Saturday’s jam (the 10th) was quite cool even though it was piss wet through and cold.
We spent the whole day at the undercover spot which was unusually deadly slippery due to the walls having condensation on them from being so cold. This meant we were stuck with training on a dry patch of tarmac and one rail! So me, Alistair, Hollie, Liam and Jamie (along with someone else I can’t remember… I think :S) spent a couple of hours drilling various things on some parking spaces lines… Lots of precisions and handstands with the odd dive roll thrown in there, we even got our bare feet out at one point :P
We then started loads of conditioning having competitions to see who could hold certain core strength positions the longest and we had a go at ladder pull ups on some awkward bars… I won with 7, almost 8. That’s about all we did for the day I think… Well all I can remember anyway!
…Ooh we did some tight underbars on the dry rail also.
Liam was half begging me to train on Monday (as we are both on holiday from education this week) but I had work. I then had a rethink in the morning as I was V tired from a late night… I ended up going back to bed and waking up just in time to see it was sunny and give Hollie and Liam a call and see if they were up for training. Naturally they were (all be it with Liam needing lots of persuasion to get his ass to Leeds – he was training around his local town at the time) and I headed into town.
On the way into town the weather was getting worse and worse and I had literally took 2 paces out of the bus station when the first drops of the subsequent downpour fell :|
I met up with Liam, with his two buddies, Harrison and Danny, and we promptly headed to the undercover spot. It was much less dangerous today with the walls providing ample grip to drill some vaults. Liam then came up with the idea of doing a dash to precision over two walls 4-5 foot apart and a foot height difference. This was something completely new to us and it took us a while to get a decent technique and get close to it. Liam landed it craned first and I took a couple more goes at it before doing the same.
This is about when Wayne, Guy, Brad and a few more of the ‘noobs’ (though they really aint noobs anymore!) turned up. We showed them what we were doing and taught them a bit about conditioning, which was cool because a couple of them got really into it and basically wanted to have the same strength as me. We did loads of conditioning after with loads of handstands. Me, Liam and Wayne tried the dash again and Wayne followed by Liam landed it fully onto the second wall. I however couldn’t get the power out of it that I needed. I put this down to me having a slightly different technique, as I have preferred to dash an object really quickly and efficiently before - not lifting my legs high and pushing off far.
Hollie then turned up and we did some more training on vaults and general techniques… Again I can’t remember much from the day as I have slept a few times since then :P
Tuesday I met with Hollie, Liam and ‘the noobs’ again in Leeds train station and we all got on the train to Sheffield. We were heading for the gym there as JK had organised another 4 hour session. It was the first time ‘the noobs’ had been to the gym and they all loved it, doing loads and learning loads. I did some good stuff in the first 3 hours but ran out of steam and decided to conserve a bit of energy for a jam in Sheffield afterwards. So I sat around watching a little tricking competition, 8-10 guys all took it in turns to use the floor area (which is sprung) to do the best flips and tricks they could.
I headed into town with Danny and Shane from Sheffield and after stopping for some lass to get a McD’s *pulls a face* and saying bye to the rest of the Leeds lot (I was the only one hardcore enough to stay :S) we met Ben at Hallam. It was really cool jamming with the Sheffield boys again, I don’t think I have jammed with them since the Peak District Trip! I only stayed for an hour or two and we didn’t do too much in the dark but I now really can’t wait to get back there and have a proper jam with them!
I rested all Wednesday and went to the gym on Thursday and Friday, benching my own weight again on Thursday and lifting weights virtually non stop for 2 hours on Friday :)
Today (Sat the 17th) was amazing. The weather stayed dry and warm with blue skies all day. This meant everyone was feeling good and it didn’t take long before we were up to some good tricks. There was me, daN, Kaox, some of Abunai, Laim, Hollie (+1) ‘the noobs’ and Alex came with his mate. After a quick tricking sesh and some impressive flips from ‘the noobs’ we got down to business as ‘the noobs’ left. Me, Cunni, daN and Alex started by doing some running arm jumps over a road works barrier that we could move around as we pleased. I still haven’t shifted my groin strains so I had to give in pretty early but Alex and Cunni got some huge ones nailed. I then held a handstand on a single rail for a total of around 20 seconds 10 of which I was extended for – which was a nice little achievement for me. We stayed at the art gallery for ages doing loads of different new stuff and I finally managed to precision the red rail in the middle of the main stair set from the high wall next to the statue. I have been looking at it for months now saying one day I will do it… Today was the day! I didn’t manage to stick it, though I came very close on my fourth attempt so I will have to try again tomorrow. We did some nice work on tic tacs, running precisions and arm jumps, along with some fast scaling of a tree, before we finally moved on like 3.5 hours later!
