God I love Parkour

I really do.


Anyway, recent training: I spend monday, wednesday, friday conditioning, tuesday and thursday I rest, but I jog on those days. Saturday complete rest, Sunday I test myself with various methods including the beep test.

I have written out a few goals, currently my physical goals are:
1. 5 muscle ups one after the other, (without rest).
2. 5km jog minimum consistently with ease.
3. 10 pistols each leg with GOOD TECHNIQUE.
4. 20 landings 3 times per week.

These are fairly modest goals, and so very achievable.
But after having a conversation with Chippa, I went away with a new, big, priority goal, which entails lots of different components: By 2010 I will be a fully qualified APA instructor.
This added a lot of goals relating to Parkour both mental and physical, my new goals are based on old instructor requirements that I am aware of, when more information is available, I will change my goals as neededPhysically;
1. 5 muscle ups
2. 20 rolls (10 both side, concrete)
3. 10 arm jump to climbup
4. beep test lvl 13

Knowledge:
1. Parkour history, influences, development
2. What is Parkour?
3. What is FR and LDD?
4. What is the purpose of the APA?
5. How dangerous is parkour? Is there a likelihood of injury?
6. How does the principle of volume vs. intensity work?
7. Why do we warm up dynamically?
8. Why do we stretch after training?
9. What different methods can we use to train ourselves?

And I have to be able to explain each point orally and on paper.

The next part is just another part I think is important to know, and you must know it if you want to teach:
I must be able to orally describe each technique found on the Parkourpedia and describe them on paper.

This goal also includes the necessity to travel to Melbourne when I return, probably for a week or so to get qualified and also to see how their classes run, train with those guys who have a lot more knowledge than me, learn.
I will also probably try to head to Sydney more often, specifically to their instructor trainings.


So yes, that is what I will be and have been working on here. I have pages and pages of notes in my book about techniques, how to perform them, etc.



So today’s training: Headed out training PARKOUR solo for the first time. Usually I just condition. I was out for about 2 hours, and worked only on landings and rolls.

Found a good little precision, the landings being concrete walls no more than 4 cms wide, and the two walls being about 7 feet apart. So not big, but not so small I can step between them. I stood there and said I will land on the balls of my feet 10 times in a row. Off I went, bang, landed balls of feet, bang, landed balls of feet, whoops missed. Restart. I finally got to ten in a row, that was all good. But I wasnt worrying whether I was sticking the jump or not. So this time I said to myself, "10 more, MUST stick the landing." And just before I went, I thought "fuck it, why not make it 20." And off I went.
I would jump, land, turn, and think for a while, then go. I couldn’t make it past 3 or 4 in a row before I would not stick it, or not land on the balls of my feet.Until I just stopped caring about the numbers. It stopped being BANG wait wait wait, 2 BANG wait wait wait 3 etc., I just jumped, turned, jumped, turned, jumped. I was over thinking it. It wasn’t long before I hit the 20 with ease. And my landings improved tenfold. Next time I go out I will do that again.

So finished my landing work, moved on to rolls. I was only there to do 10 rolls each side. But that took me a long time....I would roll...then take 5 minutes to overcome the pain. Rolls have always been my weak spot, and I stupidly avoided training them. When push comes to shove and I need one, it is fine. But to drill them, I just cant do it! But enough of that, time to perfect them.
By the end of it, one shoulder was much much better, the other....Much much...more swollen. More practice. Hoorah more pain! But, the more I practice, the less pain in the future, so, I gotta get through it.


Anyway, hopefully I will get out training there more often. I have conditioning to go to soon, so Eliot OUT.