As of yesterday it's now been a year that I've been doing parkour! I had a good training session last night mainly repeating movements from previous sessions during the week to reinforce the confidence to do them and increase my comfort of each technique through repetition.
Now moving in to year two which I hope will be just as much fun and productive in my progression!
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Friday, 4 February 2011
Year One
Well, my first year of doing parkour is nearly over now so I decided to put together a video with a few clips to mark my progress:
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
2011 resolutions
A bit late in the month already but I figure it's time to list my goals for the coming year in my training, Though not strictly new years resolutions as all because of a continual aim to be training, setting targets for the year still feels a fine thing to do and formalising certain tasks seems something definitely worth doing to perhaps remind myself if I feel unmotivated later in the way.
The main thing is to continue that which I've been back working on since my wrist has started healing, my shockingly weak upper body. A good metric for this I feel can be press ups and so I've restarted the 100pushups routine, modifying it to allow my standard training to continue so it will be spread across many more weeks than the program
suggests but progress will be sure. This leads to my first important quantifiable target for some point this year:
The main thing is to continue that which I've been back working on since my wrist has started healing, my shockingly weak upper body. A good metric for this I feel can be press ups and so I've restarted the 100pushups routine, modifying it to allow my standard training to continue so it will be spread across many more weeks than the program
suggests but progress will be sure. This leads to my first important quantifiable target for some point this year:
- 100 pushups in one set
This will be a reasonable tough goal, starting the year at around a maximum of around 35, but with the right training attitude it should be no problem at all.
The next goal, muscle ups, is one which can also easily be quantified by number of repetitions, but for these the first target is being able to complete one clean muscle up. Right now I'm able to do one muscle up from hanging, though by using a single arm first followed by the other. Through improving my technique I know this can be improved already with my current strength but after my upper body starts to be in a less embarrassingly weak state I aim to perform a clean muscle up from hanging, and then on to multiple repetitions. My goals for the end of this year, and I hope to arrange a session to perform this with others, include one which is not within one set but within one session at the same bar regardless of time taken:
The next goal, muscle ups, is one which can also easily be quantified by number of repetitions, but for these the first target is being able to complete one clean muscle up. Right now I'm able to do one muscle up from hanging, though by using a single arm first followed by the other. Through improving my technique I know this can be improved already with my current strength but after my upper body starts to be in a less embarrassingly weak state I aim to perform a clean muscle up from hanging, and then on to multiple repetitions. My goals for the end of this year, and I hope to arrange a session to perform this with others, include one which is not within one set but within one session at the same bar regardless of time taken:
- multiple clean muscle ups (both arms simultaneously) in one set
- 100 muscle ups in one session
I'm under no illusions, I know this is a huge undertaking coming from a level of being barely able to perform one muscle up but with breaks between sets of one or two I can see this as a possibility in a session below two hours and am aiming for a lower time if possible.
Other general goals:
- standing precision jump distance improvement
- cat pass precision
- cat pass cat leap
- tic tac cat leap
- improve technique
I've got plenty of other aims including overall aims which will be achieved through training towards specific movements and distances and otherwise through ongoing conditioning, so the goals listed are by no means complete, with another full set of overall goals of:
- kong / cat pass to
- begin on handstands
- symmetry (confidence to do all movements equally on each side, e.g. running precisions from left or right leg, landings on both legs individually, 180 cat both directions, etc)
Many of the targets I have, in particular improving my distance and confidence in my cat passes, have to be delayed to allow my wrist to fully heal. The past couple of weeks it's been completely pain free but with noticeable niggles here and there, so I'll not try anything which could anger it until I've noticed nothing wrong for a few more months.
N.B. I consider this post very incomplete because all progress is ongoing...
Saturday, 29 January 2011
My first year
It'll soon have been a year since I started parkour though it's hard to imagine that there was I time I found anything as enjoyable to do with my free time as training. At times I still very much feel I'm a beginner, and as this is something I hope to continue to do for many many years I definitely am just starting, but I also feel I've matured my mindset about the training and general mindset of the discipline.
Early February last year I decided I would go and try out my first parkour class; I found the class online, emailed to confirm the location and ventured to Waterloo to the spot I know just know as IMAX1 and nervously met Chima, now a friend that has continued to inspire and help me ever since. I had spent the year prior sorting out my diet and losing 16kg of excess bodyweight acquired during a lifetime of an entirely sedentary lifestyle but still had an incredibly low level of fitness and strength, which still persists in some areas but this is something I'm now forever working on, so found that first session a shock to the system!
