Freestyle Now skatepark coaching sessions are all inclusive for all skill levels and ages
At the beginning of 2020 Freestyle Now had a very busy first few months travelling to many locations. Some of the regional Western Australian towns that got to experience Freestyle Now skatepark activation sessions included Lancelin, Collie, Hopetoun, Bremer Bay and Eaton. In the Perth metropolitan area Freestyle Now rolled out the rad at Bullsbrook, Stratton, Guildford, Fremantle, Kalamunda, Altone and Willetton. The skatepark activation sessions were, as always, fun and productive with lots of skatepark participants learning new skills, making new friends and in some locations winning prizes.
The Collie skatepark engagement session were super rad. Freestyle Now did six sessions over January. It ended with a coaching jam session for the last session and we gave away some great prizes. A new level of confidence and skills were gained over the sessions, we could see the growth in the participants and their interactions. All participants were catered for with skateboard, bmx and scooter participants being engaged. Hope to return there soon to help roll out the rad.
Freestyle now squad members Shaun Jarvis, Mitchell Harris, Dylan Reese, Kareece Furneyvall, Luke Tooze and Josh Garwood attended some of the sessions at various times to help others learn how to roll out the rad. At the skatepark activation sessions Freestyle Now used our two main types of engagement, skatepark coaching sessions and skatepark coaching jam sessions. Each of these help target different participants via our engagement.
The skatepark coaching workshops are for participants to attend and learn new skills and gain confidence. These can be done in a formal way, with 5 to 6 participants per Freestyle Now facilitator or in a non-formal way with many participants able to attend, sometimes as many as 50. Each of them has its own benefits. The formal sessions are great for smaller skateparks and are usually hosted when the skatepark is closed to the public (or sections of the skatepark) and gives the participants more time with the facilitators. It is a great way to control numbers at skateparks. The advantage to informal sessions is that the skatepark remains open to everyone and Freestyle Now facilitators move through the participants helping the individuals during the course of the allotted time for the sessions.
Freestyle Now squad member Mitchell Harris is showing some participants how to put skateboards together. One of the aspects of the skatepark activation sessions is to show how to maintain and keep your equipment in good working order. Many participants don’t know how to maintain their equipment. This is an important factor of skatepark participation.
The skatepark coaching jam sessions are a fun way to engage participants with Freestyle Now creating mini-challenges and fun games that the participants can do at the skatepark to win prizes. This all takes place in the backdrop of our facilitators/coaches helping the participants learn new skills, tricks and gain confidence. Some of the challenges might be a long bunny hop, best trick, foot down, and effort recognition which is more aimed at the younger inexperienced participants who can’t do the best tricks. Freestyle Now makes this time a fun interactive experience for all participants including the spectators who can also get involved with cheering for the players in the games.
Most of the Freestyle Now skatepark activation sessions are normally all-inclusive catering for all ages, skills and disciplines (skateboard, scooter, BMX) working on the principle that when possible no one should be excluded. However, there are times when we do offer single discipline only sessions but these are normally formal coaching workshop sessions.
The Stratton skatepark coaching jam session was a great time, thanks to the City of Swan. Lots of fun challenges were done. Prizes were given out to the winners of the challenges. Everyone has a opportunity to participate and try to win a prize, even the participants who are not that confident or don’t have a high skill level. Freestyle Now has a all-inclusive policy to make sure no one misses out on an opportunity to learn, advance or win prizes.
At the Freestyle Now skatepark activation session’s fun is the driving factor. The sessions are informative and motivational. The Freestyle now instructors / facilitators are very easy going and relate to the participants well and let the participants ride at their own level and encourage progression. The workshop sessions are more than just teaching skills. There are many other potential outcomes from attending a Freestyle Now skatepark activation session. Participants learn about using the skatepark safely, skatepark etiquette and equipment care, this information is also given to parents through a parental information session. Skatepark activity involves a lot of body movement and participants learn about how their interaction of body movement with their scooter/skateboard/bicycle is highly important to achieve the skills they are seeking. Skateparks are a place where everyone has the opportunity to participate safely and without prejudice over their choice of discipline or appearance, this message is reiterated at every session. Freestyle Now facilitators are positive role models that participants can look up to and aspire to be, positive peer networks are important. At Freestyle Now skatepark activation sessions participants are given the self confidence to be themselves.
