Fluidity

Well its a Sunday Afternoon, the sun is shining and all the birds are singing, perfect day to go out and train. However since I’m too hungover to go out and do anything physically constructive, I thought I’d share with you some of my thoughts on the subject of fluidity and the importance of improving this, and my comments on Lincs Parkour’s general training all together.

Sitting at my computer chair on this fine day, i have been watching videos throughout the day, mainly some of the newer Lincs Parkour videos. But also some old classic French videos, and it got me thinking, the likes of the Yamakasi, David Belle all must have started at the same point as every single one of us in Lincs Parkour. However their way of training has lead them to become absolutely fantastic at moving, they are almost completely instinctive, and Parkour is like breathing to them. They can move from one point to another, without pause or hesitation, or even any unnecessary footwork. Now watching our videos, it made me wonder, do we train the right way? Is our training leading us towards their level of competence, or are we training in a way that is hindering our Fluidity in Parkour?

Parkour for me… a summary

I have discovered that Parkour isn’t just about demanding your body to do random jumps and flips whenever I feel it’s necessary, it’s a much more mental sport that requires strength, agility and confidence.

At first Parkour is almost like walking into a foreign country…you see more experienced members trying out much more dangerous things…you see people acting crazy and doing incredible things that require a huge amount of effort and strength…it’s hard to believe that once, all the Traceurs you’re looking at started at the same point that you are…but all the results come with dedication, commitment and determination.

Very advanced Parkour requires a lot of strength…something that I do not have yet…It also enables people to break barriers physically and mentally. Even simple vaults surprised me because, before I would have seen an obstacle as something that I am stuck behind, but now I see an obstacle as something that I can try to overcome…

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…

JM’s Photography

this post was supposed to be all about the conditioning session myself, Ryan, Stu and Tumo had on Thursday while others were in Nottingham. The session wasn’t exactly as it was supposed to be. Tumo had to head off early for his his dads birthday, so we spent most of the time doing challenges at the usher gallery, and city hall, and minimal leg conditioning in the arboretum. The main reason we didn’t focus so heavily on the conditioning (apart from my complete inability to keep up with fitness gods Ryan and Stu) was that we had Joe Marshall (my house mate ) come along with us as our ‘official’ photographer. he got some great shots, a few choice ones are placed on his Flickr Account
let us know what you think of the photos here and if you like them, maybe we can get joe out again some time soon to document our days

Once again,
Thanks Joe