"If you love your freedom, thank a vet". As we celebrate our country's independence it is important to remember those who have brought us that freedom and keep it for us. Today we're highlighting one of Primal Fitness / American Parkour's newest members "Smitty". Smitty is in the Army stationed in Bagdad, Iraq. To be more specific:
1LT Nicholas Smith, FOB LOYALTY, Baghdad, Iraq. Unit: Apache Troop 3rd
Squadron 89th Cavalry. Smitty came to us recently wanting to learn more
about Parkour as he knew that it would be directly applicable when he
goes into law enforcement after his deployment. He's been working hard
at the American Parkour
WOD's to build up conditioning and will begin Parkour training next
week. Smitty has been following along with CrossFit for a while now and
also has some martial arts experience. He can be seen here this week
after a sandstorm doing dive-bombers at the base. Read more for a few
quotes from Smitty about his progress and click on the images for
slightly larger versions. Primal Fitness - Proudly Serving Those Who
Serve.
The members of the APK Alliance have noticed that the Tutorials section of APK, while covering most of the essential 'moves' for parkour, was lacking in tutorials for those who would like to do more elaborate movements for Freerunning. Thus, they will be adding step by step guides and videos for a variety of movements each week. Be sure to keep an eye here and on the APK Tutorials Page for these additions.
"Think you've got what it takes to be a Ninja? G4's American Ninja Challenge is back for a third round, and its going to be bigger and better than ever. We're giving you another chance to prove your mettle and earn the right to challenge the world's most difficult and diabolical obstacle course ever created." Last season APK members Brian "NoSole" Orosco and Levi "SkyNative" Meeuwenberg showed us that traceurs and freerunners have what it takes when they won the chance to go to Japan and compete on the game show Sasuke. All you have to do is create a video to demonstrate your ninja skills and training by July 31st and submit it here . (or click on the ninja)
Members of the Tribe recently filmed with a crew from Voice of America for their Indoensia channel. We filmed around the Bethesda area and had a great afternoon and feel the story will be very positive! Vivit from VOA was very cool and joined in the Primal Fitness class - she's seen here learning how to do QM on a low wall. It was great working with Ningrum and the whole crew - they've even signed up for some Parkour training at Primal Fitness!
Saturday's Chicago Jam was a huge success! There were over 75 people in attendance! The full write up will be up soon, but here is the group picture, taken at UIC.
Looks like Sebastien Foucan has another sweet part in an action flick called "The Tournament ". Lets see how they put his free-running to use! Read more for description and short video.
In December of 2007, Levi [SkyNative] Meeuwenberg and Mark [M2] Toorock flew out to Los Angeles to shoot a short video for Philips TV. Mark arrived early to help with location scouting and act as Stunt Coordinator to help the production go smoothly. Levi performed the freerunning stunts while working with the friendly and professional production company, Norvell Jefferson from Belgium. The video is part of a collection of shorts showing off the unique features of a new Philips Plasma TV screen, and will be displayed on these TVs in stores around the world. Our greatest of thanks to the director Yve Van Der Donck, as well as Syb Roell, Peter Peeters, and cameraman Marc Appeltans. Their whole team showed us the greatest of hospitality and friendship from the moment we began the project, and this made the whole experience a fun and memorable one.
"The Parkour film is one of the best films we ever produced." - Peter Peeters.
Spotted: Traceurs and Freerunning out training in Chicago without loosing their stuff. How? Our best guess, the new APK Drawstring Bag. If you like not losing your wallet and keys check out the new bag in the APK Stuff section!
Yesterday, Mark Toorock and Tribe members Will Shultz, Tyson Cecka, Billy Skipper Hughes, and Levi Meeuwenberg shot a short news piece on Parkour and Freerunning for the Associated Press. They met in Roslyn and started with a chat with the editor to explain the game plan and find the angle the story will take. They then demonstrated a range of warmup and conditioning drills before moving into actual parkour and freerunning demonstrations, being careful to represent both accurately and distinctly. The actual news piece video should come relatively soon. Big Thanks to Charlie from AP for being so open-minded about our disciplines.
NY Parkour (Encompassing both New York and New Jersey) held their annual NYPK Jam this past weekend, Friday June 20th through Sunday June 22nd. Over 50 traceurs came out to jam over the course of the week, but at any given time there was at least 25 people together. Read more for pictures and a detailed, event by event, description of the weekend.
Tony Olmos from El Paso, TX has just opened up the El Paso Parkour Academy. This spurred a local newspaper, the El Paso Times, to interview Tony and write an article describing parkour. Tony parallels his firefighting experience with Belle's and focuses in on the goal of speedily accessing someone in an emergency. A few photos are included with the article - check it out:
Sébastien has written a book about the art of Freerunning. "Freerunning: Find Your Way" In the book Sébastien talks about his philosophies and how they can be applied in your life. Read more for the synopsis from Amazon.co.uk. As soon as we can we'll be gettting our hands on a copy and doing a review!
This week we'll have Tribe members from across the country all collected in one place as members of the Tribe and APK Alliance will be in New York for the NYPK jam, then heading to Primal Fitness for some Parkour training. If you're in the DC area - this is the week to come to Primal Fitness' Parkour Classes - as you'll be training shoulder to shoulder with members of the Tribe as they lead intense workout sessions in the world's first and only Parkour Gym. After that we're all heading out to Chicago for the Chicago Jam.
