#24
The Law of Averages.

By Chris 'Blane' Rowat | posted on 29 January 2009 | 5 comments

300 level cat-pass precisions. That'll do! It sounded like a fair challenge for later that day. It had been a while since I'd focused on this technique so I felt I should pay it a little more attention tonight.

Throughout the day, the thought of the upcoming training session often crossed my mind but my attention was more often found wandering to what someone had said to me earlier in the week, as I had landed a precision. "You're going to fall and hurt yourself one of these days!" she had said with a smile, and I couldn't help wondering... was she right? Was I a victim to a law of averages that stated some day, somewhere, I was going to mess up a basic technique and seriously hurt myself? Was this an inevitability that was beyond my control? It wasn't a pleasant thought.

It's often told that the most dangerous moments in your training occur whilst you are executing the simplest of techniques and just not paying enough attention. I've rarely heard of anyone being badly injured or missing a big jump where they were fully focused and concentrating, so what could I do to prove to myself that I was not a victim? That I was in fact in control of this situation? The answer came quickly, tonight I would not miss!

So 300, became 300 in a row. If I missed the landing wall, if I overshot, undershot, missed with my hands or if both feet did not land on the second wall and remain there, I would start again from the beginning. Call it quality control or madness - it was probably a bit of both.

When I arrived at the spot where I planned to begin this experiment, I wasn't too happy to find the walls were soaked. Wet, dark and slippery with moss sprouting from between the cracks, the sharp-edged walls greeted me with a slick shine and were menacing to the touch. Great.

30 minutes later, after loosening off and warming up, an inner pressure I couldn't quite locate began to grow inside of me with each successful repetition. 3 became 20, 20 became 50, and the thought of having to start all over again began to haunt me, making each repetition a little more daunting than the last.
The only way to counter this building distraction was to force myself to treat each jump as if it was the first of the evening.
I would focus my full attention on connecting with the first wall cleanly, push just enough and land on the second, and remain there. For a while I felt things were going well, but as my confidence grew, so did my chances of complacency.

If there was indeed some unwritten law of averages, then how many times should I fall in 300 attempts at this, given wet and dark conditions?

Two hours had passed as I reached the half-way point. It was 9:30pm and I had managed 150 level cat-pass precisions and my forearms felt like lead. I hadn't even considered the physical toll this challenge would take. Shaking them off, I thought about the technique and realised it was like being in the pushup position and rocking on to your fingers with enough force to leave the ground temporarily, over and over again. I was tired, I was sore and I knew that although I might be able to reach the elusive 300, it would be a royal pain in the backside to have to start again any time soon.

Ten minutes later I restarted the process and the 151st repetition loomed. I wasn't sure how much I had recovered during the brief rest and the technique itself seemed suddenly unfamiliar in my head. Stop over thinking, this is just another simple technique.

I. can. not. miss. now.

200 reps. At this rate I should be finished by 11pm... 3 and a half hours after I started. If I miss now then I may well be watching the sunrise over my shoulder later today. I managed a quick smile as I thought that might dry the walls a little, if nothing else.

280 reps. My brain had switched off. There was no longer any pressure. The process was automatic and although my forearms begged for relief from the constant punishment, I had fallen in to a rhythm. I would pass over the first wall, land on the second, turn around, hop back, drop down to the floor and line myself up for another, repeating the phrase, "Stay straight, medium power." in my head each time. That had become my curse, it had started twenty minutes earlier and I couldn't stop now, what if that was my lucky charm, my key to finishing this?

I honestly don't know if I would have started again had I missed then. Physically, I don't think I could have managed another 300. I'd learned my lesson already though...

There is no law that states one day we will miss. With enough concentration, enough focus, due care and attention, we can repeat a simple technique hundreds of times, for hours and not make a mistake. Accidents do happen and some things are beyond our control but we can greatly reduce our chances of messing up if we treat each and every movement as something important, something to be careful with.

I didn't do 300 level cat-pass precisions in the end.

The 301st was for the nice lady who had inspired my evening's activities.

-Blane

Labels: Training

#23
A lil Scratch... pt.II

By Brian Appiah Obeng | posted on 22 January 2009 | 3 comments

(Continued from Part One!)

