Athletic Playground — Local services in Emeryville

It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve never felt bad or judged for being horrible at most of the activities. I’ve also got hard core ADHD and a tendency to talk, which other students and teachers have been great about tolerating while creating clear boundaries for me. Often in larger classes, more experienced students will jump in to help walk me through sequences that I forgot several seconds after hearing them. The classes I’ve attended seem to have a very group oriented goal of success rather than individuals focusing on purely themselves.

My teachers have also all been super attentive and have noticed physical issues in me that I wouldn’t have noticed myself, particularly given my generally sedentary lifestyle. I’m sure that the steps I’m taking now will greatly improve my quality of life in my later years, which is something I’m grateful to the staff for noticing.

Also really cool that there’s a PT somewhat associated with the place. Jaimie is super nice and has thus far tolerated all of my uneducated/nonsensical questions. My lack of awareness about my own body is impressive, if not sad, and students and teachers alike are down to help me find different bones and inform me if I’m accidentally bending my joints in a creepy way.

While I enjoy all the classes I take, I’d like to specially mention Homer’s 12pm Wednesday mixed apparatus class. It’s a good class to get a taste of what each aerial apparatus is like, and there’s all kinds of switching around which has incredible appeal to my...

On the good side I do think the teachers are nice and there are upsides to the flexibility allowed in enrolling for adult classes. I've been going here for a while and I haven't really had major issues with safety or classes and I've been going for a few months now.

That being said, I have noticed an issue with class levels and lack of structure. Because classes are drop in you don't have to worry about missing part of a series. However that also means that instruction can be all over the place. I have been in introductory/beginner classes where a significant number of the students are more advanced swinging the class harder with less time given to a beginner skill. A mixed level (or beginner/intermediate) class might be based around a specific skill, and if you do not have that skill it can be hit or miss if the teacher will take the time to work with you and troubleshoot or give an alternative sequence. If they do give an alternative sequence then it could be a well thought out progression to work towards the skill or it's something they pulled out at the last minute and they don't spend a lot of time on it.

Broadly speaking I wish the teachers of mixed level classes were more consistent with planning out alternative material and spending a fair amount of time with everyone...

The whole family can take classes at AP. My son has been enjoying Adv Monkey University, my son loves Walker’s parkour class and any class that Homer teaches. Now that I have become familiar with the process oriented environment I am loving all the classes I take at AP! Yesterday, I took Kate’s level 1 aerial class for the first time and I have to give her teaching ability a huge shout out. She is an ace at differentiating instruction. She taught me a piece of what I would need to know for the much more difficult sequence she was working on with the more experienced students. This made me feel so comfortable being new and less intimidated being inexperienced and like I was part of the group. Coach Kate is a gem. I am proud of myself because I could barely climb a silk 8 weeks ago, but since I’ve been attending monkey conditioning with Kelton and Shira and acro with Colin I’ve been getting so much stronger and it was so much easier! I’m also happy I can do a proper cartwheel. Being in my 40’s it’s very important that I stay fit and get strong! We drive to AP from Castro Valley because...