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I took a parkour coaching certification course a few weeks ago, and I'm still processing it. It was three full days of training, both physical training in parkour but also training in how to approach coaching. It was definitely not the sort of thing I was expecting to be as draining as it was. Coming off a work week, it felt like I was being shoved into another job. Which it kind of was. Coaching is a job.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was the only woman there, and I was the oldest person there by about 4-5 years. I was still the slowest and the weakest, but not by as much as I was afraid of. I could keep up with the whippersnappers for the most part. It was tough, but I could handle it.
The real challenge was in the coaching. I felt somewhat prepared, having done a ton of TAing in college and going to a million classes in the area and watching what the coaches do. It turns out having the responsibility for the physical and mental wellbeing of a group of people (a bunch of the people in my class were teenagers) is way different than trying to teach them what a for-loop is.
One of the sessions I had to teach was almost a complete disaster. Granted, I only had three minutes to come up with something and was forced out of my comfort zone to teach the thing. Yeah, that didn't turn out so well. But I survived it.
I survived the whole weekend, actually.
It was an intense three days. The group I train with is intense. They believe very strongly in the importance of being intense. The mental part was a part of that, because parkour is a mentally taxing discipline, and I've seen it in myself and others just how much our mental barriers can keep us back. I value their intensity, because it also comes with a deep sort of self-reflection.
I've watched their Women's International Parkour Weekend 2017 video a whole bunch of times, especially when I feel in need of motivation or inspiration. And I love the Traceuse Portrait Project that came out of it as well. Maybe next year, I'll be able to go in person and experience that energy for myself. I'm definitely thinking of going to Vancouver for another women's jam.
Anyway, now that the course is over, I still have to do 20 hours of supervised teaching. My first class is this Friday. Eep. I guess we'll see how this goes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was the only woman there, and I was the oldest person there by about 4-5 years. I was still the slowest and the weakest, but not by as much as I was afraid of. I could keep up with the whippersnappers for the most part. It was tough, but I could handle it.
The real challenge was in the coaching. I felt somewhat prepared, having done a ton of TAing in college and going to a million classes in the area and watching what the coaches do. It turns out having the responsibility for the physical and mental wellbeing of a group of people (a bunch of the people in my class were teenagers) is way different than trying to teach them what a for-loop is.
One of the sessions I had to teach was almost a complete disaster. Granted, I only had three minutes to come up with something and was forced out of my comfort zone to teach the thing. Yeah, that didn't turn out so well. But I survived it.
I survived the whole weekend, actually.
It was an intense three days. The group I train with is intense. They believe very strongly in the importance of being intense. The mental part was a part of that, because parkour is a mentally taxing discipline, and I've seen it in myself and others just how much our mental barriers can keep us back. I value their intensity, because it also comes with a deep sort of self-reflection.
I've watched their Women's International Parkour Weekend 2017 video a whole bunch of times, especially when I feel in need of motivation or inspiration. And I love the Traceuse Portrait Project that came out of it as well. Maybe next year, I'll be able to go in person and experience that energy for myself. I'm definitely thinking of going to Vancouver for another women's jam.
Anyway, now that the course is over, I still have to do 20 hours of supervised teaching. My first class is this Friday. Eep. I guess we'll see how this goes.