...this lil scratch! Now... this had to be one of the strangest moments in my life. As you can see from looking at the scratch, you could say its not exactly a papercut, yet at the time, there was absolutely no unusual sensation on my shin where the scratch was, pain or otherwise. In fact, if anything it was my left thigh that was still aching, so as I stared at my shin in a mixture of disbelief and wonder: the disbelief from the fact that if this was as bad as it looked, then why did it not hurt more?... and the wonder as to how a wound this deep is not bleeding, and in addition just trying to rationalise to myself that I may just be staring at a combination of bone and sinew... MY bone and sinew! Either way, there was a definite alarm bell of concern that was ringing that told me that this... was... not... good!

I immediately dropped my trouser leg to cover it again, put on a nice lil poker face, moved to a quiet corner away from the others, and called Dan over. When he arrived, I knew wanted both a second opinion, as well as wanting to see the look on his face (Dan being man that is always composed in the midst of any situation)... as soon as I showed it to him, he took one look and nodded once (and I think maybe raised an eyebrow) and pointed straight at my leg saying "You need to go to hospital!". I think I remember chuckling.

First of all we called over our resident Mystical Medic, Doctor J (I'll keep his name out of this, but suffice to say he studies Ninjitsu Medicine amongst other things, and always carries some type of kit with him to treat people). Obviously, on seeing the scratch, Doctor J was off and back in a flash with his bag of tricks. I sat down on a wall and elevated my leg, and Doc told me to brace myself as he prepared to sprinkle in some magical substance into the wound that would stem the bleeding (apparently used by the Chinese military for use by field medics on wounds like these)... I braced myself, but oddly enough, no pain!! Now to me, that wasn't as reassuring as you may think, as, with a wound like this one, you are SUPPOSED to feel pain!! Still, i remained calm, and let Doc strap me up, as Andy sorted out a ride for me to the hospital. Now, to me this was all fun, what with being painless and all, but the expressions... no.. the grimaces on the faces of anyone that saw my leg would make you think otherwise!

Still, I got up, limped over to Mr.Blinky and his motorbike, tossed on a helmet and hopped on the back!

I have to say, the ride to the hospital was an interesting experience, as obviously I didn't want to bend my right leg at all! This meant that with my leg hanging straight, for every right turn we took on the road, I'd have to elevate my leg up slightly as the bike leant the ground closer and closer towards my foot! Still, it was a short trip and we arrived at the hospital within around 5 minutes (not because Blinky's a maniac on the road or anything... no... he was much more controlled than I thought), but because thankfully, St.Thomas' was fairly a close distance by road!

Now... I'll skip most of the details of waiting in Casualty to be seen, but lets just say that there were some interesting characters in that waiting room...

"Now, to me this was all fun, what with being painless and all, but the expressions... no.. the grimaces on the faces of anyone that saw my leg would make you think otherwise!"

...there was the nice lady that had been locked out of her house by closing the door and locking her keys inside, and so had decided to break back in by climbing over her garden fence - the very same garden fence that was covered in end to end in Barbed wire! Lets just say that her bandages that she'd dressed herself with were now soaked a pretty shade of crimson, which matched the shade of her embarrassed face as she told me her tale...

...then there was Old Man Tony... a VERY loud, and very friendly old fella who told me that from time to time would succumb to dizzy spells and faint, often knocking his head, which was a shame... but then, the fact that also admitted that he'd consumed copious amounts of alcohol before some of these spells might have had something to do with the falls? Maybe...?

...and then there was this one very attractive girl that walked in not too long after I did, but unlike everyone else that looked forlorn, dizzy or bloody, she looked fit as a fiddle, and just a little peeved at having to wait around rather than be off living it up. Her story sounded relatively benign: she'd felt some pain in her Achilles while walking around, but being a Sunday, her GP wasn't open, and because she was working the next day wanted to get a sick-note to cover her shift... (turns out she was a student of fashion as well as director of short films... if fact, she later showed me a short Mafia movie she'd directed which makes me think she's out to be the next Martin Scorsese) ...to cut a long story short, after seeing the doctors at the hospital and being examined, it turned out that she'd had a strain on her Achilles over time, and

was advised to rest her feet as much as possible, take some pain-killers, and for the moment to only walk around in high-heels! Thinking logically, I think the position of the feet in heels would cause less pressure on her Achilles Tendon... and from the smile on her face, I don't think she minded one bit! Of course, if in my life I ever have a pain my MY Achilles, I will not be heading to St.Thomas' for treatment ;)

...but I digress...

