Author Topic: Shane (Adept's) Parkour and Freerunning 365 Log (Read 2602 times)

Shane Sperling · « **on:** August 29, 2011, 06:30:53 PM »

Inspired by JimmyD's 365/52 parkour project , today I started training every day with my buddy Zach. I will be updating this log every day, as well as posting a weekly video update of my progress. So it begins...

Day 1/Week 1 - 8/29/11:

Today, I met with Zach at Rohnert Park Library for some training. The library has a lot of variety, ranging from precisions, to flips, to wall runs. I started off with a light jog around to warm up, along with some stretching, and then moving on to simple stuff, precisioning from rock to rock, small vaults. As time moved forward and energy was flowing, I progressed up to small runs. One in particular that I liked was a running precision to a rock, konging down, and running into a two step sideflip.

We both were trying a step up to speed on a wall. While I never was able to speed the wall, or thief (forward lazy, whatever), I tried numerous times and was able to get a speed safety with my foot just scraping the top. Yesterday, I achieved flipping onto cement, which was a giant goal of mine, so nearing the end of the day I was sideflipping off a 2-3 foot rock. I finally ended the day with some wall runs, and side flipping into sprinklers which were making a rainbow. Yep.

Brett Robert · « **Reply #1 on:** August 29, 2011, 08:46:47 PM »

YES!!! Good job guys. <3

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2011, 09:04:26 PM »

Day 2/Week 1 - 8/30/11:

Today I went to the Rohnert Park Gymnastics gym, where my friend teaches a parkour class. The first hour is a structured lesson, and the second hour is basically open gym. During the open gym portion, I worked on mainly 5 things. Level side flips, inward front flips, aerial twists, laches, and a (I don't know what to call it) weird half palm spin up a block into a sideflip. Hopefully after the next time I work on aerial twists in the gym, I'll take them outside onto sand. I'm super comfortable with my side flips, but I feel like since I've been doing so many of those, I've also been neglecting my front flips/websters. Either today or tomorrow a chunk of the day will go towards getting used to them again. Today I ended the day with an epicly failed inward sideflip.

I felt for a long time that I had hit a plateau in my training. In an attempt to rarely have that feeling again, another friend of mine suggested I accomplish one thing that scares me every day. I'll be posting exactly what that thing was. Today it was the inward front flips.

Zach · « **Reply #3 on:** August 31, 2011, 12:06:51 PM »

nice! and were you doing them off a block or were you doing wall inwards

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #4 on:** August 31, 2011, 03:10:49 PM »

The inward sides I did off a block. I couldn't really figure out the set up but I went for it anyway..haha.
Inward fronts were off a wall.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #5 on:** August 31, 2011, 07:35:40 PM »

Day 3/Week 1 - 8/31/11:

Today I took it easy. I went to an elementary school and was hanging out for a little before I decided what I was going to do today, when 3 kids showed up and started doing parkour. I joined them for about a half hour, just doing some vaults like kongs/speeds over benches and doing tic-tac precisions onto a part of the bench, seeing how far I could go. I thought back to things I was practicing in the gym a while ago, which I've never actually done outside, and did 2-3 monkeys up onto the bench straight into a sideflip or webster. I also managed to get over my fear of doing very low sideflips, and landed a few clean sideflips off a 2-3 inch curb onto sand. Getting level sideflips is another giant goal of mine. I went home and tried a couple handstands, which I haven't quite gotten but plan to work on more. Today I ended the day with 4 sets of 5 pull ups (assisting myself). What scared me today were the almost level sideflips.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #6 on:** September 01, 2011, 07:36:41 PM »

Day 4/Week 1 - 9/1/11:

Today I went to a high school for an hour. 40 minutes of that time I spent improving my flow and bar work. I started with some dynamic stretching and moved onto trying to palm spin on bars (which on a scale of 1 to AW JEEBUS, scares me on the aw jeebus level). I started on the end of the bar, and slowly worked my way down about 1 or 2 feet. The first couple times were shaky, I was landing where the bar would've been. But when I moved down I got better and was able to make it past the bar, even though I never moved onto the middle of the bar. After that I started doing some vaults over the set of rails, and made a couple runs. I'm pretty proud of the work I put in, in only 40 minutes. I felt like I improved a lot. For the next 20 minutes, I was doing some small kong precisions, and tic tacs off a tree over a fairly high wall. I was only able to end up in a crane, but I definitely made progress. Today I ended with the kong precisions, and what scared me today were the rail palm spins.

