an Article by Max Calder (BNP ). Excerpt: "we as humans have a social stigma about playing, we believe it to
be immature or not proper for adults to do. So around the preteen age
most humans stop playing and thus stop moving, with the exception of
basic bi pedal movement" ... "We were dormant from playing
and natural human growth so we must ease back into it slowly and safely
to restrengthen ourselves physically and mentally for advanced
movement" Click "Read More" for the full article.
Rehabilitating Human Movement By MaxCalder
Over the last few days I visited the zoo to observe the different
primates moving, hoping to learn something from them I could apply to
my training. I particularly found the Siamang apes and the Chinese
monkeys (I cant remember the name of the species) the most interesting
because I saw them playing. They moved and explored their environment,
they play fought, they chased each other this was their training. I
watched a young monkey stare down a jump to a piece of rope, this was
challenging obstacle for it because it took a few seconds to
concentrate before jumping. It jumped landed overshot and almost
flipped over but was able to save itself from injury by twisting in mid
air and landing on its feet. This was him learning.
The more mature monkeys had a sense or an aura of comfort in
their movements, they seem 100% confident in their movements, and they
too played. Although not as much as the young monkeys, but they still
played and moved. And in nature they apply the knowledge learned by
playing in order to survive and live.
Now we as humans have a social stigma about playing, we believe it to
be immature or not proper for adults to do. So around the preteen age
most humans stop playing and thus stop moving, with the exception of
basic bi pedal movement (walking, running). Take the average human and
ask them to do any movement other than walking and it will seem rather
awkward if not impossible for them to do, even their walking is
sometimes questionable. They do not have the Aura of comfort I talked
about earlier.
I have only trained with only one person who had over 10 years
training in parkour and that was David Belle at the New Yorker event.
When I watched his movements he had the same aura of comfort about him,
he seemed to float over the smallest things with 100% confidence. This
was far more impressive to me than the big jump he did at the top of
two 20 foot towers. The fact that he possessed something I had only
seen animals in nature have was very amazing to me, and this inspired
me greatly.
David has been training for about 20 years; this is the age when
humans reach maturity. So by this standard he is mature in his
movements, most of us reading this are still only children in terms of
movement. So this brings us to my next point.
Rehabilitate: Verb)
A) To restore to a condition of good health, ability to work, or the like.
B) To restore to good condition, operation, or management, as a bankrupt business.
Now whenever someone is unable to move for a period of time,
usually due to injury, they must go through a rehabilitation process to
relearn how to perform basic motor functions.
Say an athlete was unable to walk for several months due to an injury.
Upon recovery he attempted to go full pace back into action the next
day the likely outcome would be an injury. The athlete must slowly
build back their strength before coming back to their previous state by
doing various
exercises to bring them where they need to be to move safely and normally.
This is exactly why we as traceurs condition and drill movements,
because it is in a sense rehabilitation. We were dormant from playing
and natural human growth so we must ease back into it slowly and safely
to restrengthen ourselves physically and mentally for advanced
movement. If we didn't there would be serious injury. That is why we
all preach no big drops, condition, progress slowly. We are
artificially training something that should come natural to us. We
mimic the repetition and conditioning that comes with many years of
play.
Animals who don't behave like the others and do not move are looked
at by us as sick or mentally impaired. Why do we not look at our lack
of movement as unhealthy?
Well recently we have been.
In an age where PE classes are being cut and playgrounds are being
torn down, we as a people are starting to notice how unhealthy and
ridiculous this is. A friend of mine who is a major in microbiology
told me that there was a study that children who play at a young age
and get dirty, build better immune systems and live healthier and
happier lives than those who don't. This is common sense but is
something we have sadly forgotten.
In the end David Belle and the other OT's (original traceurs) are
nothing special, they are just normal. But they are special in a way
because they ignored the system, they continued to move and keep moving
despite what others told them. We all need to live with movement in our
lives just as all animals do. We are no different than animals and we
too have the desire to move and keep healthy but it has been forgotten
by us as a species.
|
