I've been thinking lately...

This post will be very short and and straight to the point. I have realized that I have spent to much time recently working on team business (not saying my friends aren't important), watching videos, filming videos, updating sites, and things of that nature. Even though they are important to me, I've realized that I have neglected my training a bit. I used to train 5 days a week and 8 hours a day; 4 hours parkour and 4 hours conditioning. Now, I'm somewhere between 2 - 6 hours a day of whatever training I can get. What I'm saying is put down the camera, do the business later, stop arguing, and the updating can come afterward. I'm not saying stop them period, all I'm saying is...JUST GO TRAIN!!!

Familiar Peaks

I hate it when you find truth in a cliché.

“You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” “Youth is wasted on the young.” “Don’t grow up too fast.”

My life seems to have gone about 180 degrees in the last year. From October 2007 to October 2008 I was living. I was teaching martial arts, training in the martial arts, training parkour, and doing performances and traveling because of parkour. I got to go to some amazing places I had never been to before; Chicago, Las Vegas, Hawaii. I was in the best shape of my life. I got to meet and be trained by some amazing people; Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace, and the Parkour Generations instructors Kazuma, Forest, Dan, and the Vigroux brothers. I got married to a wonderful woman who supported all of this, even letting me train on our honeymoon in Europe.
Unfortunately, life has its ups and downs and leads us all down different paths. I ended up getting an 8-5 job for various reasons, moving and buying a house, and finally “growing up” as some of my relatives so nicely stated. Needless to say, the time I have for training has been drastically cut short.

Where at one point I felt as though I was progressing, charging forward, ever expanding and improving, now I feel as though I am merely working to maintain. Strangely enough, that is just as exciting to me at this point. Having to work so hard to constantly achieve the same thing, while frustrating at first, afterwards provides the same liberating feeling each time I climb those familiar peaks. I now treasure each true training session, as long and difficult training seems to now be a more rare occurrence; most of my regular ‘training’ has become merely maintaining physical conditioning which rarely involves overcoming the fear and skill barriers that I have yet to rise above. Each instance where I find time to revisit, I walk away thinking “You’re not too old yet. You’re not past the point of no return.” It is a shame however that I did not work harder when I had the time, because if I had, these familiar peaks that I am constantly re-visiting would be a little higher.

The clip that started it all ... for me

I was searching Youtube the other day and found the media regarding parkour that eventually got me into training. Back in 2001, Ripley's Believe It or Not did a piece on the Yamikasi, and it was remembering that piece in 2004 and discussing it with then room mate Brian "Doc Akh Horus" Belida that got us both to start going out and training. Thanks to pkmbyte for posting this for us all to reminisce. Enjoy.

(b)East Coast Reflection

(b)East Coast; a yearly Memorial Day weekend Parkour and Freerunning jam held in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. I have participated in this event for the last 3 years. The first year I was there, there were perhaps 30 people at the event. Last year there were around 60 or so. This year there were over 130 people participating in the training and group events that the Beast had to offer!

This jam is usually my wake up call and my yearly reminder that no matter what I feel I have accomplished in the last year, there is so much out there that I have yet to see and do. Some of the places that we all trained in I have been to many times before, however people saw things at these spots that I hadn't thought of before. I saw people accomplish feats that inspired me to want to train harder. I saw people pushing themselves to accomplish amazing things, which made me proud to say that we were doing Parkour training.

I also met many, many people who I had only heard of or read posts by on APK. It was amzing seeing so many people get together and have so much in common for having never met each other face to face. I even saw some minor hero worship as new practitioners watched on as menbers of the Tribe who were in attendance worked on various routes and jumps. I can't blame them though, as I love getting the chance to watch Tribe members in action, and at the jam, everyone was encouraged to train with them.

I am not the biggest fan of large Jams, as I prefer training alone or with a small contingent of people. More seems to be accomplished in those settings. I will say this though; I am a fan of what these larger national Jams can do to inspire, open one's eyes, and to bring together teh community.

All for the want of a shoe

I'm going to say this right off the bat; I am not a big fan of corporate control. It upsets me when a company see something only as a means to profit as opposed to a possible venue for mutual benefit.

That being said, I have to speak about the possible ending of the K-Swiss Frerunning line of shoes. In my personal opinion, I have not seen any other company do so much for Parkour and Freerunning as K-Swiss has. The tours and demonstrations that they set up in an attempt to launch their line were staffed and run by experienced practitioners whose goal at each event that I have seen (both in the US and overseas) was only to safely and effectively spread proper knowledge of the discipline. The line was supported by a founder, Mr. Sebastian Foucan, and it's demonstrations featured absolutely awesome talent from around the world, including Levi Meewenberg and Daniel Illabaca. K-Swiss was even giving away tutorial DVD's to people so that they could assist in the proper education of people interested in these disciplines.

Unfortunately, the line is possibly going to be ended; K-Swiss has already removed most of the information regarding Frerunning and the associated line of shoes from it's site. I am not going to preach that the K-Swiss brand of shoes were the best shoes to train in, as I think that depends upon where you are and what you prefer. I will however say that the loss of this line is a step backwards in the advancement of these disciplines, because there are few companies out there willing to support traceurs, attempt to promote them in a positive light, and who will assist in having actual practitioners get face to face time with the public to promote these arts we love.

If you are interested in saving the K-Swiss freerunning line, Mark Toorock would like to hear from you. He is meeting with K-Swiss on Wednesday, May 20 to discuss the end of their support for Parkour and Freerunning. He would appreciate if anyone willing would send "Ariake Love Letters" that detail why you like the K-Swiss line of shoes, and what it means to you that they are discontinuing them. It would be appreciated if you could include a picture of your shoes and you training in them with your letter. You can mail it to: m2@americanparkour.com

Videos and Parkour

I started training because I saw a Ripley's Believe It or Not with the Yamakasi featured in it. It was brought up in conversation with Brian while I was in college, but it wasn't until I saw videos of it online that I started thinking "maybe I should go out and try this."

Part of the fun of training when I started was filming what we were doing because we loved editing video and I think we all wanted to be Jackie Chan at heart. I look back now and think "Why would you even film that, it is so ... bad." The answer though is very simple ... because it was fun.

When we started, training was all about fun. We had a good time together and we were getting better at something we enjoyed. As we got more serious, the training became more serious, but it was still fun to train and to do it together. We stopped filming as much because it got in the way of the training, but every once and a while we’d pull the camera out to review what we were doing.

I have heard and read a lot of comments saying that internet videos (usually YouTube is singled out here) are a leading proponent in the defamation of parkour and the creation of negative viewpoints on it, but I can’t help to think where I’d be if there weren’t videos (and quite a few that we saw when we started were not good by any means) on the internet to spark interest and lead people to find more or better information on what we do.

I bring this up because Brian and I read about the film festival that Skipper is having at (b)EAST Coast this year and we thought, "Why not have a little fun?" I don't know if we'll be able to get together and film and edit anything between now and then, but we will try. It actually makes me kind of excited because this activity has made me remember all the good times had when we were just jumping around trying to be creative, both with training and with filming. And while I can guarantee we won’t be putting out an amazing video like those from Levi or Frosti, perhaps something we do will inspire someone on some level.

Regardless, we’ll have fun.

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.

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

Indiana National Jam

Had a great time at the Indiana jam, met tons of new traceurs and familiar faces. Had a good two day session, along with some training in the rain and helping out the newer guys. A ton of Chicago traceurs and traceuses from made it down there to enjoy the experience. Hope to train again with you guys soon.