Cimp

Civic Training

2008-12-17T02:05:00.000-08:00

Did some training in civic with ruoF, the other day.

I found it really hard to get into the mood, to get ewxcited about the training. I started to get excited when I started doing this random hand stand poses, coming in from a cart-wheel.

We trained for about 1 to 2 hours, only hitting up toast and noise wall. I come to realise how much you can actualyl do at noise wall, and appreciate it more than i used to.

I've recently come down with a cold, which will most likely hinder my training. And I've just started my holidays! I'll test out how much it affects my training potential tomorrow, with some indoor strength training.

Past Training

2008-12-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

Last thursday went to Holder gym. It was good to get back there. The session didn't really have any focus, we just played around with different things. One achievement was getting front saults on the tramp. I've never done them before, and it has started to help me get confidence in my front sault rotation technique.

Yesterday we trained at castle for a few hours. Played around with different movements. I have two big cat to precisions that I plan on building up to, when my confidence and skill have gotten back up to where they used to be.

On the way out, we found a really good rock area surrounding a river. There are some really good precisions there, and one cat to precision over the river (another thing to work up to). There was one standing precision that tested me mentally, but I was able to do it!

From there we went to family court, where I only stayed for about 15 minutes before I headed home.

Overall my training has definately been picking up, and I'm feeling great about it.

Civic Training

2008-12-02T15:07:00.001-08:00

Trained in civic yesterday.

It was just a light session, as for some reason I just wasn't in the mood.

I had a few mental challenges, such as the precision at the curvy walls near the old bus depot. At first i wasn't able to do it, but then I thought to myself "just do it, you've done it before so you can do it again" ... so i did.

Overall it was a good light session.

Tuggeranong Training

2008-11-30T02:14:00.000-08:00

Trained in Tugerrs today. It was really good. I havent trained for nearly two months now, and i havent trained in tuggers for at least a year.

We moved around a lot, spending most of the time at sandstone. I've realised that sandstone is a really good place to run a class.

I can't really be bothered to go into the details, but it was really good to start moving again, start training again.

We trained for about 5 hours, and i didn't get home unto 8pm. Man it was good.

More issues have arisen in regards to classes and people doing things behind my back. These issues are things that I will have to sort out in the future. There will be big changes to everything next year, and hopefully this will result in a more stable and productive community.

APA Classes

2008-11-29T15:43:00.000-08:00

The APA classes in Canberra have gone to shit, put simply. I am partly to blame though, as I have not made a presence for nearly two months. Everything is falling apart, so now I have to step up again to sort it all out.

I'm planning on making a few changes for next year, which I have detailed below.

- Keep classes running from 1.45-4pm on sundays. This seemed the best time for instructors.
- Go back to running classes on a fortnightly basis. This allows for all day training sessions to be run on the non-class sundays.
- Run instructor training sessions. These will probably occur on sundays that classes aren't on, from 3-5pm, taking place at the spot where classes will be held the following week. These sessions will go through what will be taught at the class on the following sunday. This way all the instructors understand what will be taught. Instructors that don't come to these instructor training sessions, will not be allowed to come to class the following week, the reason being as they will not have learnt what we plan on teaching. I plan on running these sessions to start with, but I know that others will most likely want to help out as well, which will be accepted.
- Only let those who are serious, instruct. The quality of instructing has gone down, so only the committed and competent instructors will be allowed to instruct.
- I'm going to get rid of the organiser idea that I tried to implement. I'm going to take responsibility for organising the programs for the classes. We will then go through this program at instructor training. If others want to organise a class, they just have to ask.
- I'm going to get rid of the instructor qualification levels. It didn't really achieve anything. I will decide whether someone is competent/dedicated enough to instruct.
- I will have to implement some rules for classes, such as not mucking around and no swearing. We are seen as professionals, so must act accordingly at classes.

These are just the beginning ideas that I plan on implementing for classes next year. The main point is that I have to start taking charge again.

Gym

2008-11-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

Went to gym this afternoon. Did an all round body exercise. So heres what I got up to.

100 Pushups
100 Reverse Pushups
1000 Skips
50 Dips
25 Pullups
500 Squats
100 Situps
100 Leg Raises

I've found that my pulling strength is getting a lot better. Now all I have to do is keep training!

A few days ago, I did some light strength training with a friend outside. I made up a new game too, doing as many squats on a rail in a row as possible. My best was ten. It was good as it helped in conditioning both my knees and ankles at the same time.

Gym

2008-10-28T02:51:00.000-07:00

I went to the gym this afternoon. I focussed on upper body work, as I had torn a ligament in my ankle at basketball training yesterday.

So here's what I did;

100 Sitting Dips
100 Reverse Pushups
50 Dips
25 Pull Ups
100 Pushups
100 Situps
100 Leg Raises

Split into 5 sets.

I found that I really struggled in getting through the last 2 sets, I really have to get myself back up to the level that I used to be at.

I've come into a quiet time in my uni life, so I plan on getting out and doing a lot more training, which will mostly be conditioning, as I can easily do it around uni.

I plan on getting into more cardio, mainly running, a I know that I really have to improve my fitness.

Campbell Primary School Fete

2008-10-18T17:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Eliot and I went to Campbell Primary School fete to run a freerunning expo for the students. This involved running a free class, then providing the kids with a demonstration.

A lot of fun was had, by ourselves and the kids. It was good to get out into the community to help out.

Talking with my mum, the principle, we may also have an avenue for work in the after school care area. It's something that I will have to look into in the future.

Upper Body Strength Training

2008-10-14T01:53:00.001-07:00

Did some upper body strength training this afternoon. It was a really nice day, so I decided to go to the outdoor training area to work on them.

So here's what I got done.

30 Dips (3 sets)
15 Pull Ups (3 sets)
100 Reverse Incline Situps (5 sets)
30 Reverse Pushups on Rope (3 sets)
60 Down Incline Pushups (3 sets)

It was just a light session. I plan on going out again tomorrow to do a more intensive session.

Recent Training

2008-10-13T19:41:00.001-07:00

There's been a bit going on, so I thought that I should write up something about it.

Two weeks ago was NatSoc, the third natoinal Australian pakour gathering. The week was filled with lots of events, many of which I missed due to other committments.

There was gym at Belco, where I was originally wanting to focus on my tricking, of which i kind of got front saults into the pit, but we ended up making massive vaults. I always find that when we start doing vaults at gym, they just get bigger and bigger, crazier and crazier, until we can't physically make it. I plan on getting back to holder gym, to work on my tricking.

On thursday we had the instructor day, which brought a few of the Melbourne guys down early. i twas good to meet up with Chippa, Harley and Alex again, if only for a short time. The session was good, there was a lot of talking and a lot of practice in teaching.

Friday saw the beginning of NatSoc, with training happening in civic and pine island. I ended up meeting with Ruzkin, and hitting up toast and ANU. I finally got the standing precision over the pond at ANU. My wall runs have also gotten a lot better, and Ruz found a cat to arm that I plan on working on. I haven't got it yet, as it's right at the peek of my distance, but a I'm pretty sure I can get it. The AGM was that night. I've been voted in as the ACT representative for the APA. Which won't really change what I was originally doing, but I will now be more recognised for it.

Saturday was the main event where we split up into groups and moved around civic. I took my group to toast, ANU and family court. I now realise how much there is to do at family court. I used to think there wasn't much there, but after spending some proper time there my opinion has changed. We met up for lunch in civic, thenI had to head off as I had my basketball grand final, WHICH WE WON!

Sunday was just some general training in civic. Rhys had shown up the night before, so it was good to meet up with him again. We hit up toast then family court, finishing the day at Glebe.

Overall NatSoc was really good. I got to catch with a lot of old friends and meet a lot of new people.

Last sunday we had class in civic. We met up beforehand to train at family court. I really felt out of it while we were there though, not being able to perform at my usual.

From there we went to class. It was just a TAC, and we ended up going to toast, CIT and castle. I'm keen to go back to castle when it's less crowded, so that I can have the freedom to move properly.

During class, I had one first timer. I showed him some of the basic techniques, which he picked up really quickly. He got concrete rolls straight away. Awesome thing is, HE'S ONLY 8 YEARS OLD! It will be interesting to see if he keep up with it. He was definately showing enthusiasm for training. I made sure to talk to him about training porperly and safely, especially as he's so young. His mum was really supportive though. He has been doing gymnastics for a year and a half now, which is probably why he is learning everything so quickly.

For the last month or so, I've been having mixed emotions about my training. It feels like i've lost the passion that I used to have. This could be due to a lack of training, sending me into a slump. This is something that I'm just going to have to work through, and I'm thinking of going back to doing training activities that I used to do, like going to gym on a regular basis. Maybe another trip to sydney might help. I heard that Harley might be coming down in the next few weeks, so hopefully training with him will get me out of my slump and ignite my passion again.

Gym

2008-10-01T00:54:00.000-07:00

Went to gym the other night.

I've decided to get back into tricking, as it's fun and something new to do.

ruoF showed me a new technique for front saults. It's really similar to a takeoff into a catpass, but you tuck instead of vault. I was ladning them on my feet in a tuck position. I just nede to work on them a bit more.

We ended up setting up some massive vaults into the pit. It started small, and just grew from there, to a point that was impossible. Man it was fun.

Tried some side saults as well. I really need to work on them. I'm getting more distance than height.

Overall it was a good session, and I plan on working on my tricking further.

Belconnen Session

2008-09-28T04:02:00.001-07:00

Started today with the regular APA class in Belconnen.

I took the first timers with Eliot. We ran them through a bit of a warm up, then sat down and talked about parkour, ourselves and what we teach. We then ran them through a whole lot of techniques, then joined in with the rest of the group for conditioning. Overall I thought it was good, taking them through a smash session of techniques. I think we could do a bit more talking though, but we'll refine it as we go.

From there a few of us went to train at John Knight park. I've found that I've lost a bit of mental confidence as I haven't trained for a while, but that the short break as helped in giving me a bit of a rest.

So we played around on the rocks for a bit. I ended up doing some awesome muscle up training with Eliot. We did over 10 muscle ups each, playing one for one.

Then Trav fell in the pond, after overbalancing out of a flip on the rock island. This then ended up with ruoF getting pushed into the pond. Good times.

Then day them came to a close as it started to get dark. It was fun and I'm definately starting to feel the muscle ups.

Civic Training

2008-09-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

I've been really lazy with my training over the last couple of weeks. I could have passed it off to my wrist injury and my cold, but that isn't any excuse.

So I went out with ruoF last night, to do some light training in Civic.

Started out at noise wall, working on small vaults, rolls and handstands. The new grass at noise wall is awesome, really comfy!

From there we went to toast. Just played around a bit. I had a real close call, where my hand slipped out from a cat pass over one of the hexagon rails, then my feet clipped (on the top luckily) then I fell onto my feet. I nearly experienced a candyflipper bail.

Then we did some rail balance underneath toast, then warmed down at noisewall.

I got to properly try out my new Savants last night. Pesonally, I don't think they're as good as the Freerunners, from first impressions anyway. They are a lot harder, with less flexibility. The grip is worse and there is less sensititivity.

It was good to get back into training. I plan on doing a lot of light sessions leading up to NatSoc, especially with a fair amount of conditioning.

Freelance Journalist Parkour Interview

2008-09-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

I just finished doing a written interview for a freelance journalist, who was interested in NatSoc. Below are the questions and my responses.

What is Parkour to you, and how and why did you get involved?

For me, parkour is a physical activity and a discipline. A physical activity in that you are train you body but a discipline in that you are training your mental capabilities, especially through the philosophy within parkour. Parkour is not a sport, as it does not involve any form of competition. You see, the philosophy of parkour comes from the practicality of physical movement. Being able to use your own physical capabilities to help yourself and others. Competition goes against this philosophy of helping others. Parkour is also about efficiency in movement. People get parkour and freerunning mixed up. Freerunning is about the aesthetics of movement, the "beauty" in the movement, where as parkour is about the efficiency of the movement. Through mastering the efficiency in the movement, the movement then becomes "beautiful."

I have been in the Canberra parkour scene for four years now. I first saw parkour on the TV series Cirque Du Soleil Solstrom, that featured the Yamakasi. The Yamakasi members were late for their plan, so they used parkour to get through the airport in time to catch their plane. Another friend had also seen this, and we both thought that it was awesome and that we should do it. A few days later, another friend was talking to us about an assignment that he was doing for english. Coincidentally, his topic happened to be parkour. This then helped us to realise that doing parkour could actually be a possibility for us. We now had a name for what we had seen the Yamakasi doing. So from there we started to research parkour on the internet, watching videos and chatting on forums. We started to imitate what we saw in the videos, such as jumps and vaults. We soon met a couple of guys at ANU on a parkour internet forum, who had also just started training parkour. It was that moment that gave birth to Canberra Parkour.

For the first few years of my training, I looked at parkour as an extremem sport, something that I did because it looked cool. This was bad, as I had the completelty wrong mindset. It wasn't until a year ago, after having a break from parkour for over half a year, that I realised how important parkour was to me. I came back into the scene stronger than ever, training with the correct mindset, more in tune with the philosophy of parkour. In the past year, I have progressed physically and mentally more than I did in my first three years of training parkour. I have travelled to Melbourne and Sydney to train with the traceurs (parkour practitioner) there. I now keep an internet blog of my parkour training, which you can find at http://cimpstyle.blogspot.com/ , that I update after every training session. I'm also most likely about to become the president for the Australian Parkour Association (APA) in Canberra, a role that will involve being in charge of the APA parkour classes in Canberra, as well as acting as a major point of contact for all parkour related matters in Canberra.
- What is it about Parkour that has created, from what I have see online, such a great community?

Different communities each have their own "culture" in parkour. As a traceur progresses, they start to get interested in how other traceurs train, as well as training in new spots. The best way to do this is to travel. It is through this travelling that traceurs develop excellent friendships with traceurs from other cities and countries.

In regards to communities though, it's jsut like any other sport of recreational activity. If people share the same interest, and regular meet to participate in that activity, they will unconsciously build a strong community.
- What is involved in NatSoc, and how many people plan to attend?

NatJam (National Jam) first began in 2006, with Sydney as the hosts. Then Melbourne was the host last year, with National Conserve. This year is NatSoc (National Social), with Canberra as the hosts. NatSoc is a national meetup for traceurs from around Australia. The goal is for traceurs arounds Australia to coem to one point and traing and socialise together. Get to know people from other communities. There are no competitions involved with NatSoc, just the love of parkour. NatSoc has also brought the attention from international traceurs, who may also be coming across for the event. The last two years have attracted 70-100 traceurs. This year plans to be bigger, with numbers hopefully breaking 100.
- What has the public response in Canberra been to Parkour?

Parkour in Canberra is still an "underground" type of activity. It is only just starting it build in notice. So far the response in Canberra has positive. This may be because of the traceurs in Canberra though. As we are all polite people, not going out to cause any trouble, just to train and do a bit of exercise. We don't trespass to train, but only make use of public accessible areas. If asked to move on by security, we politely oblige and move on with a smile. With have been involved in various forms of media in Canberra, such as TV and newspaper interviews. We're lucky that the media we have been involved with have put a positive spin on parkour, as that is what we all want for parkour in Australia. This is what the APA is striving to acheive, developing a positive image of parkour in Australia.
- Is there anything in Canberra that makes it stand out as a great place to practice Parkour?
Canberra is an excellent place to practice parkour because of how Canebrra was planned. We have four excellent major training areas, Belconnen, Civic, Woden and Tuggeranong. Canberra is good because the training spots within the training areas, are all closely located to each other, with only a couple of mintues walk between each. This is different to places such as sydney and Melbourne, that require a lengthy walk to get from training spot to training spot. We also have a pretty reasonable public transport system to move between the major training areas in Canberra.

- Are there any other local events that you and the community take part in, or are involved with?

For the last two years, we have been involved in the Youth Week performances, where we have provided parkour demonstrations in civic. We have also participated in fundraising events, such as the Mother's Day Fun Run that was raising money for breast cancer research. We also plan on going oiut to our various training areas to clean up the rubbish there. We want our training areas to look good, we don't want rubbish, especially glass, to be around, as it can make training dangerous.

- Has there been any one particular moment that made you really love Parkour?

Coming back from my extended break last year, after doing that first vault again, would have to be the one moment that I realised how much I loved parkour. it wasn't that hard a vault, just a simple one over a table in civic, but the feeling that it gave me made me realise. It's about having that ability to move differently than normal people, move more efficiently, that makes you love parkour.

Sammy & Antek Canberra Trip

2008-09-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

Sammy and Antek came down to Canberra last weekend. It was good to see them again.

On saturday we hit up woden for a few hours. Sammy found this pretty big arm jump in the silver statue, that I had never seen before. it just comes to show what new pair of eyes can find. I got the cat to arm at the rails, something that I had never tried before.

From there we went to belco for the rest of the day. It was really good. Played around John Knight park for a bit. I accidentally stepped in the lake! Was good fun.

We finished up later that night. Didn't get a chance to take the guys to derro though. It will be something new for them when they come back for NatSoc.