All I really remember of my first lesson is working on some small jumps and strides at the now boarded off area at oxo whilst being nearly overwhelmed with advice on technique and knowledge of plenty of warmup/cooldown activities, but the feeling I definitely won't forget is struggling to walk for the rest of the week! A feeling I'm now used to, I found myself very self-conscious being aware of my strange walking due to my burning aching muscles, but it felt good to have actually worked my muscles and so I couldn't help but go to the next lesson, and the next, and the next hundred or so...
After a few weeks I started hanging around doing a little bit after classes and a few more weeks passed and I ventured out myself looking for a place to train near me. I found a single wall which I trained at a few hours over the next few weeks working on my touch and soon I was hooked on training for my own goals, not just the demands of a lesson. I've since discovered that I was clearly blind at the time to the MANY good spots just around the corner from that single wall, but it still holds a special place in my heart whenever I pass by.
As time passed fellow traceurs in lessons became my friends and we started to train together outside classes and the number of hours of my training shot up to crazy amounts, training nearly daily, a trend which has only continued lately as my plans now don't include training: training is assumed at all hours outside work and anything ELSE must be planned.
Overall the year has been amazing and my life has changed completely, I'm now in much better shape but this is only a side-effect of training and a desire to be stronger to help with my movement. I've met some great people and made good friends, the parkour and free running communities are universally friendly so I've met people from all over the world and across the country. July saw me heading to Paris for a large international jam during which I couldn't help but head to Evry and the Dame du Lac (the rest of the pilgrimage to Lisses will come another day in the future) and throughout the many jams before and since I've been exposed to so many great people and inspirational practitioners that I can't help but look forward with excitement.
The latter half of the year has unfortunately been riddled with injury, first from an awkward landing on unconditioned ankles followed by an injury still affecting me, a sprained wrist from a minor fall as I was protecting my face. Unfortunately these things have stopped or hugely affected my training but my wrist at least hasn't stopped it at all. I'm very careful to not anger the wrist knowing a few months of being mostly unable to use one hand is still tiny compared to the lifetime of training and enjoyment of movement I hope to maintain, but these months have still been fantastic, despite winter weather, as there are no areas of training which will ever have no room for improvement!
I've also been lucky to have the chance to train with and hear the advice and words of some of those inspirational to me within parkour, most notably Daniel Ilabaca, Sebastien Foucan and some of the Yamakasi/Majestic Force guys as well as, of course, Chima.
I was going to make a video with clips giving an idea of my general ability for archival reasons and to judge improvement in the future but generally training > filming and along with the weather / injuries that have prevented doing much anyway I've not been too bothered about a video. I've still thrown together some clips that I'd started to get in the past few weeks but as I expect will be the case with any video I make I'm not too happy it showcasing anything and definitely doesn't display the fun I have overall!
Here's to the next year, hopefully an even better training year! I'm hoping for more trips up and down the country as well as abroad but also to continue exploring areas near me and working on creatively using any obstacles around.
- Matt, Jan 2011
Early February last year I decided I would go and try out my first parkour class; I found the class online, emailed to confirm the location and ventured to Waterloo to the spot I know just know as IMAX1 and nervously met Chima, now a friend that has continued to inspire and help me ever since. I had spent the year prior sorting out my diet and losing 16kg of excess bodyweight acquired during a lifetime of an entirely sedentary lifestyle but still had an incredibly low level of fitness and strength, which still persists in some areas but this is something I'm now forever working on, so found that first session a shock to the system!
All I really remember of my first lesson is working on some small jumps and strides at the now boarded off area at oxo whilst being nearly overwhelmed with advice on technique and knowledge of plenty of warmup/cooldown activities, but the feeling I definitely won't forget is struggling to walk for the rest of the week! A feeling I'm now used to, I found myself very self-conscious being aware of my strange walking due to my burning aching muscles, but it felt good to have actually worked my muscles and so I couldn't help but go to the next lesson, and the next, and the next hundred or so...
