Topic: I feel embarrassed practicing in public...

[Kiernan]

I was joking about a speed vault over somebody's table lol, someone gave me a good idea to, training at nightime, so I think I'll scope out part of the city I'm in today and go back to places at night, sounds fun

[Wyo Daniel]

Hmm. I certainly understand feeling awkward about training, or, even worse, conditioning by yourself in public (You practice your QM, and everyone is thinking 'Why is this moron walking on all fours?'). The most obvious way to conquer this problem is to be with a group; 5 people vaulting over picnic tables looks (or at least feels) a LOT less stuipid than 1 person vaulting over picnic tables. And, having just returned from the national jam in Denver, I can tell you that being one of a hundred people vaulting and jumping all over the place doesn't feel awkward or embarrassing in the least.

If you're just out practicing by yourself, inexperience will be your biggest problem. I bet you'd feel a lot more embarrassed by people staring at you while you tentatively practice a few monkey vaults over a low fence, than if people were staring at you while you double-konged a picnic table, or nailed a very difficult precision jump / cat leap.

[Greg Davis]

i am very indifferent about practicing in public. although i will NOT do it alone yet. thats just because i truly dont think i am good enough to be practicing alone period. even if i have just ONE friend that will follow suit then i am just fine practicing in public. but alone... there is absolutely not a chance...

[Patrick Yang]

i am very indifferent about practicing in public. although i will NOT do it alone yet. thats just because i truly dont think i am good enough to be practicing alone period. even if i have just ONE friend that will follow suit then i am just fine practicing in public. but alone... there is absolutely not a chance...

I've found group training to be a starkly different from solo training.  Seems for me, group training focuses more on creativity, finding new paths, and such.  In addition, because I tend to be the drill sergeant of the group, I condition a lot harder in a group, and I end up teaching more than training at my own level as well.  When I train solo, it's more about honing a single technique over and over until I get it.  This is why I feel training in a group and by myself are both important.

[BearMills]

parkour injuries only make you stronger

[KC Parsons]

I've actually learned to enjoy the double takes and devious stares from people when I condition/train in public.

[bryan jordan]

I've actually learned to enjoy the double takes and devious stares from people when I condition/train in public.

same

or i go to the park to impress the little kids
and tell them what its called, maybe they will do it oneday. i hope

[KC Parsons]

I've actually learned to enjoy the double takes and devious stares from people when I condition/train in public.

same

or i go to the park to impress the little kids
and tell them what its called, maybe they will do it oneday. i hope

Oddly enough, you'll notice they do things and have the mentality we do. It's pretty awesome. I saw a kid (no more than 2 years, probably hasn't been walking too long) at Starbucks who would only step on the brown colored tiles, but not the tan ones. So he had to move in different ways and jump from one set to the next. It was cool, and reminded me of myself

[Matthew Wang]

The small children haven't learned what being embarrassed is so they can move about freely and with out any concerns at all...if only we could do the same.

[bryan jordan]

i have completely gotten over the embarrassment of training in public places... now im just embarrassed to train with my friend in a public place because he just looks funny doing the stuff

[Dan Elric]

C'mon be bold!  You've got have confidence!

The only problem I have when practicing in public is making sure none of the smaller kids watch me and then try to attempt the same things I do and get themselves hurt.

[vrai]

I don't know why but I've never really felt ''embarrassed" training in public.
I have had many times people staring and I know what's probably going
through their heads:

"That kid's crazy." "He looks funny." "What a goofball."

But then I think what if there saying:

"Whoa, that's pretty cool." ar atleast "Dang, he's got guts."

But either way I never really seemed to care. It was (and is) just me
moving and their is notihng I  can do to stop that. "Moving" here
is used a new sport. Why should I stop 'moving' just because
they judge.

The common public judges everyone on anything in any
situation. This is no different.

Just that this is a brand new situation: parkour, art of movement/displacement.

[BearMills]

Your right ive never thought of it that way but I do tend to wonder if they are thinking "Dang thats cool" or "I wish i could do that"... it gives me a boost in training and helps me overcome problems within the training.

[vrai]

hah same here. im hoping they think im awesome 

but either way, as always, pk is for me and me alone.
and for you and you alone. no matta what they think. 

[AirGear]

Yeah i love parkour to death and while that may sound cheesey let me bring up the point that i have been out of PK for AT LEAST 5 months ( got hit by a car and snapped arm in to pieces basically) and i can not wait to get back out there cause i can go back finally in a week.
to bring it back to topic
ive kinda lost my nerve and am afraid to do the more special stuff, actually alot of stuff in general in public or anywhere else any suggestions??? plz

[vrai]

im sorry man, but im glad your better! you should have konged the car!!
ah, atleast your getting better.

but really, it sounds like starting over might be the best here.
how long have you been a practicion of the art of movement?
if not too long, say under a year,
just build from the ground up.

dont worry about others. worry about yourself first,
than you can carry your skills over to care for others. 

[AirGear]

ha!! i should have but it was this super huge monster truck and it was moving 1t 5000 MPH no but seriusly ur right but u mean like lazy jumps and rolls etc

[Dan Elric]

ha!! i should have but it was this super huge monster truck and it was moving 1t 5000 MPH no but seriusly ur right but u mean like lazy jumps and rolls etc

Ha, it is Belleable.

Anyway, dude!  Just improve your range of movement.  That's what parkour is about isn't it?  If you lost a nerve in your arm try to rebuild it.

[AirGear]

yeah but what i mean by nerve is im suddenly scared of jumpin over things or off things like everything is going to kill me. but i see your point

[Tom "Hayabusa" Johnson]

lol...I honestly feel your pain when it comes to practicing in public.  My problem's a little bit compounded by both my age and the social atmosphere here on Guam.  It's okay to be rolling around on the ground at a park when you're a kid, or a teenager, but a 28-year-old grown-ass dude trying to bust out quadrapedals in a public space garners a crapload of attention.  And by social atmosphere, I mean, Guam's kind of a "rigid" community when it comes to certain social trends.  If you're a guy, you're supposed to be into MMA or suping up your ride, and if you're a chick, you're supposed to be into whatever MTV tells you you're into that week.  So for someone to be practicing and conditioning for PK(and please note, I'm not even doing the "cool" stuff yet, I'm just rolling around in the grass, doing sprints, squats, and quadrapedal movement), it's a huge break from the norm.  It hasn't been the easiest thing for me, either, especially because I'm slightly overweight(though PK is really helping me burn it off quick).

But eventually, you just have to muscle through it and realize that just because you might get some weird looks from folks in your immediate community, there are still folks out there that truly respect what you're doing, both out there and in here.

A couple of friends of mine have heard that I'm training, and I just discovered, weirdly enough, that they've secretly wanted to train for some time, as well, but they were self-conscious about it, too.  Training with other people does go a long way towards relieving your self-consciousness, especially if, as the most experienced of the bunch, you're the one helping them along.  As traceurs, I'd venture a guess that we work harder to condition our bodies than 90-95% of the rest of the world.  We are the exception to the rule at the moment(which makes us exceptional), and as such, we just have to accept that not everyone in our world thinks the same as we do.  Perhaps they're jealous, perhaps they're contemptuous, perhaps they just don't get it.  But if they don't take our ideas into account when they judge us...we shouldn't take theirs into account when we're training, yeah?....  Hope that helped.

I'm long-winded! lol.  Peace out.