Help Save AMP 4.0

Howdy! My name is Scott Hoffman, and I am one of the owners of Adaptive Movement Parkour, a Parkour, Free Running, Martial Arts, Aerial Silk, and Nerf facility in New Britain, Connecticut. Here is our message to you, and to our members who have supported us for so long.

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Hey Team,

As has been hinted at before, AMP’s finances haven’t recovered since the pandemic hit, and until now, the landlord has been amicable in floating our back rent in the hopes that we would eventually be able to pay down some of that debt. However, a year and a half later the debt continues to grow (slowly at least), and the landlord is no longer able to allow us to keep going the way we are going. The leadership team had been waiting in hopes that the usual surge in students during the fall would turn the tide, but unfortunately, the numbers simply aren’t adding up. We are now at the point where the landlord needs us to make a substantial contribution towards our debts from Covid, or he will need to do what’s in his best interest, which is to put the space back on the market in the hopes that he can find a renter who can take over the lease and pay in full, on time. We are grateful that the landlord has given us this much leniency in order to try to get things moving, and he has assured us that he would much prefer we stay in the space, as he invested a lot of time and money into getting us here and keeping us here.

AMP’s community has grown and helped its members in so many innumerable ways that it would be impossible to try to fit them all in here, but I would like to at least highlight some interesting ones.

We’ve grown from a martial arts gym with two vaults and two boxes, to a full gym with Parkour, Martial Arts, a Foam Pit, Spring Floor, Bar Cage, Rock wall, Aerial Silks and enough space to use them all to their fullest

We’ve trained 30+ young adults to be coaches, building skills that they will utilize later in life

We’ve introduced over 10,000 people to the art of Parkour

Some of our earliest students have gone on to earn Bachelors, Master’s, and Doctorate's

We’ve helped find homes for coaches and students who struggled with housing

We’ve provided food for coaches and students who struggled with food security

We’ve provided hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to local food pantries through our annual charity events.

We’ve provided a space where members have found their life partners

We’ve trained athletes who have medaled or won national level Parkour/Free Running competitions

We’ve trained athletes who have medaled or won at national ninja competitions.

We’ve taught a surprising amount of teens and young adults how to drive. . . literally.

We’ve provided a safe place for students of every race, nationality, skin color, sexual orientation, and gender to be active and find like minded friends

We’ve provided a place for the neurodivergent (ADD/ADHD/ASD) to be themselves in a place that values their strengths, rather than punish them for their perceived shortcomings

We’ve provided discounted or free training to hundreds of members who struggled financially

We’ve become the home for the Down Syndrome Association of CT’s Literacy Program

We’ve trained aspiring stunt performers, actors, fighters, and professional movement athletes to step into their dream jobs with skill and confidence

We’ve given parents a place to make friends and, many times, drop their kids off for a moment’s peace (our students aren’t generally known for being quiet)

We’ve given adults who didn’t think they could be athletic, or at least be athletic ever again, a new outlet for the frustrations of adult life

We’ve provided a clean safe space for kids, teens, and adults to learn to take intelligent risks in finding out what their mind and body can accomplish

We’ve done all this without asking for money, recognition, or reverence. We’ve only ever asked that our members take what they are given, and pay it forward to others.

We’ve seen so much positivity come from this community, and though every member will undoubtedly continue to help those around them for the rest of their lives, we won’t be able to do so in our home away from home if we don’t go all hands on deck at this moment. We hope you’ll help us continue to the lives of those who don’t fit in within the normal spaces.

The following information is for those who are more detail oriented or simply curious, in the style of a FAQ.

How did it get to this point?

After a very rough start in getting open, we had finally made it into the black just before Covid hit. Of course, when gyms were forced to shut down, our lease for our amazing 13k sq. ft facility was still in effect, and at a monthly price north of $8k per month in rent alone, the debt grew quickly. Since reopening at the end of the Summer of 2020, we’ve dealt with ever changing mandates from the government, our credit card company dropping us (but still requiring we pay them everything we owe in two months), a very reasonable hesitancy to return to classes from previous customers, a brutally cold winter, a brutally hot summer, a government whose financial assistance programs were mostly inaccessible to us (including an SBA loan we applied for a year ago, for which they send us a request for more paperwork every 3-4 months), and a precipitous drop in outside customers wanting to do group events such as birthdays (which is also very reasonable).

What have you tried to do to keep things open?

We’ve applied for the PPP, EIDL, and private loans. We have seen limited success from the EIDL Advance and an initial EIDL loan, but the PPP isn’t available to us, and we haven’t been able to get approved for substantial private loans.

We tried to go non-profit. We spent weeks putting together an application, but when we had it reviewed by professionals in the industry we were told we had a better chance of finding Atlantis than converting our for profit company to a non-profit (I’m paraphrasing of course)

We allowed students to forego group training and instead do private one on one training during the height of the pandemic to keep more students active.

We allowed birthdays to happen with limited participants and no food, but that’s not what our clientele wanted, and we went from doing 12-16 birthdays per month to doing 1-2 per month.

We added more classes to spread out students by level, lowering students’ exposure.

We added more aerial silks classes.

We’ve trained and added more young, talented coaches to offset us old curmudgeons

Our coaching staff has voluntarily put in more hours than they ever have before.

Our owners have paid literally thousands of dollars out of their own pocket to keep the lights on and heat pumping.

Coach Scott taught an extra class at his day job as a math teacher, provided outside tutoring for his district, and worked multiple stunt jobs to keep the doors open.

What’s your plan going forward?

Short Term: What will keep us in this space right now

This GoFundMe to get us started digging our way out which we will share with the greater New Britain and CT communities

Long Term: What will keep us in the space for years to come

A large investment into advertising. With the Fall surge not panning out, we need our name and our mission spread far and wide.

We will upgrade the website and add fresh content into our social media pages

Home school classes are starting once again. Please chat with Coach Devin for info by emailing

New classes from Aaron Weston including Yoga, Acro Yoga, and Martial Arts

A regular Light Saber class!

More birthday slots with food allowed and slightly larger groups

More events! We plan to have one Nerf event, and one Jam/Seminar/Competition per month.

We will offer space to other programs in the movement community!

If you know anyone interested in renting space, please let us know!