We headed to the scaffolding spot and then to the council flats (the other side of the ring road to the swimming pool). Here I managed to do some really cool arm jumps from standing and running very confidently and comfortably, which was good as none of them were small and they were all getting close to my physical limit.
Food was next and we all went to the student union in the uni for some food. After which we did a bit of training at the undercover spot and some tricking on the nearby rocks before training on the scaffolding in the uni for ages. I did the big body drop there, again, but with so much more control and composure this time :D
We then met Ed and did a little more training back at the art gallery.
On my way to the bus station I though I might as well see if Argos was still open as it had been 5 weeks since I sent my camcorder for repair (meant to be 10-14 days! :| )
It was, and after some confusion I finally got my camcorder back :D :D :D
Now looking forward to getting some decent footage tomorrow when I train with Ed and maybe some of ‘the noobs’.
All in all a very good day today and loads of people (not just me) did great things that they were very proud of today!
And here is some unedited (sorry I couldn’t be arsed!) gym footage from the last gym day back in the Xams holls… If any of you wants any clips from it then give me a shout…. Expects phone calls of Liam and ED asking when I’m next going to be online :|
Gym 1
Gym 2
Peace and Chips!
Sunday, 18 February 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Instincts
I have been talking to other traceurs (Luke in particular) recently about almost taking a step back with training. By which I mean stepping back from the larger of the movements and once again working on the little things. I don't mean I haven't trained the easy vaults and jumps to a very high standard previously; I have. What I did 'sort of' neglect however was training them instinctively.
I was training towards doing the movements perfect but this took concentration, it means I never drilled them instinctively. It has left me with very good technique with a lot of vaults but up until recently I was concentrating far more than I should have to when using those techniques.
So I am now focusing a lot of training on the easy stuff - for the third time in my 2 years (almost) of training, and I'm sure it wont be the last.
I am just using my instincts with familiar and unfamiliar movements without too much consideration of what I am doing until afterwards. I then look back and analyze to pick fault with my instinctive movement and improve upon it purely by repetition.
My parkour is progressing and some of the stuff I now label as 'easy' instinctive movements were, a few months ago, some of the better, harder movements I was training. The video below is testimony to this. Nothing in the video is more than 3 months old and at the time I was proud of the movements in it. I now look back at it and see moves that I drill easily on a weekly basis and have improved upon tenfold so that they have become instinctive and require very little concentration.
What all this means is I am now looking with a different light at obstacles and moving more freely between them. I used to look at an obstacle and only see the possible combinations, I now instinctively know of the possible combinations and try to picture the fastest and easiest option and then work out the important placements needed to complete the combinations. Whether it is working out that I have to land on a particular foot from a vault to go into the next or knowing I have to get my hands off the wall and forward as soon as possible if I am to make a vault - arm jump combination - This is what I see now.
I now like to continue already known combinations to the next obstacles without thinking before hand what I am about to do. And similarly run towards an unfamiliar object (usually as we walk through town) working out what I am about to do in the time it takes me to get there or at least picture what option I would take if it is not feasible at the time to do the 'doing' (might have a bag on etc).
This, for me, is leading me towards the core of parkour and I am constantly amazing myself with my instinctive capabilities, growing in confidence all the time.
Like I said - all filmed around 2-3 months ago and at the time I was proud of the stuff in there but now see as almost instinctive movements.
On a side note I benched 70kg - more than my own weight - again today :D
Peace forever
I was training towards doing the movements perfect but this took concentration, it means I never drilled them instinctively. It has left me with very good technique with a lot of vaults but up until recently I was concentrating far more than I should have to when using those techniques.
So I am now focusing a lot of training on the easy stuff - for the third time in my 2 years (almost) of training, and I'm sure it wont be the last.
