Topic: what to "teach" 1st timers

[turtlekarma]

I was originally gonna pose this question to just ozzi, but hey why not ask everyone else....Anyway hey guys/gals, I've been going to Hawaii Academy gymnastics gym pretty regularly every friday...and I'm always meeting new people who wanna try learn some basic moves in parkour.  I wanted to develop a kind of routine that I could go through when people are interested in me showing them the basics.  Do you think you could help me with this?

1.  I usually just start by seeing how much height they can get from a standing vertical jump...then I see how far they can get on a long jump.  With these two measurements in mind I take into account how "fit" they are in deciding what I want to show them. 
2. I like to start with a monkey up, then once they get comfortable with a monkey up I'll move onto a kong. 
3. If they get that down nicely I like to show them a lazy which usually is easy enough to get...after that I move onto a speed vault. 
4. Then a dash if they're feeling dangerous. 
5.  I usually end with precisions...basically seeing how far they can push themselves...not just in length but having to clear an obstacle in the way of a precision so that they have to lift their legs.

How does that routine sound to you?  Any criticisms or suggestions you've got?  Change around what I show them according to "difficulty"?  Think I should have diff way of doing things for younger kids...girls vs guys?  I even get some pretty seasoned gymnastics people wanting to join in...who usually are physically stronger/ more flexible then me...should I suggest harder moves for them to try?  Palm spins...360 precisions...you know more flashy stuff that would be out of the range of most beginners?  Oh and just in case you're wondering why I didn't include a warm up in there, it's basically because they usually jump in randomly...so it's not like I meet them there specifically to show them some basics... they're there working on their own things, and just happen to want to jump in with me. 

[Ozzi]

Hey Ryan,

Routine really doenst change for more experience athlete, they just learn quicker. Here is what suggest, this order have been working for a while since going from one to the next get easier with repetition.

Cranes
Safety Vault
Speed vault
Two handed vault.
Lazy and thief vault.
Monkey stall (monkey up)
-- You can insert kash here before kong, since they all seem to do it while learning kong anyway.
monkey and kong vault.
Precision

For more experience athlete, this doesnt need to change, you will just noticed they will learn much quicker for they understand their body more than most. So after they get all of that, you can move to putting vault together into a flow. Of vault to precision, or drilling really. I wouldnt get into palm spins or 360 precision. There are some few exception to that though. Like if you are teaching a tricker, or if that is what they really want to learn and you can tell they can handle it.

For your fitness assessment, you can add a knees up to the vertical jump. I would definitelly leave kong towards the end. That one takes a bit more skill that can be acquire by learning the other vaults. Plus, you dont want to give them the "best" (coolest looking vault) at first, cuz then theyll think the rest is blah, give them progressive coolness

For younger kids, I would just focus on play, only teach a few vaults, then have them monkey around and play with it, nothing changes much for girl but just more repetition with the upper body oriented vaults. Just gotta be taught differently.

I might give it another go next week. This week I have had enough gym, yesterday, plus I am going to Koko today. You coming?

[turtlekarma]

lol I like that idea of saving the cooler moves until then end... haven't really thought of using flow as apart of my "routine" sounds interesting. 
No kokokahi tonight though for me...might even skip hawaii academy tom, I've got three take home midterms to finish by monday...so unless I'm a bad ass today and finish at least one I probably won't have time for anything this weekend.

Thanks for the input though ozzi, I really appreciate it.  I felt kinda awkward trying to teach people stuff I've only just learned a couple of months ago... for the most part I think I teach the moves okay, but could you work on specific steps with me one day that I could go through for some of the more difficult moves?  Cause all I know is how I learned a move, I don't have a really good progressions for each one.  I try to follow the progressions I've seen in tutorials I've found useful, but they don't always work, especially with people who have got mental blocks to get over. 

[Ozzi]

Yeah man for sure, if anything the same progression I use in person you can find on our tuts. But next week maybe, hawaii academy yeah?

