Topic: Zach Sergeant- Parkour and Freerunning 365 Log

[Zach]

     I was inspired by Jimmy Davidson of Temecula to do parkour every day for a year. Along my side is my friend Shane. My goal is to train atleast 30 minutes everyday and attempt something new once a day, whether it be wall-flipping a tree with an unfamiliar angle, vaulting from something I've never vaulted over before, doing a precision from an unfamiliar height/angle, etc. By doing this i will be training myself to adapt to new scenarios. Another goal is to scare myself as much as possible. Ideally once a day, but a minimum of 4 times a week. By doing this, i will be training myself to just have better overall confidence in all movements...

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

     First day of training, met up with Shane at the Library and trained for about an hour and a half. Started of with a jog and then some dynamic stretching. After a good warm up moved onto training. Mostly did parkour training today and did a lot of precisions. Did a running precision that was 11 and 1/2 steps long. (took 11 and a half steps feet touching from rock to rock.) Also did a plyo precision that was about 8 and 1/2 steps long (plyo meaning i took 1 step then did the precision.) Did a lot of flow runs and did a pretty big speed-safety.
     In total, i scared my self 3 times today.
- once doing a big running precision
- second doing a pretty big speed safety
- and third doing my first palm spin on my couch (not a corner)

Goals over the next two weeks are to land a cheat gainer, and land a back-full into the pit. (For the back-full i mainly just want to be able to do them on trampolines and into the pit then i will master them on trampolines and train them a lot on my friends trampoline then take them to the floor.)

[Zach]

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


     Today i trained at the gymnastics gym for 2 hours. First hour i trained double kongs and front-halves. Second hour i spent the whole hour trying to attempt a cheat gainer. I never got over my fear and i pretty much just did the setup then fell on my back onto two mats the whole time. I was to scared to actually go for it but ill just keep practicing them on my friends trampoline i guess, and master it there then try them in the gym.
     At the very end of class i tried back-fulls into the pit. I had tried one once before, before i broke my toe which was about a month ago, but it was horrible. So i had been drilling them onto my bed, just practicing the setup and spinning and getting my timing right. Basically just doing a back-full without going over my head just twisting from the side. Here is the vid i got from my first 2 attempts, i know i leaned back a lot, but i was just scared of hitting my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajK3AhApRQI

     So scared myself today committing to a back-full. I know when i try them again they will be better since I've gotten over a lot of my fear.
     As for now i will practice cheat gainers on my friends trampoline and just get the timing down then take them to a mat.

[Zach]

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

     Today i went to the park with Austin and Dustin and we did frontflips from big height. Just standing up there was pretty scary especially on top of the swing set, but i just got over my fear and went for it. The first 2 flips i did were very scary but after that they got easier and easier and less scary. By then end i was doing pike front-flips off the monkey bars which was in the middle, height wise of i had flipped off that day.
     Also on Seth's trampoline i was practicing cheat gainers, which i just started working on yesterday. Still don't really have the air sense but working on them as much as i can. Those are scary also, but then again I'm scared of everything...
    Took video of both. Please give me some help on my cheat gainers.

Here is the vid of frontflips at the park.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXflYBDTcdM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

... And here is the vid of my cheat gainer attempts on the trampoline, please give me some help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Gf_9mywwQ

Scared myself, with everything i did today
Still gonna keep drilling cheat gainers on a trampoline until i get the air sense and can do them comfortably then ill take them to the floor.

[Shane Sperling]

Nice! I'm totally jealous of the cheat gainers and high front flips.

[Zach]

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

     Today practiced some more back-fulls into the pit at the gym. They need some improvement, mainly i need to flip more and spin a little faster. Also tried working on cheat gainers, but still nothing. Just cant get enough courage to try one yet. Basically i just do the J-step then roll, and i get no height, i just pretty throw my head back. Even tho I'm aware of what I'm doing still its just fear. I also learned palm-sideflips. I landed them, but i need to go more to the side and less forward.
     I scared myself doing some flyaways into the pit, which i haven't done in a while. I never landed one onto a mat, because after i do a few in the pit i always rip, which unfortunately i ripped today. It wasn't that bad and should heal fast.
     I also worked and back flips flat ground and i was landing them with a hand spot. I did my first back flip with no spot tonight i just landed low. but i should be back flipping flat pretty soon.     

