The parkour community is really fantastic. I've been so many places now because of it and there's always been an open couch for me. It's great to head out there to some place you've never been, train with lots of new people and hit all the cool spots. Of course this goes both ways and anyone coming in to NY knows that there's a place to stay at my house. When Martin Heinrich of Parkour Stuttgart contacted me a couple months ago through TK17, I was happy to see how enthusiastic he was, after a few exchanges of messages I was definitely looking forward to his stay here.
He came to NY first for a couple weeks for Model United Nations, he was able to come out a couple times to train but I wasn't able to make it to any of the same sessions. When his stay there ended I picked him up in Times Square and headed down to the Brooklyn Banks for some light training, it wasn't too intensive, it was a drizzly day and we both wanted to get back to my house kind of early. I was a little disappointed that work had come up during his few days here, but figured we'd make the most of it.
After our first day of work X and I had loaded up a truck with 20,000 pounds. We g

Publish Post

ot home around 8 and Martin who had been eagerly wandering around my neighborhood was excited to go out and train. We grabbed our longboards and headed a few miles out to a nice park near me with some excellent trees to play around on. After a bit of that some discussion of PK Gen led me to try and emulate one of their warmups. This quickly became Martin leading us through some pretty fantastic conditioning. After some railwork and a supermarket run we ended up getting back home around 2, eagerly awaiting waking up at 5 to unload the truck into a house.
On Saturday we held a beginners jam in Central Park. We had around 25 people show and there were a lot of new faces. We did some light jogging followed by a warmup led by Martin which knocked a couple out but the troopers went on to a rotation of three stations, precisions/landings led by Pyro and myself, balance led by Nikkie, and cats/climbups led by martin. Afterwards we headed to Bethesda but as it was crowded decided to finish it up with a bit of a workout there. After a fun pushup circle with all sorts of new torture methods implemented the beginners jam was declared a success.
From there we headed into the ramble for some natural parkour and general monkeying around. Pyro and I got a few jumps we've been eyeing and Martin tried some things we hadn't looked at before. After an good game of follow the leader and some limbless climbing everyone had headed out so we headed down to the East Village to grab a delicious burger at Paul's Place. Nikkie and Bestchester headed out after dinner and Martin and I headed over to the Hudson to walk down to World Trade. We balanced down along the riverside, a good way to calm down and relax and clear your mind, cool wind and the Jersey Skyline accross the water.
On his last day we headed in to the city with a forecast of showers through the day. Drizzle when we got there and confusion between the guys we were meeting up with led to full on rain before we could train. Our pals were out of commision so Martin led me through another kickass conditioning session. After somewhere around a mile of QM we headed to grab some food and were off to the airport, which he got to with -2 minutes to spare.
It was definitely an excellent experience and I can't wait to be able to get over to Germany to train with him again. It's always great to train with someone you haven't before. Whether your spots or theirs they always have new ways to move, to train, things you wouldn't see for yourself or think to do. I encourage you to open your house up next time someone says they are coming in to your town, and I hope you start watching videos like a kid in a candy shop just trying to decide where to go next. And of course, if you come to NY, you've got a place to stay.

Keep Chill
Train Hard
HCT

Johnny Parkour Appleseed

As a member of the APK Alliance, I set a lot of expectations and goals for myself. I'm always trying to improve APK as a website, organization, and community. The Alliance is composed of strong local community leaders though, and so I spend a lot of time working on my local community in Rochester, New York.

That being said, I'm in a fairly unique position. I've been involved with APK and NYPK for most of my parkour-life, and I've created a very strong community in Rochester out of nothing. Through other non-parkour projects too, I have a lot of experience building/rebuilding organizations and making them far more effective.

I was looking at the Google Analytics map for New York State the other day, and I realized that there were bubbles of activity around a lot of major cities (Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, etc) in Upstate. I realized that there are a lot of people interested in parkour in these areas... they just don't know where to go.

That's when I came up with my New York State Area Reps program. This program has two functions:

1. It designates a specific "Go-To" person, essentially an official community leader, for each city. This gives newcomers an official person to contact. If for some reason the two parties can't meet up, the Rep might know other people in the area that they can connect with.

2. It provides a network of support for all the area reps. The reps can give each other suggestions and advice, and learn from each others' successes and mistakes. It will be easier to plan cross-city events and implement a "traveling traceur" program.

That's what I've been keeping busy with here in New York while I'm at school. However, the school year is coming to a close, and then I'll be back in Maryland for the summer.

I've already been contacted by a traceur from Baltimore and a traceur from my hometown. They're both looking to legitimize their communities a bit more - hold Beginner's Workshops and more structured training sessions. I'm going to be spending a lot of time working with them and really building up their communities.

I realized that a few days ago that I've become the Johnny Appleseed of Parkour communities. Coming into a new city, planting the seeds of structure and leadership and community, and then moving on when they become self-sustaining.

Not a bad way to pass the time...