I am just using my instincts with familiar and unfamiliar movements without too much consideration of what I am doing until afterwards. I then look back and analyze to pick fault with my instinctive movement and improve upon it purely by repetition.
My parkour is progressing and some of the stuff I now label as 'easy' instinctive movements were, a few months ago, some of the better, harder movements I was training. The video below is testimony to this. Nothing in the video is more than 3 months old and at the time I was proud of the movements in it. I now look back at it and see moves that I drill easily on a weekly basis and have improved upon tenfold so that they have become instinctive and require very little concentration.
What all this means is I am now looking with a different light at obstacles and moving more freely between them. I used to look at an obstacle and only see the possible combinations, I now instinctively know of the possible combinations and try to picture the fastest and easiest option and then work out the important placements needed to complete the combinations. Whether it is working out that I have to land on a particular foot from a vault to go into the next or knowing I have to get my hands off the wall and forward as soon as possible if I am to make a vault - arm jump combination - This is what I see now.
I now like to continue already known combinations to the next obstacles without thinking before hand what I am about to do. And similarly run towards an unfamiliar object (usually as we walk through town) working out what I am about to do in the time it takes me to get there or at least picture what option I would take if it is not feasible at the time to do the 'doing' (might have a bag on etc).
This, for me, is leading me towards the core of parkour and I am constantly amazing myself with my instinctive capabilities, growing in confidence all the time.
Like I said - all filmed around 2-3 months ago and at the time I was proud of the stuff in there but now see as almost instinctive movements.
On a side note I benched 70kg - more than my own weight - again today :D
Peace forever
Thursday, 8 February 2007
Seems Ironic Though
I was planning on going to the gym yesterday (Tuesday) but because the weather was so nice I couldn't pass up the chance to do some outdoor training. So, although I had changed into my gym kit I changed back out of them and into some scruffs as I headed up to a sand quarry with my dog about 2/3 of a mile away from my house to do some tricking - something I have neglected of late. The place used to be really cool with a sandhill that was so old it had gone hard on top, and with a little disturbance you could get the sides of it to be really soft, resulting in some serious fun. I used to piss about there all the time with mates like 4/5 years ago and we used to do all sorts of backflips and summies down the hill - I used to able to do 540 backs with a drop of 8 feet to land facing down the hill, to then roll nicely and end up on my feet. I have no idea what my technique was like back then but no matter how sketchy I can't do that into a foam pit now :/
Seems ironic though,that I'm back in the same place doing the same stuff years later.
The sand forming the hill finally got used though and all the others are too soft on top to do much off :( so I don't use the area for training much these days. I did however find a nice new little spot for tricking yesterday. It had a hard run up to a little raised take off and soft'ish' sand to land on 5 feet below. The only problems with it were I could only get a 4 step run up and had to clear 2-3 feet of rubble to land on the sand. I started by drilling a few summies - trying different things - different tucks, different take off etc, and then moved onto trying sideflips and double legs. I hadn't done these in months and only ever done a handful outside the gym, so they were rather scary but I tried to get my old 'noobish' mentality back - before I had all the experiance of everything that could go wrong - and thought to myself if all the noobs can land these things then so can I. With witch I attempted a sideflip of a split footed take off and landed it with ease :)
-I tell a lie, I did half a dosen side flips and double legs on Ed's trampoline on sunday :P - but hardly worth shouting about.
I spent the next hour or so improving upon sideflips and double legs and variations of, getting more height and power into them, then going for distance, then a tight tuck with an early untuck etc. I found them really easy and soon picked up confidense with them, although after a while I started to lean back with sideflips and falling back on landings. I tried to correct but instead found myself going into more of a double leg movement and landing facing backwards, and no matter what I tried I couldn't correct it - I could land a sideflip but I would still be on the verge of falling backwards :\
The session went well and with the exception of one over rotated summie I didn't bail badly with any of the flips. On my way back through the quarry the workers had gone home so I was free to check out the machinery and things. The machinery looked crap and was covered in shit but there was a couple of containers and a building resembling a electricity sub-station with a wall next to it that provided a couple of oppotunities for arm jumps and precisions. Nothing too challenging, a 9 foot arm jump from a container to the building and precision/jump back and some arm jump/wall pass variations from the 2.5 foot high wall onto the building with a precision back to the wall. I quickly and confidently did everything first time everytime and realized that everything was all well within my comfort boundary and that 6 months ago I wouldn't have even attempted most of it :D
Today I woke up and managed to strain my shoulder slightly within 5 minutes of doing so by doing some handstands - I thought it would be a challenge to do them so early on a morning :|
It was ok though and after college I spent 90 mins in the gym doing loads on my pectoral's and abdominals and did a few climbups on my favourite bus stop - finding doing 'two handed' ones very easy to execute now - such an improvement on 2 weeks ago!