Here's the video of one of the runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KEMTQrhowM&feature=channel_video_title

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #7 on:** September 02, 2011, 07:04:26 PM »

Day 5/Week 1 - 9/2/11:

Today, I trained, but not that much. Probably a half hour or so. I spent it trying level sideflips on the turf at my high school...Which turned out AMAZINGLY. My goal is to get them level on cement by week 3. During a P.E. soccer game is when I pretty much did it all of it. Everytime someone made a goal or kicked the ball too far, which happened all the time, I went and did a level side. I'm pretty comfortable with them now. While running a mile, on the fourth lap around the track I did one as well. I'm a little disappointed in my time spent training, but the things I spent the time doing it I felt really good about. Tomorrow will be fun, long, and exhausting because we're holding a good sized jam at the Library for a few hours. I'm so looking forward to it. Today, I scared myself doing the level sideflips. It took me a while to try one, even though I had like 4 people yelling at me to do it.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #8 on:** September 03, 2011, 09:01:21 PM »

Oh my god...

Day 6/Week 1 - 9/3/11

I can't even describe today, but I'll try. Today was epic. More than epic. Awesomely epic. We had a Monthly Jam in a nearby city with about 10-12 people. We we're all having a great time and accomplishing more and more crazy stuff. Today I was able to hit that step up to speed on the wall (The jam started at the library), but not just speed it, I was able to dash it. I was also able to land a really far side flip, and side flip over a rail onto cement, among other great things. Everyone was doing things that scared them today, and pushing each other towards greatness. We moved to a lot of other spots, including Sonoma State University, office buildings, etc. I feel the only way to completely log this day is to make a video. It should be up in 2-3 days, and I'm super 3 excited for it. Tons of footage, tons of fun, tons of fear, tons of people. A lot of things scared me today, so I can't really list one particular thing. I ended the day with just Zach and I meeting some other friends at a local park and hanging out. It wasn't just a good time, it was a turtle time.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #9 on:** September 04, 2011, 09:05:27 PM »

Day 7/Week 1 - 9/4/11:

Today I didn't do too much. I took it pretty easy. I went downtown for a little bit to walk around and scout spots out, along with trying a couple runs and sideflips. I also worked on cranes today. Later, I went to an elementary school and did a sideflip or two, and worked on a lot of palm spins. I've been tired/a little sore from yesterday so movement was limited. It was still a good day though. Sadly, nothing scared me today. But next time I'll make sure something will. Tomorrow I will be releasing the weekly video along with another video or two.

Brett Robert · « **Reply #10 on:** September 05, 2011, 04:02:06 PM »

I'm glad you guys had fun with the SoCo Monthly. We should make that a new tradition. I think it will help us all stay out of ruts and explore this area. That's awesome you're making so much progress. Good job broseph!

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #11 on:** September 05, 2011, 07:44:49 PM »

Day 8/Week 2 - 9/5/11:

I took it easy again today, spending some time at the elementary school working on more palm spins. It was kind of hard though, because it was almost pitch black. After spending about 15 minutes there, I went home and decided to work on my rolls. I've been too scared to attempt them on cement, so I decided additionally to my daily training, I'll add in rolls, and develop them in a way I don't hurt as bad. I'm ok on everything except hard dirt, but hopefully that will change soon. My video will be a little delayed and will be out tomorrow.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #12 on:** September 06, 2011, 10:05:51 PM »

Great week 1. I improved in the following areas:
Flips on concrete
Sideflips over objects
Level side flips
Cranes
Overall parkour/freerunning movements

My week 2 goals are:
Cat leaps
Further sideflip progression
Kong to Precision/Kong to Cat
Palm Side Flip
Inward Fronts off walls
Progression in basic movements

Day 9/Week 2 - 9/6/11:

