Showing posts with label parkour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parkour. Show all posts
20110217
20090114
Maison des Singes
It has happened; there is a house full of traceuruesses in Seattle, and I'm lucky enough to be stationed within it. And I really do feel fortunate--I know how many people are out there, the only ones in their area, having to teach themselves and train on their own, and I am truly blessed to have such a strong and supportive community. And have faith, all you loners! Parkour is spreading far and fast, and geographically you may be single, but really, it's a worldwide community.
Some things to coming soon to the house: bars! and lots of them, training with my roommates, and motivation all the time, all around me. I don't really know how to describe how good it shall be for me to live with such motivated and active people, especially having just come from a home that I love, but offered only too much inactivity and the piling of beer cans; (boys, I love you, I do not love Magic Cards.) I once lived with only other jugglers, and we juggled every day for a few hours, together, or separate, had weekly "Juggle Jams" at home, and there was no shortage of good times. This new house will be like that for parkour, (not to mention they shall all juggle too [some already do] mwahahaha!) And we have cement stairs out front and a little wall out back and yard and a shed and soon a dog and board meetings and weekly group training days and fencing and boxing and down time and visitors and soooo much food is going to go through there--*inhale*--I'm stoked.
Other happy news, the PNWPA classes are in full swing, with Rafe putting in mad hours at the gym. I especially have fun with the kids' class; there's nothing like hearing, "This is so awesome!" repeated for an hour every Friday to keep one's spirits high. It's great to see how they improve every week, and to be subject to their unending excitement. I can't wait until we have toddler classes! Cute little humonkeys for the win.
In training:
Thursday was add-on conditioning time, crazy super-man push-ups, and the always reminder of needing to build core strength.
Friday had kids, obstacle course, and lots of, "Hey Mom! Watch me!"
Sunday was grey and wet--big surprise. Freeway park ate my hand skin--even bigger surprise. (Riiight.)
Tyson had us doing cat hang drills for warm up; we ended up spending the whole training session (and hour or so, I think...) on those two walls. Drill one: ten times (the ones you counted as good) standing cat jump, up, lower down other side to cat before dismount. Drill two: Five times standing cat jump, up, lower into hang other side, back up, and lower down to original side -or- once up, lower down as slowly as possible. Drill three: Five times jump to cat, up to right forearm, down to hang, up to left forearm, down to hang, then both and up--or maybe down...
I was on an alternate course, as my scrambling up the wall wasn't working without some rail-assist, and by the time I got to the third drill, my forearms were failing. It's weird; sometimes I don't feel that pain of muscles being done working, they'll just stop working, kind of numb, and certainly useless. I don't consider having even one repetition for the last drill, maybe a half, but it was a good day--I appreciate how basic it was, just two walls, just cat-work, but I found it all so difficult. After the first thirty minutes it was hard to want to subject my hands to the park again, (we found minor relief in dipping raw palms into cold puddles on the ground.) And I think, at the end, my hands were a big reason why everything just stopped working. No confidence in grip, and of course, pain. I work to push through pain in so much of my training, and am always improving, but at some point the hands wont do, they'll just bleed for a while, then weep later on. But secretly I like it. Not for the first day, or even the first two, but definitely after the stinging-when-I-touch-anything stops, it feels good. Like I've done something. I can't imagine using gloves, or training inside all the time. I know some prefer the indoors, and they're good for introductions, but I can't call it parkour unless enough time training happens outside; it's just not real, otherwise. Freeway park is a very real place, and I was very really sore the next day, and am now really done.
I wish you all safety, respect, and community--
Be well.
Some things to coming soon to the house: bars! and lots of them, training with my roommates, and motivation all the time, all around me. I don't really know how to describe how good it shall be for me to live with such motivated and active people, especially having just come from a home that I love, but offered only too much inactivity and the piling of beer cans; (boys, I love you, I do not love Magic Cards.) I once lived with only other jugglers, and we juggled every day for a few hours, together, or separate, had weekly "Juggle Jams" at home, and there was no shortage of good times. This new house will be like that for parkour, (not to mention they shall all juggle too [some already do] mwahahaha!) And we have cement stairs out front and a little wall out back and yard and a shed and soon a dog and board meetings and weekly group training days and fencing and boxing and down time and visitors and soooo much food is going to go through there--*inhale*--I'm stoked.