Peace Y'all
Seems ironic though,that I'm back in the same place doing the same stuff years later.
The sand forming the hill finally got used though and all the others are too soft on top to do much off :( so I don't use the area for training much these days. I did however find a nice new little spot for tricking yesterday. It had a hard run up to a little raised take off and soft'ish' sand to land on 5 feet below. The only problems with it were I could only get a 4 step run up and had to clear 2-3 feet of rubble to land on the sand. I started by drilling a few summies - trying different things - different tucks, different take off etc, and then moved onto trying sideflips and double legs. I hadn't done these in months and only ever done a handful outside the gym, so they were rather scary but I tried to get my old 'noobish' mentality back - before I had all the experiance of everything that could go wrong - and thought to myself if all the noobs can land these things then so can I. With witch I attempted a sideflip of a split footed take off and landed it with ease :)
-I tell a lie, I did half a dosen side flips and double legs on Ed's trampoline on sunday :P - but hardly worth shouting about.
I spent the next hour or so improving upon sideflips and double legs and variations of, getting more height and power into them, then going for distance, then a tight tuck with an early untuck etc. I found them really easy and soon picked up confidense with them, although after a while I started to lean back with sideflips and falling back on landings. I tried to correct but instead found myself going into more of a double leg movement and landing facing backwards, and no matter what I tried I couldn't correct it - I could land a sideflip but I would still be on the verge of falling backwards :\
The session went well and with the exception of one over rotated summie I didn't bail badly with any of the flips. On my way back through the quarry the workers had gone home so I was free to check out the machinery and things. The machinery looked crap and was covered in shit but there was a couple of containers and a building resembling a electricity sub-station with a wall next to it that provided a couple of oppotunities for arm jumps and precisions. Nothing too challenging, a 9 foot arm jump from a container to the building and precision/jump back and some arm jump/wall pass variations from the 2.5 foot high wall onto the building with a precision back to the wall. I quickly and confidently did everything first time everytime and realized that everything was all well within my comfort boundary and that 6 months ago I wouldn't have even attempted most of it :D
Today I woke up and managed to strain my shoulder slightly within 5 minutes of doing so by doing some handstands - I thought it would be a challenge to do them so early on a morning :|
It was ok though and after college I spent 90 mins in the gym doing loads on my pectoral's and abdominals and did a few climbups on my favourite bus stop - finding doing 'two handed' ones very easy to execute now - such an improvement on 2 weeks ago!
Peace Y'all
Monday, 5 February 2007
A couple of videos
These are two collections of clips of training done in the last week or so. The latter is from the jam on Monday with Owen and shows some of the things he did along with some clips of Alex - who has still only been trainin 4 months and only been training with us about a month. This video is 2 clips from Saturday. The first is a body drop that I did - which is poorly executed now I watch it back but I couldn't be bothered editing it out. The second is a clip of a dash vault by luke at the 'two red walls' which I though was pretty amazing (enough to kiss him :S)and is the reason I have hosted the vid.
Sunday, 4 February 2007
Bread = Jam + 1
Firstly sorry for the long post but so much has happened over the past 9 days and until now I haven't had the chance to write up about them - so this is like 3 posts in one.