On sunday we hit up civic for a bit. Played around in toast for a while. Then we headed over to DEWR after lunch. Antek and Sammy both got the massive arm jump. I'll have to give it another try when my wrist properly heals up. From there we went to the bus depot,then family court, and didn't get kicked out by security. I guess they don't work on sundays.

After that I took Sammy and Antek to the Jolimont Centre so that they could catch their bus back to sydney.

I was really good training with them. I can't wait until NatSoc when everyone is going to be here.

I've just bought a pair of Five Ten Savants. I'm interested in trying out a variety of shoes, to find out which one does it the best for me.

Speaking of which, I broke out my Dunlop Volleys for sunday training. Personally, I don't really like them. They tore apart pretty quickly, after only a few arm jumps, and they didn't provide much support. I didn't feel to confident using them, unlike the Five Ten Freerunners.

I'm also looking into getting a pair of Kalenjis. The shoes that they use in the UK. It will be interesting to see how they fair as well.

APA Class - Civic

2008-09-05T04:27:00.000-07:00

Last sunday we had class in civic.

It was raining and there was only a small turnout.

We took the group to the carpark underneath toast. Went through a lengthy warmup, finishing with handstands.

From there we worked on rail balance of different types, the played a game of add-ons.

After that we went up to toast to work on precisions and playing around in the rain.

Sammy and Antek are in Canberra thsi weekend. There should be lots of training ahead of me. I have a sprained wrist over the last couple of days though, so will porbably have to tone down the intensity of my training, well have to see how it goes.

APA Class - Belconnen

2008-08-28T02:05:00.000-07:00

Had class last sunday.

It was the third lesson, so I ran a TAC, as it was my turn to be organiser.

Took the students through a warmup. Got them doing handstands too. I find that it really helps as a final warmup, as well as working out DOMS from previous training. My handstands have gotten a lot better as well. I did the best one I've ever done on sunday too, held it for around 20 seconds.

After the warmup, I took the group up to the library. Just played around there for a bit. I did some more shirtless concrete rolls. They're so good, and have really shown how far I've progressed with my rolls. My left side was also a lot better than when I tried them in sydney. I'm thinking of giving a go of the 50. I consider this to be the test for the quality of basic rolls, if you can do them 50 times in a row, shirtless, on concrete.

From there we made our way to Derro. The guys had talen the class there before, and said it was fine. So I decided to take the class there. Started off at the ramps. It wasn't too bad, until we had water bombs thrown at us from an apartment window, then some thuggish looking guys started hanging around watching us. I moved the class on to the playground, but the suss looking guys followed us. We didn't stay there long.

So we went back to Margaret Timpson park to warmdown, adn that brought us to the end of the lesson.

Eliot ran the First Timers class too. It was the first one. I keen for it to be a regular thing, and will probably take it with Eliot at this coming class.

Friday Night Training

2008-08-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

So it's beena while since I last trained, so I decided to not go ahead with the proper FNC, but just get out and do some basic training. Just a bit of play.

The plan was to meet at the national library. When I arrived, I met a new guy, Andy, who ruoF and invited to come along to a session. Andy had actually worked with Rhys and Shaun on the tv pilot that was done in Canberra.

Eventually ruoF showed up. Then we met John and his friend.

Played around at the blocks for a bit. Actually had some pretty stupid bails. I went for a palm spin, pulled out, but my leg caught on the back of the block. Banged up my shin pretty nice. John also had a few cat pass bails.

The main factor for the bails was because it was really dark, and we hadn't trained in a while.

Practiced a couple of handstands too. My handstands have gottne a lot better. I have more control with them, as well as more power to get up into them.

From there we made our way the hall of justice. The wall run there, that I used to think was massive, actually isn't that big anymore. It just comes to show how much I have progressed in the past year, as I haven't been there for a while. From there we moved to the top of the stairs, where we played around for a bit. I ended up helping out everyone with their climbups, even given a bit of advice to ruoF. I've found that my climbups have really improved. It may be because of the strength training that I have been doing. Its given me more power to apply to my climbups. I even got some short strength conditioning done. Reverse quadrapedal up a huge stair set. The set was that long, it was the actual size of each individual stair that made it intense.

Then the session slowly came to a close. It was good to get back into trainig. I plan on getting back into a proper rhythm, as I lost it over the last few weeks.

I also bought a pair of Dunlop Volleys today. I want to give them a try, see what all the comotion in sydney is about. We'll have to see how they fair in training.

Strength Training

2008-08-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

Haven't done much in the last week. To be truthful, I've been pretty slack.

But now I'm back into it, to get back into a steady routine.

Went down to the gym and did the following;

80 Sitting Dips
80 Reverse Push Ups
40 Bar Dips
40 Pull Up Negatives
120 Squats
120 Situps

A friend helped me in correcting my technique for the reveres push ups, as I was doing them too fast and bouncing through them, reducing how much I worked my muscles.

It was a good session.

Sydney Trip 2 - Day 2

2008-08-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Day 2 of my sydney trip.

Eliot and I made our way to town hall. While we were waiting, we got confronted by some pretty drunk carzy guy. I could barely understand what he said, he just kept on rambling at us. Not in an attack, but just rambling about life in general. It was pretty funny.

Antek and Sammy soon arrived. BoD arriving soon after.

We made our way to Circular Quey. There we worked on a short class type structure, planning on what would be taught at the class. This included rail precisions, balance and concrete rolls. I really need to work on my rail precisions. They're the one thing that still freak me out every time. The one thing that I don't have down pat at a basic level even. The rolls were intense. We turned in into a challenge, of shirtless concrete rolls. This was a real test. I found that the rolls on my right shoulder were pretty good. I didn't feel any hard impacts anywhere, just scratches from the concrete. The rolls on my left shoulder though, werre another matter. I wasn't committing to them properly, so I came out badly from each one.

From there we started to make our way to pyrmont for the class. It started to rain on the way, but this soon cleared up. On the way we passed the Start City wharfed jump. Even though it is a lot smaller than the pyrmont wharf jump, I found it a lot harder. This was because the wharf was constantly swaying with the swell, which made it difficult to jump out, even balance on. In the end, myself and Eliot got it. it was a real achievement for Eliot, as he had looked at it numerous times before, but hadn't be able to do it.

So we finally made it to pyrmont. Eliot and I ended up going down to the wharf jump. The rain had dried up a bit, so it looked pretty good to do. I jumped first. The Eliot was able to psych himself up to get it. Another achievement for him. We jumped back to the land, then Eliot me doing the various wharf jumps.

From there we went up to the class, that had turned into a free time class, as it was pretty small. The class had moved up to the top of pyrmont. We played around in the tree a bit.

I then brought up the idea to Eliot about going to Ian Thorpe, as there wasn't much happening at the class, with no instruction happening.

So we said our goodbyes to some of the guys, then headed off to Ian Thorpe.

When we arrived there, we got a surprise of a new coffee shop that had opened on the corner there. It was their opening day, and were making free coffee and hot chocolates. Eliot and I made sure to make use of this offer.

Then we started training around the stairs. I started looking at things I could film. Originally looking at the arm jump at the lower stair set, I realised that I might be able to do the cat to arm. After a few attempts at working up to it, I got it! Adding a few arm to arms and a precision, we got some more footage for my video. With the boost of adrenaline that I had gotten from it, I went up to the higher stair set and did the bigger cat to arm. Man it felt good!

With the huge amount fo adrenaline pumping through, Eliot and I made our way to Harbour Side to meet some of the guys for dinner before we headed off. On the way I filmed the block dash, that I had done at NatJam '06. It was a lot easier this time, which shows how far I have progressed in skill in the last two years.

So we had some dinner with the guys, bought 17 cones, then got on the bus back to Canberra.

It was a really great trip. Less intense than my last trip to sydney, but still really enjoyable. I like training in sydney, as I'm training in new spots with new people. It has allows me to really test my progression.

A couple of the sydney guys plan on coming down to Canberra in a couple of weeks. Should be a good weekend. It will be interesting to see what they think of Canberra, and how they perform in our area.

Last night Samurai and I did the final filming for the Canberra Tourism commercial. All it involved was us running past the window a couple of times. Afterwards we had a drink with Che, and talked about how everything is going. He said that everything is nearly done. That they would be showing the ACT Minister and Canberra Tourism a couple of bits from the commercial. He also said that he'd give us a copy of all the footage. I'll be able to use some in my video! NatSoc also came up in conversation. Che had an idea of making a DVD of the event. This would be really good, as it will definately be something new in regards t0 the past NatJams.

So that sums up the last few days. I've been doing a lot of resting after sydney, as I'm pretty tired. I don't plan on doing much training over the next few days. Probably just go to FNC and then class, maybe pre class training. Next week I'll get back into the full swing of things.

Sydney Trip 2 - Day 1

2008-08-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks since I was last in sydney, and I'm back again. I was originally coming for the Chris Rock show, which was awesome! but I decided to stay in sydney for the weekend and train, seeing as I would already be up here.

So today was the first day. I met up with Eliot after his bus arrived in sydney, then we made our way to town hall.

Arriving at about 11, we soon met up with Sammy and Antek. we then made our way down to Darling harbour where we met up with BoD.

We warmed up around the pond for a while. I made sure to go through a long and proper warmup. Playing around there for a bit, I got the cat pass to precision over the blue water. One that I thought was huge, but really wasn't that big.

From there we made our way around to the big ramp. The one with the cat pass to precision, and the cat pass to arm. We soon got booted by security from there though.

So we moved on to Chinese Gardens, which is actually a really good spot. We started around the entrance, with some good precision work, but soon got booted by security. So we just moved to the side of Chinese Gardens, away from the entrance, which ended up being fine. We found some really good precision, from tree planters only a few centimetres off the ground. the amoutn fo work that we did there was awesome, in that it just kept developing. We found work that could be done in the trees there, as well as variations of precisions.

From there we had lunch at EATING WORLD!! Then moved on to the carpark rails. Did a bit of playing around with different things.

From there we moved on to Glebe, but stopped at a park for a bit, playing around on the different equipment. Just messing around with different bar spins and things.

Then we finally made it to Glebe. Starting training, while we waited for Sino. I got out the camera, to film a bit of stuff. We soon got rudely kicked out by one of the drunk residents of the apartmernt complex, saying that it was private property. We left, but then we came back with Sino, as he didn't care what anyone said. We then moved on to some mroe spots, to play around on different things. I went to the wallrun, played around with the shorter end of it, then ended up doing the bigger end. Looking at the footage, I realsied how big it really was. More than twice my height!

From there we moved around to another spot and just played around for a bit.

Then we went to the park, did a bit of stuff, but mainly warmed down. Chated a bit, then people started to go their won ways.

Eliot, Sammy and myself then went off to grab some dinner from the foodcourt in the shopping centre in Glebe, then grabbed some Cold Rock on the way back to central.

During that time, we got to talk a lot wioth Sammy. talking about everything from classes to parkour in general. I love just sitting down and talking with other people about parkour and related topics. That's where i find I learn the most.

I plan on doing a lot fo filming tomorrow. Sutff that i can take back and add to my video. Will have to see what happens.

Strenght Training

2008-08-05T04:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday.

At basketball training, ended up doing a total of 120 pushups and 80 situps over a 45 minute period, as punishments during drills.

Today.

Went down to the boxing room at the gym again. Went through the same exercises program as before.

50 Sitting Dips
50 Reverse Push Ups
50 Bar Dips
50 Pull Up Negatives
100 Squats
100 Situps

Split into 5 sets.

I increased the amount of squats and situps to double what I was doing previously. I found that this worked me a bit more, but I think I may have extra room. I added the situps to the program, to add a little bit of core training, and the squats to strengthen my knees, as they are something that I am always wary of when training.

I plan on increasing the sitting dips and reverse push ups to 20 per set, as well as further increasing the squats and situps to 30 per set.

I don't plan on doing much training in the next few days, as I am going to be in sydney this weekend, training just as hard as last time I was there. I want to save up my energy for it.

Class

2008-08-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Today we had class in civic.

It was a new type of class that we've been thinking of incorporating. A Technical Applicaiton Class (TAC). The point of it is to get students training without the direction of the instructors. Get them into the mindset of training outside of classes. That they don't need the classes to train.

So we strated the class in Glebe park. Went througha bit of a warm up of dynamic stretches.

Then we moved to noise wall, where we played around for a bit. I just messed around with different things, balanced the garden rail, did some precisions, some standing cat passes over the rail, and got a really big cat pass over the wall.

From there we moved to toast. I just played around with differnt things there as well. Found some new big precisions, did some running precisions over water and practiced moving in general. We got the group playing parkour tag and fololw the leader. I also got my head around some high speed vaults and cat passes. The speed vaults felt really good, as you had a lot of air time before actually using your hand to get over the rail. It was all about committment.

While we were at toast, Eliot and I went down to customs to film my run. We got there, knowing that we only had a fwe minutes, so we got straight into it. I jumped down to my starting spot, then began the run. Going through it, i focussed my concentration on what movement was directly in front of me, making myself forget about what I would have to be doing after it, just focussing on the first bit. Concentrating the whole time. I'm glad to say i got through the whole run, getting it in the first go. rom there we went straight into the tic tac to arm, that i was also wanting to do. Eliot jumped down to the spot, and we filmed it. I made sure to get it first go. Then we left, just before security arrived! While we were walking away, Eliot looked behind us, to see the security guard arrive, smile and wave, then walk away. The customs scurity guys are awesome! It's like a game we play with them :)

After toast, we made our way back to Glebe park, to warm down.

Overall the class was good, the majority of students made an effort to train. We could have done more to make them train the whole time, but it was really up to them. I think that having smaller groups might be a bit better, as the students will then be more inclined to train the whole time.

Before class, I had lunch with my family at the Botanical Gardens cafe. While I was there, I noticed a young boy. He was probably around 4 years old. What caught my attention, was that he was climbing on a rail, like all normal kids do. It was a two bar rail, so he had his hands on the top bar, and his foot on the lower bar. It was shuffling along it, making sure to watch where he was putting his feet, and going through it carefully and slowly. You could see how he was concentrating on what he was doing.

People have said that when we train, we're just doing what we used to do as kids. Moving around in our environment. That is what I witnessed today. Sure, what we doing is done at a much bigger degree than kids can do, but that idea of moving freely is still there.

As you grow up, you forget about the things that used to be fun. You start looking to other mean, that can sometimes be drugs and alcohol. This shouldn't be the case. You will always find new things that keep you entertained, things that you weren't able to do as a kid, but you should always remember the things that used to be fun, things that you loed doing as a kid.

Parkour has done this for me. My parents used to say that when I was young, I couldn't stay still. I would run around, climb on things, always fidgeting. I just couldn't stop moving. Then i went into a phase of playing computer games and watching TV all the time, being real serious. Since I started parkour, I've found that I barely watch TV or play computer games anymore. I'd rather go out and train, have fun. I've gone back to how I used to be as a kid, always moving and spending time outside.

It good to go back to the things that used to make you happy as a kid, that's where the real fun is.

Training

2008-08-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to Holder gym, for the first time in months.

I spend most of the time just mucking around, playing with different movements, without any real focus or direction. I didn't stick to doing any one thing for too long, but spent a short amount of time doing lots of different things.

Tried some front saults. I've found that I need to practice committing to them. Did some cat passes, including some really BIG double cat passes.

It was a fun session in the end, just playing around.

Tonight I went down to the boxing room at my work gym. The plan was to do some muscle up training, as it was too cold and wet to run FNC.

So here's what I ended up doing.

50 Sitting Dips
50 Reverse Push Ups
50 Parallel Bar Dips
50 Pull Up Negatives
50 Squats
50 Sit Ups

This was all split into 5 sets of 10 of each exercise.

Overall it took me 1.5 hours to do, including warming up and down. it was a lot more enjoyable than going to the outdoor training area that I had previously been going to, as it was warmer and there's a CD player, that I brought a Cimp Style mix to play on.

I really enjoyed the session, and plan on making it a regular thing for thursday nights.

Filming + Class

2008-07-29T03:47:00.000-07:00

Last sunday, I met up with Eliot to do more filming for my video.

Started at toast at 10. I spent around half an hour, doing a nice long warmup, while I waited for Eliot. When he arrived, we got straight into it. Filmed a few things in toast, mainly the precisions and cat to precisions. I had a bad knee clip on my big cat to precision. It got pretty cut up, but I was still able to get train. I gave a go of Conan's arm jump, but hit it bad and didn't make it. I decided to leave it for another day. Also gave the huge running precision to the top of the stairs a go, but wasn't able to make it.

From there we moved to toast. Tried to do y run, but I bailed it twice. So I decided to film the tic tac to precision, but security rocked up, so we had to move on. The security at customs is really awesome, always sending us off with a smile! Next time I'll have to make sure to get though everything a lot quicker.

From there we made our way to DEWR. I was hoping to be able to do the DEWR arm jump, but could set my mind to it. Trav soon arrived, and we trained around DEWR for a bit. We also did a bit of stuff at veterans park.

