PKNY Friday we had a big BBQ and plenty of jamming in my backyard.
People came from as far as Michigan, Colorado and Atlanta. Several
visitors put a lot of hard work into building a precision garden,
something I’ve thought about since I first heard of plum pole
training. Between plenty of food, great weather, and a customizable
setup people were jamming well in to the night, with some people even
going out for a circuit at 4am.
At 6 the following morning Zac, Bryan, and I woke up to start
breakfast, though admittedly I didn’t play a very crucial part. By 7
we had pancakes flying off the griddle and a short blast of my stereo
had the whole crew up and at em. We were able to get out early and
head over to Central Park where we would be starting the days jam. We
met up at Heckscher with everyone just coming for the day, played
around on the fence there for a while, then started a huge game of
Zombie Tag, to great success. Once nearly everyone had arrived we got
up on to the rock for a group picture and split up into groups.

My group headed out for some training in the ramble, but not before a
good warm-up on the way. A short jog brought us to the gravel along
the path to Bethesda Terraces where we started a session of Indian QM.
We began by demonstrating several different methods of QM that we
train, and then explained the concept of Indian Running. Everyone QMed
along the gravel in a designated fashion while the person in the back
of the line would make their way to the front, at which point they
would decide a new designated fashion to continue along with. We kept
it moving and finished off the last 50 feet of gravel or so with
inchworms, Bryan pushing through them with just one arm.

From there we went down into the terrace and I introduced a shortened
version of a circuit that we do there frequently. Once everyone got a
little comfortable with jumping between the pillars and traversing
along the walls we set the rules for the circuit. You could do an
inchworm between the pillars instead of trying the jump, if you tried
the jump but failed you would have to do an inchworm and 10 pushups or
20 squats. If you fell off at any time during the circuit you would
have to do 10 pushups or 20 squats. We started by QMing down one set
and traversing around the wall, where many people continued to fall
off throughout the Bethesda session, resulting in hundreds of pushups.
Others were able to climb along the wet sandstone and jump along the
pillars, QMing up the stairs on the other side and coming back around
for another pass. Once everyone felt thoroughly warmed up we headed
over to the ramble.

We started by just wandering a bit, rambling if you will, it seemed
like a normal session in the Ramble might be a no go with mud and wet
rocks and trees, not to mention that several in our group that made it
this far had not had previous experience with training parkour. We got
to the waterfall we often train at and after a short bit of messing
around, Sky began carrying logs down the hill. From that we all began
carrying two large logs up and down the hill, passing off at the end.
Between various methods of carrying and the differences between
traveling up and down hill, along with the added difficulty of
navigating through mud and rocks made for a pretty intense session,
not to mention the hilarity of seeing Rob and I slipping in synchrony
time after time. We finished the session up with a swift pace
traversing through the ramble to Belvedere Castle, where we worked
flow a bit in the heavy rain before heading over to the subway to meet
up with the rest of the group.

We ended up at the banks after a short stop for a meal at about 3:45,
where everyone met up and dispersed along the rails to train their own
thing. Chris Price and I had a nice session of untrained and
underappreciated movements, with some races to prove at least decent
effectiveness. Nikkie started a nice session with several traceurs
holding a bar for others to vault. From there we all headed back to my
place for another BBQ, where people ate and hung out into the night,
outside despite poor weather, and inside playing cards. An early
morning diner run replaced last years light conditioning session,
which is unfortunate, but we can always make next years twice as
light.

On Sunday we started off by heading to an amazing castle playground
near me around noon. Just as we were setting off someone mentioned
Chinatown Park, and I said in passing that if this park got torn down
I would probably cry. We were woefully greeted at the park by a pile
of rubble, and after messing around for a bit at a stream nearby we
grabbed some of the old playground and headed off to another park
nearby.
We headed to a park near me that has some amazing trees to climb and
play around in, but were unfortunate enough to get there the same day
as a massive crafts fair. From what I understand the group that went
to play in the trees was not able to do so for very long. My group had
gone over to the track and put together a pretty good little workout
that we didn’t get the chance to add upon. Along one side of the
track, about 100m or so there are thick green rails, about 7 feet high
or so to the side with the track and a little over three to the side
with the stands. There are a couple gaps about five feet wide along
the rail for stairs that run up the stands. We decided to run a mile
and balance the rail each time we passed it. Going from the elevated
heart rate from running to trying to calm and focus for balance proved
a good challenge. Once we weren’t able to stay in the park any longer
we headed over to a school with some nice rails and a decent
playground to play around on. After a couple hours we headed back to
my home for a bit of a smaller BBQ as people headed back to their
respective homes. We made a bon fire, had reeses s’mores and enjoyed
the feeling you can only get after a great jam.