Overall a good day of training

       

[Shane Sperling]

I think you might be getting your dates mixed up broski.

[Zach]

Lol i the first day i updated at 10 at night, then after that i updated at 1 in the morning so it technically was a day after.

[Zach]

oh i see what you meant haha yea.

[Zach]

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

    Practiced my sideflips and frontflips for a little bit. Worked on tucking harder and really snapping my knees to my chest for a more powerful flip. A short session today since i was pretty sore from the past week. I'm still working on cheat gainers, but I'm also gonna work on just a j-step gainer tucked since i have done those in the pit and a trampoline and hope to land those on the floor soon. Cheat gainers are a little more confusing to me at the moment, which is why I'm drilling those on trampolines.
     Spent the night at a friends which is why i updated this log late.

     Unfortunately scared my self with nothing today, but hopefully i can make up for that at the jam at the library.

[Zach]

Day 6/Week 1 - 9/3/11:

     MONTHLY JAM. The monthly jam was awesome, trained for a while with everyone at the library and then we went to Kaiser. Sideflipped a pretty big gap there over a bush onto grass, and did my first sideflip on cement off a small drop. Did a lot of big precisions too.
     Went to university campus and trained for a while. Did a lot of flips and precisions. Also did the biggest catleap I've ever done. It wasn't that big, but the biggest I've done yet and was mainly scared of the drop. It looked pretty sloppy and one day ill go back and land it cleaner.

Scared my self with a lot today, but the highlight was this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYhXf_fkggo

A great day of training.

[Zach]

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

     Spent the last day of week one doing some light training. Did a few frontflips off of a high drop and worked on smoothly rolling out, and did a few wallruns. Very happy with week one and will be uploading my week one video tomorrow.

Beginning week 2 tomorrow.
 

[Zach]

    Finished with week one! Here is the finished video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8y-Re3bRyA

     Here's a list of stuff i accomplished in week one.

- Did my first backflip flat ground with no spot. I landed low but it wasn't my best attempt so ill achieve next week for sure.
-Did about a 10 step plyo precision. (10 of my feet in length.)
-Did the biggest catleap I've ever done with the biggest drop I've jumped.
-Frontflipped off the highest thing I've ever flipped off.
-Landed j-step gainers on the trampoline. I started landing them really well and hope to land them on the floor in the gym next week.
-Made progress on my cheat gainers. (yes they're different than j-step gainers, at least to me)
-Landed a palm side-flip. Didn't land it the way i wanted it to look though, i want to go more out to side and less forward.
-And made improvements in most aspects of parkour and freerunning

     Here's a list of goals i want to achieve by week two

-Land backflips flat ground with not spot
-Land j-step gainers
-Improve my palm sideflip
-Improve all of my vaults, and get my kong precisions as far as they used to be before i broke my toe ( i broke my toe about a month and a half ago doing a kong precision, but its healed now.)
-Keep working on and improving my back-fulls into the pit, and start working on gainers into the pit.
-Improve all around


Day 8/Week 2 - 9/5/11:
 
     Have been a little sick since the monthly jam, so i took it easy today. I mainly worked on rolls, and palm spins. I am just recently able to palm spin  something other than a corner, but I'm not consistant at all. Sometimes i can do it once maybe twice but sometimes i try and i just bail. So i worked on consistency tonight and just did palm spins for a about 15 minutes. I was landing them more consistently but after a few i would start to bail they would become worse. One reason could have been that i was just getting dizzy, but at the end i committed to landing 5 good ones in a row, and i did it.

[Zach]

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

    Today I trained with Seth at SSU before i went to gym. I did a pretty big precision, it was 12 steps actually, and it got bonus points because i had to run along a skinny strip of concrete a few feet above the ground then jump. So it was an awkward run up. Did another sideflip over a small 3 stair on cement, and landed it better than my first.
     After some training at the college i went to gym and first i trained double kongs and improved quite a lot, and then trained aerials and aerial twists. My aerial twists sucked so that's something to improve on, but after a few attempts into the pit my normal aerial looked pretty good. So i feel like i would be able to land in the next few days. I also worked on backflips on flat ground with one spotter. mainly i need to tuck harder and a higher vertical wouldn't hurt. So ill start training my vertical more specifically a little bit. Not really gonna focus on it but i will a little bit. I also learned wall sideflips. Where you run at the wall at an angle then side flip out. Also relearned wall flips. I use to be able to wallflip off trees a few months ago then i broke my toe and hadn't done them for a long time and now i can do them again.
     Overall a good day of training, tomorrow i want to focus more on backflips and possibly try some j-step gainers..