Labels: Injuries

#22
Paris Film Festival: Action!

By Dan | posted on 19 January 2009 | 1 comments

This past week five of us (Stephane, Johann, Thomas, Seb and I) have been in Paris working with our good friends and partners-in-crime the Majestic Force team on a large-scale live display show for the prestigious Salon Du Cinema film festival. The festival is a huge expo for all aspects of the movie industry in Europe, bringing together producers, tech-people, directors, actors, stuntment and more, and did not disappoint on any front.

Majestic Force and Parkour Generations were invited by the festival organisers to display our own brand of visual spectacle, which is more and more drawn on by the movie industry to bring a touch of realism to the action scenes that for so long went the way of wire-work and CGI, and fairly tired stunt techniques. With over 20 of the Majestic Force team in attendance, including the Cirque du Soleil branch from Las Vegas, it was quite a gathering and meant the energy throughout the show days was non-stop and incredibly infectious. Constant good tunes from DJ Mao didn't hurt either!

The festival had pulled out all the stops for these shows and built to bespoke design one of the largest scaffoldings ever used for a display of this sort, ranging up to ten metres in height and covering over 100 square metres. My camera had difficulty fitting it all into one shot, so I have posted a few sample shots of the structure. And what a pleasure it was to be able to play on it all day long..!

Majestic Force were also keen to use the structure and the time to bring the art of movement to some new generations, and between each display people from the audience were invitied to take part in open workshops to get a taste for the discipline. This proved to be, as ever, highly popular with the public who were raring to have a go after watching the explosive demonstrations.

It's always a real pleasure and a great experience to work on projects alongside the Majestic Force guys, and this was no exception. Their energy and enthusiasm is unrivalled, and their talent and skill always impressive.

Yann and Chau's experience of choreographing such shows allows everyone else to focus on the movement knowing that the organisation of each display is well in hand, making the whole process smooth and efficient. With 5 shows a day to fit in, it simply has to be this way!

I would like to thank everyone at Majestic Force for making us feel so welcome once again, and especially the Yamakasi founders. Look forward to the next one.. ;)

Labels: Event Coverage

#21
The Perfect Jump

By Dan | posted on 10 January 2009 | 0 comments

It's amazing how the cold weather stiffens you up and tries to dissuade your body from jumping. It's around freezing every day here in London at the moment, despite the brilliant sunshine, and is actually great weather for training. Crisp, dry... but very cold. Particularly during the evening classes!

However, today was an afternoon training session: just myself and Stephane and Julien Vigroux, and was nothing particularly complicated. Running jumps and precisions, varying lengths, varying angles and landings, long strides and short, reduced run-ups, double-legs etc. The usual for this type of session. But that cold... how it makes you work; especially when all you want is to get inside and get some steaming hot tea down..! The whole body wanting to shrink in on itself for warmth, wanting to keep the linbs close to the body, not stretched out at full stride for long jumps. Means you have to focus more, force the body to open up and ignore the cold and just do the jumps. Makes all the usually simple drills that much harder, and that much more productive as a result. Love it.

And after all the jump drills, with heavy legs and cooling bodies, we ended with one double-leg jump at almost max range. And it was here that the jumps became hard. And as a result, the jumps had to become better. In a sense, the hunt for that perfect jump - when everything clicks and works exactly as it should, the connective tissues and muscles firing at their most efficient, the push from the ball of the foot, the swing of the body, the reach with the legs and shift of bodyweight as you land - is best carried out when you are this tired. It's at such times that you realise you can't rely on sheer power and strength to make the jump: you simply have to use the technique at its best, or not make it at all. Adding that extra challenge at the end of your session, digging deep to look for the perfect jump.. for me, that's what it is all about.