If you are now thinking to yourself Yeah ok, I’m gonna try! – that’s awesome hahaha! ;D My work here is done! But really, get outside and try some simple things. Take some headphones to block out the world if it makes it easier! There’s no need to set high expectations, just go out and play for a bit, enjoy and learn a little more about yourself. If you’re short on ideas, start with a light warm-up of the joints and muscles, maybe move on to a short run (grass to lessen the impact on the body) – keep it light and don’t push yourself to exhaustion to start with! Try moving over a few low obstacles in combination focusing on soft landings and fluid unbroken motion rather than speed or flash moves. Try hanging on a wall in a cat leap position and then move onto trying to pull yourself up. If something seems too hard or scary work on it for a full 15 minutes minimum before letting yourself give up – it will become more comfortable, suddenly achievable or better next time from the work you have put in. Be proud of accomplishing each training session, with the knowledge that every bit of effort is building more strength to make everything you want to accomplish both easier and safer.

One last note. For those already practising, think to encourage and support female beginners to get involved. All beginners! And the more encouragement the better! Consider that it can be a little daunting for women when they’re surrounded by butch guys pulling awesome moves! Sometimes people just need a little push to find the strength and confidence they need. Help to build the confidence of those around you always.

The team did a great thing for me today, they helped me break a jump. Not just any jump, it was a jump that I had broken last year but somehow through lack of repeating it I was back to square one and this tormented me. It was a precision jump between two widely spaced concrete walls. On one hand I knew that I had done it before but on the other hand it just didn't look safe anymore. My mind was filled with thoughts of slipping or landing too short and then contrastingly I would remind myself that it was doable and safe. This mental argument would loop over and over and so instead of repeating the jump, I endured the repetition of *almost* jumping. Frustratingly, preparing to jump and abandoning the jump became the norm. Until today....

Breakthrough didn't happen straight away though as again I stood facing my tormentor, psyching myself up with more conviction than before only to be rooted to the spot. TOTAL PARALYSIS. Like a mime artist I had created an invisible barrier that seemed tougher than any wall could be. My body was strong and ready to go but I just couldn't pull the trigger and commit.

More encouragement came and the guys rallied to keep me positive and spot my landing area. It all seemed in place to guarantee my success: the outside conditions were perfect but inside my mind it was a different story. Something extra was needed, my mind and body had to move. To stay and ponder the jump any longer would only reinforce the problem...it was time to break out of this prison.

"Frustratingly, preparing to jump and abandoning the jump became the norm. Until today...."

Johann led me in a route around our training area, jumping from wall to wall, running, vaulting and rolling, I wasn't to stop and I wasn't to think about the jump. On the next circuit Johann recruited the whole team to run with me as I freed my mind and got my body warm and my muscles firing, I followed him as closely as I could and I didn't know where he would step or when the jump was coming. I could only think about following and making the next move.

He curved round in the direction of the jump and I followed, briefly I looked at it and it looked different. I sprung off the wall in front of me and came down on my landing area but only got one foot in place. I didn't make it but I was almost there. “Don't think about it. Keep moving!” said Johann.

The run continued: breathlessly I vaulted, climbed and jumped in quick succession, I felt tired but a feeling of confidence and determination emerged within me. Johann looped back round to the jump area and again I jumped, I just jumped, I landed and made it! I din't think about it or psych myself up, the jump just came to me like any of the others I had been doing. Both feet, safe, secure and on my landing spot!

Yeeesss! I yelled and the whole team cheered with me. “Now do it again!” I was told. I was so charged up, the chains had come off and I was liberated. I jumped it again and again from one side and the other to make sure i'd got it. I had it! it was mine. I felt immense relief and the strong feeling that I could do so much more.

Could it be that the antidote to my paralysis was not a complicated technique but simply: raw instinctual movement? Through being caught up in the momentum of 'the pack' I forgot myself and followed without hesitation and unlocked what had always been within my potential.

It was the perfect way to end the session and a great way to continue on to my next level of progression. I still have to work that jump though, because it was only mine for one day.....and I'd like to have it permanently. Thank you guys, I'm looking forward to my next breakthrough.

It was a knock on effect of months of, what seemed to me, as a failure. I was disinterested in trying to succeed, to improve, or to be stronger. I was made to feel depleted by my training, which was uneventful, and lacking in any motivation. So, I wanted to trial a life with out Parkour, to see if I would be more contented, with out having the pressure to constantly improve, or to try and find a reason not to give up. At first it was easy, It was a release. But as I started to drift further away from my familiarity, I felt myself falling into a void, Parkour was all I knew and out here there was nothing for me, I was cold turkey but itching for the bottle once more. It was in this moment where I realised, that the further I tried to distance myself from training, the closer I would land to it. And in the emerging sanity, I was reminded of how much Parkour had become a part of me, that training is what makes me who I am, and having Parkour is what solves all of life’s little problems.

But this reunion had influenced a new perplexity. For, at least, most traceurs Parkour has become a long commitment, and for this we are constantly asked, “why do you still practise?” and out of curiosity, to me, it begs another question, the same in one way, although some what opposite, “why are we so unable to stop?”

I was once told that I must know why I want to train, otherwise there’s no point. And it’s true, we should all know why we do Parkour, because it’s not only the point to all this training, but also the motivation to carry on. But, How many of us actually know the answer to this, excluding the obvious choices; To be fit, it’s fun or I like it.

Amidst the rebirth of my training, I have experimented with the motive, more than the training itself, that is the motive to push myself and to prosper. I’ve found that having, just a simple motive, can have profound effects on not even the Parkour, but your attitude towards it.

Just having some small incentives for myself seems to have given my training a greater sense of longevity, because now I have something to strive towards, but also something to lose.