From there we drove to Belco for the APA class. ruoF was the organiser. He started out with a warmup, then going into some quick techniques, to get everyone in the groove. From there we went into the games, which were a success. There was a bit of confusion with the management in the end, but it was all sorted out in the end.

After the class, I took Eliot home, so that I could copy the footage we had taken.

Overall it was a good day, and I was definately tired by the end of it.

FNC

2008-07-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

Had FNC tonight. It ended up only being Larkin and myself. Others were going to show up, but then were busy or couldn't be bothered. I really have to respect Larkin though, for constantly making the effort to train, if though he's only new. If he keeps at it, he will be able to go far.

The program was a lot shorter than expected.

Lazy vaults
Speed vaults
Cat Passes
Cat Pass Pulls
Rolls
Precisions
Quadrapedal
Two Foot Hops

The wall that I was planning on doing climb ups on, was a lot slippery than I thought it would be. Plus I was also extremely tired.

It just comes to show how a break from training, even for only a week and a half, can affect how hard you can train when coming back into it. I'm pretty sure that if I continue my training in the way that I have planned, I will be able to build up my endurance again, then move on to surpass it.

At the end of the session, I took Larkin through half an hour of stretches that I usually do after training. He asked me if I knew of any good websites for stretches, but since I didn't, I just took him through the stretches that I know and apply to my own training.

At the end of the session, we had been training for 3.5 hours, at night and in the cold! This is what self discipline is all about, pushing yourself to train in all conditions. Instead of giving up and taking the soft option.

Muscle Up Training

2008-07-24T03:07:00.000-07:00

Went down to my training spot for muscle ups tonight. It was good to go back there.

Did one muscle up, it was a bit better than the ones I was getting in sydney, but stillon arm at a time. But I hurt the palm of my hand a bit, as the bar is actually a wooden plank held sideways. This then put a lot of pressure into my palm. I'm not going to try muscle ups on that bar again, will just practice them at FNC at the playground in Glebe park.

So then I went into my normal routine.

25 Dips
25 Pull Up Negatives
25 Muscle Up Negatives
25 Rope Reverse Push Ups

Afterwards I made the run back home.

I'm thinking of increasing the amount of repetitions in the sets. I'll have to see how it goes.

Sydney Trip - Summary

2008-07-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

So now I'm back in Canberra. I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be, but my body is pretty tired.

I originally wanted to go to sydney to train with Rhys and Shaun. But still made the trip even though they weren't there. I'm glad that I did make the trip, because I got to meet a lot of new people. Shoutouts to Sino, Sammy, Antek, Robbie and Wizey, for being major influences during the trip. Props to Djordje for making an effort to come to sydney, just for us Canberra guys too!

I've made a lot of new friends, and have training in some of the most awesome spots. Spots that I didn't go to when I was down for NatJam 2006.

Glebe would have to be the best place I have ever trained at. Just because of the huge variety of things for advanced practitioners to do there. Ian Thorpe was another awesome spot. The wharf jump at Pyrmont is another good spot, to be able to test you mental. The undercover spot near Darling Harbour was also good, for the variety of rail work.

I learnt a lot from my trip to Sydney, but it was different learning from what i got from Melbourne. In Melbourne I brought back a lot of the things to start applying in the Canberra scene, especially with changes to MY training. From sydney, I learnt the importance of the changes that I've made to my training. I also saw how much I have progresed from the more intense training that I have been doing. My skill has increased, especially with precisions and ct passes, and my mental is a lot stronger. I'm spending less and less time metally preparing myself, like what I used to do. I'm now doing a lot more physical training than mental training.

I've seen how skilled the Sydney guys are, but I'm not intimidated by it, because I know that if I continue on the path that I have been walking for a few months now, I know that I will get up there with them.

A big thanks to ruoF for coming to sydney with me. It made the trip a lot more enjoyable. We represented Canberra Parkour in Sydney.

I'm going back to sydney in three weeks time, for a Chris Rock concert, and plan on staying for th weekend. I'm keen to go back to Ian Thorpe pool when I'm not exhausted, as well as train at Glebe again.

Any comments are welcome.

CANBERRA PARKOUR REP-RE-SENT!!!

Sydney Trip - Day 4

2008-07-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Woke up today, still sore like yesterday. I expected this, but knew that a proper warmup would get rid of the DOMS, for the time being.

Met the guys at Town Hall. There were some familiar faces, like Sammy, Antek and Robbie, but there were also others who I hadn't met before.

I also got to get my new parkour pants. They're so comfortable, and I now have something different to wear than camo pants.

From there we moved to a spot close to Darling Harbour. There were sets of rails and ledges, that were really good for cat passes, precisions and arm jumps. This enforces my belief that the most random public spots, like toast, usually tend to be the best for parkour.

I made sure to do a long and proper warm up, to work out my DOMS. This involved a lot of dynamic stretches, then handstands. I've found that handstands help to warm up the body to movement. They especially helped in working out the DOMS.

So I played around for a bit, doing my own thing. Practiced my high cat passes, and found some cat to arms. Then I went over to join Sammy while he was trying to a get a pretty big cat to precision. I gave it a go. I was able to get the cat pass down pretty well, but couldn't get my head around the rail precision. I really have to work on them. So while tying to getthe precision, I realised that I was getting a lot of height out of my cat pass. So I started thinking, why not forget about the precision, and just clear the rail entirely? So I did. To the complete surprise of everyine watching. I don't think that they were expecting that to happen. Instead of the normal "yeah man, that was awesome" I got "WOW! THAT WAS NUTS! DAMN MAN!" This then followed with high fives and congratulations. To sound corny. It felt really good though, to be able to do something that other thought was amazing. I then realsied that I was shaking slightly. It really was a pretty big distance. I then did it two more times, just to enforce that I was able to do it. Sammy then showed me an even bigger cat to precision, which I wasn't able to get, but it is definately something to work towards.

From there we moved to Pyrmont. There we found the broken jetty, that I've seen in so many videos coming out of sydney. Looking at it, I realised that you have to a fair amount of skill and mental to be able to get out to it. It required a lot of mental enforcement to make the standing precision out. I didn't have too much trouble with it, but I saw ruoF really had to work his head around it. He made it though, which is awesome. Then we scratched Canberra Parkour REPRESENT intot he wood, using a stick. The running jump back was a bit tough, I found that I had to mentally prepare a lot more for it, than the standing precision back. But I got it in the end. Then Antek and Sammy started looking at the running precision onto the broken jetty. This is a much bigger distance than the standing precision, and it was also onto a higher point. I looked at it for a few seconds, then did it. It was as simple as that, just doing it. ruoF told me that i made it look easy. Running jumps have always been my thing with parkour. Then I made the standing precision back. Those jumps onto the broken jetty were a real test of mental confidence in ym skill. I'm proud to say that my mental level has really developed. I'm spending less and less time prepping mentally, which then leads me to progress further and further. I've found that I'm training more physically than mentally, trusting my ability and not second guessing myself.

From there we went to teach the class. The class was really small, with only a handful of students. There were a lot of instructors though. Sammy then decided to make it a free training class. No instruction would be initiated. So we did a warmup, then headed up to pyrmont, where the enclosed area is.

During the time we were up there, I helped teach some guys climb ups and rolls. While I was demonstrating, I realised how much my climbups and rolls have improved.

I also talked with a lot of people while we were there.

I talked with some of the Newcastle guys. They're thinking of starting up classes in their area. It's really good to see that people from all across Australia are interested in getting involved in the APA.

I also got a better opportunity to sit down and talk with Sammy and Sino. This was really good, as we got to share thoughts and ideas about training and classes. I find that I learn the most from talking with people.

Then the time came for ruoF and myself to leave. We said our goodbyes, then made the walk back to central station to catch our bus.

Sydney Trip - Day 3

2008-07-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

Today makes day three of our sydney trip.

I woke up really stiff from the triaining we had done in Glebe yesterday. My body was still pretty tired as well. but we came to sydney to train, so that's what we were going to do.

I'd organised to meet Robbie in Penrith, so we caught the train out there to meet him. We met him at the train station, then met Wizey at the first spot.

Still feeling really sore, I made sure to do a proper warm up, and just start small. Did a few handstands to get my body working again. Then got straight into it.

Did some good cat to precisions, then found some wall runs. The DOMS disappeared pretty quickly.

Then moved on to various movements, looking at a few different spots.

I think that it was Robbie's main training area, so you was pretty skilled in them.

I was lucky enough to do something new at his playground though. I found a good cat to underbar, that he hadn't thought of doing before. It just comes to show how much a fresh set of eyes can help to improve ideas in your local spots.

I was also able to get an arm jump out of a tree, that nobody had done before, but that Robbie had looked at.

Overall today was a good session. it was a lot lighter than yesterday, but was still pretty good.

Now I'm going to go back up to my room to stretch, as i know that I will be sore tomorrow. That won't stop me from training though.

Sydney Trip - Day 2

2008-07-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Today was Glebe with Sino and a few others.

Woke up at 9.30. Changed, had breakfast, and took a really short bus ride to Glebe. We should have just walked there, it was that close!

Met with Sino at 11. He took us to the Glebe housing complex, with makes the Glebe parkour spot. It is such a good spot, there is so much stuff to do there. A lot of it though, is for more advanced practitioners. I'm lucky that my skill level is up there to be able to train there.

We met up with Sammy and Antek. Did a bit of a warm up, then Djordje arrived. That was a good suprise. Djordje hasn't trained much lately though. He's been busy doing other stuff. he came down to meet us Canberra guys, which was good.

There is so much to do at Glebe. You'll train in one spot for an hour, then keep walking through the complex to find another spot where you can spend and hour at. We did this for about 4 hours, which just shows how much stuff there is to do at Glebe. We also met Michael and Charlie while at Glebe.

Training at the housing complex, I've found that my precisions have gotten a lot better. I'm able to get a lot more distance, and much nicer landings. ruoF showed me a technique to be able to add more force into my jump, using my arms. I think it was something that Benji tried to show me in melbourne, but I didn't really understand it at the time. ruoF actually got it from benji, but the way he explained it to me, just seemed easier to understand and apply. I'm also committing a lot more to my movements. I had one moment that really messed around with me mentally, but I was able to overcome it.

We were also met by police. They were just checking that we weren't up to any trouble. I explained to them that we were doing parkour, explaining what parkour was. I used Casino Royale as a reference. They kind of seemed to understand what we were doing, and that we were up to any trouble, so they left us.

I also had a pretty big clip at Glebe. I banged my knee pretty hard, but was able to power through the cat pass, as if it handed affected me. From there i sat down top rest it though, as it did feel a bit painful, bring up a bit of bruising.

From there we had lunch at Asian King, then went to a playground to play around a bit. The others were doing some tricking, so I worked on other stuff. I've found that my handstands have suddenly gotten pretty good. I'm able to hold them for a few seconds. Here's even better news though. I was able to do a muscle up. A MUSCLE UP! NOT ONE BUT THREE!!! They were pretty dodgy, but i can do them now. All that's left is progression with them.

From there we made our way to some rails, did a bot of work around there. My standing cut passes on height have gotten a lot better. i can do close to shoulder height now. It's all about the power in the arms, and the core strength to tuck with the legs.

After that we made our way to the Ian Thorpe Pool. That's where the guys do those massive cat to arms over a high stairwell.

I didn't really feel up to doing the cat to arm, but there was so much more to do there. There were a lot of arm jumps, precisions, and arm to arms to dop as well. There's even a huge wall run that I wasn't able to get. I was close though.

After that, everyone went their separate ways.

I learnt a lot today, not just about myself but about the others guys in the national scene. I've gotten to know Sammy a lot better. Now I know that he was one of the first guys in sydney, and has been training for nearly four years, like me. It definately showed today. I got to see how chilled Sino was, and how far Antek has progressed in a short time of training. Sure, i haven't gotten to train with the other main guys like Rhys and Shaun, but I have gotten the chance to meet others in the Sydney scene.

It should be good to see what happens tomorrow.

Sydney Trip - Day 1

2008-07-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Arrived in sydney at about 12. Checked into the YHA, then wastedb time walking around the city, while I waited for ruoF to arrive. Did a bit of shopping, that was about it.

Bought B13 on DVD too.

Finally ruoF arrived a few hours later. We walked through the city a bit, got some dinner, then decided to do some training.

Went back to the YHA to get changed, then made our way to darling harbour to do a bit of training. Tried a wall run outside the YHA, then did a really bad landing coming back down. I landed on my heels and fell over backwards. It was so stupid!

From there we made uor way down to Darling Harbour. It wasn't as packed as I thought it would be.

We were doing a bit of a warmup, when this guy walked past. He asked us if we knew Cross Fit. I did as Conan is interested in it. He talked about how parkour was involved a bit in it. It's good to see how parkour is getting involved in a lot more things.

From there we did a bit of light training in different areas around Darling Harbour.

On our way back, some guy saw our Australia Parkour shirts, and got us to show him some stuff. This was pretty fun. We showed him a couple of vaults, and talked to him a bit about parkour.

From there, we got changed and made our way back to Darling Harbour to find a club.

On the way we found some guys who looked like they were trying to do precisions across a small bit of water. On closer inspection by ruoF, they were.

We ended up spending a while with them. Talking to them about parkour, teaching them how to do a couple of movements. One of them picked up precisions really well. He was from New Zealand, and new Barnz. They might be coming to the class here in sydney on sunday. It will be interesting to see whether they actually make it.

And that finished the parkour for the day. We were pretty sore and tired, but looking to some good training in the next few days.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 6

2008-07-03T13:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday.

Did some more filming for the commercial. I think it was the last of it.

All I did was walk down the street, in a different outfit to my gangsta outfit. I just walked down the street with a couple of girls (that were pretty hot!) behind me. It was a scene for the end of the coomercial.

Josh then did a couple of cat passes over a rail. Che's plan was to set it up like Josh was cat passing off a balcony, which is his beginning bit.

The commercial has been really fun to make. It should look like a really good piece when it's finished. I can't wait to see it.

Civic Training

2008-07-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Didn't do any training yesterday.

I was studying for most of the day, for an exam that I had later in the afternoon.

After the exam I was out for the night celebrating my birthday. I'm not a teenager anymore, hitting the big 2-0.

Tonight I went out to train in civic. Brought along a work friend, who's interested in learning parkour. I'm thinking of making a small group of work friends, to teach parkour to. They will be my parkour disciples.

Met with Conan at noise wall. Did a few dynamic stretches, then moved on to toast.

Did a few things at toast, then Trav arrived. Kept training around toast. Did those massive precisions again. Man they're awesome. Then started doing some awesome cat to precisions. Conan showed me one that Rhys had found. I sized it up, then did it. Did it a few more times afterwards, to enforce that I could do it. Then for some reason, I moved to the opposite side of toast, and found a small cat to precision to do, which then lead on to finding a HUGE cat to precision. One that you have to power through the cat pass in order to make the distance for the precision. From there moved further around toast, to my big arm jump, and found another cat to precision. It was awesome. I've really gotten them down pat.

From there we made our way to customs. Trav wasn't too keen on getting kicked out, so we moved to the down stairs area of customs. Found a really big tic tac to arm, one that is just too big for us at the moment. So we started practicing climb ups. It's a really good spot to practice climb ups without having a bar or over grip for support. my climb ups have definately improved. I'm not able to have more power into the pull up, getting a better transition of hand placement, which then helps the dip movement. I just need to work on getting the transition even better, but I've definately made a lot more progression with my climb ups.

Made our way to DEWR. That's where ruoF met us. I looked at the arm jump, once again realised how big it was, then moved on. Conan found a cool arm jump to do, and Trav found a cat to arm. Conan then started doing some really stupid movements, of close dropping arms and weird cat to arms. They were so weird! I got a laugh out of doing them.

From there, Trav headed off, and we made our way back to toast, so that ruoF could do some stuff there. Conan soon left, so then it was only a small group of us at toast. I showed ruoF the massive cat to precisions I'd done. Then kind of just warmed down.

Grabbed some dinner at that new mexican joint, then headed home.

All in all it was a good session. Did a few big things, found some new things, but didn't push my body to it's limit. That's what FNC is for!

So I haven't stuck to my plan of training every day for 5 weeks. But I have learnt a lot from the amount of training that I have done recently. I now know that it actually isn't that hard to train every day. If you have any spare time, there is no excuse for not training. on study days, i can go and do some muscle up training, as it only takes an hour out of my time.

So here's my training plan for once academics start up again.

Monday - basketball training
Tuesday - muscle up training
Wednesday - basketball game
Thursday - muscle up training
Friday - FNC
Saturday - afternoon/night training
Sunday - APA class

The great thing about parkour, is that it's really flexible. I can do it whenever and wherever. it's just about making the effort to get out and train, no matter what the weather is like outside, or what physical condition you are in.

If you make the effort, it pays back.

"Train for yourself, not for others" is a motto that if kind of been training by since I got back from Melbourne. I've realised that if I want to go out and train, it shouldn't matter if nobody is going to come, I can just go solo. If i want to train in a certain way, then I should just do it. It shouldn't matter if others don't want to train that way, or can't make that session. One prime example is me starting the new FNC. So far not many people have showed up to it, but I know how much it has helped my progression, so I'm going to keep on doing it. I've already gone through the test of doing it solo in the cold and at night, so i know that there really isn't anything holding me back from it.

