Complacency in parkour

It’s been so long since I’ve been in contact with my fellow Traceurs that I’m starting to forget names. Since April of this year I’ve spent the vast majority of my time training entirely by myself, and at the start of summer I left the internet and completely isolated myself. My parents thought I must have be in some deep depression, solely due to the fact that I wasn’t spending much time with my friends at all. Well, the complete isolation served a number of purposes and I’ve reaped a great deal of benefits.

Most great Traceurs will tell you that the real progression happens when you train by yourself. I think most of us by now have been out and trained on our own for a while and noticed how much harder it is to find motivation, concoct ideas, push yourself, etc. It really is hard to progress without others for guidance, inspiration, innovation and general social fun. If you manage to train for a full day by yourself and train really hard and manage to push past your limits without anybody else’s help then you generally feel quite proud of yourself. The thing is, once this day is over you’re back on the internet, back out with your friends, picking up new ideas and such as you go along. Where would we be without all these conveniences?

Well I just had to find out… After spending a few months training alone, putting into practice the things I saw in videos, etc, I felt it was time for me to stop relying on them and try to come up with my own ideas and conclusions. I was mostly inspired by Dave Sedgley with his comments on the Northern Parkour forum where he said something to the effect of “I find we rely far too much on other people and their videos for ideas. It greatly limits our creativity and stops us from having to think. I basically stopped watching Parkour videos altogether around 2005″.

Although controversial, I have to agree to an extent. We DO rely on the internet and other practitioners for most of our ideas. Of course I’m very grateful, and we wouldn’t be where we are without those things, but just for experiments sake, I wondered what it would be like to think for myself.

Off with the Internet! Solo training it was to be. The only time I really saw anybody was when I had to come into school for exams, and during the Parkour classes held at my school. Otherwise I would be entirely cut off. One of the first thing that I noticed (and this was after a few days) is that I didn’t feel the sense of urgency that I used to feel. Before, I would be trying very quickly to match what I had seen in videos and concentrating my training around those things. Now though, I was with myself. Most of my time went into much needed repetition, circuits and conditioning. Without the feeling of being in a rush, I was able to settle it down a notch and concentrate on the foundations of my training. Here is where I had my epiphany.

It hit me on my way home from a training session, whilst I was looking back over what I’d done that day. My progression since Christmas had been incredibly sluggish, and I wondered why. The word that set me off with my realisation was none other than “complacency”.

Complacency;

1.	a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

That was it. I realized that during my training sessions I was satisfied with a minimal result. I was happy even though I knew I could have possibly gone further. I was satisfied with my jumping distance, satisfied with my climb ups, satisfied in general. If there were ever a position in Parkour which I advise you not to find yourself in, it is a position where you feel complacent.

As with all of our little “realisations”, I felt a massive urge to really train, and never be satisfied with any achievement. My old excuse used to be “I’ll end up pushing it too far if I keep pushing further than I’m capable”. Tripe! It won’t be a case of “further than I’m capable” if I trained hard to be MORE capable than what I was. So back to my school I went. Back to the bars and walls that I was so comfortable in. This time, I REALLY trained. 5 repetitions were a thing of the past. In most cases I tripled this number and then added one or two extras where I could. “Crawl this distance” was also a thing of the past. Now it was “crawl this distance, and a little more if I have energy left (I ALWAYS had energy left in my previous conditioning)”.

Any improvements? Well I increased my jump distance, jump height, general vault techniques and distance, general fluidity, strength, endurance, flexibility, confidence, willingness. Heck, everything was coming together. I had realised why the great Traceurs were at the level that they’re at. I felt ashamed that I was aiming for the minimum instead of pushing it further. My feeling of inferiority was the best motivation I have ever had.

Well, that’s me in a nutshell. At the end of June I traveled to Scotland to meet my old friend and training partner Gordon, who moved away 18 months ago. I noticed he seemed to be in a position similar to what I was. He thought he was training well, training hard enough, pushing as much as he needed to be. The thing he found most startling about me was just how much I’d improved my jumping technique. I repeated a jump 20 times with ease which Gordon hadn’t yet mustered up the courage to try. I found an abundance of new movements and whilst I was there managed my first L-sit muscle-up (albeit 1 arm at a time. Parallel coming soon ;P ). Much to both our despair, he dislocated and fractured his finger shortly after I left whilst trying handstand raises, which will hinder his progression in many areas for quite some time. Hopefully he’ll be healed up for Trace. All I can urge is that he REALLY works hard in whatever areas he can during his recovery time, and then works REALLY hard in ALL areas when he’s prepared for it.

Did I need to be alone to do this? Probably not. But in being alone, I had to evaluate my own training in comparison with nobody. I had to make the harsh conclusion that I was a complete and utter pussy and a total hypocrite when I told people how hard they should train. Following this, I had myself pushing my body to new heights without any encouragement or guidance. I should have been doing this a long time ago, and I can guess that most people in the Lincs PK community probably already do. The reason being alone made so much difference to me however, was the fact that I managed to improve so many things, elaborate on so many ideas, make so many decisions and come up with so many new techniques by myself. If you claim to train hard, consider it again and be absolutely confident that you are correct. Always know that you can train harder and push further each and every day. Complacency is a crime against the spirit of Parkour.

Reflections aside, where is my training going now? Well I quite fancy traveling around and training with people who I haven’t seen in so long, training in different terrains as apposed to 1 single spot for months on end. Lincs Parkour, I’m back from the dead!