Today I went to the gym for 2 hours and trained on my opposite side speeds/lazies, aerial twists, and tac to cats and cat backs. I improved a lot on my aerial twists, and cat backs. The second hour consisted of trying more flips over objects for about 10 minutes, which ended up really well, and then various little movements. I spent a good chunk of time practicing inward fronts and wall sideflips. I got the inward fronts off the wedge mat down, so I think it's time to do it on a real wall. The wall sides were inconsistent, but when I did them I got a ton of height. My friends Christian, Ben, and Zach were all trying to get me to try some wall flips, but I was too afraid to try some. Overall great day, and had lot of fun.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #13 on:** September 07, 2011, 02:44:43 PM »

WEEK 1 VIDEO FINALLY HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8AMG6yzL2M&feature=player_embedded

CHECK IT, PUNK.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #14 on:** September 07, 2011, 08:22:13 PM »

Day 10/Week 2 - 9/7/11:

Today was pretty cool. I went back to the library again. I started with some dynamic stretching, and moved onto a challenging wall run for me. While I was never able to get it, I decided that higher wall runs will be one of my weekly goals. I moved onto running precisions from rock to rock. It wasn't too challenging, but it was difficult to stick. When I did about 5-6 of those I decided to work on some websters and sideflips off a small ledge onto grass. After that I decided to work on achieving my goal of better cat leaps and jumped into cat on the step up to speed wall. It went really well, but I'll have to find something a little higher next time. Jumping to cat wasn't the trouble, but pulling myself up onto the wall wasn't possible at the time. I ended the day with precisions from the step up (book stack) onto the speed wall.

Weekly Goals So Far

Better Cat Leaps
Higher Wall Runs
Further Flip Progression (Mainly aerial twists)
Palm Side Flips
Inward Fronts off Wall
Kong to Cat/Kong to Precision

Zach · « **Reply #15 on:** September 07, 2011, 11:11:02 PM »

nice! still cant believe you dashed that wall at the library ill have to work up to that

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #16 on:** September 08, 2011, 08:51:49 PM »

Yeah you totally should. It's pretty fun lol.

Day 11/Week 2 - 9/8/11:

Today I went to a park and practiced some pretty high/far cranes, and progressed up to precisioning the wall. After about 15 minutes of doing that, I moved onto some vaults (speed/kong/safety) onto a table thingy that goes up to my chest. I then found a decent yet not satisfying at all place to try cat leaps, and it was hardly a cat leap. I figured out some new things I'll try later this week there, such as small runs/movements. Today I scared myself with the high precisions, and ended the day with rolls. Next time I'm at the park I'll practice some aerial twists into sand, which I'm excited for. Aerial twists/corks are a couple of the flips I really want to learn.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #17 on:** September 09, 2011, 09:29:30 PM »

Day 12/Week 2 - 9/9/11:

Today I went to Sonoma State University and met up with my fellow traceur friends and trained on various things for a while. The first thing I did were some wall runs, which seemed super difficult. (I'd get to the top, have to lean over, then get into support). I had Zach and another friend Seth help me out with my timing, so once I grabbed the ledge faster and pulled up faster, it became really easy and speedy. That is probably the biggest accomplishment today. We trained on various runs, tic tac to cats off trees, etc., and after an hour or so we spent a lot of time at the Green Music Center (Which has terrace-like walls, going up in height.) I spent most of my time there trying to land/get myself to do this really easy 9-step (distance) precision, but because it had a slight drop it freaked the bajeebus out of me, and I couldn't get myself to do it no matter how many times I progressed up to it. Next time I'm sure I'll get it. That's what scared me today. Today was fun, and funny. It's good to be around a big group of people training sometimes.

Brett Robert · « **Reply #18 on:** September 10, 2011, 01:53:56 AM »

Nice man.

Where was the wall run? I really want to be the first to get the big one at Ives... that is if no one's beat me to it by now. I'm really glad you're getting down there to train with them so often now. Honestly, I'm way more excited by how good you guys are all getting than by my own progress. It's an honor to train with you guys.

Shane Sperling · « **Reply #19 on:** September 10, 2011, 08:23:47 AM »

Oh trust me, I can't get the wall run you're thinking of lol. Ben did it yesterday though, but then again that's Ben who has insane wall runs in the first place. Thanks Brett, wish you weren't out of time more often! But if I had a chance to go to all these other places I would too. See you next time.

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Author Topic: Shane (Adept's) Parkour and Freerunning 365 Log (Read 2602 times)