Saturday
Reet well as I said in my previous post I was looking forward to Saturday (the 27th), and it was no disappointment. My body was almost at a peek in terms of recent fitness (with only a slight tenderness in my hamstring tendons) and the weather held up nicely - both of which meant the jam was ACE. I got to the art gallery after work about 1:30 and did the best 2 hour session there I have ever done working mainly on the two red rails and the area around them. Not doing many vaults but concentrating on other movements, lots of jumping landing with some work on tic tacs, foot placement and power in there. Luke and Morris from Donny joined me there half way through and both looked quite amazed at the stuff I was doing - was a good feeling :)
We then went to a relatively untrained spot, 'the two red walls' where some awesome vaults took place, both on the walls and on a rail 30 yards away. I managed to do a cat pass to clear the other wall on my first attempt, with a split footed take off << only good because the walls are high and I would normally jump stop but I am getting better with the split foot. We also did loads of work on jumps, precisions and balancing in the area adjacent to the two walls, which was very cool and I managed to precision a rail with increasing distance from a wall that was about half a foot higher many times without fail. I got to around 9 foot before I didn't stick it... Did on my second attempt - repetition repetition repetition!
Sunday
We are trying to make Sunday jams a regular thing now and decided to check out my local town of Castleford. The day started well with some warming up and underbar combinations at Leeds bus station when I met Liam, Ed and Jamie. We got to an area just outside the town centre of Cas' - where I do the 11 foot arm jump in the picture to the right, and looked at it but with the achyness from Sat' turned it down without too much consideration. I did however do the gap back and landed as sweet as I possibly could from a backflip of the lower roof - just as a police car was pulling up to warn us off. They must have taken note off me because they never got out and drove off soon after :S
We moved onto a couple o small council estates where we did some very cool technique training - the likes of we never get to do in Leeds. Cas’ is a very different area which requires different movements – lots of ‘core’ parkour – jumps, arm jumps, tic tacs. This all gets done in Leeds but in Cas’ we did little else. In the second council estate we found a nasty looking cat pass to precision, it was across two walls 3-4 foot apart but the second one was higher than the first and they were too low for a comfortable cat pass. None the less I was confident with my ability and nailed it first time – Ed however went to crane it but subconsciously backed out by trying to put his hands on the wall he was trying to crane. This meant his feet hit the side of the wall and his thigh going into the top of it as, with a little aid from Jamie holding him, he went into a wonky gate vault to land on his feet on the ground 5 feet below the second wall, a pretty neat bail! I then did it again but only ‘just’ made it and wasn’t happy so I tried it again and clipped a foot on the first wall which meant I fell into the second wall hands first. I took most of the force on my hands (like I would going into a handstand) and as my legs bounced off the second wall I was pushing that hard with my shoulders and arms I went straight into a handstand on the second wall and dropped off the other side neatly. A better bail! The best part was my feet didn’t touch the floor the whole time so the strength work on my arms really paid off!
We then checked out a couple of roof tops and found a really cool gap between two parts of a roof that was about 11 – 12 foot with a drop of about 6 foot. My thought process was, WOW I haven’t done anything like this for close to a year and WOW I now have the experience and skill to do the jump with the confidence I would never injure myself doing it. Needless to say I did it without hesitation and landed very sweetly into a nice roll. I was left with a great feeling because of the realization of how good I am now compared to the last time I did any gap as big as that. Before I might have landed and slightly bruised my feet or something but I felt no shock or heavy pressure in any part of my lower body as I transferred my weight into the roll. Ed was also buzzing after making the jump look easybut Laim and Jamie didn't have the bals to attempt such a jump.
We headed into the centre and got some food but that was about it for the day. Once we had stopped we couldn’t get going again because we were all so fooked from training the last couple of days.
Monday
I got a text late on Sunday from Owen (‘thee’ owen) saying he was going to be in town and up for training today. I was like, “Sheet I’m gonna be fucked” but I couldn’t pass the opportunity to train with someone so good. I headed into town after college and met Owen along with Alex and three of his mates in Leeds at 12ish. We started off at the Gallery doing some steady work and just as I was easing off the serious aches in my glute’s and quad’s I managed to ‘half miss’ a take off on a running jump resulting on me over stretching to get my feet on the landing which meant I slipped and smashed the back of my legs into the edge of the concrete I was landing on. Some nice grazes and more achyness, just what I needed : – no bruising though – I don’t bruise that much now I am more muscle bound :)
Training was steady for me from then on but Owen did some really cool stuff and Alex did some good training as well. It was good to see Owen train and I was just standing back watching, thinking that I will be able to do the same thing in another couple of months. A couple of the things he did I have the ability to do now – a 12 foot arm jump and a cat – precision with a large drop… Just need to have the right mentality and a decent level of fitness when I’m next at the spots. However he attempted a huge running arm jump with an awkward run up that I look at and say “no, I can’t make that” (everything else was, “maybe” or “maybe in a few weeks”) so I now know I need to work on my running arm jumps and find my range.
