told the Herald they're encouraging everyone to get involved.

"It doesn't have to be just a touch ball, doesn't have to be rugby, netball, try any ball. We've even got people trying it with avocados," he said.

"We've got a few All Blacks friends waiting in the background to post some big numbers. Our Touch Blacks program, a lot of them are doing 500-1000 passes every few days."

More than 100,000 passes have already been tallied since the challenge launched last week.

Jahnke said people can post their number of passes to the Touch New Zealand Facebook page and can add a video or photos.

"If they're shy, just post up the number because it keeps the tracking going and it helps us get to our goal," he said.

"We're 10 per cent of the way and we've got three weeks to go to our five million to represent our country to the rest of the world."

The initiative has already received plenty of praise, with young people and adults alike getting involved.

"The feedback has been really positive, some people are still full-on with work and are doing little chunks here and there," Jahnke said.

"We realise we have a responsibility in touch and the big difference we have is touch rugby connects communities and that's what we focus on."

Jahnke added how important it was to stay active during the lockdown for overall physical and mental wellbeing.

"It's so easy now with the internet to be sitting down, watching Sky or Netflix, or playing online giving your thumbs and fingers a good workout," he said.

"But you need to be getting out there, getting some fresh air, getting some sunshine and getting the body active.

"We put a big focus on mental health and keeping activity going within New Zealand."

NZ’s national passing challenge! Pass on the good vibe New Zealand whanau and join us in uniting the nation with the National Passing Challenge. Pass ANY ball as many times as you can and comment on this post with your # of passes. Post a 5 sec video too if you want! Target for NZ households ... 5 MILLION passes ‼️Can be done alone, with a partner, with the whole whanau. Let’s see if we can hit 5 million within 3 weeks of isolation. 5 Silver Fern Sport Stealth Match Balls to be given away (distribution post isolation period) 🙌 #passinggoodvibes 🏀🏈⚾️🏐🎾⚽️

Posted by Touch New Zealand on Tuesday, 24 March 2020