[Gregg]

I tailor it to who I'm with: mostly little kids at church. My usual thing is take what they're doing, and bump it up a notch.

I play with them in public areas, in front of other people/ their parents - QM, sloth hang from railings, play 1 foot hopping chase, climb on trees, jump around. I'll throw in a couple vaults maybe. Depends what's around, how safe it is, age and ability of the kids, etc.

Since you're in a gymnastics gym... and the people are asking you for parkour basics...
1. Jump tests are good... When they're doing the high jumps, emphasize good landing technique.
2. Monkey and kong can be hard for people with less upper body strength. First I'd have them try a 2 hand vault, then lazy, then speed.
3. Then I'd try the monkey up and kong. If they're weak, I'd have them do QM. Especially good if you have a low balance beam they can cat crawl on, and something they can QM under. You may want to show the roll before teaching the kong?
4. I'd skip the dash.
5. Precisions are good. I like to throw a couple pennies on the ground and have them try to precision onto the pennies. After a few shots, have them precision next to, but not on the pennies. When they know it's spotting safe/ unsafe places to land, they don't mind so much. Move them around, increasing the difficulty. Bonus if you can show them how to crane if they under-jump.
6. Is there any place to do a 5 to 6 foot wall-up? Teach them how to pop it first, then how to cat and pull up [if they have the upper body for it]. Also show them proper ways to get down. [Hang and drop, squat and 1 hand to guide/ slow the landing, "1 hand dash", etc].

This would cover 80% of the basics of parkour: landings, rolls, jumps, QM, the angled vaults, the straight on vaults, precisions, up and down walls and cats. If they have the ability and desire to get fancier than that, let them try, but if there's too much slop, make them break down the move so they're forced to do a few good landings, etc.

Because this is a gymnastics gym, you'll probably have plenty gymnasts. I would actually encourage chaining together moves [flow] before I would teach flash... [but for me, that's maybe because I can't DO the flash ]

[Gregg]

Ok. After seeing your posts while I was taking forever to post -

Move the precisions/ cranes earlier. Maybe do a few of them right after the jump tests, or as part of the jump test. Have something 2 feet high or so, and have them crane and precision onto it.

Before they 2 hand vault over the obstacle, have them 2 hand vault onto the obstacle, QM a couple feet and then "precision" off. There's so many times I have to do that... 

[turtlekarma]

I got to show some guys (don't remember their names  )this progression tonight at kokokahi.  Worked pretty good, they got the basic moves down (monkey up, lazy, speed, precisions, kash, kong, dash), even got to a reverse and a palm spin at the end...I even got them to do a running straight jump on top of a block about chest high.  Def gonna work on a set routine I try to follow so that I can refine the way I explain each move. 

def wanna put some QM in there though... flow work too, cause simply executing a move in itself seems so one dimensional to me... linking them together is what I would like to focus on towards the end.

[Ozzi]

I surely hope you are telling them about the site and the jams 

[turtlekarma]

of course I tell them about HIPK ozzi, do you have anymore fliers that I could hand out?  I used them all up already ...oh and gregg I tried building a "wall" out of those big foam blocks...but seriously weren't stable...lol so yeah I'm still trying to think of a way to set up stuff so that we can practice cat's and tic tacs.   

So yeah next week friday ozzi, I'd really appreciate it if you could head down and give me some pointers...do you think wall climbs/ wall runs should be in there somewhere? 

[Ozzi]

Maybe pop vaults and 3step wall run. Wall ups I would just wait, build the strength with pop and tic tac and wall runs so that the ankle get the feeling for the motion. They can try wall ups with time as the pop one gets better and better.

Next week Ill just go train with you and watch how you handle them, if you need my help you can have me help you but I want to see how you go about it too bro.

[turtlekarma]

haha, you shoulda came today...a truck load of kids came in and I was handling them on my own for about 45mins...was seriously just like I was teaching a class.  I was talking to the staff there today and they said if there's enough interest from the community (if it got enough people coming) they wouldn't mind if I tried teaching a class there, on Wednesdays... since I'm basically showing the basics to people there every friday anyway.  It was just a friendly suggestion, but I think it'd be cool... I just don't think I'd be confident enough handling a class all on my own, especially because I just started this past summer.