Other happy news, the PNWPA classes are in full swing, with Rafe putting in mad hours at the gym. I especially have fun with the kids' class; there's nothing like hearing, "This is so awesome!" repeated for an hour every Friday to keep one's spirits high. It's great to see how they improve every week, and to be subject to their unending excitement. I can't wait until we have toddler classes! Cute little humonkeys for the win.
In training:
Thursday was add-on conditioning time, crazy super-man push-ups, and the always reminder of needing to build core strength.
Friday had kids, obstacle course, and lots of, "Hey Mom! Watch me!"
Saturday was more add-0n conditioning, first and second class, a full gym for the second class, and--guess what?--reminder of needing to do hanging leg raises (for core strength.)
photo by Cody Allison
photo by Cody AllisonSunday was grey and wet--big surprise. Freeway park ate my hand skin--even bigger surprise. (Riiight.)
Tyson had us doing cat hang drills for warm up; we ended up spending the whole training session (and hour or so, I think...) on those two walls. Drill one: ten times (the ones you counted as good) standing cat jump, up, lower down other side to cat before dismount. Drill two: Five times standing cat jump, up, lower into hang other side, back up, and lower down to original side -or- once up, lower down as slowly as possible. Drill three: Five times jump to cat, up to right forearm, down to hang, up to left forearm, down to hang, then both and up--or maybe down...
I was on an alternate course, as my scrambling up the wall wasn't working without some rail-assist, and by the time I got to the third drill, my forearms were failing. It's weird; sometimes I don't feel that pain of muscles being done working, they'll just stop working, kind of numb, and certainly useless. I don't consider having even one repetition for the last drill, maybe a half, but it was a good day--I appreciate how basic it was, just two walls, just cat-work, but I found it all so difficult. After the first thirty minutes it was hard to want to subject my hands to the park again, (we found minor relief in dipping raw palms into cold puddles on the ground.) And I think, at the end, my hands were a big reason why everything just stopped working. No confidence in grip, and of course, pain. I work to push through pain in so much of my training, and am always improving, but at some point the hands wont do, they'll just bleed for a while, then weep later on. But secretly I like it. Not for the first day, or even the first two, but definitely after the stinging-when-I-touch-anything stops, it feels good. Like I've done something. I can't imagine using gloves, or training inside all the time. I know some prefer the indoors, and they're good for introductions, but I can't call it parkour unless enough time training happens outside; it's just not real, otherwise. Freeway park is a very real place, and I was very really sore the next day, and am now really done.
I wish you all safety, respect, and community--
Be well.
20081129
Stuffy Nose and All
Video shot and edited by Tim Kahn at Gasworks Park. I had about forty five minutes to do stuff, and this is a rough cut of that day. I almost wish he'd put in some of what I'd said when asked about my greatest challenge to overcome in Parkour--asthma--but it's still a nice little video. And all I'd said about the asthma anyway was that it is my greatest challenge, a nice daily challenge, a nifty little thing that my body does to itself, to never use as an excuse and to always, constantly, conquer. I actually try to refrain from mentioning it ever, because it's not relevant to anyone else unless I'm having issues, (which I often keep to myself anyway.) I guess I'm mostly over keeping it secret, but I still go off to use my inhaler alone and out-of-sight. Would super man go and scream his utter love of kryptonite to the world? I have asthma, but I won't be called an asthmatic; I just don't like the way it sounds. So defining, confining, and gone is the time when I couldn't finish the run in P.E., coming in last at an oh-so-graceful laborious walk. Nope. I'll lead the conditioning, by golly, and ride my bike through the city, and forget, in the greatest of moments, that I ever cannot breathe optimally. And guess what? When I finally do get rid of the asthma, I'm gonna have freaking super powers, because right now I can't even imagine leaving the house without my plastic-and-canister life-saving device. I'll gain mad points instead of losing them. So there.
