Topic: Parkour/Freerunning Class, need help creating lessons

[KageRounin]

I work at a gymnastics facility and they are creating a Parkour/Freerunning class for me to coach. I am looking for assistance in creating lesson plans, progressions, skills, homework, anything to help me out. Thanks in advance for any help you all can give.

[Memitchi]

Well, you're going to have to start by teaching them how to warm up and stretch.
Then, I would move on to landings and rolls. After that, a lazy or speed vault would be a good lesson.
And then, at the end teach them out to warm down. Throughout the lesson, make sure to emphasize on not taking large drops, being careful, etc.
This would be a first lesson for a group of complete beginners.

Will there be an advanced class? How many classes will be taught? Some more details would be useful. 

[Paul Exter]

I've been going to a parkour class for over a year now, feel free to PM me for info.

If you can include pics of what you guys will be working with I'll even build routes for you.

edit: I have a sneaking suspicion that you don't do parkour...correct?

[Memitchi]

I have a sneaking suspicion that you don't do parkour...correct?

I doubt they would ask him to teach people parkour, without knowing how to do parkour. xD

[Paul Exter]

I doubt they would ask him to teach people parkour, without knowing how to do parkour. xD

Yeah it does seem silly but I just had a niggling feeling

[John George 'JG']

You might find some great information if you post this question in the Community and Club Leaders section: http://www.americanparkour.com/smf/index.php/board,228.0.html

There are ADAPT qualified coaches and coaches who have been training and coaching for years.

[KageRounin]

As far as I know it will be one class and because I've been teaching people off the books for awhile it is going to look like a pretty diverse group as far as levels are concerned. I am not gonna say I do Parkour because I never went and did it outside but I used to do it inside the gym. So I am no pro, but not a beginner. I am expecting a lot of people are gonna be more interested in the freerunning portion of the sport as well.

[John George 'JG']

Thank you very much for posting here.

Teaching parkour as a non-practitioner is going to be VERY challenging. Keep in mind that the moves and techniques don't make parkour. The mindset makes parkour.

Parkour is a discipline where you make yourself physically and mentally stronger while learning how to overcome obstacles. There is both a physical and mental aspect to the training.

The physical aspect of the discipline I'm sure you already have. It's the very specialized knowledge of how the body works and the mentality of the training that takes years to develop.

Let me conclude by saying that the majority of online videos do not offer an accurate representation of the discipline. Search on YouTube for "HIPK Drill Series". Those videos offer some non-verbal insight into the mindset of the training.

[7Erik7]

I work at a gymnastics facility and they are creating a Parkour/Freerunning class for me to coach. I am looking for assistance in creating lesson plans, progressions, skills, homework, anything to help me out. Thanks in advance for any help you all can give.

Like John said, it's very, very tricky to teach parkour freerunning if you’re not training and practising yourself mostly because a lot of the understanding of it only can be attained by training and practising. So if you train more, it will certainly help you a little bit to teaching ven though teaching is very different.

The first step would be to research, to study it, though. There is a lot of articles, documentaries, movies, all over the internet.  Reliable sources on the internet is (obviously) documentaries by the founders and their students. Parkour Generations youtube channel have a lot of good stuff, aswell as Julie Angels youtube channel (slamcamspam) which have a load of great documentaries. There is also books; The Freerunning & Parkour handbook by Dan Edwardes will give you a very brief history- and philosophy lesson, and then the rest 80% of it is tutorials explaining the basic movements. Yet alone this would not be enough. Another book – that is by far the best book about parkour - is Julie Angels PhD Ciné Parkour and it goes a lot deeper than The Freerunning handbook, and it will explain parkours origins, how it evolved, and much, much,much more. Its in my opinion by FAR the best book around.

This is one of the way to learn; To research for yourself. Another way would be to aim for the ADAPT certificate (parkouruk.org). Its not easy but you’ll spare yourself from self-research regarding parkour itself. A part from that, it'll REALLY help you with coaching abilities. Thing is, you must (unfortunately) either way put theory into practise.