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
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2 comments:
Makes you think we spend too much time on these standing jumps and dead end cat passes etc, which will get us nowhere in the real world :P. I think I mentioned in my blog about how at Weldrix, I was coming up with new combinations off the top of my head, choosing my next move entirely by the position I land in and the way my body is facing etc. I really enjoy that kind of training, we should really get into the habbit? The basics are always going to come back up when we are ina situatuon where we NEED to use them, so training them and your instinctive choices should be something a traceur always practises?
Instinct is why the red walls down near the armouries are fantastic, it's all much too cramped for most "fundamentals". I love to just pick a point there and try to get to it. Try and do the same with the climbing frame in my garden by just keeping on moving in and out of it for as long as I want but never stopping to think.
I'm trying to combine my instinct and confidence training when I train alone, instead of lining up precisions on the edge of my ability or other "big movements" I now instead trust in my own ability and do them first time. I did a 9 footer, slightly downwards between two awkward rocks in my garden first time and I plan on trying to do the same with a similar 10 foot one once they're not lethally slippery.
This is the mental side of things I suppose, a lot of people neglect it but I think the mental side is what gives you the ability to use the full potential your physical capabilities give you. It's great you have such similar ideas to me and I'm so grateful I have you to train with and inspire me along with all of the other fantastic people I train with in Leeds. See you in two weeks I guess (skiing).
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