I'm really liking what my training has moulded into, and I can already see the progression. I LOVE IT!

Muscle Up Training

2008-06-30T00:47:00.000-07:00

Just did some more muscle up training.

25 dips
25 pull up negatives
25 muscle up negatives
25 rope reverse pushups

Tonights session had an extra bonus, RAIN! Man it was intense. It was pretty much raining the whole time I trained. Building up and slowing down. Huge gusts of wind would also come through every now and then. It felt good to be out there, as I knew that it was really showing my dedication to my training.

Started off with trying a muscle up. Only got one elbow part of the way up. I also had to use a bit of a kip. The bar I'm using to train on isn't the best for muscle ups though, its actually a wooden plank held up on its side.

I couldn't really get the pull ups, so I instead did pull up negatives. I found that it really worked my biceps, which I'm pretty sure play a major role in pulling strength.

I've found that my muscle up negatives are getting better. Eliot gave me the advice of switching the hands, not the whole arm. This helped in reducing the speed of my drop. Hopefully I will be able to build up to getting them more controlled.

Anyway, the training was good. And I'm still sticking to it, training every day!

Any comments are welcome.

100 BLOG POSTS!!

Muscle Up Training

2008-06-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Did more muscle up training tonight.

25 dips
10 pullups
25 negatives
25 reverse push ups

I'm finding that my dips and reverse push ups are improving, but my pull ups aren't improving. All i can really do is keep on training, hopefully my pull ups will improve over time.

Stretch Session

2008-06-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

Just did a light stretching session today. Only lasting for about 20 minutes.

I've been feeling pretty sore and stiff from training last thursday and friday. So I thought that i'd just do something easy today.

I won't be going to class or trainings tomorrow, as I have a uni exam on monday that I have to really study for.

To make up for this, I plan on doing some more muscle up training. I can do these sessions close to home, so they only take about an hour out of my day. Which is all I can really afford.

FNC

2008-06-27T04:40:00.001-07:00

Had FNC again tonight.

This time it was me and Larkin. He's still new to parkour, but its good that he's showing up. he's definately showing an interest in training properly and seriously. He also stuck with me through most of the session!

Did most of the program. I still have found the one program that i can get all the way through.

Started at noise wall. Did the normal lazys, speed vaults and cat passes. Also added cat pass pulls. I felt it working a bit in my arms. I guess only time will tell if it's actually benefiting in the arm push from cat passes.

Skipped the rolls, as Larkin had a sore back from a past training session.

Went to toast. Did the full 100 precisions this time! Main it was hard to keep going. Added in upper body exercises every 10 precisions. Something to vary the training, keep up the interest. So that it wasn't just precision after precision after precision.

From there we moved to the underneath toast. On the way we stopped in a small grocery store to buy drinks (Traceurade). The store owner was so cool. He gave us free sausage rolls. I'm going to go there every FNC, to get a drink at the half-way point of the session.

Once underneath toast, the plan was to practice wall runs to climb ups, on a flat wall, with no rail or overgrip. The wall i was planning on using ended up being a failuer. It was far to slippery to grab on to, and the wall itself was pretty slippery.

I was then planning on moving to the stairs, to do strength conditioning, but Larkin was keen to check out customs. he'd heard about it but had never been there.

So I took him there, thinking that we'd probably get booted straight away, but we didn't. We were probably there for about 15 minutes. I showed larkin the tic tac precision that he'd heard about. i also got to get in 20 sets of my arm jump to climb up to turn vault. My climb ups using rails is definately improving. i can now do them on both sides, as opposed to my once dominant left side.

We eventually got booted, so we moved on to the Canberra Theatre stairs. Did the quadrapedal and hopping work, as well as the various mini exercises. Then we warmed down.

The session lasted for about three hours, which seems to be the average time for FNC. This is good, it's three hours of intense training.

At the end of the session, we were both exhausted. I'm finding that my endurance through FNC is definately improving. I'm starting to get less tired after each week. I've written up another revised program. Hopefully we will be able to get through it next week.

I'm really happy with where my training is going. Training everyday has definately helped me progress. FNC has definately been a major contributer. Not only does it condition my techniques and strength, but it also conditions my mental. I'm a lot more confident with myself. I feel like I'm doing more physical training than mental training. This is something I got from Rhys. Physical is what progresses you. You see the obstacle, know you can do it, then do it. Where mental training is seeing the obstalce, knowing you can do it, but thinking about the consequences of failure. This then leads to you not attempting the obstalce, restricting your progression. I used to train with a mental mindset, always thinking about the consequences of failure, but I now think that I've started to train in a more physical mindset. Knowing that i can do something, then doing it, committing to it. Committment is the most important thing when training parkour. Not commiting can lead to injury.

I've learnt a lot from this continuous training period, progressed really far. And I'm only two weeks into the five week session. I can't wait to see what I'm like at the end of the five weeks.

EPIC Civic Training

2008-06-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a night of EPIC TRAINING.

I made so much progression, SO MUCH!

Met Conan, ruoF and Ruz at noise wall. We chatted for a bit then made our way to toast. In toast was where the magic began.

Did a small warmup of dynamic stretches, then got into. Started with a few small precisions. Then played around with Rhys' arm jump. Ruz and I were sizing it up for a while, doing a few practice jumps, but neither of us could make ourselves actually commit to the jump. I hope to get it before NatSoc.

Eliot then arrived at toast.

From there we did a few precisions. I finally got that ground level precision that has been bugging me for so long. The one that I could just reach, but could never commit to. I was able to land on it, sticking it half the time. But at least I'm making the distance, if only just.

From there we started doing precision onto the stair set. This then escalated to massive running precisions onto the stair. They're actually pretty big.

After we got too exhausted with them, we decided to move on to more stuff. I showed Ruz my cat pass over a chest high block, that has a big clear to a ledge. Played around with that a bit.

Then the EPICness really began.

Conan was saying that the ground level precision was about the same distance as the precisions off the rail to the tree planter or other hexagon. So i hopped up on the rail and tried them out. Started out with jumping to the side, checking that I could make the distance and height. To my surprise, I could! So I did them. Both the precision to the hexagon (5 times), and the precision to the tree planter (3 times). I could do them with ease, it was as if the drop didn't affect me at all. It was so good!

From there we moved down to customs. Played around with the tic tac arms. Ruz was remarking about how back in the day it used to be so hard for us to do, and now we were getting it with ease. It really shows how far we have progressed over time.

After we got bored with customs, we made our way to DEWR, for the massive arm jump.

Once at DEWR, we sized up the jump. Josh had actually gotten it earlier that afternoon! It's so big! Ruz looked at it first, but it just tripped him out too much.

So then I stood up to the plate. i got Ruz and Conan to spot me at the bottom of the wall. I know that they wouldn't really be able to do much, but it was still a reassurance to have them there. After psyching myself up for a few minutes, I went for it. I actually fully committed to the jump! I didn't make it though. I hit with my hands, then my feet hit the wall but slipped completely down it. i banged my chest pretty hard into the wall, and fell down. It wasn't a hard fall, just a big smack into the wall.

After seeing me actually try it, commit to it, Ruz found the mental to give it a try. And he made it! He did the classic Shaun Wood thing, tearing his shirt off to psych himself up, then he did it. It properly made it. It's so big! Then he did it again, and again, and again. Four times in total.

Larkin then showed up.

From there Ruz found a good cat to arm, across the ramp. He got it after a few attempts. I gave it a try, got really close, but wasn't able to fully commit. Mainly banging my foot into the wall. It seems like a bit of a hard landing.

After DEWR we all split off. I went and got some dinner with Conan, then left him to catch a bus home.

Overall it was an awesome session. Only lasting a few hours, yet really intense. It's feels so good to be able to do the big stuff, and come out fine. I was doing things that I had never done before, some that I was not capable of doing before. It really shows how far I have progressed. And these are definately the results of training everyday.

Earlier that afternoon, Harley gave me a call. He's in Canberra. I can't wait to get out and train with him. I don't think he's actually properly trained in Canberra, even though he went to school here. Hopefully he comes to FNC.

Woden Training

2008-06-24T05:08:00.000-07:00

Trained in woden tonight with ruoF. Just walked around hitting up a few spots. It was only a light session, lasting for a bit over an hour.

I've found that I have pretty big cat-passes. I've found a new cat to precision near the blacks to work up to. I was getting close tonight, but couldn't stick it.

I also did the precision that I found last time i was in woden, but was too sore from FNC to do. It was mentally challenging, as there was about a two metre drop. Its good though because I could practice the in the exact same conditions, but with only a 10cm drop.

I've stuck to my plan to train every day, and I plan on seeing it through.

Muscle Up Training

2008-06-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Did more muscle up training tonight.

5 dips
2 pull up
5 negatives
5 reverse pushups
- 5 sets

i found that my dips are slowly improving, as well as my negatives. my pull ups are still pretty bad, just like they always are. i guess its something that takes time to develop. so i just have to keep on training them.

i've hit a bit of a wall with my negatives. i can dip down to about chest height, but when i try to move my elbows below the bar level, i seem to just drop through, uncontrolled.

i'm not sure how I can fix this, maybe i just need to keep on practicing. i've asked Chippa for some advice on this, hopefully it helps out.

anyway, ive still stuck to my plan of training everyday for 5 weeks straight. so far its nearly been a week and half. i can already see the improvement in ym strength and skill. it will be interesting to see how i come out after the full five weeks.

APA Class - Civic

2008-06-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

Class today.

We've started to apply the "organiser" preparation that I thought of last week.

It was successful in that Eliot, who was the organiser, had a set plan for the class. That we weren't standing around just before the class, trying to think of what to do.

There was a bit of a mix up as Josh arrived a bit later with the forms, so we had people filling out forms and wristbands while they were doing rolls and landings. This messed up the timings for the activity.

I got a really good surprise at the beginning of class. Ruz was there! He's here in Canberra for the week, seeing his parents and training with us.

With my group, we had them doing cat-passes and precisions. There are a few things that need to be sorted out with this new "organiser" system, but hopefully it will work.

There was also talk about plans for NatSoc. If everything gets sorted out, it is going to be an awesome event.

Balance

2008-06-21T01:56:00.000-07:00

Did a light session of training today. Just worked on my balance.

I headed down to the civic bus depot, where there's that massive rail.

I was originally planning on doing 10 laps, that would have been a total of 750m approximately. But I stopped at 6.5 laps, as I was running out of time.

So, in total I did about 450m of balance. Just normal balance, but I also added in holding a full squat on the rail at the end of each lap. I found that it was pretty hard to go from a standing to a squating position on the rail, then go back up into a standing position facing the opposite direction.

I know that my balance has definately improved over the years.

Balance is something that slowly gets better, without you even realising. You only come to notice the progression when there has been a massive improvement in your balance.

I've continued to stick to my plan of training every day for 5 weeks straight. I've just gotten past my first week.

We'll just have to see if I can stick to it.

FNC

2008-06-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in my chair, typing away on my computer, and I'm exhausted, completely and utterly destroyed. But I love it!

This new FNC is great. It's constantly changing, as I still haven't found that one perfect program to start as a basis.

The best part of FNC tonight, was that I had people to train with. Conan and ruoF joined me. It was so much easier to push myself, as there was someone there to always provide encouragement whenever i felt like stopping, giving me that extra bit of motivation to make it to the end.

Did the lazys, speed vaults and cat passes. Decided on something extra to add to the cat passes, to help with power through the arms.

Only did 60 rolls, with the pullups and dips for every ten. Coming to the end of the rolls, I tried a different technique, kind of like diving forwards and throwing a lot of speed into it. I surprisingly found that this really helped. It made my rolls on both sides really smooth. Both sides! I was also not rolling on my hip, but rolling on the meaty areas of the back, the ones that I've been trying to work towards. The next test will be to try them on concrete.

From there we moved to toast, working on precisions. Only did 50, yet the that was really tiring. Every ten we paused to throw in some upper body work, like pushups, reverse pushups and dips. I think I'll try to go for the full 100 next week.

From there we moved on to customs. Started doing the arm jump to climb up to turn vault
t sets. I've found that my climb ups have had a dramatic improvement. I worked on the idea I learnt from J last night, keeping my arms straight through the whole climb up. Keeping my arms straight forces my legs to push in the pendulum motion that Chippa was trying to teach me in Melbourne. I think that would have to be the best advice for climb ups, keep your arms straight for as long as possible. I showed ruoF this, and he got them practically straight away! Only got to do about 15 sets, before we got moved on. I think that we'll have to find a new place. I was actually thinking of the wall underneath toast. We can practice wall runs off both feet, then go into proper climb ups. I say proper in that there is no bar or over grip to assist you.

We decided to cut away the balancing. It was just so far away and we were so tired. The sets at customs really took it out of us.

So we moved on to the stairs at the canberra theatre. Did the quadrapedal. Then moved on the the upper body and hops work. It really took it out of us, to the point of being barely able to move. It was so good! ruoF even got to the point of throwing up. It shows that he really pushed himself.

So the session lasted for only about 3 hours, but man I'm exhausted. I now realise that FNC is not just technique and strength conditioning, but also mental conditioning. Building your mental strength to just keep on going, keep pushing yourself to the very edge.

I'm probably going to be really sore tomorrow. It's great!

Civic Training

2008-06-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

Did some training in civic tonight. Met up with ruoF and Trav to start with.

We hit up toast a bit, where J soon found us. Did a couple of precision, vaults, the usual. Nothing too big.

From there we made our way to customs to try our luck. We were there for ages. I got a really good sesh of just moving around. Lots of tics tacs, arm jump and turn vaults. From there I focussed on tic tac arms on the side area. I'm getting them pretty good. Did a few climb ups as well. Im finding that my climbups are improving. I seem to be getting more power into them as well as better technique. Did a couple of arm to arms in the stair. Also found a good cat to precision, where the cat to arm is, that I want to work towards later on. Eventually we got moved on. Got to meet that awesome security guard again, the one I met at FNC last week. Had another chat with him, then we headed off.

Thats when Trav headed off.

Made our way to CIT. Hung around a bit in the stairs area where the big arm jump is. It was starting to get pretty wet, os we were a bit restricted. J helped me out in improving my climbups on slippery walls. The one thing is to try and keep my arms straight, which forces me to proeprly use my feet, pushing them into the wall and not down it. Hopefully if I keep practicing this, I will eventually get more power into it and be able to incorporate my arms to get it even better. Another thing for me to work towards.

From there we did a couple of precisions on the rocks, and player around the stairwell where the big foot trial is. I've found that my pop vaults have gotten better, mainly because my climb ups have gotten better. Is good to see how different techniques assist each other.

From there J left, then me and ruoF did a bit of silence training. Just trying to move aroudn staying as quiet as possible.

Got bored of that so we met up with James at customs again. Hoping to not get kicked out. We were there for about 15 minutes, then got moved on. Got to do a few more tic tac arms before security came. I just can't get enough of them!

From there we headed to toast, but all I really did was stretch and warm down. It was starting to rain a bit, and we'd already done a lot of training.

Went and grabbed some dinner, then we all went our separate ways.

Overall it was a good session. Did about 2 hours of decent training. I only did light training, to save my energy for FNC tomorrow. I may not be training by myself this time! Conan said that he'd be coming. ruoF asid that he'd come too. it will be good to have people to train with, as solo training can get depressing at times, especially during the tough moments that I talked about before. Having people training with you gives you that motivation to keep on going, pushing yourself that one bit further. I'll also be able to do the partnered work during the strength conditioning. I can't wait!

5.10 Freerunner shoes (over time)

2008-06-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

So I've had my 5.10s for a few months now. So I thought I'd write up another review on them. How they've held up to my training.

The 5.10s are still just as grippy as they were when I first got them. The sole has worn down considerably at the front where I land from arm-jumps, but I guess that can be expected with this sort of training.

The 5.10s are still comfy and have moulded well to my foot. I've actually found that the inside sole has moulded to shape of my foot and toes.

One thing I was worried about with the 5.10s when I first got them was that my toes rubbed against the inside top of the shoe. I've now found that this had gone away, as I got more comfortable with them.

In regards to the durability, the 5.10s have stoof up to everything that I've thrown at them so far. The sole has a few minor cracks in the worn areas, but nothing serious. The support is still there, as well as the grip.

I'm definately happy with them and highly recommend them for any experienced traceur. The reason I say experienced is because the huge amount of grip can give people the false belief that they have good climbups, when they really don't. The will have them doing things that they wouldn't be able to do in other shoes, which can lead to bad technique. An experienced traceur should already know the technique, so the 5.10s are good in that they can take the experienced traceurs capabilities that one bit further.

Muscle Up Training

2008-06-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

Did a short 45 minute session today, focussing on muscle up training and running training.

Ran down to an outdoor training area. Was about a 1 to 2 km run. Downhill though.