A good friend of mine asked me recently,

“Why do you still do Parkour?”

I told him that I am uncertain. For me, after everything that happens, in every year with more experience, and after every training session, that answer will be different!

Perhaps the point I’m trying to make is, that maybe we should be influenced to continue training because of the question its self, more than the answer to it.

Labels: Psychology

Last month I learnt a new reason... body armour.

Yes, conditioning will give you bigger jumps, faster speed vaults, get you doing those muscle-ups easier, but it will also help protect you for those moments when you to slip, fall and trip. I'm not talking about flesh wounds that we all get, i'm refering to those (hopefully) rare times when the universe is plotting against you and it all goes horribly wrong. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing you could have done to protect yourself from that injury, but in other cases maybe there was something to reduce your injury... I for one am thankful for all the push-ups, sit-ups and quadrupedie (to name a few) we do because I feel like it saved me from something that could have been much, much worse.

"I for one am thankful for all the push-ups, sit-ups and quadrupedie (to name a few) we do..."

Obviously all injuries and situations are different, but its a simple choice that doesn't take a genius to understand... Do I protect myself as much as I can while I train, or don't I? This doesn't mean conditioning gives you an invisible kevlar vest that allows you to be reckless, but it may be the one thing that stands in the way of that oncoming floor and you...

...that Kong-precision that you’ve looked at all those times, you do so because although it scares you you can see yourself doing it...

Anywho down to business…. mental blocks!!! It’s something that I’m sure a lot of you have come across at 1 time or another and it’s certainly something that can be very detrimental to your training if not handled carefully. One thing I’ve noticed personally, that I think is important to take into account is that your body knows it can do it. This may sound a bit weird at first but bare with me, a lot of the time I hear people claim they can’t because they are scared or that they want to but they are not sure if their jump is big enough, etc. But simply by seriously considering actually doing the jump they’ve demonstrated that somewhere inside they know it’s in their range. I want you to take a second and think of the most ridiculous jump you can, like precisioning the corner wall of the manpower drop for instance. You would never get a mental block about that jump because you know its an impossibility, maybe someone somewhere has god-like strength in there legs not to crumple and snap on impact but for the majority you would never seriously consider such a jump for yourself. But that cat jump you had in mind earlier or that Kong-precision that you’ve looked at all those times, you do so because although it scares you you can see yourself doing it. You can see that if you were somehow able to free up your mind you would have done it already. Now while that may not magically fix anything for you and maybe you knew it already its certainly food for thought.

But the reason I confuse and bore you with this is that today I’m going to find a jump that scares me or that I’ve put off for awhile and I’m going to do it. And not only that but I want you to as well, I want you to find something that makes you hesitate or walk away and I want you to do it. It doesn’t have to be big, it doesn’t have to be crazy, it can be something you’ve done before but for whatever reason are no longer comfortable with, it doesn’t even have to be anything that anyone else would find difficult that’s not the point, this is for you.

This time next month I’m going to post what my jump was maybe even a picture if possible and once I’ve done that I want you to tell me something about yours, what it was, how you did it or even just how you felt. I would really love to get as many people involved as possible so tell your friends, spread the word and good luck!

Labels: Challenges

The biggest key of all is to stay happy and enjoy what you're doing.

We were asked to run a 2 hours’ workshop between free jams. About 100 practitioners attended to the event so we split them into groups regarding their experience.

I ended up in taking care of the advanced guys with Sebastien and Blane. And the thing that hit me the most was the energy most of them had. We call it the Fire, when you burn your energy, you just fly around, you don’t care about tiredness and pains, you just enjoy so much moving that you don’t care about anything else and you can’t stand still !

The thing is that with these guys, some of them don’t understand why we make them do a lot of conditioning. They don’t feel they need it right now because they feel good, just by moving everywhere. What I use to say is that I don’t see the point of teaching them more techniques because they already know it I prefer offering them something they don’t know about, and it may be hard for them to understand because them won’t need it right away...

What I want to say is that if you have this kind of Fire with you, enjoy it as much as you can ! This energy will make you improve a lot, your confidence will be at its top level and you will feel very good... This fire will also save you from most of the pains and injury because you have this incredible joy to move !

When I meet people like that I just want to give them some tools for the next step: One day this fire will go and then you will have to practise with something else, another motivation, another method etc... I don’t show them conditioning drills to piss them off, I just believe that it might be helpful the day their way of practising changes and the original fire is gone. The conditioning will build up a body armor and if you want to last in the discipline it will protect you from pains and injuries...

Peace

C’est parti, je souffle, je pousse, je me cramponne et j’enchaine les séries sans vraiment transpirer, je me sens bien. Voila, c’est fini! Elle s’approche avec les résultats et me dit:”on peut voir une légère amélioration avec le précédent test, vos résultats sont bons voir même excellents et vous êtes largement au dessus de la moyenne. Mais parce que vous tes beaucoup plus fort que cette moyenne, je dois avouer que je m’attendais qu’ils soient meilleurs.” Pour etre honnête, j’ étais moi aussi un peu déçu, j’avais l’impression d’ être nettement plus fort que la dernière fois. La machine ne trompe pas...

“Dans 2 mois on remet ça”, me dit elle en souriant. Je lui réponds gentiment:” á dans 2 mois en meilleure forme.” Avec un léger sourir, j’ écris la date sur cette carte de visite de mon prochain rendez vous. Je rentre dans l’acsenceur, je mets mes écouteurs, je sélectionne ma musique et des que la porte s’ouvre , je commence á courir pour aller á la maison et je me dit:”dur, dur mais accroche toi, c’est Presque fini.” Eh oui! A nouveau je me sens bien et prèt á l’action...