Tuesday
I was so fucked over from the last 4 days training (inc. the session in the gym Friday) that I slept through 2 alarms that woke the rest of the house up, despite them being within a meter of my head : - naturally I didn’t do any training and rested.
Wednesday
I met up with Hollie in Leeds at 3 after college – as she had the day off and had been ice skating. Even with just the one days rest from the extreme amount of training I was feeling alright and well up for training. I drilled a bit at the art gallery and helped Hollie to learn to do a two step pop-vault/scale/passé muraille along with helping her improve other movements.
We headed straight for the uni after as we had heard of some new scaffolding there. After a little search we found it and did loads of laché work on it. Hollie managed to get them at least twice as big as she had done before with just a little bit of encouragement and advice. I however was capable of doing the biggest one there with ease so I was working on my technique of going higher into the landing like I had seen in a few videos. It worked well and I got a nice bit of stealth to them after a bit of practice.
We then drilled some arm jumps from standing and running at the spot where there are 3 foot high concrete walls with black rails around big holes that are protected by metal netting. Hollie again managed to nail some neat running ones over a few steps before she pointed out an awkward level 11 foot one for me to attempt. I had never even considered it as a possible arm jump before because of it’s size but with my new found ability with them I stuck it very nicely on my second attempt – it was hard because it was level and the walls were less than 3 foot high so if I slipped on landing I would hit the floor – like I did on my first attempt. After that, we did some jumping/landing practice down a set of wide stairs before heading off.
Thursday
My physics lesson finished early so I decided to jog to the gym (a little less than a mile) and have a good work out and jog back before the bus came at the end of college. I did it easily but didn’t manage that much in the gym – only 60 minutes or so. I got back to the common room only to have everyone there gawping and groping at my pumped up body :P
Friday
Another session in the gym – this time a lot better and I had a good work out with Olli – a mate of mine that gets forced to go to the gym by his lass!
Saturday
The weather was amazing and within seconds of arriving I was topless. It felt really good to be training topless again so early in the year. Again more training at the gallery before moving to Morrisons. I did all the usual stuff there with more ease than ever before and managed to make a precision I have been unable to do for over a year so it was progressing to be a great day. We headed to the uni and stopped at the red walls (near the white rails) which had some new shelters built next to them with ticker tape rapped around different rails providing interesting obstacles. We came up with loads of ways of moving through the tape and drilled loads of arm jump combinations on the walls before moving to the scaffolding. We spent ages on the scaffolding and only left when our hands could take no more. Hollie did an even larger laché than before and I taught Luke, Liam and Morris to laché properly. I also tried doing some body drops for the first time ever and got them so the second bar was at my shins when I was hanging, but watching it back in the video I don’t control my lower body well at all so I will have to work on them. We moved on to the playhouse laughing on the way as I was still topless whilst walking through town and it caused quite the stir.
We got to the playhouse for the sole reason of doing the arm jump there, something I managed 3/3. Ed Jamie Ali Luke and Liam also did it, which was quite amazing to say 3 months ago there were only a couple of us that had done it running – now there were 6 of us doing the 10.5 foot arm jump from standing!
Sunday
I went over to Ed and Jamie’s area (Roundhay way) today but didn’t do too much. We wanted to do lots of training on some trees but our hands were far too sore from yesterday’s session on the scaffolding! I was seriously in danger of ripping a callus off :S
We did talk about parkour a lot though… And jam sandwiches! And we had a bit of a session on Ed’s trampoline before watching some of the Parkour Journeys DVD and heading home.