After a few weeks I started hanging around doing a little bit after classes and a few more weeks passed and I ventured out myself looking for a place to train near me. I found a single wall which I trained at a few hours over the next few weeks working on my touch and soon I was hooked on training for my own goals, not just the demands of a lesson. I've since discovered that I was clearly blind at the time to the MANY good spots just around the corner from that single wall, but it still holds a special place in my heart whenever I pass by.
As time passed fellow traceurs in lessons became my friends and we started to train together outside classes and the number of hours of my training shot up to crazy amounts, training nearly daily, a trend which has only continued lately as my plans now don't include training: training is assumed at all hours outside work and anything ELSE must be planned.
Overall the year has been amazing and my life has changed completely, I'm now in much better shape but this is only a side-effect of training and a desire to be stronger to help with my movement. I've met some great people and made good friends, the parkour and free running communities are universally friendly so I've met people from all over the world and across the country. July saw me heading to Paris for a large international jam during which I couldn't help but head to Evry and the Dame du Lac (the rest of the pilgrimage to Lisses will come another day in the future) and throughout the many jams before and since I've been exposed to so many great people and inspirational practitioners that I can't help but look forward with excitement.
The latter half of the year has unfortunately been riddled with injury, first from an awkward landing on unconditioned ankles followed by an injury still affecting me, a sprained wrist from a minor fall as I was protecting my face. Unfortunately these things have stopped or hugely affected my training but my wrist at least hasn't stopped it at all. I'm very careful to not anger the wrist knowing a few months of being mostly unable to use one hand is still tiny compared to the lifetime of training and enjoyment of movement I hope to maintain, but these months have still been fantastic, despite winter weather, as there are no areas of training which will ever have no room for improvement!
I've also been lucky to have the chance to train with and hear the advice and words of some of those inspirational to me within parkour, most notably Daniel Ilabaca, Sebastien Foucan and some of the Yamakasi/Majestic Force guys as well as, of course, Chima.
I was going to make a video with clips giving an idea of my general ability for archival reasons and to judge improvement in the future but generally training > filming and along with the weather / injuries that have prevented doing much anyway I've not been too bothered about a video. I've still thrown together some clips that I'd started to get in the past few weeks but as I expect will be the case with any video I make I'm not too happy it showcasing anything and definitely doesn't display the fun I have overall!
Here's to the next year, hopefully an even better training year! I'm hoping for more trips up and down the country as well as abroad but also to continue exploring areas near me and working on creatively using any obstacles around.
- Matt, Jan 2011
Monday, 20 December 2010
Snow
There's been so much snow lately, nothing to do but embrace it! This was the result of me training for a couple of hours in the snow on Saturday. Precisions became much more daunting and one new jump I'd found plagued me for a while but thankfully I managed it in the end despite the icy conditions, lots of fun!
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Parkour Tour
I've really enjoyed following the Parkour Tour videos and seeing the beautiful flow of Daniel Ilabaca's movements and seeing the different communities across Europe. I was there for the London jam and really enjoyed the day and highly recommend everybody watch all of the videos from the Parkour Tour's Youtube channel, here's one of my favourite videos from the tour:
Setbacks
So... it's been nearly six weeks now of having my badly sprained wrist and it's been a real problem so far. I have been unable to train properly at all but have managed to work on plenty of things including one-armed variations of various moves and once the initial pain of even swinging my arms had started to fade I was of course continuing my usual training of precisions/strides etc building more strength in my legs.
To aid in the recovery of my wrist I've just bought an NSD Powerball, which is a handheld gyroscope exercise device so I'll be using this hopefully on a daily basis to strengthen my wrist(s). I'll keep you posted on progress :)
I've decided to definitely not let my wrist stop my training; there are plenty of things I can still train and it keeps my mind open to looking harder for more imaginative and creative ways of interacting with the environment around me. The cold weather and snow has also had a negative effect on motivation but I've still been out there finding things to do and on the days where the ground is too damp I can always train one handed things indoors on the other side of London:
To aid in the recovery of my wrist I've just bought an NSD Powerball, which is a handheld gyroscope exercise device so I'll be using this hopefully on a daily basis to strengthen my wrist(s). I'll keep you posted on progress :)
I've decided to definitely not let my wrist stop my training; there are plenty of things I can still train and it keeps my mind open to looking harder for more imaginative and creative ways of interacting with the environment around me. The cold weather and snow has also had a negative effect on motivation but I've still been out there finding things to do and on the days where the ground is too damp I can always train one handed things indoors on the other side of London:
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