Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Neglected

Wow, I need to book my ideas up, and quick.
Up until the last month or so I had neglected Parkour for at least 4 weeks, and since getting back into regular training, I haven't really 'felt it' if ya get my drift.
Maybe the Peaks Trip will give me an insight into all the good things that I used to get out of Parkour and inspire me to re-establish them. Maybe even start a clean slate and go over everything till i'm happy with it. In my, lets call it, 'first attempt' at Parkour, I rushed through it all and, as a result, haven't lived up to my full potential.

Hopefully, by starting this 'clean slate', I will become a more talented and dedicated traceur.
My biggest mistake was joining a team, this is because a team causes competition, and that isn't what its all about. Its not to impress others and its definitely not to be better than other just for the sake of it. By starting again, I will aim to impress only myself, this doesn't mean training solo all the time, but it means that I will not be pressured into anything by anyone else and will not stand for people putting me down, saying I'm not good enough. As long as i'm happy with my level (which i'm not atm), then I will feel achieved, i'm not saying that when I get to a particular level I will stay at that level and not progress but I will progress at my own suitable rate.

Expect more posts after the Peaks Trip.

Laters,
Bubble

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

Wow, very nice training today!

Right, I don't know where to start, well the beginning of training would be a place =]


Josh called for me at first and we waited for Luke to come, we watched some vids for some inspiration, Luke arrived and we went straight out. We headed to school and went to science, we now realise the potential such a small, simple spot can have. As usual we warmed up with some conditioning, again we did stair hops, calf raises and press ups. Next we drilled the basics and some stuff like kong-to-cats and kong-to-pre's. All was going well and the weather was absolutely perfect, i knew it was going to be a goooood days training.

We were on the first bit of science for quite a bit (as shown, there is more but the pic was being gay) , something new I did here was a 360 cat, (kick the wall then 360 and cat) on the slanted wall with the rail the whole way across.
Then we moved round the corner where there are a few rails and some bars that are about 6 foot high and parallel. One of my main aims was a lache to cat on these as there is a wall close to one of the bars. I did it after about 4 attempts and then again after another, I consider this a big achievement for me as it's a pretty big gap between them. Then I did a kong-to-cat that i'd never done before, its from a rail to a ledge and a rail. Another achievement =D. We started doing some techy training on a corner rail which had three rails, one at the top, on at the bottom and one in the middle. We did a few tiny dynos and body drops, and basically just doing new and different things. My rail work has improved soooooo much today and i really don't feel uncomfortable with rails like i used to be. More rails to come, more progression. I learnt diving kongs on rails, and my balance has probably doubled today.

I've mentioned all of my progress that has been made today, but about the day, it was a brilliant days training. I don't know why this was, but the atmosphere and feeling of the day was amazing, if i carry on training as we did today my progression pace will fly up at a faster rate than ever before. Thanks Luke and Josh H for being there today and hopefully will be there again and again. Parkour has become an essential to me and my life, I hope I will progress to a level that I think is acceptable and will not stop until i'm satisfied.
I know I haven't written much but there is nothing more to say, Todays training = Wow.
Bubble =D

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Saturdays Training

Wow, where to begin? Well, first off I set off from my house at about 11:50 to meet Luke and Morris at school. I got there first and after about 5 minutes Nicko and lil Connor arrived, I didn't expect them to come but whatever. Shortly after this, Luke turned up, quickly followed by Morris. We headed off into school. Once we got to science block we started warming up with calf raises, stair hops and some stretches. We did some stuff on the wall, 4DPk arrived after about 15mins in school. Morris headed for the roof as they turned the corner, him and Tom spent most of their time up there. Damon and I managed a kong to cat that I'd already done but only once, Damon had never done it before.

Luke dissappeared as me and the rest trained at Science block. We decided to go and see where he was, we took to the roof as it was easier than walking the whole way around. We got to the chase boxes which was where Luke was sitting, I'd left my jumper at Science so me and Luke went back for it, we stopped at Science for some more training. At this point we were doing some small scale dyno's, and a very wierd dyno to underbar which was sooo small, but we both managed it. We decided to go to the shop whilst Morris, Tom and Damon were all on the roof of the school. This obsession baffles me, why the roof? Anyway we headed to the shop.

At the shop we bought Ice Cream =D, we sat and ate it at the church. Then we headed off to my house as the rain battered, we read some stuff on the net, watched a few videos and discussed deep issues of parkour. As the rain calmed, we listened to some inspirational music to get us in the mood for more training, then yet again we headed back to school. We found ourselves at Science AGAIN, yet this time, it was serious training. First off we discussed how we could get up stairs more efficiently, I came up with the idea that if you step halfway up then do a kind of speed vault up the rest, you lose no speed or fluidity, both me and Luke liked it so we experimented a little further with it. Now we went on to 'How to get down the stairs at science', Luke came up with a neat, efficient way and so we practiced it, again and again. More stair hops came now, conditioning has become more of a need to me now. I did a set, then Luke did a set. I found a more challenging way of doing these too, for this you go across the stair set before you move down or up onto the next. After this we drilled kongs, speeds and most of the other fundamentals.

All in all the training was great, I learnt alot mentally aswell as some physical stuff. I cannot get my head around why 4D are as strong, as fast and as good as me already. They have had a years less training than me. Maybe its because I had to learn on my own, whereas 4D have been put through their paces by Kaedo for 9 months. I'm not sure they're at my mental level yet, and i'm also quite curious as to wether they take it seriously or not. Anyway, ill write again soon.

Bubble.

Wednesday, 16 May 2007

I've Been Thinking

Today, I haven't done any parkour, mainly due to the poor weather. I did some conditioning in my house then sat and thought for a while. I realised that my current physical progression is poor, but i'm becoming more aware that this isn't JUST what makes a good traceur. My mindset changed dramatically today, I started to mentally analyse my friends who i train with, it is fairly obvious that when it comes to do the bigger, more daring movements, Morris and sometimes Luke will most probably be up for it. When I train i go into my own world and attempt to perfect the movements which I already can do, also I try and make my parkour more efficient and less challenging to my body.

Parkour has been a struggle for me but I will stick with it because I simply can't get enough of it. Things have been more challenging to me than they have been to my fellow traceurs who I mainly train with, to be quite honest i'd say that for a year and a half of training, i'm not nearly as good as I should be. This is why my recent training has been abysmal, I haven't been able to salvage just one thing from my last five PARKOUR training sessions. I personally want this to stop now but I need to get my body and mind into a decent state.

I now condition regularly and this is starting to have a positive effect, on the first hell night, I could at a strain, do 15 pistols on my left leg and 10 on my right. Now, 2 weeks on and about 7 conditioning sessions, i can do 10 more on each leg, still at a push but i'm getting there. So, i've found a way to sort out my physical state. I understand parkour, but there is one piece missing from my 'parkour jigsaw' if you will, and that is MOTIVATION. I've been trying to find something that will motivate me but I simply cannot recognise anything that does. In a few weeks, maybe i will find that motivation and be able to train properly and benefit from the training sessions i have.