So yeah to sum it all off I have trained on 9 out of the last 10 days, 6 of which have been spent at jams! Can’t be bad :D
Forever Peace
Saturday
Reet well as I said in my previous post I was looking forward to Saturday (the 27th), and it was no disappointment. My body was almost at a peek in terms of recent fitness (with only a slight tenderness in my hamstring tendons) and the weather held up nicely - both of which meant the jam was ACE. I got to the art gallery after work about 1:30 and did the best 2 hour session there I have ever done working mainly on the two red rails and the area around them. Not doing many vaults but concentrating on other movements, lots of jumping landing with some work on tic tacs, foot placement and power in there. Luke and Morris from Donny joined me there half way through and both looked quite amazed at the stuff I was doing - was a good feeling :)
We then went to a relatively untrained spot, 'the two red walls' where some awesome vaults took place, both on the walls and on a rail 30 yards away. I managed to do a cat pass to clear the other wall on my first attempt, with a split footed take off << only good because the walls are high and I would normally jump stop but I am getting better with the split foot. We also did loads of work on jumps, precisions and balancing in the area adjacent to the two walls, which was very cool and I managed to precision a rail with increasing distance from a wall that was about half a foot higher many times without fail. I got to around 9 foot before I didn't stick it... Did on my second attempt - repetition repetition repetition!
Sunday
We are trying to make Sunday jams a regular thing now and decided to check out my local town of Castleford. The day started well with some warming up and underbar combinations at Leeds bus station when I met Liam, Ed and Jamie. We got to an area just outside the town centre of Cas' - where I do the 11 foot arm jump in the picture to the right, and looked at it but with the achyness from Sat' turned it down without too much consideration. I did however do the gap back and landed as sweet as I possibly could from a backflip of the lower roof - just as a police car was pulling up to warn us off. They must have taken note off me because they never got out and drove off soon after :S
We moved onto a couple o small council estates where we did some very cool technique training - the likes of we never get to do in Leeds. Cas’ is a very different area which requires different movements – lots of ‘core’ parkour – jumps, arm jumps, tic tacs. This all gets done in Leeds but in Cas’ we did little else. In the second council estate we found a nasty looking cat pass to precision, it was across two walls 3-4 foot apart but the second one was higher than the first and they were too low for a comfortable cat pass. None the less I was confident with my ability and nailed it first time – Ed however went to crane it but subconsciously backed out by trying to put his hands on the wall he was trying to crane. This meant his feet hit the side of the wall and his thigh going into the top of it as, with a little aid from Jamie holding him, he went into a wonky gate vault to land on his feet on the ground 5 feet below the second wall, a pretty neat bail! I then did it again but only ‘just’ made it and wasn’t happy so I tried it again and clipped a foot on the first wall which meant I fell into the second wall hands first. I took most of the force on my hands (like I would going into a handstand) and as my legs bounced off the second wall I was pushing that hard with my shoulders and arms I went straight into a handstand on the second wall and dropped off the other side neatly. A better bail! The best part was my feet didn’t touch the floor the whole time so the strength work on my arms really paid off!
We then checked out a couple of roof tops and found a really cool gap between two parts of a roof that was about 11 – 12 foot with a drop of about 6 foot. My thought process was, WOW I haven’t done anything like this for close to a year and WOW I now have the experience and skill to do the jump with the confidence I would never injure myself doing it. Needless to say I did it without hesitation and landed very sweetly into a nice roll. I was left with a great feeling because of the realization of how good I am now compared to the last time I did any gap as big as that. Before I might have landed and slightly bruised my feet or something but I felt no shock or heavy pressure in any part of my lower body as I transferred my weight into the roll. Ed was also buzzing after making the jump look easybut Laim and Jamie didn't have the bals to attempt such a jump.
We headed into the centre and got some food but that was about it for the day. Once we had stopped we couldn’t get going again because we were all so fooked from training the last couple of days.
Monday
I got a text late on Sunday from Owen (‘thee’ owen) saying he was going to be in town and up for training today. I was like, “Sheet I’m gonna be fucked” but I couldn’t pass the opportunity to train with someone so good. I headed into town after college and met Owen along with Alex and three of his mates in Leeds at 12ish. We started off at the Gallery doing some steady work and just as I was easing off the serious aches in my glute’s and quad’s I managed to ‘half miss’ a take off on a running jump resulting on me over stretching to get my feet on the landing which meant I slipped and smashed the back of my legs into the edge of the concrete I was landing on. Some nice grazes and more achyness, just what I needed : – no bruising though – I don’t bruise that much now I am more muscle bound :)
Training was steady for me from then on but Owen did some really cool stuff and Alex did some good training as well. It was good to see Owen train and I was just standing back watching, thinking that I will be able to do the same thing in another couple of months. A couple of the things he did I have the ability to do now – a 12 foot arm jump and a cat – precision with a large drop… Just need to have the right mentality and a decent level of fitness when I’m next at the spots. However he attempted a huge running arm jump with an awkward run up that I look at and say “no, I can’t make that” (everything else was, “maybe” or “maybe in a few weeks”) so I now know I need to work on my running arm jumps and find my range.
