Workshop Heaven/Hell

wow what a day it was yesterday!
all seasons of weather in one day! which made it a perfect day for an indoor parkour session!

I have to say I looked calm most of the time today but it was a BLOODY NIGHTMARE getting these classes sorted today

We had to change venues from the regular massive hall, to the smaller school hall due to timetabling errors and everyone saying its not their problem is someone else’s (this basically meant the normal hall was free all day but they wouldn’t let us use it!)

then they wouldn’t let us use the schools equipment because they apparently hate people doing constructive things with their rarely touched equipment. I seriously think they keep it just for show!

so anyway 40 people and all the equipment we had to lug around from the other side of the venue in the freezing snow had to squeeze into this tiny space, which meant we had to set up around the kids who were doing a military style warm-up with Stu.

Then at the end of the session it took me Stu, Dom, Jack, Jen + her bro, and even STU’s DAD almost an hour to put all the stuff that everyone left for us to pack away. I almost went insane with rage when I saw that everyone had just gone instead of helping out and doing their bit.

But I know you ALL will help next week

CLASS 1 - BEGINNERS 13/Under

We focused on drilling movements till they became second nature.

There were 5 stations, precision jumps (which had 3 sub-stations, for high large objects (3 ft = high now!), low thin landing spaces, and balance practice. the kids loved this practice as it had a variety of situations (height and distance) to do, so if people weren’t confident at one they could try another till they were confident enough to try the other ones

There were 3 (count them 3) vaulting stations…
at each station the children were taught 2 vaults. with groups of 5 it was very easy to instruct everybody of how to do them, and keep them interested in what to do to improve their levels. everyone I worked with learnt at least 1 new vault today, which I am so happy about (and I hope they are too - be proud guys!)

The main thing I wanted to drill into them was landings, and the importance of control over impacts. so we worked on split footed landings, and roll landings depending on the situation i called out to them before their vault (”HIGH” kid would land and roll, “FAST” split foot and run :D)

The final station was the now obligatory arm jumps.
in previous sessions it was noticeable that the kids had a very loose grasp of what an arm jump is. they just take it from the name, jump and grab it with your arms, neglecting the legs.
Tumo taught well here, making sure that each kid landed correctly before letting them move on. they got to drill these over and over again but very soon everyone got the hang of it, and they were flying around like the future David Belle’s we were hoping they would be. (next week vaults into arm jumps :D)

CLASS 2 - BEGINNERS 14 +

This class was different to previous beginner classes too.

It started with yet another marines workout from stu. dragging people across the floor, lifting partners over your shoulder. cat crawling the length of the hall etc tough stuff for new guys but they all did it. and well too!

initially we set up the same arrangement as before with the 5 stations. but this time we asked them what they would like to do with the equipment. we soon had a slight variation on the younger class. with the teenagers landing vaults in precisions, cat-pass to arm jumps, and multi-level precisions. everyone seemed to have a good time. and thanked me on their way out, which is always nice (although I later found out someone stole a camera in the session, so I will have to track them down and catpass precision all over their face!)

CLASS 3 - ADVANCED

So once again it was time for advanced session. all too soon in my opinion. as many of the teachers/advanced had spent a lot of the over 14’s class training themselves, and some were too tired to even do much in advanced. anyway once again it was a good session. a lot of new movements were learnt, landing things in handstands was a fun one and controlling falls was good too.

Myself and Stu tried to keep training different things because we did notice a lot of people repeating what they had done before. and doing things they knew they could do. that’s not the point of the advanced sessions really. but if they have fun then who am I to tell them not to practice Parkour I did notice a really cool precision run to arm jump that some guys were doing, and couldn’t resist having a go. it feels so nice to have movements link, well done whoever set that one up!

Anyway back to me and Stu keeping it fresh….
…I noticed there was a hot water pipe about 8 foot off the ground in the hall, with a ledge another 8 foot above that. it looked like a brilliant dyno/wall run challenge. so Stu and I started to go for it. but we realise that the distance was too great for us to ever make it, so we started working on a new way.

Don’t look at me differently after you read this, but in my mind I pretended I was running from a fast moving alligator (shut up I know it sounds stupid but playing these games helps me focus :D) they can jump quite high (around 9 feet if they come out of water) so we HAD to make it up to the higher ledge otherwise we were alligator dinner, and trust me that’s never nice!

Anyway, we worked on a new technique. using the dyno to get a toe or two on the pipe then from there using that slight extra grip/force to pop the rest of the way up, like an immense wall run/pop up. the trouble was the pipes were so hot that as soon as we exerted that extra pressure to get our feet onto the pipes we instantly burnt our hands, and had to drop down to wave them about and cool them down. so we were pretty much dead meat.

And Finally

Despite the setting up issues, and all that jazz, we had a good day. everyone learnt something new, and hopefully everybody enjoyed themselves.

anyway all I have left to say now is WE WILL MISS YOU MIKE (he is joining the RAF)
enjoy making those weapons of mass destruction to protect our country from a future invasion from America
Keep the Parkour alive!