So yeah when you come next week we could talk to them about this if you'd like.  Another thing is that I'm not 100% sure we'll have anyone to teach...it's usually just that random people come up to me and ask me if they can join in with me, and I usually end up showing them the basics.  But some nights I'm lucky enough to just be able to train all on my own... so yeah, if you could at the jam this sunday could you invite some of the noobs to come down as well so I'll at least have people to train.

[Gregg]

Truckload of kids due to Furlough Friday?

Ryan, you've seen Ozzi lead jams and classes for 5-6 months now, right?
Do what you've seen him do, but adapt it to your own personality, style, abilities, etc.
Ozzi's right - he has to stay in the background, or he'll be teaching and you won't get the experience.

Bummer you couldn't get some kind of wall. Squishy foam?
Here, climb this 6' ... umm... 4' foam wall.

[turtlekarma]

yeah, I tried stacking the big foam blocks on top of each other to make a "wall" but we needed like 3 people holding it or else it'd fall down... had some pretty awesome bails though lol  I was toying with the idea of bringing some rope so I could tie the blocks together so they wouldn't move...but that was towards the end of our session and I was to lazy to try it. 

[Gregg]

I don't think roping them together will give you the stability you need. It's still foam.
Are the walls of the room good enough for tic-tacs/ pop-ups? Even if there's nothing to cat or climb...
Also, you can use uneven or even bars for your "wall top" and foam or a vault box for the bottom of the wall.

[turtlekarma]

I don't think roping them together will give you the stability you need. It's still foam.
Are the walls of the room good enough for tic-tacs/ pop-ups? Even if there's nothing to cat or climb...
Also, you can use uneven or even bars for your "wall top" and foam or a vault box for the bottom of the wall.

never thought of using the uneven bars...hmm we'll see how that goes...um yeah there's room for tic tacs, just hard cause we take up so much floor space (in general not just for tic tacs) I don't like having to wait to take turns with tumblers using it. 

[JCDubb]

I just don't think I'd be confident enough handling a class all on my own, especially because I just started this past summer.

Let me know too bro, I'll be happy to come and teach/help teach with you whan i can.

[Michael H. HIPK]

Well I know with the little kids (seeing as the largest gathering point of the neighborhood is right behind my house) that are anywhere from six to ten the see me training or using parkour while playing tag and always ask me "Wow, how do you do that?!?" or that type of thing and a few ask if I can show them a few things. So the first thing I show them is how to land properly, you know the whole bend your legs slap out. Then have them jump up a few times and show me they got it. After that I show them the roll (That's one of the most impressive things to them anyways), that one takes them a little longer and after that they either lost interest or have to go in. But if they get through that I start teaching them precisions. The playground out back is perfect for this too - they have a foot or so jump from the thing that holds the mulch in to a bench so I stand in that little gap and spot them. That's normally how I teach the little ones. But these ones don't really know what they're doing so I tell them not to jump off anything bigger than they are and leave it at that.

For peeps my age I start of course telling them you need to start small and don't go off doing even what I do yet. Then show them the landings and rolls as normal. After that I start teaching tic tacs and wall ups up a about nine foot wall and if that doesn't work then tic tac on a six foot wall with rails at the top to grab. Then I have them precision, normally four foot curb to curb. After they got these down I ask them what they'd like to learn/try... I get the kong a lot. Though I try and teach them the safety, two handed, and lazy vaults after the precision

I don't like teaching vaults first to anyone though. I tell the dangers and teach the basic landing and safety so they get that first, something I should have done. After that I teach not vaults first because one, the vaults aren't as useful, in my honest opinion. Sure they are useful but... Yeah. And for the people at my school who see me training and want to give it a shot I weed out the jokers by doing this.

There is my two cents ^^