‘The people are amazing’: How skill shares develop community in Philly’s niche sports scenes

For many Philadelphia sports fans, finding community is as easy as yelling, “go Birds!” into a crowd. But for those who participate in niche sports, it isn’t always that simple.

However, inside a South Jersey gym during one of the hottest weekends of the year, one group has found a way to flourish.

At Philly Acro Skill Share, a collection of locals and travelers connected to teach and learn what they know about acrobatics. The group of 12 that assembled for a PASS event on July 5 spent the afternoon practicing skills ranging from headstands and hula-hooping to handstands 10 feet in the air while perched on someone else’s shoulders. Newcomers and regulars alike were there not just to train, but to find and build community.

“The best part is a combination of connecting with different people and working on different skills,” said Robert Li, the founder and organizer of PASS. “It’s so unique and special to see people come together and be supportive of each other’s goals.”

Different forms of skill shares have developed across communities in Philadelphia as a way to make sports more accessible in cost and experience. Li, who is based in Old City, turned to the skill share model to grow deeper roots in Philadelphia’s acro scene.

The Philly Acro skill share charges around $20, but the club also hosts acro jams, free sessions in which members gather to swap balances and tricks in public, often at Independence Park or in Rittenhouse Square. The jams are open to all and often are the first exposure many people have to the sport. Once they get bit by what Philly Acro members call “the acro bug,” many go on to attend the group’s more structured skill share events.

“Everyone’s friendly and nice,” Li said. “Even at the jams, you just show up, and if you’re new you can say, ‘Hey, my name is so-and-so. I want to try acro.’ And then people will show you, whether you’ve never tried anything like it or you were a gymnast for years.”

The trade-and-barter system isn’t new. It’s most common in the arts world; Philadelphia’s public libraries even offer crafting skill shares built on the same principle. But small local sports communities — including acro, arm wrestling, ultimate frisbee, and even foosball — have begun following a similar method, offering an alternative to adult clubs that can be expensive or provide few opportunities to learn a new sport.

For many of those involved in Philly Acro, the sport is new, but the skill set is not. The group attracts many former gymnasts, dancers, and cheerleaders, who repurpose foundational abilities in their adult lives.

“I was a college cheerleader and cheered all growing up,” said Juliana Martell, a real estate broker and longtime Philly Acro member. “I coached for a while just to stay in the sport because it’s a lot of fun. Then I found acro and I was like, ‘Wow, this is safer, it’s easier on your body, and the people are amazing.’”

Holding on to the sports played in youth is what has many people turning to skill shares to reconnect with their roots and teach others.

Erike De Veyra, founder of Design Gym, a creative studio in Olde Kensington, once was a competitive swimmer. A friend’s request for help training for a triathlon’s swimming leg inspired her to reconnect with the sport by starting her own skill swap club.

“When we began, I realized swimming was a skill I could teach,” De Veyra said. “So we started first with a form that kind of said, ‘Hey, what skills do you have?’ and went from there.”

At one of the recent skill swap events, De Veyra held swimming lessons at the local public pool. Since then, people have volunteered their knowledge in rug making, folk dancing, Pilates, weightlifting, and more.

Like other skill sharing leaders, De Veyra says the goal was more than learning new things, but creating an accessible community.

“Skill swap is completely free,” she said. “The only thing that I ask is to bring a snack to share. Whether we’ve had three or eight people, somehow we still talk for the whole two hours.”

Though skill swap is open to all skills — one person teaching plumbing in exchange for lessons in powerlifting — sports come up frequently as a need in the community.

“Beyond kids, the outlet for adults in sports diminishes even further,” De Veyra said. “There are adult rec leagues, but not often for beginners or people wanting to learn a sport or learn a skill. How daunting is it to go into something and be like, ‘Hey, I want to play pickleball, but I have no idea how to play?’ You see people say, ‘Oh, these are for beginners,’ but is it?”

» READ MORE: A Philly band is providing the sound for a rec kickball league from its apartment window

For those beginners not ready to join a rec league, some sports offer skill share-type platforms in the form of pickup games. One of the most popular sports doing so is ultimate frisbee. With 18 pickup groups in the area, one of the most popular of which is Penn Park Pickup, which has gathered more than 1,600 members since forming over 20 years ago.

“Pickup is less commitment and less money, and this pickup plays four times a week,” said Vishu Doshi, an HVAC technician who’s been playing pickup at Penn Park for 13 years. “I didn’t know anything about it before I started playing, but It’s a great, welcoming, and supportive community, I’ve met a lot of friends there that I’ve remained friends with over the last almost 15 years.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Surge host the finals of Ultimate — and chase the title | from 2024

The exposure to the sport often leads to further investment in the sport, but also in the athlete’s community.

That draws people to Val’s, a lesbian bar where a table is set up in the back once a month. The table is a designated arm wrestling platform, and patrons who approach shake out their wrists and prop up their elbows to find out who has the strength to pin their opponent after receiving a quick lesson from Jett Biggert.

Biggert is the founder of Queer Arm Wrestling. After launching QAW as a live show in 2024, Biggert and other participants found themselves drawn to the informal skill-sharing and community-building that grew around it.

QAW now hosts skill shares once a month, and the event quickly became the group’s most popular. Anyone is welcome to come learn how to properly arm wrestle and then compete after self-dividing into two groups: Noodle Arm or Pop-Eye.

The groups hold low-stakes competitions throughout the night to swap and learn techniques and find the best wrestler of the night. But Biggert says it’s really about meeting new people while trying new things.

“Skill shares in particular I like a lot more because there’s no stakes in this,” they said. “We’re doing this to have fun. We’re doing this to meet people.”

As adult recreational sports leagues continue to rise in popularity, skill shares provide an easy way into learning new sports and reconnecting with old ones, while supporting the community appeal of being part of a team.

“I think there’s a new wave of Philadelphians coming in,” De Veyra said. “People looking for a place to start to get connected to physical activity and others, and when you don’t know where to begin, skill swaps are a great option.”