Here is the program:
5 dips
2 pull ups
5 negatives
300m sprint

I did 5 sets of that program. I was pretty tired by the end of it. I found that my negatives need work. I'm not controlling them enough, ending up dropping out of them too quickly. My pullups need work like always. My sprints are getting better though. I felt like I was getting a lot of push out of it.

After that I ran back home, this time it was uphill. It was a pretty slow run, as I was already tired from the training.

Before training, I was having second thoughts, but I'm glad I went out. So far I'm sticking to my plan of doing some sort of training everyday.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 3

2008-06-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

DAY 3 - Sun 15 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Myself
Eliot
Larkin
Connor

Civic Training
1200 - 1530

The session started at 10am, but I arrived late as there was a chruch service I had to go to in the morning.

I met the guys near the block run.

We moved up to the trees where i did a bit of a warmup, then for some reason did a few wall spins with Eliot. I was still feeling sore from FNC tha was two days ago. It really shows how hard Ive made the new FNC, which is good as I know that my body will slowly adapt to recovery and that it will help my progression dramatically.

From there we decided to make our way to the Fisheries, but it took us about 2 hours to get there.

I found a fountain at the Hall of Justice. The fountain had small pillars, about 1 ft high and 7cms in diameter. They were spread about 1 metre apart in a five meter square area. They really helped in balance training. I know that Eliot and myself had an awesome time on there. Larkin and Connor did look like they were having as much fun though, I think they got bored of it pretty quickly. With experience they will soon come to learn about the simpler things, and how much they can help inprogression.

From there we moved down to the ramp where Ruz did the cat to arm for Stateline. Eliot decided to give it a go. At first I wasn't that keen, but after watching Eliot try it, I decided to join in. As soon as i started training, I found that my stiffness was starting to go away. I got the cat to arm on my second attempt. I foudn that the more speed I had coming into the cat, the more distance and force I could get into the wall, which I found greatly assisted making the arm. My plan is to work towards getting the cat to precision in the same spot. I'll have to work really hard in getting a lot of power into the height and distance out of the cat pass.

From there we moved to put our stuff in my car, but found another spot, which was really good for practicing arm jumps off a small ledge onto a pretty grippy wall. i was able to make it standing, which then lead me to finding out that I have pretty good climbups when I have good grip with my feet. When the wall is slippery I tend to slip down it, losing a lot of my momentum. I ahve to practice the pendulum movement that Chippa taught me to help with climbups. I also got a good running arm jump, where I got a lot of height out of to greatly assist in the smooth transition into the climbup, landing straight into the dip position as opposed to the pull up position.

From there we put the stuff in the car, then found a sloped wall that we practiced running up. Trying to use as little steps as possible.

Form there I foudn another arm jump, that involved climbing up onto a wall with a pretty big drop behind it. I used Connor to keep my balance. The wall that i was arm jumping to was made of smooth polished marble, so I of course slipped straight down it when I feet made contact.

From there we found a tree that we thought had potential, but in the end it bark was too crumbly and the branches were too thick.

We finally made it to the fisheries. Walked around a bit. Eliot showed me a good cat to arm, but I wasn't too keen on it as the wall that you had to cat off was really dusty and slippery. Eliot then showed me a good cat to precision, that you could slowly progress in distance. From there we found an alley type thing, that had a really good arm to arm area. It had potential for a cat to arm, but I found the wall was too low for me to properly cat off. I thing that I may be able to reverse to arm it though, so I'll have to go back later on and check it out. I could do a reverse to arm to arm to climb up to precision for my video. Have some solid movement type footage, which should look good.

From there we finished up, heading into the city to grab some late lunch. After that we all went our separate ways.

In the end I had a really good session. I DOMS aren't feeling that bad anymore, and I feel like I've done some really good training.

This intense training weekend has been great. There wasn't as much interest as I thought there would be, but I know that I had fun. I finally got to properly test out my program for FNC, and have settled on something that I am happy with. I plan on doing it every friday night, as I know that it will definately help my progression in a big way.

The training sessions on saturday and sunday were good. They were just like the old days where we would walk around looking for places to training. Finding heaps of things to do in even the smallest areas.

For the next 5 weeks, I have a pretty small stress load from work and uni, in that I can have a lot of spare time. Starting with last FNC, I plan on training in some form everyday. This will mainly involve parkour training, but will sometimes involve basketball training and games. If I stick to my plan I know that I will progress greatly in my fitness, strength and skill in general. Now its the test of sticking to my plan. Lets see how it goes.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 2

2008-06-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

DAY 2 - Sat 14 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Myself
Eliot
Larkin
Travis

WODEN TRAINING
1100 - 1500

The session actually started at 10am, but I slept in so arrived late. I made the mistake of going out after FNC last night, so I was pretty tired.

I was really sore from FNC the night before. I now realised how hard I had actually trained.

Met up with Eliot and Larkin at the silver statue. Did a bit of balancing on the ledges, having close ground on one side, with a reasonably big drop on the other side. I took this idea from Shaun's blog, putting yourself in scary situations to make your mind freak out, but keeping your concentration and focus. This was to try and help me in not panicking in situations, this time was having a potential big drop that I could have fell down, but balancing on something that I would have little trouble balancing on at a smaller height. It was about training me to have the same confidence to move in any environment, no matter the situation. This one being an extreme height and drop.

Moving on from there we went down to the red block. Before the session, Eliot promised himself that he would do the arm jump, so after looking at it for a while, he finally did it. I filmed it for him, using some different angles, with different bits of environment in the way, such as a rail or wall. I thought that this added a good kind of urban style to it. he eventually had a pretty close bail, where he fell off backwards. Luckily his feet hit the ground first before he fell on his ass. It looked really funny when watched backwards in slow motion.

From there we moved down to the big rail and barbecue area. I managed top balance the legnth of the big rail. It helped that it was flat and not curved. From there3 I foudn a good precision with a reasonable drop beneath it. I didn't give it a go though, because I was pretty sore and I didn't think my knee would be able to take the landing. Eliot gave it a try, made it, but banged his knee in the process.

From there we went to lunch, where Travis met up with us.

After that we went to the black ramps, where i found a good cat to precision, and looked more at the cat to arm. I didn't give it a try but saw a 100m long rail in the car park that was close by. So i ran over to it, balanced the whole thing, with some falls but I just got back on then kept on going. Then I balanced it backwards. i found that balancing it backwards takes a lot longer than forwards, as you can't see where you are going and have to concentrate a lot more.

From there we played a bit on the rails, but eventually went our separate ways.

I took Eliot back to my place so that we could buy the domain name for the new Canberra Parkour forum that we've been making. It's still in the making, I'm leaving a lot of the work to Eliot. The reason that we're making our own forum, and not sticking with PKAUS or APA, is that we want something that can be more organised. Something that can have different sections for different things, where with APA and PKAUS, we only have one section for everything. I'm hoping that the whole Canberra community will move away from PKAUS and use this new site. We'll leave links to the new forum within the PKAUS forum. It will just be like when we made the jump from the Urban Freeflow forum to the PKAUS forum. I will still be using the APA forums though, posting up all major information.

Overall the day was pretty good, I didn't do too much serious training, as I was still feeling really sore from FNC the night before.

Extreme Training Weekend Day 1

2008-06-15T00:49:00.000-07:00

DAY 1 - Fri 13 Jun 08

PARTICIPANTS:
Solo

FNC
1830 - 2230

This was the second session of my new FNC. I was originally thinking that I wouldn't be tooo much, due to my knee injury. I found that starting out though, my knee was giving me too much trouble, so I did the proper training session. I had previously made a program for FNCs, something to start with as a basis then improve on it from there. I've found that after testing it out, I've cut down a bit of the strength conditioning, as those areas have already been focussed on to a great extent. Below is the program that I did, and will most likely stick to for future FNCs.

Warmup

Noise Wall:
- dynamic stretches

Techniques Conditioning

Noise Wall:
- 40 lazy vaults (10 each side, each take off foot)
- 40 speed vaults (10 each side, each take off foot)
- 40 cat passes (20 each take off foot)

Glebe Park:
- 100 rolls (50 each side) (2 pulls up & 5 dips / 10 rolls)

Toast:
- 100 precisions

Customs:
- 40 arm jumps + climbup
- 40 turn vaults (20 each side)
- (ie. arm jump - climb up - turn vault down)

Bus Depot:
- 600 m balance
- 150 m cat balance

Strength Conditioning

Stairs:

Core
- quadrupedal walking down backwards
- quadrupedal walking up forwards
- quadrupedal walking down forwards
- quadrupedal walking up backwards
- quadrupedal walking down pushup style

Lower + Upper Body
- 20 dips at bottom
- 2 foot (up 3 down 2)
- 20 situps at top
- 20 pushups at bottom
- left foot only (up 2 down 1)
- 20 leg raise sets at top
- 20 diamonds at bottom
- right foot only (up 2 down 1)
- 20 crunches at top
- 20 double width pushups at bottom
- 20 reverse push ups

Upper Body (if partner available)
- wheelbarrow walking
- fireman carry
- wheelbarrow pushups

Warmdown

Stairs:
- static stretching

At the end of this session I was so exhausted. I definately found it hard to motivate and push myself. The conditions were the main factor. It was cold, I was tired, and I was training by myself. I found that it was a real test of my character and self-discipline.

It will be interesting if people start coming, I'm expecting some people to give it a go. It will be ever more interesting to see if people who do give it a try will keep coming. It will be interesting to see if people can pass the test of training to exhaustion in poor conditions, as it cold and wet weather.

By the end of the session, I had been training for about 4 hours, 4 hours solo training. I know that I learnt a lot from that session. Especially about pushing yourself, keep on going and not letting yourself take the easy way out and give up.

I found that cat balance the hardest. Cat balance is just hard in general, but add the cold of the rail biting into your hands, as well as exhaustion eating into you! That was the hardest time, just being able to make myself get back onto the rail and keep on going, when I was hurting and exhausted.

APA Belco Class

2008-06-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

Today we had class at belco once again.

23 Participants. Only 3 were new, which really shows that our retention has definately improved.

We had an injury before the class had even started. One of the guys was doing flipos and landed sideways, twisting his ankle. It swelled up pretty quickly.

So I took him to hospital. After some xrays we found out that he had fractured his ankle. Not good. I stayed with him a bit while we waited to see a doctor, but later I had to leave to get back before the class finished.

Only Conan, Eliot and Trav were left top run the class. I think they did a really good job, as the class was running pretty smoothly when I got back.

They told me that one of the kdis had gotten injured during the class. Clipped a cat pass and feel off a small wall or something.

Why do people not think when training!?

At the end of the class, we brought the group together to tell them about how parkour can be dangerous when not done properly. We stressed how you have to train smartly and safely.

In other things, my knee is still hurting a bit. Not when I'm doing nothing, jkust when I apply force to it. I think that i've just bruised it and that the swelling is pushing the knee cap, providing discomfort when I move my joint. There isn't any serious pain, just discomfort when I move it.

This means that I've had to cancel my filming session with Eliot, that was planned for tomorrow. Hopefully it all gets sorted out so that I can train next weekend, when the Mega Training Weekend is on.

FNC

2008-06-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight was going to be the night that I had tried out the plan for the new and intense FNC.

Turned up at noise wall, to find that nobody had come. So I trained by myself.

Started with the normal dynamic stretches warmup. Then moved into speed vaults. On about the 15th speed vault, I hit my left knee pretty hard into the concrete. it hurt a fair amount, and still hurts now after icing it. Hopefully it will be better in the morning. From there I tried to push through the discomfort, finishing the speed vaults and cat passes.

From there I ran to Glebe Park, where I tried doing rolls, but found that my newly sustained knee injury was preventing me from doing them.

Looking through the rest of my program, I realised that this injury was going to prevent me from doing most of the techniques and strength conditioning.

While at Glebe Park, I did the lower and upper body part of the strength conditioning.

Having this injury, as well as training by myself, I realised that I was losing a lot of motivation to train. I felt like giving up and just going home. I managed to get through 2 set sof the lower and upper body strength conditioning, but then stretched and went home.

This is waht I ended up getting done.
- 40 speed vaults (10 on each arm off each foot)
- 40 cat passes (20 off each foot)
- 40 sit ups
- 40 pushups
- 40 leg raises
- 40 diamonds
- 40 crunches
- 40 wide pushups
- 30 sitting dips
- 10 bar dips
- 8 pull ups
- 5 pistols (right leg)
- 20 reverse pushups

I'm disappointed at myself for not pushing further through the training. I'm also annoyed that I let myself get injured. I wasn't concentrating and paid for it pretty quickly.

So in the end, I only did about a quarter of the training I was planning on doing. The session lasted for about one and a half hours, but I'm not happy with that.

Next week, I'm going to make sure that I concentrate when training, so that I don't make stupid mistakes at the very beginning of the session that prevent me from continuing further into the session.

APA Class - Civic

2008-05-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Today we taught class in civic.

Started with the normal warm up with dynamic stretches, landings and rolls.

Then we moved to the bus depot to work on balance and wall climbs. While we were there I tried a good precision and tic-tac to arm. I have to go back there and practice it more. While the group was doing wall climbs, I tried a foot trial, but I bailed it. I managed to catch myself straight away though. What happened was that instead on landing on top of the wall, my left foot hit into it, so I started falling, but I was already leaning over the wall. Straight away I caught myself with my hands without even thinking. I remember talking with Rhys about the unconscious ability that parkour experience gives you, like being able to catch yourself when you bail. This was definately evident in my bail today, which is proof for me that parkour has developed m,y subconscious.

From there we moved to the stairs for conditioning, everybodys favourite part of the class. LOL! We pushed them hard, but thats the whole point in conditioning. We also participated as well. I tried the 3 step 2 step hopping thing, as opposed to the 2 step 1 step that we normally do. it wasn't too bad on two feet, but was a lot harder on one foot, I couldn't make it all the way. For FNCs I'll make sure to do it all the way. I even got pushup hops all the way up. I had to stop 3/4 of the way up, to catch my breath, but then continued to finish the whole set. Conan was then inspired to do it himself, pausing at the same point that I did. It just comes to show that you should always set something to aim for, if you can't make it all the way, just pause to have a short rest, but always get back up to finish it, reaching your goal. At the end of it we all felt pretty tired, some of us instructors even feeling a bit sick, which is good as it shows that we pushed ourselves to our limits.

From there we went back to noise wall to warm down.

Over all the class was good. We only had 15 participants, but it was a pretty bad day for weather. Only 3 of them were new though, which is definately showing that our retention rates are picking up. There were also a fair amount of girls, they were all friends, but it was still good to see. It definately good to see that more girls are getting interested in parkour.

I have big plans for my training, the only thing is that I have to follow through with it, make time to be able to do it. I've now thought of what I have to do, I jsut have to do it. We'll see what happens.

APA Class - Belco

2008-05-25T15:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday.

We had the class in belco. 25 people showed up, 15 of which had been before. This is good as it shows that our retention rates are getting better.

There were only 3 intructors though, Josh, Hef and myself. So we split the group up between the three of us.

I took a beginner group and taught them climb ups, turn vaults and balance.

For conditioning, instead of stair work we did ground work. I even got them doing leopard crawling, something different for them.

I was planning on training afterwards, but had to go home and study instead.

Recreation Summit Day 2

2008-05-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday

It was day 2 of the Recreation Summit.

Travis and myself woke up early to join the group for a morning walk at 0700. We busted out different bits of parkour around them as they were walking, giving them something to look at.

From there we had breakfast with the group, at the hotel.

After breakfast there was the registration, where we talked to some people, before the seminars started.

The majority of the day was spent attending seminars and talking to people about parkour during the breaks.

The most valuable part of the day was at the end, where we split up into groups to talk about the different things we had learnt. It was this part that was valuable, but the time directly after, where we talked with our own individual groups about parkour, and they all showed an genuine interest.

So, what did we get out of participating in the Rec Summit?

We have definately promoted Canberra Parkour, and the Australian Parkour Association. Hopefully new things will start coming our way, especially in regards to the community.

Only the future can tell what will happen for us. We'll just have to wait and see.

Recreation Summit Day 1

2008-05-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

Today we had the ACT Sport and Recreation Councils Recreation Summit.

All we really did was stand by a tv playing the new Trace Elements videos, and talked to people about parkour, if they came up and asked.

We made an attempt to go and talk to some people, hand out flyers and such. There seemed to be a bit of an interest in that.

I got to talk to one of my old high school teachers, who is now high up in PE in the department of education. She said that she's is going to help with promoting parkour and the classes in school around Canberra, so we will definately be taking advantage of this opportunity.

We've also had it of interest from some people from different organisations around Australia.

On my way home I got a call from Rhys. Him and Shaun had arrived in Canberra. So I met up with them and grabbed some dinner. Just catching up and stuff, it was good. We might go out and do some training tomorrow afternoon.

For the Rec Summit tomorrow, we plan on meeting the group when they go for their morning walk. And do parkour around them during the walk. From there we'll be doing the same as we did today, but try to talk to more people.

