The team at Emergence, who will serve as your ‘Instructors’ for the Academy, aim to approach the learning journey and everyone within it, just as they do with the learning environment design for athletes. This means, they know that the process is going to be a very nonlinear and authentic one where each learner has their own specific goals and aspirations, as well as strengths and weaknesses within their craft. The aim is to meet you where you are and attempt to walk alongside you to help assist you to get where you believe you were destined to be as a Sport Movement Specialist. In this way then, instead of being an ‘Instructor,’ members of our team will be more of a ‘Facilitator.’

On this note, The Movement Academy will be a co-adaptive relationship between Emergence, your peers within the community, and yourself. This means that nothing is set in stone within the curriculum. The Emergence team takes great pride in being attuned to what one’s needs are and then tailoring the content covered, the questions asked, and each correspondence, around what it is that interests you as the learner and will be most relevant for the niche you behave within. Our ‘Facilitators’ won’t have all the answers – far from it, in fact. However, they look forward to growing and evolving their respective crafts right alongside you as they know that each party will have the opportunity to learn from one another.

Ultimately, you will be given tremendous autonomy, freedom, and flexibility within your learning journey and The Movement Academy Facilitators want to support you in any way that we can.

Many people may look at what The Movement Academy consists of and initially think that its only for advanced learners in the movement skill community. This is simply not true. Though those with lots of experience or an existing abundance of knowledge and understanding will be able to gain a great deal from participating in the Academy, because of our flexible and individualized structure with the directions we will aim to go and concepts we will uncover, The Movement Academy is equally relevant for assisting those with varied experiences and levels of understanding. If you are passionate about movement behavior like we are, then you will fit in within The Movement Academy.

Additionally, you don’t have to be in a specific role where you operate as a Movement Coach or Skill Acquisition Specialist to participate in The Movement Academy. Anyone who works to drive more functional movement behaviors in any capacity with athletes (and humans of all sorts) should consider joining us. This includes, but is not limited to, Sport Coaches, Performance Coaches, Sport Scientists, Strength & Conditioning Specialists, Athletic Trainers, Physical Therapists, Personal Trainers, Professors, and Researchers. We believe, that as long as the individual possesses the right mindset and approach, any and all of the above can be a well-equipped Sport Movement Specialist who drives change for the crafts of individual athletes as well as the community as a whole.

We cannot overstate enough: if you are dedicated to your craft and committed to becoming the most effective Sport Movement Practitioner that you can be, then The Movement Academy is certainly for you. If you have questions about the fit between your skills and what The Movement Academy will be able to offer for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out and one of our ‘Facilitators’ will be happy to speak with you.

Ah, not exactly! In fact, us giving you predetermined training programs, or a cookbook of drills, or prescribing anything for your athletes, is NOT what will be beneficial for you anyway! Instead, we strive to help you grasp the most pertinent movement science concepts so that theoretical ideas will come to life in the practical applications of your learning environments. So, even though we will not be giving you training programs, we will assist you with the look and feel of your practice environment, the design of the movement problems that you set, an understanding of the manipulation of constraints within your peculiar contextual setting, and behaving in the most optimal ways possible as a Sport Movement Specialist so that the athletes you work with can become the most skillful moving versions of themselves.

Of course, the majority of The Movement Academy curriculum is about interaction. This interaction will take place between the Sport Movement Specialist (you) and the Emergence Team Facilitator(s), as well as between students (your fellow Professionals). Being that The Movement Academy is open to individuals across the world, we will utilize the Zoom platform for these interactions (you don’t need a Zoom account; we will just send you links that allow you to get into the ‘Meeting Rooms’). Additionally, on this note, we will do everything we can to be flexible with our scheduling for the Interactive Calls so that we are able to accommodate individuals who may be scattered across the globe. Finally, it should be stated that every Interactive Call will be recorded and accessible shortly after the call so that each student of the Academy is able to revisit the information shared as many times as they desire and for future reference as needed.

Like all aspects of the learning process, the answer to this question will be dependent on a whole host of individual factors. For starters, we understand that most of the participants within The Movement Academy will be active, working professionals across the field. Though we will design the coursework within the Academy around you and your needs, it goes without saying that like the pursuit within any endeavor, the more time and energy that you are willing to invest, likely the more that you will get out of your personal study of the science and art of being the best Sport Movement Specialist that you can be. Overall, as long as you are fully committed to your craft, and you are willing to give everything that you can, once again, we will meet you where you are and attempt to make the best of the entire experience for you…no matter the amount of time that you have available within your schedule.

To piggyback off of the earlier answer above (regarding ‘who The Movement Academy is for?’), if you are passionate about movement skill, then we would encourage you to commit to your craft by joining us. Let’s say that you are a Strength & Conditioning Coach, and you rarely (and maybe never) get to work with your athletes directly out in their sporting arena; there will still be a plethora of ways that you will able to bring some of these movement science related topics to light within the weight room setting and ultimately allow those you work with to explore, discover, and expand their movement toolbox. To answer the second question, let’s remember: as humans, we all move! And, we can all aim to move more skillfully and dexterously; it’s just that the environment and the movement problems will be different. Thus, it doesn’t matter who you work with and where you work with them, if movement is part of your passion, we are positive that The Movement Academy will have a whole lot to offer you!

Each cohort will last six (6) calendar months in length. Though we strongly feel as though every individual is on a constant, yet nonlinear, educational journey, we also believe that this six month period of time will provide a wonderful opportunity for each individual within the cohort to grow significantly. 

Our next cohort will start on Monday, January 11, 2021. If you are unable to register for this kickoff cohort, there will be additional cohorts coming in 2021 and beyond. A schedule of the upcoming cohorts will be listed here soon. 

The one-on-one interactive calls will vary depending on the number of questions asked by the student and the peculiar directions that the call will go depending on the needs of the individual student. With that said, calls will generally be approximately 60 minutes in length. However, we cannot emphasize too much that these calls are really about the learner and his/her desires and needs. Both parties will be expected to engage in an emergent and interactive discussion. Hence, the topics which will be covered, will be highly specific to allow the Sport Movement Specialist (aka the student) to exist in a space where he/she can grow accordingly and be challenged appropriately in a safe fashion. It will be our shared responsibility to fill in the gaps that you, as the learner, feel as though is holding you back and/or are mostly intrigued to learn more about.