[Zach]

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

     Today I trained at the gym which is awesome because now i have an extra day to train their so total i have 3 days a week which will make a huge difference overall.
     I spent a majority of the open gym practicing backflips, wall sideflips, and wallflips. Today was different change of pace because of this new day their were only about 4 of us total in the open gym since no one knew about today's class. Nathan and i both worked on backflips off a block into the pit and then put a few mats in their and progressed to backflips on the floor. I feel like backflips have taken me a really long to time but that's mainly because after i landed my first backflips off a mat i sprained my back, then when i tried outside i did a gainer and almost hit my head. Luckily it was off a skinny log on sand so i just fell into sand. Anyway after that i was really scared to do backflips so I re-learned them on a trampoline and just over exagerrated the idea of opening up my chest and going backward. It was a long process but i was happy just taking it slow and now here i am doing backflips off blocks. Got over my fear which is great for my overall confidence and their better than ever now.
     Then i practiced wall flips which i think i already mentioned i had to re-learn because i hadn't done one since i injured my toe. Anyway i took them from a cheese block to a flat mat and i also worked a little bit on wall side flips on a flat wall. (not wall inward sides, but wall side flips.)
     I also practiced palm flips. I didn't have that much time left so Nathan and I just practiced the set and hopefully i can do one soon. As for now I'm just practicing and drilling the set at my house until class tomorrow...
........ Oh and here is video of one of my backflips. I actually started in the pit then progressed to mat so this is just one the ones i did off the block, and yes I was consistent with them.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq1Udc8kNLE

Scared my self with the back tucks off the block. But actually only about the first two I did in the pit were kinda scary. After that they werent scary at all which is really good.
 
         Overall a great day of training! 

[Zach]

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

     Trained again at the gym today. The whole open gym I worked on corks which I guess I made some improvements for first trying them tonight. I have the spinning down kind of but I lean back to much and get little height. Those are the main things, so I'm gonna keep on working on them until I get them. So yeah I'll pretty much spend all of next week working on corks. I'll record them to and post my progress and also for some help. Hopefully I start getting the hang of it soon.

[Zach]

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

     Today i trained at SSU with a lot of people. Trained a lot of different stuff from wallruns, pop vaults, tic-tacs and a lot more. I was trying to do a wierd tic-tac to cat of a tree to another tree. I oculd do the tic-tac and land in cat on the other tree but it was pretty vertical and i just had to basically hug the tree. I never stuck it but i did make it just slid off.
     Then walked around and i did some precisions mainly and was going to try the biggest precision id ever done, but it was just to scary.
                   
                                  Overall a good day of training 

[Brett Robert]

Si se pueda!  Si se pueda!  Si se pueda!

You guys are such beasts, I'm constantly inspired by you.

[Luke Santore]

I too am inspired by you all!! I do the same kind of stuff as you!! I might start a little log. Looking forward to updates!!

[Zach]

Day 13/Week 2 - 9/10/11:

     Today i wanted to learn something new i tryed to learn a gumbi. I just watched a youtube tutorial and i tryed my best to mimic what i saw. Lately ive been inspired to try and get better at tricking and my ultimate goal (for right now) is to learn how to cork. But for today, i tryed to learn the gumbi.
   
       Here are some of my first attempts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SGKwbTzLWE

 Also i was at the park at night, and tryed a rail precision that was going up. It was farely big i cant remember how much steps it was but it was unfamiliar because it was at night in the dark so it threw me off a lot and it scared me.

[Zach]

Si se pueda!  Si se pueda!  Si se pueda!

You guys are such beasts, I'm constantly inspired by you.

We to are inspired by you Brett! thanks for the support

and ill have to google translate that lol