I talked with Rob, our organiser for the Rec Summit, and he said he'd contacted the ABC people about our interview. He said that they had not yet finished editing it, but he will give me their contact details, so that I can contact them myself and see what's going on. At least I now have a contact to work with. Hopefully it will come out soon and we can all finally see the finished product.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 5

2008-05-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday.

We did more filming for the commercial. This time it was Josh and my intro scenes. Josh falls into an alley where im "writing" on a wall, then I chase after him. Something nice and simple.

Later on I hope to add a car scene to it, where Josh cat-passes the hood (or some kind of vault/jump) and I dash the roof (if i can). it would look pretty awesome.

After that we went back to Che office to watch what he's already got. We got to see Conan's face smash at the green screen shoot in slow motion, which looked pretty bad. We also got to see how everything is coming together. I now know that we aren't the sole focus in the commercial, there are also some dance bits as well as runner bits.

From there ruoF, Josh and I went to do some light training at ANU. We trained a bit at the Family Courts, which I now realise how much of a good spot it is. I have to go back there more often. I did a few cat pass to precisions there, and was getting the precisions really silent, which is good.

From there we just trained around ANU at different spots. My precisions are getting better. I think I've increased their distance a bit since my melbourne trip. I'm committing more to making the jump. My wall spins are also pretty nice, I've deffinately gotten more confidence with them, as well as skill. I'm thinking i should try them on a proper wall again, but this time be able to keep on doing them.

Canberra Mothers Day FunRun

2008-05-11T02:53:00.000-07:00

Today I went in a FunRun to support Breast Cancer research. I arrived a bit late so got straight into the run without registering. I didn't really care as we would be making a big donation at the end of the race.

It was just a 5km run around Lake Burley Griffin. I did it with Josh and we tried to do as much parkour as possible along the way. I now understand how much parkour can tire you out while you are on the run. This is something I should work on.

In the end the run was a success, we all felt prettty good afterwards for doing something for the community, as we want to show that the traceurs in canberra are trying to help out. It really worked part of the philosophy of parkour, to help others.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 4

2008-05-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we did some more filming for the commercial. This time we were doing some green screen work. It was pretty fun and a good experience to have done.

All it involved for us was doing some jumping shots. I think it will be incorporated to look like we are jumping off a huge height or something.

Conan and Trav then did a couple of flips. When Conan landed on the green screen doing a btwist, it slipped out from him and he face planted. He cut up his lip a bit, but the bleeding didn't last long.

The session only lasted for about an hour, as we got kicked out but other people who were wanting to use the screen.

We might be doing my intro bits for the commercial on wednesday, we'll have to see how it goes.

Melbourne Trip - Summary

2008-05-08T04:53:00.000-07:00

So now my trip is over, but I've learnt a lot of things. So I thought it would be fitting to write a summary of the trip, not about the events, but what I learnt and how i have been affected.

I went to melbourne with a few goals in mind. I was wanting to go to do some serious training that would help me in my progression. The idea was to spend as much time as possible with Chippa and the more experienced guys, training as much as possible and learning all that was there. I wasn't going to melbourne for the spots, but for the people, the thinking that is down there.

Did I achieve everything I wanted to achieve? In some ways I did and in some I didn't.

During the trip, I met a lot of new people. I've made a lot of new friends and contacts, and liek to think that I've strengthened my reputation in the melbourne scene. Getting to know the rest of the Trace Elements guys, training with the newer melbourne instructors, is something that I will cherish in a way.

The Trace Elements performance made me really appreciate parkour, in how much of an art is can be. For me, the performance was pure art, something that i could really appreciate from a traceurs perspective. Watching someone move in such a way, is amazing. And Josh said, it was a whole new type of movement.

I didn't get the oppostunity to truly train with the more experienced guys, as they were too busy with the performance. but I did learn a lot from just talking with Chippa. We talked about everything to do with parkour, the thinking, teaching, techniques. What we've learnt and encountered, and what we're striving to achieve. I've learnt that I have a long way to go in order to refine my techniques, mainly being climb ups and rolls. I've also realised that there is a long way for me to go with getting my instructor qualification, that it is something that I will have to work towards.

I also took a lot of ideas that I will aplpy here in Canberra, both with the classes and with our training. Hopefully there will be a few changes that will really test people.

For the classes, we're going to start using the wristbands method, instead of the sign in sheet. I also want to start having first-timers classes, but then let people have their first two classes free. I want to run one first for the whole class, then start from there, that way everyone in the classes will be kept up to date. The first one will mainly be a talking session. Mixed witha few things.

I also want to cut away FNC, and start having a night similar to Melbourne's Rape Night, where we just continuously work on techniques, then finish off with intense conditioning. Something that will leave us unable to walk properly, something to really work us physically and mentally. I'm also going to star running between training spots. i did it in melbourne and realise how much we should be doing it here in Canberra.

I'm also keen to make a Canberra Parkour handshake. I have an idea (that isn't like the 5.10 dance) that incorporates parts from the David Belle group handshake to the different handshakes in Melbourne and Sydney. I'll see how the rest of Canberra like it.

i even came back with a Ped Rag. Something as a souvenier from my trip to melbourne, that is unique to canberra.

Did i achieve everything i originally acheived in melbourne? No, in that I didn't get to train with the real experiencved guys as much as I was hoping too, but this is something that can be done in the future. I did achieve things that I wasn't planning on achieving, such as meeting so many new people.

I have taken a lot from my trip to melbourne, and i hjope to be able to do this same type of trip to sydney, hopefully in july.

Melbourne Trip - Day 6

2008-05-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 0900. had a shower, got changed, then packed my bags. I cooked breakfast (the same one of rice, tuna and an egg) for Chippa and myself. Then sat around with Chippa for a bit.

I talkedwith Chippa about how I can go about getting my instructor qualification. he showed me the ideas that are in the making for the doing up for the application. The physical qualifications look pretty hard, especially being able to do 5 muscle ups. This means that I am going to really have to work towards getting this qualification. making it this hard is god though, as it will ensure the quality of the instructor.

From there Chippa drove me to the airport. Rhys and his girlfriend arrived at Chippa's place jsut before we left, so i said my farewell again, knowing that I will be able to meet him again when he comes to Canberra to rehearse his TV show thing later on.

We got to the airport at 1230, with more than enough time for me to check in. So I said my goodbyeto Chippa, thanking him for letting me stay at his place as well as the experiences that I had and the things tat I had learnt while in melbourne.

And now I'm back in Canberra, a bit tired but with excellent memories from my trip to Melbourne.

Melbourne Trip - Day 5

2008-05-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 0830, had a shower then did a bit of stretching before Chippa woke up. I made breakfast this time (well most of it) then sat around for a bit watching TV. Rhys showed up at one, just to hang, because Harley was busy.

From there Chippa and me left Rhys to go into the city to do a bit of training. He took me to a car park that had some good rails. From there we moved on to southbak where we met Sam, Smo and another guy that I can't remember the name of. he's been to a few of the trainings now. We trained at southbank for a bit, and then CHippa had to leave to go sort out his phone insurance and then go in to prepare for the Trace Elements perfomrance later that night.

So it was jusdt me and the other guys. We moved from southbank to a back area, that had some good precisions. I got a good running precision that Chippa does in one of the new Trace Elements videos, but I got it with two feet.

From there we moved to the back of the arts centre, where there were some really grippy walls and ledges. There we did a few tic tac to arm jumps. I even got off a tic tac to tic tac to arm jump. It's was pretty ineffient, but it was mainly about the physical capability that was required to be able to do it. Benji then cam eout of nowhere to do some training with us.

We then moved back along southbak to the area with the long black blocks, that is really good for precisions. I'm starting to refine my precision technique, such as reaching out with my feet to be able to get that little bit of extra distance. It was still evident that I have to work around my mental confidence in committing that little bit extra to the precision, so that I can reach that little bit further.

From there we moved on to the crackhead park. This is the playground behind the melbourne museum, that i had trained at with Chippa yesterday. On the way I bought a ped rag, just like what most of the big guys in Melbourne are wearing. it's kind of like my souvenier for the trip. Plus it keeps my head warm, so I don't need a beany anymore. At crackhead park we did a bit of balance work and a few arm jumps. I tried some arm jumps, but then my elbow started mucking up, so I stopped there. I think that I just have to let it rest and sort itself out. So I wont do any more parkour until Rhys comes to Canberra, or I'm doing filming for the commercial.

After crackhead park, we started to make our way to the Bali memorial, but on our way we foudn this awesome new spot. It was a stairwell that went into the ground, witha lot of rails and walls on the outside. it has a lot of potential for different types of movement at varying skill levels. So they guys played around in there for a while, but I stayed back as my elbow was still playing up.

From there we moved on to the Bali memorial, where there is a good wall closeby, that can be used to pratice various vaults.

We then all started to break off.

Just before he left, Benji asked me a few really deep questions about parkour. He asked me whether I had got out of the trip what I came to get, as well as what my idea of the philospohy of parkour was. Now this question, about the parkour philosophy, is a really tricking one. Benji had away of rephrasing it, what do I enjoy/get from doing parkour. When thinking about the answer, it kidn of came to me. I was thinking about my parkour history, and one moment stuck in my mind, when i was injured and was not supposed to do any sport. I remember doing my first vault, when i was getting to the end of my recovery from the injury. It was only a simple side vault, but the feeling I got from it. it was like pure happiness or joy. A feeling of freedom, to be able to move any way I want in any environment. The freedom of movement. I think that this is what makes my philospohy of parkour. Sure, I still follow the broader philosophy of helping others, becoming strong, but I think that it is this feeling of freedom in my movement that makes my parkour philosophy unique for me.

Well, after everyone had left, I went with Smo to the Arts House, so that we could go watch the Trace Elements show again. Smo already had a ticket, but I was expecting to be able to just get in. I was let down. I ended up getting put on the waiting list, then not making it in by only a few people. I felt so cut by this. So I jsut sat in the foyer, sulking a bit, thinking about all the ways I could have got in illegitimately. I then read the poster for the show, as well as the bios for each of the Trace Elements guys. it was actually pretty interesting to see how Arts House had decided how to explain parkour in the article. I then did a bit of stretching, until the show finished.

From there I went in and caught up witht he rest of the guys. I think ome were a bit shocked that I had just been sitting outside, instead of in watching the show. I really should have jsut gone in the doors from the side alley. Oh well.

From there we went to dinner at the bar. Afterwards I said my last farewells to most of the guys. Rhys said he'd let me know what was going on with his TV Show thing in Canberra. harley said he'd get in contact with me if he was ever in Canberra, to do some serious training. He was saying that with all the times he's been in Canberra, he's never done any real serious training. So hopefully I can take him out some time, be his parkour tour guide. Talking with jamie, he was talking about maybe doing a road trip to Canberra on one weekend. It will be interesting to see if it goes ahead, should be fun.

Melbourne Trip - Day 4

2008-05-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 9am. had a shower and stuff because I hadn't had one the night before, I just got back too late. I spent a bit of time on the net, had breakfast, then we headed off.

i went with Chippa to the Melbourne Museum, that has an awesome playground outside it. We spent a lot of the time talking about different things. I got him to try and help me with my climb ups. I now know that I have a long way to go ebfore I have them down perfect. I have to practice the pendulum motion that Chippa told me about, that way slippery walls/shoes won't ever be an issue. I can do climb ups on grippy walls, but slippery walls are the truew test.

My elbow was starting to hurt again, it seems that pulling movements set it off. I'll have to refrain from pulling movements from now on, until it's better.

From there we moved around the museum to the old monoliths, where we worked on precisions, cat passes and rolls. I got a good cat pass to precision that Chippa showed me. My rolls are also starting to improve. I still need to pick up the right techqniue for my right side, as in coming off the middle side of my back, instead of the hip. I have this technique down pat for my left side, because I'm only now starting to properly train rolls on my left side, and I'm doing it with the right technique, as opposed to trying to break old habits with my right side. I just ned to practice the coordination with the left side. I'm also starting to get comfortable with rolls of height, as in the impact is starting to feel less and less.

From there we made our way to Town Hall to meet with the rest of the Trace Elements guys. I hung around with them for a few hours, then made my way off into the suburbs at 5.30pm.

The plan was to meet up with Sam and a couple of the other melbourne traceurs. I started walking into the city to catch a train, but then realzsied that I should run it. I want to try and bring more running into the Canberra scene, as I know that it is definately an area that I need to improve on, as well as with some of the other guys. So I was running down this one street, that I thought would lead me to the state library and central station. After a while I found myself at the Melbourne Museum, and realised that I had been running down the wrong street. After a few calls and asking a few people on the street, I was finally at central station, on a train into the suburbs.

I met up with Sam and we went off to do some night training in the wet. It had just been raining, so it was still wet. I originally backed down, but got convined to go out and train. Sam took me to a few goods spots around his area. There were some good walls in an alley, as well as an awesome rail set with a lot of growing potentioal. There were some good ledges around the corner from this, where we did arm jumps, and I found a good lunging run that finished with a cat pass, something that Sam hadn't thought of before. It's always good to have new people train in your area, because they think of different things to do, that you would have never have thought of. From there we went ofr a run to a park, where there were some good playground and rail work.

After that I made my way back to Chippa's place. Running off the directions that Sam had told me. I got a bit lost but this was soon remedied by a quick call to Chippa.

Tomorrow I plan on meeting up with Sam again, to do some training in the city. We plan on starting at 2, then going on into the night. I might even be able to get some 1on1 training with Chippa again in the morning. My elbow is still playing up, hopefully it will be fixed by the morning, but I will still have to keep away from climb ups adn arm jumps, as I don't want to amplify this realy weird injury.

Melbourne Trip - Day 3

2008-05-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 9.

Chippa was awake when i had fi shed getting ready, so i did some stretching. I had a lot of DOMS from the last two days, so the stretching was a bit useful.

Had the normal breakfast with Chippa after he'd woken up. Then we headed off for town hall.

Met the guys there and just sat around with them. I did a bit mroe stretching with them.

After lunch I decided to go into the city and try some solo training. I went to the chinese gardens first, where i really worked in the hole with the good cat to arm. i first started do some arm to arms, then moved on to precisions. It helped with building up my confidence with precisions, as it was on a high obstacle with a small landing area. It helped by forcing me to land properly and committ to the jump. I tried the cat to arm but kept slipping down the wall. I also did a couple of cat to precisions on the rocks.

From there i made my way down to southbank. I think that I may have jarred my left elbow, so I didn't feel that good with trying any more things. So I did some balancing along the rails at southbank, then made my way back to town hall.

I got back a bit before the performance started.

The Trace Elements performance was incredible. I really took a lot out of it. It was really interesting to see how each of them moved. It really was the art of movement. I loved how they portayed what life as a traceur is like. How we start with warming up, doing dynamics stretches. Then moveing on to basic movements, to warm up the body, starting small. the building up to the big stuff, sizing it up, having the spotters, giving a half arsed attempt (which may turn into a bail, ut the spotters are there to save you), then going for the full committ. it was amazing to see the type of movents as well. Alex's bar work is incredible! The choreography with the jumps over the arms was excellent. Just being able to move i such a manner. it really shoed me why these guys are some of the best traceurs in australia. The show ended up being a huge success, the actual shows should be even better.

I remember Rhys talking about how people look at them and say "wow, that's awesome, i could never do that," but then he says "yes you can, all you have toi do is work for it, train up to it." I was thinking about that statement, and how it relates to myself. I watch the Trace Elements guys, and I see how amazing he stuff they do is. But I've come to realise that I'm not in state that I'm thinking I could never do that. When I think about it, I actually believe taht I can get as good as those guys, all I have to do is t5rain up to it. Some of the stuff they do, I think I could do as well, all I have to do is try it. It just comes to show that to be able to get good at anything, all you have to do si work for it, work towards that bigger goal.

So at the end of the day, we had dinner then helped Morgan push start his car. This was fun as it involved us psuhing his car down a hill, past all the traffic and people.

Tomorrow I may be able to get out and work through some things with Chippa that will go towards getting my instructor qualification. Then I might go out again to do another solo run, this time along southbank, depending on how I'm feeling.

Melbourne Trip - Day 2

2008-05-04T06:02:00.001-07:00

Starting with a 0830 wakeup. Got changed, had breakfast, then headed off to the arts for more Trace Elements rehearsel.

I stayed there for a bit then ran with Nippon to the library, where we met more of the instructors. From there we ran to southbank where we had the instructor training session, which lasted for two hours. It was really just a training session to do whatever you wanted along southbank. I also met with Ruzkin, so it was good to train with him again. I was so close to getting huge foot trials on the walls along southbank. I also wortked on precisions, vaults, climbups, wall runs and other different things. I even got the upside down under the bridge climb. It was as scary as I thought it was going to be.

There was also a lot of blood appear at the instrcuor training. Benji sliced his knee when climbing under a wodden bridge piece. Ruzkin cut up his hand from arm jumps. And another younger guy cut his hand when he fell into the river when nearly finishing the under the bridge climb.

From there we had lunch and moved on to teach the class. it was good to see how the Melbourne guys run their class. Seeing new things that i can bring back to the classes here in Canberra, as well as the similarities between classes.

