M2M Day 94: This is the first time that I’m not fully in control, and it’s a bit scary
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For February, my goal is to land a backflip.
The first three months of this project (cards, drawing, cube) have been very easy logistically. Either I packed what I needed in my bag and practiced on the train, or I practiced from the comfort of my apartment when I had the time.
This month’s challenge — landing a backflip — is very different.
This month’s constraints
I only feel comfortable attempting a backflip if 1) I have a trained professional teaching me and spotting me, and 2) I’m in a controlled, safe, padded environment.
In other words, this month, I can’t just practice when I have a free moment wherever I am. Instead, I need to find and coordinate with another human-being every time I want to practice. I also need to coordinate with and travel to a set location. Everything must be scheduled in advanced.
Basically, unlike all previous M2M challenges, my success this month isn’t fully in my control. While this makes things a little bit harder, it’s also going to be really interesting to see how I deal with this.
The challenges of finding a coach
I was quickly made aware of not fully being in control during my six-week search for a coach: I began looking for a coach in late November, and was able to “secure” one only three weeks ago.
(I’m not willing to fully commit yet to the word “secure”, since I actually only have one introductory lesson scheduled. After that, my schedule is still up in the air. The hope after the first lesson is to figure out where I’m at and schedule accordingly.)
Since I’m willing to pay a decent amount for each lesson , I figured it wouldn’t have been this challenging to find a coach. But, there were a few things that made this tricky:
- I don’t have any relationship with a gym or coach. Typically, private lessons are prioritized for members of the gym, who attend group classes and want a little extra attention. This is not me.
- I’m not looking for something long-term. From a business perspective, coaches/trainers are much better off retaining the same clients over a long period of time. It’s just more reliable recurring revenue. I’m a much worse investment.
- Most gyms aren’t in San Francisco. Based on a recommendation from a friend, I was able to find a great coach, but he’s based at a gym 40 minutes away by car and was only available after 9:30pm. Since I have to get up early for work and don’t own a car, this wasn’t going to work out.
Despite these challenges, a few weeks ago, I was finally able to connect with the head parkour coach at AcroSports, a gym near Golden Gate park in San Francisco, and he is willing to help me out.
We were supposed to have our first session tonight, but, at the last minute, he was hired to perform parkour in a major TV commercial, so we moved the session to tomorrow night.
I’m curious to see how this new variable (of another person) plays into the narrative this month…
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
