James Adams
I’m a driven and detail-oriented data professional, with a background in operations and management in sport. With a further background in therapy, biomechanics, statistical analysis and teaching, I’m always looking to challenge myself while putting my skills to good use.
Experience
Nov 2023 - Present
Enterprise Technical Lead
- Working on the largest Enterprise account at Multiverse to strategise and build bespoke operational and programme customisations to deliver on the needs of the client, and ensuring these are effectively developed and rolled out to internal stakeholders
- Responsible for liaising with cross-functional departments to manage changes across the business and their interaction with client expectations and needs
- Responsible for the technical expertise of the coaches within the Data Fellowship programme, and in particular the additional technical skills needed to work as an Enteprise coach
Sept 2022 - Nov 2023
Data Fellowship Coach
- Teaching, coaching and mentoring apprentices through the Multiverse Data Fellowship programme, supporting them to successful completion of the apprenticeship programme and into their future careers
- Covered learning to code with Python, process data with SQL and BI tools, and communicating data projects and results with stakeholders
- 92% first time pass rate, with all passing apprentices achieving either a merit or distinction
Feb 2022 - June 2022
Associate Lecturer - Statistics and Research Methods
London Metropolitan University
- Designing and delivering lectures and practical tutorials on statistics and research skills for first year undergraduates and Masters degree students
- Setting and assessment of coursework at undergraduate and Masters level
- Instituted and managed a department wide switch to modern statistical applications and their delivery to students
Oct 2020 - Oct 2021
Teaching in Higher Education Work Placement
London Metropolitan University
- Delivering lectures, tutorials, and assessments in modules including statistics for sports science, biomechanics, sports therapy, and business studies
Oct 2019 - Jan 2020
Sports Therapist Placement
- Providing pitch side first aid for Polytechnic FC and Civil Service FC during match games, alongside pre- and post-game sports therapy treatments such as sports massage, stretching, and injury advice
- Delivering sports massages at large sporting events, including the London Triathlon 2019, Prudential Ride100 2019, and the Royal Parks Half Marathon 2019
Oct 2019 - Apr 2020
Sports Therapist Placement
NFL Academy, London
- Assisting the therapy team for the NFL Academy, a new initiative training young players a US college football career
- Included assisting with pre-training treatments such as stretching and taping, assisting with pitch side first-aid when required, and delivering supervised post-training treatments such as sports massage, rehabilitation exercises and injury assessments
May 2012 - Sept 2019
Personal Trainer
JMA Training
- 1-1 personal training with clients from a wide variety of backgrounds and fitness levels/experiences, delivering in-depth knowledge of all exercises and how best to implement them, with the ability to adjust on the fly as required
- Regular assessments of client expectations and goals, designing and implementing fitness programs with constant tracking and evaluation while providing motivation, encouragement and inspiration
May 2012 - Feb 2017
Chief of Operations
- General management of the company and Chainstore Gym & Parkour Academy facility. Moving from a small group focused on outdoor coaching to a location based and scaling business of 20+ coaches, I was responsible for managing our transition and developing standardised procedures around memberships, payments, staffing (including coaches, reception, and admin staff) and day-to-day operations
- Other responsibilities included KPI tracking, oversight of financial records and budgeting, and liaising with local councils, schools, and national governing bodies for bookings
Jan 2010 - May 2012
Enforcements Section Team Leader
HM Courts & Tribunals Service, Royal Courts of Justice
- Leading on the day to day running of the Enforcement Section of the High Court, managing seven staff
- Responsibilities included reporting regularly to Senior Civil Service management and the Judiciary, monitoring, compiling and analysing KPIs via the daily statistics for the office, prioritising and managing workload for staff, dealing with customer complaints and managing staff attendance and performance
Education
Nov 2021 - Feb 2022
Data Science
- Data cleaning, exploration, and analysis in Python using NumPy, Pandas, and scikit-learn
- Data visualisation with matplotlib and Seaborn
- Modelling with regression, classification, and clustering machine learning techniques
- Investigating seasonality and trends in time series data and sentiment analysis in natural language
Apr 2022
SQL For Data Science Specialisation
- Using SQL to extract, filter, aggregate, join, and analyse data
- Using Apache Spark and DataBricks for distributed computing with Spark SQL
May 2022
Data Visualisation
- Using d3.js to create interactive data driven visualisations on the web
Oct 2020 - Oct 2021
MRes Sport & Exercise Science (Distinction)
London Metropolitan University
- Natural Language Processing in R to determine sentimentality in qualitative interview data
Feb 2017 - June 2020
BSc Sports Therapy (First Class Hons.)