We did the normal warmup of running and dynamic stretches. Then moved on to rolls and quadrapedal. From there the group was split into two. I went with Ruzkin's group were we went to the rocks to work on precisions and pop vaults. We also did a small amount of conditioning up this HUGE stair case. It's probably twice the amount of stair as the staris near the Canberra Theatre, with stairs that are thicker too. After that we went back to the waves to warmdown. Overall the class was really good, with a lot of participants.

What I want to take from it is to have a first timers class, where we talk to them about parkour, give an introduction to it. I also want to start using the wristbands, as they are a lot easier than having a sign in sheet. I'll just have to make sure to count the numbers for when I record them later on.

Afterwards I went back to the Arts House top watch the Trace Elements guys some more. We got to play a bit on the scaffolding, and I've now come to truly realise how much bars give you bad callouses. I did a bit of bboying too, just showing off and having fun, as well as watched the guys practice some massive stunts that they will be doing in the show. The show should be really good. I'm going to be seeing it tomorrow night, so it should be really awesome.

Since the Trace Elements guys will just be rehearsing more tomorrow, I'm thinking that I might go for some solo training around Melbourne. Do some exploring and see what I can find.

Melbourne Trip - Day 1

2008-05-03T06:10:00.001-07:00

Well I'm finally here in Melbourne. I arrived at 0610 on a bus, while it was still dark. Chippa said he'd pick me up, but he got mistaken and thought I was arriving later that night, instead of the morning. It was all good though, I just caught a train to his area wher he picked me up.

So I dropped my stuff in, had some breakfast, then we headed into the city.

We went to the Arts House, where Trace Elements are practicing for a show that they will be doing in the next few days. Most of their time has been spent preparing for this show. I hung around with the for a bit, playing around on their swcaffolding set.

After lunch I made my way into the city to meet the other Melbourne instructors for a games session. The Melbourne guys are starting to get involved in classes for after school care programs, so they were running a games session to play around with some games that they could use for the after school classes.

From there I went back to the Arts House to hang with the Trace Elements guys some more. I got to do a lot more playing on the scaffolding, getting one pretty big latche.

Overall the day was pretty good. I got to meet a lot of new people, the rest of the Trace Elements group, and some of the Melbourne Instructors. I also got lost on my way back to the Arts House from Southbank, but evetually found my way.

I haven't yet gone out to speciaifcally train with Chippa, which is oneof the reasons why I've comne down to Melbourne, as he has been busy with Trace Elements. I understand this, but I will hopefully get a lot of opportunities to train with a lot of the other Melbourne instructors.

We'll just have to see how the trip unfolds.

APA Class - Belco

2008-04-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

Class was good today. We had 13 participants, with 6 who had come to classes before. We've gone back to the trend of only being able to retain half the class. This may be due to the weather, as we are now moving into winter, and people will be less inclined to come outdoors.

We went through the normal warmup, then taught dashes, catpasses, arm jumps and pop vaults. Then finished with a bit of conditioning but got rained out. So we went under cover, did some squats and burpees, then warmed down.

I did a bit of training during the class as well. I still have to work on my climb ups, more towards the strength and explosive side.

On friday I'm going down to Melbourne to do some serious progressive training with Chippa and the other guys down there. I will be there for about five days. You might be thinking, why can't I just do serious progressive training in Canberra? Well, one reason I'm going to Melbourne is for the people and the thinking that goes on down there. I always learn a lot when ever I talk/train with Chippa, which is why I want to go down to Melbourne. Hopefully I can learn some things to bring back to Canberra. I may even come back with my APA Instructor qualification.

I plan on documenting each day of my trip, but we'll have to see what happens.

APA Training - Civic

2008-04-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

Since there was a mixup with the forms at class today, we decided to run a training session instead of a class. This meant that it was free and not under the proper APA label. We basically told the group to do their own thing, and that we wouldn't give formal direction. If they wanted any help we would be more than happy to provide it, but all we would really be doing was supervising, as well as doing our own training.

We only hit up toast and CIT. At toast, I found a lot more new things that I will be able to have in my video, one being stupidly awesome. Josh, Conan and myself also did a run through Customs. it was awesome as. I practiced what I plan to have in my video. The thing is that I have to be able to film it in under 3 minutes, because thats how long it takes for security to come and kick us out. Little did we know that the railings had been freshly painted. We wondered why it was so sticky, and only realised after we had done the run. The dodgy thing was that we left our hand marks all over the rail.

I planned on meeting up with Eliot before the class today, to film the civic part of my video. I rocked up a bit late, so was wondering where he was. I gave him a call only to find out that he had forgotten! So I went to basketball training instead and came back for the class.

Hopefully my video should be good, the mainly problem is just finding the time to meet with Eliot to film the rest of it.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 3

2008-04-17T03:07:00.000-07:00

Today we did most of the filming for the commercial. I could only make the second half of the day's events. The first part involved a lot of stuff at the skatepark with skaters and bladers. From there the guys went across the lake to do a coffee shop bit. Then I met them at toast where we did Conan's intro scene. This involved doing a run through toast, and vaulting off what a ppears to be a big drop.

It was so cool, and I can't wait to see the finished piece.

There's talk that we will be doing some green screen shots, plus we still have to do my intro scene.

We're finally getting our names out there in the public, as well as developing the knowledge of parkour in canberra.

This will hopefully be the first of many media things to come.

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 2

2008-04-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight we filmed Travis's hero seen, where he comes into the commercial. It involved him flipping through a Muddle Bar window. From there he chases after Josh and myself.

It was really fun, and Trav got to hit on some hot chicks that were involved as extras.

We're doing the rest of the filming tomorrow. Should be good.

Youth Week Demo + ABC Radio interview

2008-04-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Today we had the Youth Week demo.

A few days ago, a guy from ABC radio called me up saying he wanted to do an interview about parkour and the demo. Little did we know that it would be a filmed interview!

It started out before the demo, where we were at toast. I was interviewed while the rest of the Canberra APA instructors did parkour in the background. After the interview we filmed different bits of parkour around toast. I got that massive arm jump again, this time without anyone spotting me.

From there we moved down to noise wall for the demo. It all mainly involved us doing parkour, while the ABC guy and Che (the guy making the tv ad) filmed us.

People came and watched, and Hef moved around and talked with them, about the classes and parkour in general. We got a lot of publicity for parkour in Canberra.

This is going to be an awesome week for parkour in canberra, and it all started last night with the beginning of the filming of the ad for canberra tourism.

This is hopefully the first of many to come!

Canberra Tourism Commercial Pt 1

2008-04-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we started filming for the ad. It's finally going ahead! My character is a gangsta graffiti artist. The goal for last night was to film a scene were we drop on to an escalator and go into character poses. We spent about an hour jumping up and down on the escalators outside Dendy cinemas. It was great fun. Especially since I was getting weird looks from people, with my gangsta image.

I think the plan is to do the Nuttle Bar shoot on wednesday night, then get the main footage on thursday.

THIS IS SO AWESOME!

Pine Island

2008-04-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight I trained with ruoF at Pine Island near Tuggers. it was really good natural training, around the rocks and the river. We were training pretty late in the day, and soon found ourselves caught in the dark. I had to rely on a lot more of my sense to be able to move around int he dark. The biggest achievement was how we got back to the mainland. You see, to get to Pine Island, you have to jump from rock to rock, and these jumps aren't that small. Now coming back from Pine Island, we couldn't make the jump that we had used to get there. It was starting to get pretty dark, so we were starting to lose our sight dramatically. We looked at another way to get across the river, but realised we couldn't make that jump either, especially not in the dark. Searching along the island, ruoF foudn another jump we "might" be able to do to get back. I first thought that it was too big, but he managed to pull it off. That then meant that it was my turn. I lined myself up, sizing up the jump. Remeber that it was really dark, and the jump looked so big, especially over a rushing river. I remember thinking, "I have to make this jump or I won't be able to get back." I set myself, then I did it. I just did it! I would have to say that it was the biggest standing precision I've ever done, I'll have to confirm this though when I go back to Pine Island during the day. I'd like to think that I put myself in the 'Fight or FLight' mindset, where i had to do it in order to get home.Im proud that I made that jump, but even prouder about how much I committed myself to making it, because I knew that if I didn't, I would have met a vey wet ending. I'll have to go back to Pine Island, but will make sure that I leave the island before it get dark.

APA Class - Belco

2008-04-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Taught a class last sunday. I decided to split the class this time, as we had more than enough people. I split them into beginner and experienced. I took the experienced guys and had them doing climb ups and arm jumps. The begginner guys did tic-tacs, turn vaults and balance. From there we did conditioning.

We had a good turnout for the class, 17 people. We only had 3 new people, which means that our retention rate is increasing.

I also trained a bit with the guys during the class. I got my climb ups a lot better, and also got reverse climbs up from a drop.

Overall it was a good day, except for the screw up at the beginning of the class, where some of the instructors did turn up until when the class was supposed to start.

Conditioning Program

2008-04-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking that I need to condition more than I have been. And I have been getting pretty slack not going to FNC. So I've designed a new intense conditioning session that will motivate me to train and leave me exhausted at the end of each session.

Warmup:
- dynamic stretches

Running:
- up stairs 50% x2
- walk down stairs
- up stairs 100% x8

Quadrapedal Walking:
- down backwards
- up forwards
- down forwards
- up backwards
- pushup quadrapedal down forwards

Hops + Upper Body:
- two foot jumps up stairs (up 3 down 2)
- 20 situps at top of stairs
- crouched silent landings down stairs
- 20 pushups at bottom of stairs
- left foot hopping up stairs (up 3 down 2)
- 20 leg raises at top of stairs
- crouched silent landings down stairs
- 20 diamonds at bottom of stairs
- right foot hopping up stairs (up 3 down 2)
- 20 crunches at top of stairs
- crouched silent landings down stairs
- 20 double width pushups at bottom of stairs

Lower + Upper Body:
- 20 sit ups
- 20 push ups
- 20 leg raises
- 20 diamonds
- 20 crunches
- 20 wide push ups
- 20 squats
- 20 dips
- 20 lunges
- 5 pull ups
- 3 sets

Upper Body:
- wheelbarrow walking up stairs
- walk down stairs
- wheelbarrow pushups up stairs
- walk down stairs

Warmdown:
- static stretches

APA Class - Civic

2008-03-30T03:04:00.000-07:00

Today I taught an APA class in civic. It was a reasonable class, with 13 participants, 5 of which were new. Our retention rates are slowly picking up. I hope to have a class with 40 participants in it, by the end of June. Hopefully the various promotions of parkour we're doing should help out with this.

Today we worked on the normal warm up of dynamic stretches, rolls and landings. We then taught balance, climb ups and wall runs. Did conditioning on the stair set outside the canberra theatre, then did the normal warm down of stretches.

Overall the class was good, but I hope to get more participants.

5.10 Freerunner shoes

2008-03-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've finally been able to properly test my new 5.10 Freerunner shoes.

First impressions are that they are extremely comfortable. The shoes completely supports the feet, having the heel pressing into the right areas so that it sin't uncomfortable. They are also reasonably flexible, straight out of the box.

During training, I found that the sole was not too thick, so that I could still feel the ground, reminding me to land correctly.

The rubber is extremely grippy, so grippy that I was able to do straight arm climb ups. This may be a downside though, as new people training parkour will not leaern the proper technique for climb ups. For those who do know though, it helps out a lot with getting that extra bit of push. Grips on rails is a bit slippery, but that can be expected for any shoes.

The cushioning in the shoe is not that thick, which allows for proper movement. You may want to look for insoles to get that extra bit of cushioning.

I found that when I was practicing bigger precisions, the top of my toes would rub against the inside of the shoe. This may wear off though as I break in the shoes more.

I regards to durability, that will have to be a test of time. A bit of rubber did come off the front tip of the shoe during training, but it was so insignificant that it was nothing to worry about.

A big thing with this shoe is that it is re-soleable. One thing I find when training is that the soles of my shoes tend to wear down quicker than the rest of my shoe. If this happens with these shoes, and I think that the rest of the shoe is still up for soem abuse, I'll just buy the re-sole kit.

In Canberra we've found that these shoes are awesome, a lot better than any other shoe we've used. For some reason it has given us a lot more confidence to try bigger movements,as we know that our shoes will support it. Some may disagree with this, but if it works. We've found that these shoes so good that we've made a 5.10 Freerunner handshake, which resembles closely to the Soulja Boy dance.

Overall, I think the new 5.10 Freerunner shoe is awesome and is definately worth buying. A shoe doesn't help you improve technique, it's the people training around you who do, just remember that.

Civic Training

2008-03-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today I met up with a couple of boys in civic to do some training. I was planning on not doing any training over this long weekend, but I wanted to try out my new shoes before the filming for the ad, which might be in two weeks time. I've decided that I'm not going to do any training until the filming, just working on strengthening my knees, so that Im fresh for when it happens.

Well, for todays session, a lot was accomplished. We started at noise wall, looking at all the normal things. We even found a new cat pass to precision, that I was pretty close to getting.

From there we moved on to toast, doing a few different things, some that I hadn't tried, like big cat passes and precisions. My greatest accomplishment was a huge arm jump that I had been looking at for a while, but had never pushed myself to try. Im glad I did now. I only did it once, but it felt so good to do.

From there we moved on to customs. It was awesome to train at customs again and not get kicked out. We did a lot of new things, like tic tac to arm jumps, but from different directions and using different feet. We then moved down to the ramps at the front of customs, where I found a new cat pass to precision, and worked on my climb ups a bit. It was so good to be able to train there for as long as we wanted.

After that we did some rail work at the car lot underneath toast, but soon moved on to warm down and go our separate ways.

Overall the session was awesome. Lasting for about 3 hours, we accomplished a lot of new things and trained in new areas. I have to train at customs more often, but figure out times where I wont get kicked off in 3 minutes.

Training

2008-03-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

A few days I went to Holder gym, for my weekly gym training sessions. I didn't really do that much though, mainly talked with the guys about the ad that we're hopefully doing. I also got my new 5.10 Freerunner shoes.

Next day I met up with Connor to give him a 1 on 1 lesson in belco. I didn't do much, just taught him basic techniques. the session lasted for about 1.5 hours.

I've decided to slow down my training. I might start this after tomorrow, as I may go out to properly test my new shoes. I'll give a detailed explanation of how the shoes are afterwards. The reason I've decided to have this break, is so that I am fresh or the filming of the ad, and so that my body can recover from the past training that I have been doing. My knees have starting to ache a bit, like they used to back in the day. Im now working on knee strengthening exercises, weighted full length squats, so they can build up their strength again.

Weekend with Rhys

2008-03-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

On saturday Rhys came down to Canberra for a meeting about some possible parkour work in a tv show. After he was done we met up for some training. Starting at toast, then moving to customs and across the lake. The wasn't much training but a lot of talking. I learnt a lot from talking with Rhys, just like when I talked with Chippa. Rhys ended up staying in canberra overnight, then came to the class on the sunday. the class was pretty small (7 people) so we did some training with them. after the class we took rhys to the derro apartments.

Overall the weekend was good, there wasn't too much training, but a lot of talking with Rhys. It's been good to just catch up and strengthen the friendship. I've gotten to know him a bit better.

Rhys also gave me the idea of making our own Canberra Parkour forum. Something that can be more organised than what we have on pkaus. I talked to Eliot and we're going to work together on it. The Canberra APA instructors don't have any objections, so we're going to go ahead with it. If it takes off, then we'll build on it further.

Im still working on finishing my video, its just about working out availability with Eliot. There's also ideas of making a stunt sampler with conan and josh, and a new apa canberra instructors video, as we now have 8 instructors.

During may break im hoping to do a fair amount of travelling with my parkour. Go down to Melbourne for the first week then head to sydney for the second week. I talked to Chippa about melbourne and he said that he'd be definately up for it. Rhys is also up for sydney. If im able to get away, it should be a really good two weeks, with a lot of progression.

There are big things hopefully coming my way with parkour, so the future looks pretty interesting.

Gym + Solo Training

2008-03-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to holder gym to do my regular training. Mainly worked on precisions and vaults. I also did my random pull ups that I started last week. I got out 20 pull ups in total. I finding that they are slowly getting better.

Tonight I went to FNC, to find that nobody turned up. So i went off and did some solo training, in a new style that i've been thinking of.

it was a repetitive session, working on refining technique. here's a brief description;

- 50 precisions (8 ft distance)
- 20 turn vaults (10 each side)
- 150m rail balance
- 25m cat balance on rail
- 18 pull ups (sets of 3)

i was truly exhausted by the end of the session. it was also good to train at customs again. im guessing that security leaves at about 7pm.

im thinking of making this type of training a regular thing, every tuesday night. what i did tonight took me about an hour. im thinking of doing this from 6 - 8pm every tuesday night. the sole prupose of the night will be to refine technique and parkour fitness/endurance. it will involve the movements mentioned about, as well as more movements, like cat passes, arm jumps and rolls. i plan on it being a really intense session, involving serious training and a proper attitude.

Civic Training + Chippa

2008-03-10T01:13:00.001-07:00

Chippa and Alex were in Canberra today, on their way back from Bathurst where they were part of an extreme sports festival.