Aero Beginner Session

We had a chance to start off this spring strong with an introduction type of session for the Aero community. Things went great with the day starting off well with introductions and a few interviews by a local graduate business class. We went right into the warm up with many traceurs soon realizing the physical demand of parkour training and proper warm ups.

Warm ups lasted a good 20 mins and we soon broke off into groups to work on some of the basics. Frosti focused on rolls and landings, while Cody worked on vaults, Fresh took them through the basics of a cat jump, and I finished off working on flow. All together they learned a ton of stuff, and everyone was having a great time. After the teaching session we all came back together and started jamming and working on our own stuff.

The day went great and we moved on to wall runs and underbars. All together it was a great teaching day and everyone learned a ton. It was a great jam to start off the summer.

Rain

To train or not to train, that was the question. Whether tis nobler to combat the elements and persevere in the pursuit of a thought, nay a dream.

Needless to say it was raining today, and I had to make that choice that everyone has before them at one time or another ... should I go train in this weather? I usually train for 40 minutes in lieu of a lunch break, and the thought of going out in the rain when it is 45 degrees out and then coming back to work was not an appealing one.

So I went out and trained. I remember having discussions on the internet when I first started about whether it was safe and responsible to train when conditions aren't safe. You just have to think about what you are going to practice that session and plan accordingly.

I ended up running for 15 minutes, then doing some work on nearby stairs (sprints up, QM or bunny hops down) for another 10 minutes or so, and I finished by practicing precisions on the lines in the parking lot. It was miserable while I was outside, however when all was said and done, I felt good. I was glad I went out and trained, because I enjoy knowing that I can push myself and work on something I enjoy no matter what obstacle may try to get in my way.

Now I just have to hope I haven't caught a cold.

HeadCam Project Teaser

Some duct tape and ingenuity was all it took for Skipper and I (mainly just Skip) to create a camera mount worn on the head. I've been getting some footage lately and within the next couple of weeks I hope to have compiled enough for a video! The quality isn't bad, but youtube makes it pretty horrible, so make sure to HQ it!

On Demand

On Demand
The premise of “On Demand” is to take you out of your comfort zone and thinking process. The idea is to have at your disposal a set of skills that you can comfortably and safely execute whenever you want to.
Without diving too deep into the philosophy realm, the drill embodies the practice of what the Japanese call “Mushin”. This is a state of mind into which a highly trained individual enters during states of combat or physical demands. The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind.
By taking the thought and planning process out of the equation, we essentially try to achieve this state of “no mindedness” surrounding the movements.

As is the case for many people, the hesitation associated with executing certain movements can often affect clean, safe, and comfortable landings.
When you hesitate or over think a skill it often inhibits the natural relaxed state you should be in when performing it. Obviously it’s important to remember the 5 steps to any movement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Fa5MwT1ko&feature=channel_page) but at the same time it should become like second nature to you so that it is as easy and natural as walking. We all have skills we favor or like to perform. Perhaps even skills or tricks we routinely start with every session and progress through as we train.
What this drill does is it takes you out of your planning mindset. You do not throw the move you want to, but rather the move being demanded of you at the moment your friend or training partner calls it out. As an example: Have your partner call out a trick or skill as you stand on the edge of a small block or height. Within 2-3 seconds of them calling out the skill you are to execute it. Work to cut down on the physical set up and mental delay involved with the skill. Continue back and forth starting with moderately challenging skills (Front Flip, Side Flip, Back Tuck) and gradually progress to higher level skills within your abilities. The same drill can work for PK skills as well. Stand on the edge of a wall and face an opposite ledge of equal height. From here the on demand movements could be “cat leap”, “precision” (to opposite ledge), “cat leap across-then 180 cat back to starting ledge”. Keep it safe and within your abilities, but also keep it spontaneous.
Stay tuned to this post for a video example of the drill.
Train safe everyone.

Be Strong to Be Useful... or just Be Useful.

I think to truly understand the phrase "Be strong to be useful," you can simply modify it to: "Be useful."

On Saturday, Charles Moreland and I were driving back from the grocery store. We were already 20 minutes late to our own party, it was raining, cold, and there were 30mph gusts. While at a stop light, Charles noticed a van in the intersection across from us. It was stopped in the left turn lane, cars were going around it, and all the lights were off. The lights came back on, briefly, and then went out again. Clearly, their car was dead.

Immediately, and pretty much without speaking, it was agreed that we'd pull into the nearest parking lot, don our jackets and gloves, and run into the middle of the road to help. We walked up to the car, and I waved. The old russian man cracked the door open suspiciously, as I announced that we were here to help. "I already called Triple A" he said. "They'll be here within the hour." I waved my hand toward the oncoming cars. "It's not safe for you to be in this intersection. Throw the car in neutral and we're going to push you into the parking lot."