London Metropolitan University
- Force platform data analysis with repeated-measures multi-factorial ANOVA in R
- Received Best Performance and Highest Degree Mark in Subject Group Award
2015
YMCA Level 2 Certificate in Instructing Parkour Fitness (Parkour Fitness Specialist)
Parkour UK
2012
International Diploma in Advanced Personal Training
Premier Training International
- Active IQ Level 3 Certificate in Personal Training
- Active IQ Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instruction
2011
Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (A.D.A.P.T.)
Parkour UK / 1st4Sport
Professional Memberships
Oct 2021 - Current
Associate Fellow (AFHEA)
- Meeting the criteria of Descriptor 1 of the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education
Volunteering
2022 - Present
Codebar Python Coach
- Helping beginners learn Python through paired coaching and tutorials, remotely and in-person
Projects
Predicting Ultra Marathon Times
https://github.com/jmablog/ultra-marathons-analysis
- Final project for General Assembly’s data science course
- Predicting ultra marathon finishing times using Pandas, scikit-learn, and Seaborn
tinieR: R package
https://jmablog.github.io/tinieR
- An R package to shrink image filesizes using the TinyPNG.com API
- Self-taught R language package development, providing learning on R package internals, unit testing, and continuous integration techniques
SquatCam
- Real-time joint position feedback for squatting using PoseNet machine-learning algorithm in ml5.js
- Languages used: Javascript, HTML, CSS
Parkour Clinic
- Free online sports therapy consultations for parkour athletes
- Personal non-profit project started to continue sports therapy work while studying at Masters level, and to give back to the parkour community
- Hand-built site with Hugo, HTML, and TailwindCSS
Writing
Journals
2021
Common Parkour Vault Techniques, Landing Styles, and Their Effects on Landing Forces
Journal of Sports Sciences, doi: 10.1080/02640414.2021.1978748
- Abstract published in special edition of the Journal of Sports Sciences following poster presention at BASES Conference 2021
- Full paper and dataset also published online for the parkour community
- Winner of the Human Kinetics Poster Presentation Award at BASES 2021 Conference
Self-published
2021
Using the Expertise of Parkour Coaches to Understand Parkour Movement: The Kong Vault
doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33633.02402
- Qualitative study using the empirical knowledge of experienced parkour coaches to construct a deterministic model of a parkour movement
- Full paper and dataset published online for the parkour community
2021
Pandoc Filters in Bookdown
jmablog.com/post/pandoc-filters/
- Tutorial post written for the R community explaining the use of Pandoc’s Lua filters feature to manipulate the abstract syntax tree for post-processing of Rmarkdown documents
2022
Learning Statistics with Jamovi
https://jmablog.github.io/jamovi-worksheets/
- Worksheets written to aid in learning statistics with Jamovi at undergraduate and Masters level, made available online and listed on the Jamovi community resources page
Skills
Data science
- Understanding of developing and tuning machine learning models for regression, classification, and clustering problems
- Detailed understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methodology
- Deep appreciation for statistical thinking and the importance of evidence-backed decision making
- Keen desire to contribute research to the greater scientific understanding of parkour in sport and exercise science
- Enthusiasm for effective, reproducible research, conveyed through concise narratives and compelling, beautiful visualisations
Technical
- R (proficient, including Tidyverse and base R approaches, and package development)
- Python (including Pandas, scikit-learn, Seaborn, statsmodels)
- SQL
- Web (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, d3.js)
- Tableau for data visualisations / dashboards
- git
Sports therapy
- Experience delivering therapy and exercise sessions to an incredibly diverse range of patients and customers, including professional athletes, emergency service members, hard-of-hearing or deaf teenagers, and mentally and physically disabled children
- In-depth knowledge of human anatomy, biomechanics, and sports injuries
- Empathetic and patient-focused pedagogy of care
References available on request