ADAPT

I've spent this past week in London training and teaching with the Parkour Generations team and going through the ADAPT assessment.

It's been an absolutely amazing week and the insight and experience of these guys has really enhanced my approach to training and refreshed everything about what i do and why I do it.

I want to talk about ADAPT. As one of the first 'outsiders' to take the qualification I thought I would try and give a little bit of what I thought of the process, training and assessment. There's been a lot of questions over ADAPT which is great - it's important to question things. Hopefully my experience will answer some of these questions and help people to make up their own minds about what they think of it.

In short - my week went something like this:
Day 1, Monday - Team Training with Parkour Generations - preparation day for ADAPT.
The first day consisted of some light training - going over a few of the exercises for the coming physical test and doing some light training and 'play.'
Working as a group, pushing some limits and getting a feel for the 'level' of physicality needed for the test later that week. Scary.

Day 2 - more light training with Stephane and Johann leading the group.
Today ended with a discussion session about the assessment where Steph and Jo did their best to answer any questions we had about the tests and talk a bit about their motives for creating the qualification and our personal motives for coaching.
It's great to be surrounded by people who are so sincere and dedicated to their art and although I would already consider myself to be 'living' parkour these days, it was somewhat inspiring.

At night, I was given the task of running an indoor adult class for around 60-70 people. With 10 minutes preparation time. This was very tough, but a great test of coaching ability and in my opinion probably the most important part of the acreditation - when given the task of teaching way outside of the usual comfort zone - how will the coach cope?
I killed it in the warm up and put everything into the class, fully aware that I would have to be fresh the next morning for the physical test......


Day 3 - Wednesday - ADAPT physical test
The atmosphere was very different this morning when the group met. Everyone was very quiet and there was definite tension in the air. We had been told the day before by Johann, Stephane, Forrest and Dan that for the test days they were not there to help but simply to assess, which is somewhat intimidating.
Nonetheless the group got together and settled into a very very long day of physical testing.
A 6K run in 25 minutes, various quadrupedie and press-up variations, pull up and traversing exercises,hanging, rope climbs,stair drills, squats, drop jumps,ab workouts. Each individual exercise had some element of challenge, but the real difficulty was doing the whole thing in one day.
I think the Level 1 physical test is at about the right difficulty for new coaches - it's challenging enough that it requires good fitness, commitment and spirit and not so ridiculously soul destroying that only Arnie and Stallone could get through it.

After the physical a few of the guys went straight to teaching. mental.

Day 4 - Technical Test
Today was a much more relaxed day and everyone turned up with achy bodies from the previous days' physical but still raring to go and do their absolute best.
The Technical test requires demonstration and explanation of the elementary techniques of Parkour - jumping, rolling, balance, wall climbing, simple vaults.
Each of us were taken from the group one at a time and asked to explain particular techniques and demonstrate that we were capable of executing these techniques in a manner which would set a good example for potential students.
We had to be skilled and complete in our techniques and be able to understand how to analyse, assess and explain their uses and dangers.
I found it quite a surreal experience explaining techniques to guys who trained with the people responsible for 'creating' them.
I think the technical test was thorough enough to cover all aspects of basic technique and explanation but not so specific that it turned into a performance test, which would be ridiculous.
After the technical test, we sat with Stephane and Johann and had a sort of 'feedback' session about the test days. They were very keen to make sure that they took on board any criticism we had of the tests and clearly want it to be as perfect as possible in all aspects.

Day 5 - Friday - Supervised coaching.
Over the week, the various members of the group were assessed at their various classes to log supervised coaching hours. With Dan visiting Glasgow earlier in the year I had a bit of a head start on the coaching hours, and so did a few classes this week to complete my hours, finishing with the pleasure of teaching an outdoor class at Vauxhall on this warm sunny Friday night before I left for the Megabus back to Glasgow.

Day 6 - 8 hours on a bus and now home.
Having now been through the Level 1 Assessment I can say confidently that I believe this qualification is very complete - it covers all aspects of attitude, physicality, technicality, discipline, commitment and spirit required to be a true ambassador and teacher of Parkour.

It is very challenging and you are expected to step up in all aspects of coaching and training quite often under pressure or when your body is not at it's best.
This is the way it should be - coaching is not about the coach - it's about the students and as a coach you must always give of yourself regardless of how many classes you have done that week or how tired your body and mind feels.
The level of the assessment is high enough that it will take serious commitment to complete it - ensuring that only real, sincere dedicated coaches will come through it. It is very hard and very very thorough.
At the same time, it's not so stupidly difficult that it will exclude people with the correct attitude but a little less experience. What's clear to me is that if a potential coach has the correct attitude and spirit, that will be recognised by the assessors.

I have no doubt that the Parkour Generations guys have the most sincere and humble atittude towards creating this qualification. They care so much for their art and they want people to learn in the proper way by people who are capable, sincere and talented.
They wanted to hear our thoughts on it and there's no doubt they feel a great responsibility to make ADAPT accessible to the right people while protecting Parkour's integrity and purity.
And as traceurs who train directly and started with the founders of the discipline, there is no doubt that their experience gives them the right to deliver and assess this course.

To ensure that ADAPT is exactly what it should be, the assessments have been 'closed' up until now.
I'm really excited for when it's opened up and the first batch of coaches from all over the world take the assessment and get to enjoy the same crazy week I have had, and at the end of it know that the founders of their discipline have got to know them and seen that they are passing on the correct message.

From a personal point of view, it's an honour to be involved in this right at the beginning and has only given me more motivation to break down barriers, open doors and make sure that as many people as possible can get access to learning the Spirit of Parkour.