Freestyle Now also offers private coaching session with our squad members. These sessions can cater for 1 to 3 participants in BMX, scooter or skateboard and are generally one to two hours long. Cost is on application, for more information contact Freestyle Now. Be sure to check our coming events page for when Freestyle Now will be heading out to a skatepark and hosting an activation session.
Freestyle did a few skatepark activation sessions at the Bullsbrook skatepark and bmx jumps. Squad members Shaun Jarvis, Luke Tooze and Kareece Furneyvall attended on this day and helped the bmx and scooter participants learn new skills. The participants learnt a lot of basic skills, which are the building blocks to more complicated moves.
Clockwise from top left – Young Jack has been a regular at our skatepark coaching sessions over the last few years. It’s great to see him progress on his skateboard and scooter. Jack was at the Lancelin skatepark coaching jam session where he won a Freestyle Now “Rad Dude” t shirt in one of the challenges. – At the Lancelin skatepark coaching jam session we gave away lots of prizes. These tow skateboards were stoked to win some goodies, like a new skateboard deck and t shirt. – The bmx session at the Bullsbrook bmx jumps was a fun time. We got the participants to do things that they normally would not do. This exercise was about concentration on balance and thinking outside of the box. – The Eaton skatepark bmx session had some great participation. Freestyle Now squad members Luke Tooze and Shaun Jarvis helped the skatepark coaching participants learn new skills and gain a higher level of confidence. Confidence is the key to unlocking new skills.
Clockwize from top left – The Guildford bmx jumps engagement session was a great fun time. Freestyle Now hosted a coaching jam session thanks to the City of Swan. Ronan is a rad young rider and hit up this no hander during a best trick challenge. – The participants at the Guildford bmx jumps coaching jam session had a fun time. Freestyle Now made up a challenge that had teams of three riders. Each team had to include three different levels of riders, super confident, medium level of confidence to gaining confidence. The teams had to make up a run over the jumps and whichever team that the best looking run (having the three riders jumping over the jumps) would win. On this occasion it was the “eye don’t care” team won on a runoff against the “biker dudes” (each team had to come up with a name). Ronan, Campbell and Magnum all won a Freestyle Now “Life without BMX” t shirt. – The Altone skatepark coaching session had lots of participants. Here Luke Tooze who rides bmx is helping scooter riders learn some basic confidence building skills. Jumping into a ramp and landing on the scooter deck with both feet in the right position. Freestyle Now coaches are multi talented and skilled and have the ability to cross over into any discipline. – Kareece Furneyvall engaging with scooter participants at one of the skatepark activation sessions.
Clockwize from top left – The Bremer Bay skatepark engagement sessions were super rad, with lots of participants. One of the challenges we held is a long bunny hop jump. In most cases we put a restriction on the run up so the participants don’t have a lot of speed. This adds a level of difficulty as the slower you go the less of a distance you can jump. This also adds a safety feature into the challenge. We all know the faster you go the harder you fall. – Winners are grinners at Bremer Bay. – The skatepark activation session we held in Hopetoun had many participants. The sessions were staged over two day, one on the afternoon and one in the morning. In the afternoon session we were inundated with participants, most were beginners on scooters. Freestyle now squad member and head coach Shaun Jarvis ended up taking a group of 20 participants and teaching all the basic scooter skills so that they had more confidence when transversing the skatepark. The next day in the morning we held a coaching jam session and gave away some prizes. As you can tell by the skatepark users were stoked. – Skateboarding has a good following in Hopetoun and there were more girls on skateboard than boys. These two girls won a Freestyle Now t shirt each from the different challenges we had set for them to participate in.
