I'm itching for a fix. There, I said it.

I used to spend my weeknights in an industrial padded room, simulating murder with a group of other like-minded individuals.

Big or small, young or old, male or female, we'd do our darnedest to choke, crush or otherwise maul one another.

They say jiu-jitsu is like fight club, but the first rule is that you always talk about it. Unfortunately, the close-contact nature of the sport made it impossible for gyms to stay open from late March.

I miss my gym buddies. And I know I'm not alone - Illawarra UFC champion Alex Volkanovski said he'd be happy to fight on a deserted island. The camaraderie found in contact sports is unique. You trust your team mates to practice mauling someone on you - and you trust that they'll do it in a way that means you walk out of class in one piece.

They do the same for you.

There's not much you can hide from each other - proximity and pressure have a way of bringing deeply-buried thoughts and feelings to the surface. They also give you a pretty good idea of what everyone in the class ate for lunch, and when they last showered.

I miss the endorphin fix - although that's been replaced, to an extent, by the online workouts our coaches have provided. Lots of other gyms are doing the same.

The last one involved 200 burpees and I wanted to quit well before I was half way through.

But everyone in the team had posted a video of themselves completing it online. From the fittest competitor to sporadic trainees. And I couldn't let then down.

One of the nicest parts of staying safe at home, far from my padded murder-simulation room, is the way it highlights the bonds between us and our favourite humans.

Maybe you don't go in for combat sports, but your film club has moved online. Maybe your yoga classes are now on Zoom - and you have a new appreciation for your classmates after seeing them practice in their homes.

Whatever you love, and whoever you share that passion with, I hope you've found a way to keep that spark alive. We're all stronger together.

Zoe Cartwright,

Journalist, South Coast Register

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