20081124
Stiff Reverie
Falling under the spell of watching parkour videos late at night brings to me the fire I feel when I need to move. Well-worked from yesterday's training, I've been set to speed slow all day, and now--as I should be sleeping--wander here to wonder: why am I becoming what I cannot help? In my little room I quadruped, find my balance upside down, push-up, roll around, imagine myself out there, running, jumping, landing, and onward. I imagine speeds and heights I don't yet have, feel all my feet--yes four--galloping on cold concrete, and wish that, like in my dreams, I could go on forever. But sitting up straight and reaching for the sky, I remember: rest comes post work. I am getting there, slowly, determined. What I did yesterday I could not do last year; what I do tomorrow will be more. I feel giddy, anxious, electric, sometimes, thinking of the paths...I just want to be a useful monkee. Want to be capable and strong and true. I want how it feels to work for that movement, sure and smooth, that first victory of a space, of my fears, and all the ones that follow. Or finding new ways within what I thought I knew. I stretch, shiver (it's cold up here, this attic space,) trying to ease my mind into slumber but am ever excited: Parkour! Who knew? I did, for so long, but didn't understand, and now I'm beginning to...And in the years to come, I will stay true to the difficulty of obtaining elite movement, control of my body within the space and time I have...I am not alone in the discipline, but am within myself. I hesitate to call myself traceuse, for feeling of not being quite enough yet, but how can I anything else be? If not traceuse, something very like, and I like it. I love it. I'm tired, I sleep so much, but it is work worth paying for, play worth g
aining. And so I feed the fire, and as it burns down into coals I sit by its warmth, cook over the heat, and then find it more fuel so it can burn on as I sleep.
aining. And so I feed the fire, and as it burns down into coals I sit by its warmth, cook over the heat, and then find it more fuel so it can burn on as I sleep.20081121
Throw me into leathers and a hood: I'm fired up!
Today I visited the Vikingfire Foundry that's--so conveniently--just down the street from my abode. And what? These folks are terrific! With a mostly female team, (4:1), plenty of regular clients, and an acute artistic energy that exudes from the whole place, this foundry is one in a hundredmilliongazillion--and all I have to do is show up and they'll put me to work, teaching me
all about bronze casting, letting me weld, and basically giving me the opprotunity to join their community and learn all about an industry I love. Having been away from metalwork for a few years, I'm stoked to again have the chance to simultaneously gain useful skills and make beautiful things. There's also talk of a revivable 501(c)3, with the interest in teaching youngfolk about casting--which gives me immense excitement; I would love to work with two nonprofits! [Insert Pacific Northwest Parkour Association plug here] Just the smell of the place made me giddy; metal dust and leather...And oh the crucible, the plasma cutter, pneumatic tools! The ultimate goal? Designing and creating interesting structures for training parkour. That's right, long way coming, but it will happen. Jungle gym with relief monkees anyone?
--What's more: I'm watching my friend's daughter on Tuesday (she's seven and quite kick-ass) and, via Steve's invitation, we'll be going on a 'field trip' to the foundry to learn all about the operation and see them pour some metal! It'll be the first viewing for both of us, and with plenty of park time and some pho for lunch, it should be an exciting excursion in Ballard!
Exclamation points for the win!
all about bronze casting, letting me weld, and basically giving me the opprotunity to join their community and learn all about an industry I love. Having been away from metalwork for a few years, I'm stoked to again have the chance to simultaneously gain useful skills and make beautiful things. There's also talk of a revivable 501(c)3, with the interest in teaching youngfolk about casting--which gives me immense excitement; I would love to work with two nonprofits! [Insert Pacific Northwest Parkour Association plug here] Just the smell of the place made me giddy; metal dust and leather...And oh the crucible, the plasma cutter, pneumatic tools! The ultimate goal? Designing and creating interesting structures for training parkour. That's right, long way coming, but it will happen. Jungle gym with relief monkees anyone? --What's more: I'm watching my friend's daughter on Tuesday (she's seven and quite kick-ass) and, via Steve's invitation, we'll be going on a 'field trip' to the foundry to learn all about the operation and see them pour some metal! It'll be the first viewing for both of us, and with plenty of park time and some pho for lunch, it should be an exciting excursion in Ballard!
Exclamation points for the win!
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