We hit up a few spots, and got to do some good training. I had a close call with a cash over two bins. My hand slipped out of the dash and I fell on my ass. Luckily one of my feet hit the ground first, reducing the impact.

What I got most out of the day was being able to talk with Chippa. About parkour, the APA and the military. He wasn't really training much, due to exhaustion from the festival, but just being able to talk to him was helpful.

He talked to me about developing more leadership skills within the instructors. So im going to start throwing the guys into the deep end, putting them in charge of different parts of the lesson. Starting with giving a technique each to a instructor, then conditioning to another, warm ups and warm downs to others. Just building on different things.

Chippa also gave me the idea of running instructor training days, maybe once a month. Where we spend the whole day drilling movements, teaching each other and providing advice afterwards. This will then develop our skills as instructors, as well as standardise how we teach techniques.

Overall it was good having Chippa down, mainly because I got to catch up with him and just talk about different things.

APA Basics Class - Civic

2008-03-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

We ha th first class for the year today. 15 people showed up, 8 of which had been before. i first thought that we spent too long on the warm up, but now i realise that everyone would have gotten pretty bored if we had spend longer on the techniques. overall it was a good session. everyone seemed to have a good time. we taught precisions and arm jumps for techniques, and everybody was exhausted after conditioning, which is what we aim for.

Chippa is in canberra tomorrow. i finally get to meet up with him, after trying for the since natjam. should be some good training and catching up.

Holder Gym

2008-03-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

I went to holder gym last night. Started with underbars, then moved on to precisions and then vaults with a small amount of arm jumps. Every 10 minutes or so, I'd go and bust out 3 pull ups. My theory is that at gym and while out training, whenever there is a lull in activity, i should bust out 3 pull ups. Hopefully this will then build ups to sets of 5 and so on. My plan for this is to slowly improve my upper body strength, mainly in pulling strength. Last night I was able to get out about 18 pull ups in total. The got harder each time I did them, but I could already feel my body strengthening.

I also met a guy at the gym who does strength training in the last 15 minutes of each session. he invited me to join him. Im going to take him up on his offer, as it will be good conditioning training, and he seems to know what he's doing.

Erindale Gym + Civic

2008-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Last thursday i went to erindale gym instead of holder, to check it and meet up with some of the other guys there. Worked on a few different things. The one problem was that the session only went for an hour. Which is why I am going to stick with Holder gym, as the sessions go for 1.5 hours for the same cost. I also plan on training at holder gym on tuesdays as well as thursdays. I find that I get a lot out of gym sessions, as I am constantly training. This is why I going to start going twice a week.

Last sunday I met up with Travis in civic for some training. Ive just been hit with a cold, so its been affecting my performance. It was only a short session, hitting up toast then noise wall. Then we moved on to the stairs outside the Canberra Theatre for some conditioning. In the end I was pretty exhausted, especially thanks to my cold.

Im hoping to start a more regular weekly training program. Basketball on mondays and wednesdays. Holder gym parkour on tuesdays and thursdays. FNC on fridays. Then parkour training on saturdays and APA class on sundays, maybe with some training afterwards.

I'll have to fine tune the program a bit, to accomodate for rest and such.

A Series of Events

2008-02-22T21:12:00.000-08:00

A few things have happened in the last few days.

Two days ago, I met up with Travis at Holder gym. It was the first time I had been to gym in a while. I mainly focused on precisions. I did a few underbars as well, to practice my technique. I was extremely exhausted by the end of the session. It felt good to get back into some solid training.

Yesterday we had an APA meeting to organise everything that was coming up. Before the meeting we did some light training. During the meeting, we discussed classes, NatSoc and other plans for the future. We have been a part of Youth Week again. Instead of running a class, like we did last year, we're going to perform a demo of the APA Instructors. It should definately be good publicity for parkour in canberra.

Today Brett came up from Cooma for some training. We met up wiht him in belco and sessioned aroudn there for a few hours. I also did a bit more filming for my video. Mainly rail precisions and arm jumps. Im getting a lot closer to the big arm jump at the library, much better than what I was getting with Conan when we last trained in belco. Josh also showed me a few more things that can be done at the derro apartments, so i'll have to go back there to have a go. The HUGE arm jump is still waiting for someone else other than Ruz to try, let along make.

Overall the last few days have been pretty good. Lots of parkour, which is the way I like it. I wont be able to do any more training for a week, which is okay as it will let my body rest from all the training I've been doing.

I've decided to get the 5.10 Freerunners, a new shoe that is coming out in 9 days. 9 DAYS! The 5.10 savants were pretty popular with traceurs around australia, so I'm going to give the Freerunners a go. I can't wait to have shoes with awesome grip.

Civic Training

2008-02-19T03:13:00.001-08:00

I did some solo training in civic today. Mainly working on precisions, with a few arm jumps and balance work thrown in.

I still find it a bit uncomfortable to do solo training around big groups of strangers. Even if there is one other person there with me, I feel more confident. I guess it just takes experience in it to get accustomed.

Belco Training with Conan

2008-02-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

Ive just recently got back from my work trip to Melbourne. Which means that I have been out of training for about a month now.

I went out for some training with Conan today. We hit up belco for a few hours. We started with the usual spots, moving around trying different things together. We tried some really big arm jumps from the bridge onto the painted wall, but were unsuccessful in our attempts. Its was hard enough psyching yourself up to committ to the jump, let alone making it. From there Conan showed me a new arm jump by the side of the lake. It was an arm jump involving a drop, which meant that you had to stick your feet hard into the wall. I was unsuccessful in getting it, but was getting really close. Conan then got me to do rail precisions. I surprisingly got my first decent rail precision. The distance was about a metre and a half. I used to be really scared of doing rail precisions, but I've now found that if I concentrate, I can get it.

Overall it was a good session, especially with the rail precisions. We were really exhausted by the end of the session, which just comes to show that my fitness has dropped a bit over my break. It's time for me to get into some more serious and regular training.

I also talked with Conan about NatJam 08, and how it is going to be held in Canberra. Here is a rough plan that we thought up between us.

Everybody will be staying at the YHA in civic. On the friday afternoon, we will run a basics class in civic. This will hopefully get people to hone their basic skills and prevent injuries before the main event. That night we will have the APA Annual General Meeting, which will hopefully be held at Stage 88, depending on availability. The saturday will be the main event. We will split into four groups. Two groups will go to belco while the other two groups will go to woden. The bus system should be good enough for transport. All the groups will then meet up for lunch in civic. After lunch, the groups will then swap. So the people who went to belco will then go to woden, and vice-versa. The sunday will then be left for people to go off and do their own thing, either continue training or see the sights of canberra, and it will allow for the more experienced traceurs to go off and do their own thing.

Hopefully NatJam 08 will be a success, see what happens.

Sydney Trip

2008-01-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

I recently got back from Sydney. It wasn't a parkour trip but I was able to get in some training. I was able to meet up with some of the Sydney guys a couple of times.

One day I met up with Richard to train in the city. A couple more of the Sydney guys joined us as well. One guy was Rob, who had more experience than the other guys. It was good to train with Rob as he was closer towards my skill level. Richard was also pretty good, and he’d only been training for six months. It just comes to show how much you can develop when you train with the right people. Paddy was also in Sydney that day, so he came out to train with us for a bit, until he left to go back to Canberra.

It was good to train in Sydney again, because I got to hit up all the spots that we hit up during NatJam 06. We also trained at some more spots that I didn’t know about. I could also see how my skills had developed over the years.

Another day I met up with Djordje and trained at his local spot, Forestville High. It was a real learning experience for me. I was in a new spot doing new things. I was also able to compare my skill level to the others. Tommer and Rob also happened to be training at the school at the same time that we turned up, so I got to train with them.

I learnt that there are a lot of areas that I need to improve on. Abdexterity in my movements, such as be able to perform movements off both legs from both sides, climb ups and upper body strength, especially with muscle ups, are ones to especially note. I will have to get out and work on these areas. Such as going out and drilling movements, drilling climb ups and pull ups especially. I also plan to go out and have sessions where I only train on my bad sides. It will be just like learning all the basic movements again.

I later found that Chippa was also in Sydney for a few of the days that I was there. The only thing was that I only found out after he left. I’ll eventually get to train with him.

Overall my training in Sydney was really good. The best thing was being able to train in a new area, finding new things that pushed my mental limits.

Tomorrow I leave for Melbourne for work purposes. Hopefully I get weekends off and can get into the city. Lets hope for the best.

School Traing

2007-12-30T02:01:00.000-08:00

I went up to the school today to do some training. I worked on precisions, jump ups, landings and climb ups.

I really need to work on my climb ups.

Backyard Training

2007-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

I did some trsining in my backyard yesterday. I was going to do my normal routine of precisions, landings and jump heights.

I started with the precisions. I started on the bench and concrete slab. The bench was starting to ease and crack a bit. Not wanting to break it, I walked around my backyard looking for somewhere else to practice precisions. After looking aroudn for 10 minutes, I found a start under a tree, jumping from a concrete slab to a wooden log. The distance is about 8 ft. I planned on doing my normal 100, but on the 72nd, my left leg slipped out. I felt a strain in my lower right shin, so I stopped my training there.

Because I didn't do that much training today, I plan on going up to the school to do a more hardcose session. This will hopefully involve the normal precisions, landings and height jumps, but will hopefully also involve climb ups and balancing (if I can find somewhere to practice balance). Let's see how it goes.

Progression vs Sampler

2007-12-28T16:41:00.001-08:00

I recently asked the question, what makes a progression video different from a samper.

I asked a few people and have finally come up with a definition, that relates to parkour. Chippa was a major help with this.

Sampler:

A sampler shows the traceur at their peek performance, doing their best moves. It shows other people the skill level that the traceur is currently at, without showing how the traceur got there.

Progression:

A progression video demonstrates the skill of the traceur, while also showing how the traceur got there. It is a training implement for the traceur to use to gain advice from others as well as teach others.
It may show the traceur performing various movements from various angles, so that the traceur can be given the best advice for improvement.
It may also show how the traceur builds up to their current skill level, how they work their way up to bigger moves. That way the traceur can teach others how they train and learn new techniques.

This is the best definitions I can currently think of, I may edit them later in the future.

In regards to these definitions, I've realised that the video that I am making, is more a progression video than a sampler. I will be showing movements from different angles, so that I can be given advice on improvement. It will also show how I build up to bigger movements, like double cat passes and cat pass to arm jumps. It will also have some sampler-like tendencies, such as showing big movements, but I will also be showing how I worked towards achieving these movements.

I plan to release a video every 6 months or so, that way I can properly document the progression in my training.

I should hopefully have the video done in the next few weeks. I plan on finishing the filming in this coming week, then finish the editing in the two weeks after that.

Back from the Coast

2007-12-28T01:48:00.000-08:00

I'm back from the coast.

During my trip, I tried to do a bit of training. This mainly involved my new training format, of drilling techniques. This involved precisions, landings and height jumps, but at extreme repetitions.

I head off ot Fiji in 6 days, and in those 6 days, I hope to be able to finish the filming for my progression video. That way I will be able to edit it when I get back from Fiji.

I've also been asking myself the question, of what makes a progression video a "progression" video. As in what sets it apart from a sampler, or what makes it unique. I'll probably need to talk to a few people about it, and then be able to make up my own definition. The reason I am asking this question, is because I don't want to go around saying that my new video is a progression video, when it instead turns out more as a sampler. By knowing the answer to this, I can decide whether my new video will be a progression video, or a sampler.

See what happens.

A New Mindset

2007-12-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

I recently finished reading Blane's Parkour blog.

An article that should especially be noted is 'When Worlds Collide.'
http://blane-parkour.blogspot.com/2007/11/when-worlds-collide.html

It really got me thinking about the way I train. I've taken a few points from it that I plan on applying to my own training.

A little while back, I made a training program for myself, that focussed around parkour and exercises to improve parkour. Blane spoke about not having any set regimes for parkour training, jsut listen to your body and train in the areas that are not tired. Like if your arms are tired, train things that don't require your arms working hard, like precisions and balancing. I've now decided to not follow any set program, except for Friday Night Conditioning, just go out and do parkour using the body parts that aren't exhausted.

Blane also talked about the best way to improve your parkour, this being drilling movements. For example, to get better at precisions, do precisions, to get better at climb ups, do climb ups. I've been telling people that pull ups and dips are great dexercises to improve your climb ups. Now that I think about it, the best way to improve your climb ups, is to go out and do climb ups. I've now decided to not go to the gym, but to go out and do parkour more regularly.

Blane also talked about how drilling technique si the best way to improve. Nolt drilling as in ten times in a row, but 50 times, 100 TIMES. And also keep focus and concentrating through each movement, even though I'm getting tired in the process.

After reading Blane's blog, I went out to give this drilling idea a go.

I did 100 pecisions between a chair and a concrete landing, 50 each way. My goal was to stick my lanings. As well as landing silently on the concrete landing, and landing on the edge of the chair, without it moving. i focussed on my breathing, and getting height into my precisions.

During APA classes, we get the students to do 50 landings from a small height. This way they will condition their bodies for bigger landings. I now realise that while I've been telling students to do this, I haven't actually been applying it to myself. I thought why not start now, so I did 50 landings from a small height, focussing on silence, technique and breathing.

After this, I practised jumping up onto my table, which is about 1.5 metres high. I did this 50 times in a row.

At the end of the session, I foudn that Iw as extreemmly tired, but i felt that I was on to something great for my progression.

From now on, I'm going to try to get out and do some parkour training every day, if only for an hour. Toast will be a really go area to practice precisions and arm jumps, the bottom of customs will be a good palce to practice high standing jumps, and the rail at the old bus depot in civic, will be good for practicing balance. There is also a good wall there to practice climb ups. Im going to try to drill techniques at huge amounts, like 50 or 100 times per session, focussing on my technqiue. I can even go out and do this by myself. Solo training hasn't been to appealing to me, so this will just be another test for me. Weekends can then be for training with other people, and applying my training to different environments.

I'm also keen to go out to do some night runs, like follow the leader type sessions.

Im heading to the coast today, and I plan on starting my new training idea while I'm down there.

In summary I plan to train more regularly, doing more drilling in technique, whilst also listening to my body to decide what technique i will train.

APA Basics Class - Belco

2007-12-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

Today we had our last APA class for the year. It was run in belco and was pretty wet. Tops to the group of people who showed up, even though it was raining.

We had a games sessions, doing activities that required parkour to be incorporated. One game was fly, which involved lunging increasing distances. The other game was capture the flag.

Both games were a big hit. Maybe we should have games sessions more regularly. Maybe even two months or so.

My hands are still playing up a bit, we'll just have to see how they go.

Civic & Belco Training

2007-12-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

Did some training yesterday.

Started in civic. I met up with Eliot and was planning on doing a lot of filming, but I injured my hand again. The injury is only on the palm of my hand now. I may have bruised it or something. Hopefully it gets better soon. This then restricted me from doing much afterwards. We met up with Dave S from Melbourne and trained at DEWR for a bit.

Later that afternoon, we met up in belco for some instructor training and filming. I did some filming in a gorilla suit. We got some good footage and photos. Then the instructors met up and we decided what we were going to teach at the class today.

It rained last night, and it's still pretty wet outside. Hopefully it dries up before the class, we'll just have to see what happens.

FNC

2007-12-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

I've just gotten back into training, after a months break. The break was due to work related commitments, and letting my wrist heal properly.

I went to FNC last night for the first time in a while. My fitness hasn't decreased too much, but I will have to keep training to get back to the level of training I used to have.

APA Civic Class + Training

2007-12-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Taught a class in civic today. Only had a small turnout of about 11 people, half were new. Taught climb ups and precisions for techniques. We also played some parkour tag. Overall it wasn't too bad a session.

While we were warming up, a guy who is involved in circus came over and had a chat with us. He asked us what we were doing, and we talked to him a bit about parkour. I gave him my details, with an APA business card. Maybe there is some potential ffor bigger things. Circus parkour would be cool.

Afterwards we did some training at toast. My wrist still hasn't properly healed. It acts up a bit when doing vaults, so I focussed on precisions. My precisions have improved, and I am able to stick my landings. Im now able to get more height into them, I just need to be able to transfer this when I do longer precisions. Practice makes perfect.

Progression Video Filming - Belco

2007-11-20T00:03:00.000-08:00

Started filming for my progression video today. Eliot and me hit up Belco for a few hours. We got straight into it, getting some good filming done. I also worked into showing progression in how I build up to bigger movements.

The session didn't end on the brighest note. When doing the cat pass to arm jump at the library, I bashed the palm of my hand on the wall, when finishing the arm jump. It's a bit bruised, hopefully it's nothing serious.

There is still a few more things I want to film in belco, which I will have to go do at a later date.

ruoF Filming

2007-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

I didn't plan on doing any training yesterday, but found myself getting filmed for ruoF's media assignment. He was making a music video. We filmed around civic, hitting up toast, noise wall, dewer, and various spots along the way. It was a good session, lasting a few hours.