Office Hours #14

A double header today! Exciting! ...actually, it's because I forgot to do a post about Parkour Office Hours #14 when I first archived it two weeks ago... whoops!

So here it is! No segment this time around. Instead, I ramble about the MovNat cert, which I had just finished the day before. 

Reflections on the MovNat certification, Part II

If you haven’t already, go check out Part I of this article on MovNat’s website. 

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You back? Great - read on!

So, the content of the certification was, I thought, really good. This was only the 2nd time the MovNat team had run a cert, so there were some inevitable pacing issues, but overall I was impressed by the level of polish that all elements of the certification had. As I alluded to in part I, I hope that future certs spend less time on teaching physical skills and more time on actual coaching skills - with the understanding that everyone there already has a pretty good vocabulary of movement skills. I heard the suggestion that the Physical Competency test be conducted in the very beginning of the cert just to ensure that everyone there is ready for next steps - I think that’s a great idea.

I’m not going to talk about many details of the curriculum itself - I’ll leave that to the MovNat team - but I really appreciated the emphasis on movement quality and efficiency. This can be a tricky concept to get across to clients. Many of my students, especially the adults, have been conditioned by the standard fitness industry to do as much work as possible. Getting them to accomplish a task with as little work as possible often strikes them as bizarre, but it is absolutely vital that they learn this lesson early. Efficiency is compromised at the expense of safety. It's also a fun paradigm shift: rather than trying to burn as many calories as possible in the 30 minutes we allocate for movement every other day, we instead have our physicality so deeply integrated into our lives that we need to be as skillful as possible to accomplish all the feats of athletisism that the day requires. Imagine a culture where we can't not move - pretty neat, right?

I also appreciated the frequent reminders to not, as Erwan said, put movement in a box. I’ve written frequently about the dangers of relying too much on a fixed system. I’ve worried that as MovNat rolls out more and more trainers we’d start to see more rigidity and dogma creep into the community. The MovNat team addressed this head on and I appreciated their message: The skills covered in the cert are by no means all of MovNat, let alone all of movement. Don’t be dogmatic in your thinking. Push to develop your own skills and don’t be afraid to try new things. In short, don’t put movement in a box. It’s now up to us as representatives of the culture to take responsibility for those values.

Not that I have any influence on or clout with the MovNat community, but if I had to leave my fellow newly minted MovNat trainers with any advice it would be this: take the solid foundation you’ve been given and build on it. Even the best foundation in the world is useless if you don’t build something on top of it. Keep expanding your movement skills - don’t just practice the same exact jump, or crawl, or climb, in the same exact place. This doesn’t mean you have to do big, flashy, dangerous things and start jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Just stay curious, experiment, and keep learning. Erwan spoke very eloquently on the importance of being an inspirational figure. I think the only way to really make that happen is through a commitment to self improvement and self evolution.

As a quick example, here's me messing around the other day. My fellow MovNat trainers will be able to pick out the roots of techniques we covered during the cert, but all mushed together and combined in different ways.

I want to thank Vic, Brian, Kellen, and especially Erwan for putting together such a great certification. I think they pulled off a very difficult task. While I don't think this is a certification for everyone, (because nothing is for everyone) if you are a fitness professional who is interested in developing skillful athletic clients then you should look into becoming a MovNat trainer. To my fellow MovNat trainers: I'll say it one more time - keep practicing and improving. Not just your physical skills, but your coaching skills as well. We've got a big job ahead of us and we need to be equal to the task.

Post-apocalypse now...

First of all, I've had a few people ask if I'm going to write something about my MovNat trainer certification experience. I have - two parts, actually. Part 1 will be on MovNat's website and part 2 will be here some time next week, so stay tuned.

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I've been out of the video game business for a while now, but I still try to keep tabs on it. This year's E3 (the industry's big trade show) just happened and all the developers/publishers were showing off their big upcoming titles. Of note were Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us" and Ubisoft's "ZombiU." (Warning, both those videos are quite violent) They follow a now well established resurgence of interest in post-apocalyptic scenarios, perhaps best epitomized by the good ol' Zombie Apocalypse.

There's no denying that our culture has an obsession with this idea. What's strange is that a significant number of people express a desire for such an event to actually occur. Obviously anyone who is sane doesn't mean it literally, but still, what's going on with that? I made a quip on Facebook a few weeks ago about how I wasn't sure if enthusiasts really understood what the words "apocalypse" and "zombie" meant. I don't mean to mock anyone's fantasies here - making fun of fantasies for being unrealistic is like making fun of children for growing taller - I just find the whole thing very interesting and telling.

While our classic post-apocalyptic stories grew out of trying to make sense of our general unease/dread of a thermonuclear end to the Cold War, I think this latest round of enthusiasm speaks to something else. See, here's the thing about the post-apocalypse: you don't have to pay your taxes. Or rent. Or go to your awful job and get yelled at by your boss. You are perfectly liberated. At the same time, all of your experiences would be extremely real, raw, immediate, and visceral. Your full calendar and endless to-do list? Out the window. The only task for the day is to survive. Beautifully simple and straightforward, right? No chronic stress about looming deadlines etc. Back to good old fashioned fight/flight just like nature intended. Note that it's also an intensely physical lifestyle. You have no choice but to be fully engaged with your body and your environment. As our modern lives disconnect us more and more from both, such and existence becomes more romantic.

If we dig in a few layers deeper, I think there's a lot of environmental concerns/nostalgia at work here. A lot of modern post-apocalyptic art highlights nature reclaiming urban areas. Everything is quiet - no traffic noise, airplane noise, no construction noise, no constant beeping of phones. Perhaps this speaks to a universal desire to reconnect with the natural world and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet?

Okay, this actually looks pretty awesome.

We could continue this analysis all day, but here's the point I want to make: Our cultural obsession with post-apocalyptic scenarios speaks to a widespread dissatisfaction with our current lifestyles. We feel trapped and we want a release.

Well, there's good news. You can fulfill basically all the elements of post-apocalyptic life I listed above without the need for that messy apocalypse bit. It won't necessarily be easy, but it's entirely doable. Take time to declutter your life. Explore some minimalism and begin to pare away excess - starting with physical stuff then moving onto lifestyle. Work on ways to manage your stress - maybe meditation, maybe more sleep, maybe identifying and removing the source of the stress. If you hate your job, figure out how to quit and do something you enjoy. Reconnect with your body by moving it more - some people call that exercise. Reconnect with the natural world by spending more quality time in it. Take risks - revel in your accomplishments and learn from your mistakes. Make some time for yourself. Yes, all of this is easier said than done, but it's all entirely doable.

If you want more, perhaps you should look into Urban Exploring. You might want to consider getting into Urban Agriculture. You just might want to look into protecting open spaces in your community.

In short, we can make the world we want to live in, on an individual level but also on a societal level. I really think we all must make an effort to live simply and sustainably - for our own health and happiness, sure, but also because it shouldn't take a global catastrophe for us to see the error of our ways. Let's take steps now to avoid the apocalypse. I'd really miss the coffee.