I think there was a bit of a language barrier, and a bit of suspicion about these random boys who showed up out of no where to help, but once we got behind the car and started to push, he shifted into neutral and steered. Once we got out of the intersection, we pushed the car (uphill! Damn minivans are heavy.) through the road and into a parking space. I noticed about halfway through, whenever he could, the old man opened the door and tried to help push with his foot.

We got to the parking space, he put it in park, and he and his wife got out of the car and thanked us profusely. She asked us if we were in school, and if we were done with calculus yet (she is a calculus tutor at a local high school apparently), and she gave us her card. The man shook our hands and thanked us many times. I gave them my card and told them to call me if they needed any more help - I lived just five minutes away.

Getting out of my car to help two complete strangers in need? To me, this is more parkour than the biggest precision, the furthest kong to cat, or the largest drop.

PK Awareness Month, First Meet.

Brief review.

So our first Parkour Awareness Party meet at Kapiolani Park was a great hit. With a line that went as far as David and I could scream while going over the techniques and people from HIpk as well as others who just walked by and joined the fun (including a few homeless)

Everyone had a taste of what parkour was, JC, Ian and a few others, were active and alert to invited those who stood there and just observe. Quickly reacting and doing their best to explain what it was we were doing.

It was a great sunny day full of fun and PK, what else could we all ask for? Footage of the event will be all put together at the end of the month.

Next meet will be next Sunday the in Waikiki and we cant wait.

Gym traing

Had a great training day today in a open gym with brian. Practiced various flips that I've been wanting to work on, tried out a dash to roll for the first time and didnt quite get it but I was pretty close. :P

Hopefully I can go out tomorrow and scout out locations for out big ATL jam comming up later on...I'm also gonna hit up capoeria class which should be fun.



-Max Calder

What the Body Knows

I did a little training while working outside and around the house today. Hauling bags of yard waste, throwing them over fences and then climbing or vaulting the fence and continuing on to take the trash to the road. Dive rolling over lawn bags and bushes, and also taking breaks to do some top outs on a small wall.

At one point my wife asked me to get her a shovel from the shed, and off I ran. I did a few jumps, drop s and vaults getting across the yard, and over the deck. On the way back I was carrying a large shovel in one hand and a small garden spade in the other and without thinking I ran and jumped off the deck. While I was in air my mind checked back in saying "You idiot, you have oddly shaped, sharp, metallic objects in your hand and you have too much momentum! Keep these things away from your body and do not roll!"

The second my toes touched the ground my body did exactly what it has done thousands of times before. The forward momentum was too much, so my body sent me into a roll. I've done rolls with weapons before in my martial arts training, but never after running and jumping off something 5 feet in the air. Regardless, my body tucked the shovel and spades against my forearms and before I knew it I was already out of the roll and sprinting back towards my wife.

There have only been a few times in my life that I have ever felt like all of the training that I have done became practical and saved me or someone else. I'm not sure why, but this little event today has boosted my confidence quite a bit, and it has me even more excited to continue training.

Thursday Training at CF.

CF WOD

"Josh"
I replace the 24" box jump with jumping onto the "tank" 40"

40 wall slam 20#
10 box jump
30 ball slam
15 box jump
20 ball slam
20 box jump
10 ball slam
25 box jump
1000mt row.

17:02

The box jump was intense.

PK class.

Free flow warm-up, did a bunch of vaults and techniques using the Tank and soft trapezoids

Double kong, kong precision, kong to cat, kong handstand and others.

Tic-Tac training
worked on tic-tacs, everyone got it really quickly.

Did a bunch of tic-tac experimentation
Tic-tac to reverse
Tic-tac to kong
Tic-tac to dash
Tic-tac to speed
Tic-tac to wall spin

During the free session I did a kong to precision and got it but the trapezoid I was precisioning onto moved and I felt back. Landing on my lower back on the big plate area above the collar bone. Same area I landed at during the BBQ. It is not something that has happened often but really didnt feel good. It is stiff and hinders my movement I nutch. It was a silly fall, but even the silliest of falls cant cause real damage. Fortunately it was nothing to bad but it did stop me for a few mins and bugged me while we were stretching.

Hopefully it will be ok for tomorrow.

HIpk BBQ

So last Sunday we had a Training BBQ as a warm to the April - PK Awareness Month that we are planning. Brought a bunch of "toys" to train and play with and it was a success, we had a nice set up and lots of food. Several people came from the community and other new faces I have not seen but were happy to participate. We got lots of footage video will be up soon.

As far as training, a did several vaulting but mainly flips. My side flips are getting better and better but need to work on step off sideflips and summit. Did several fronts which hadnt done in a while and a few back layouts. Need to work on getting more distance with my kongs and need to work on longer double kongs as well. Did some gainers, everything god but working on getting further forward. Gotta remember to throw my hips out more.

Getting ready for next weekend, that is going to be wild. Ordered a banner and some flyers to promote PK and HIpk. We are expecting great Hawaii weather and great turn out. We just hope we gets lots of attention and participation from the spectators. Should be an awesome day.

Check out the flyer.




Ozzi