Tuesday
I was so fucked over from the last 4 days training (inc. the session in the gym Friday) that I slept through 2 alarms that woke the rest of the house up, despite them being within a meter of my head : - naturally I didn’t do any training and rested.
Wednesday
I met up with Hollie in Leeds at 3 after college – as she had the day off and had been ice skating. Even with just the one days rest from the extreme amount of training I was feeling alright and well up for training. I drilled a bit at the art gallery and helped Hollie to learn to do a two step pop-vault/scale/passé muraille along with helping her improve other movements.
We headed straight for the uni after as we had heard of some new scaffolding there. After a little search we found it and did loads of laché work on it. Hollie managed to get them at least twice as big as she had done before with just a little bit of encouragement and advice. I however was capable of doing the biggest one there with ease so I was working on my technique of going higher into the landing like I had seen in a few videos. It worked well and I got a nice bit of stealth to them after a bit of practice.
We then drilled some arm jumps from standing and running at the spot where there are 3 foot high concrete walls with black rails around big holes that are protected by metal netting. Hollie again managed to nail some neat running ones over a few steps before she pointed out an awkward level 11 foot one for me to attempt. I had never even considered it as a possible arm jump before because of it’s size but with my new found ability with them I stuck it very nicely on my second attempt – it was hard because it was level and the walls were less than 3 foot high so if I slipped on landing I would hit the floor – like I did on my first attempt. After that, we did some jumping/landing practice down a set of wide stairs before heading off.
Thursday
My physics lesson finished early so I decided to jog to the gym (a little less than a mile) and have a good work out and jog back before the bus came at the end of college. I did it easily but didn’t manage that much in the gym – only 60 minutes or so. I got back to the common room only to have everyone there gawping and groping at my pumped up body :P
Friday
Another session in the gym – this time a lot better and I had a good work out with Olli – a mate of mine that gets forced to go to the gym by his lass!
Saturday
The weather was amazing and within seconds of arriving I was topless. It felt really good to be training topless again so early in the year. Again more training at the gallery before moving to Morrisons. I did all the usual stuff there with more ease than ever before and managed to make a precision I have been unable to do for over a year so it was progressing to be a great day. We headed to the uni and stopped at the red walls (near the white rails) which had some new shelters built next to them with ticker tape rapped around different rails providing interesting obstacles. We came up with loads of ways of moving through the tape and drilled loads of arm jump combinations on the walls before moving to the scaffolding. We spent ages on the scaffolding and only left when our hands could take no more. Hollie did an even larger laché than before and I taught Luke, Liam and Morris to laché properly. I also tried doing some body drops for the first time ever and got them so the second bar was at my shins when I was hanging, but watching it back in the video I don’t control my lower body well at all so I will have to work on them. We moved on to the playhouse laughing on the way as I was still topless whilst walking through town and it caused quite the stir.
We got to the playhouse for the sole reason of doing the arm jump there, something I managed 3/3. Ed Jamie Ali Luke and Liam also did it, which was quite amazing to say 3 months ago there were only a couple of us that had done it running – now there were 6 of us doing the 10.5 foot arm jump from standing!
Sunday
I went over to Ed and Jamie’s area (Roundhay way) today but didn’t do too much. We wanted to do lots of training on some trees but our hands were far too sore from yesterday’s session on the scaffolding! I was seriously in danger of ripping a callus off :S
We did talk about parkour a lot though… And jam sandwiches! And we had a bit of a session on Ed’s trampoline before watching some of the Parkour Journeys DVD and heading home.
So yeah to sum it all off I have trained on 9 out of the last 10 days, 6 of which have been spent at jams! Can’t be bad :D
Forever Peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
