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Topics - J Kyle Smith

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1
Parkour And Freerunning / College Parkour
« on: October 13, 2011, 09:53:12 AM »
I posted this thread here (http://www.americanparkour.com/smf/index.php/topic,36937.0.html) in Parkour Organizations, but never got any responses so I thought this board would be the next best one to ask this question:

I am a co-founder of a parkour organization at my university, and we are both affiliated with the school as a student organization, and Texas Parkour. The thing is, we may be affiliated with the school but we are not affiliated with our school's rec center. Our plan is to become affiliated with our rec center so we can use their facilities and promote from there (since most people who train parkour like to be physically active, it would be the best place on campus to find people who are interested). Unfortunately the rec center will not let us become a rec organization because they are unfamiliar with parkour, but they did say we might have a chance if we are able to list around 10 other universities that have a parkour organization.

So what I ask of you fellow traceurs here on APK, is can you please tell me the name of your parkour organization, what univeristy/ college you are with, and if you are an informal or formal organization.

Thanks in advance!

2
Community and Club Leaders / Parkour Organizations at Colleges
« on: October 12, 2011, 12:27:14 PM »
I'm a assistant instructor and co-founder of a parkour organization, Lubbock Parkour, we are affiliated with our school Texas Tech University. Currently we are trying to become affiliated with our school's rec center (so we can advertise there, and use their facility), but according to the guy in charge of giving the organizations their affiliation with the rec center we need to get a list of other colleges/ universities that have parkour organizations (formal or informal, but preferably formal).

So what I ask you APK is if you are apart of a college that has a a parkour organization, can you tell me what college and if you are formal or informal? Thank you, in advance!

3
General Fitness / Problem with Workout Routines
« on: January 19, 2011, 02:37:37 PM »
I really want to gain strength and endurance, but I tend to have a problem with the reputation in many workout routines. I don't really have a problem with working out in general, I try to make time for physical exercise everyday, but when it comes to having a fixed routine I just can't find the motivation to do so.

Are there any suggestions on gaining this motivation to keep a consistent workout? Or how I can find a workout that is like me, always wanting to change.

Thanks in advance!

4
Socialize / My return to (official) parkour!
« on: December 07, 2010, 11:18:49 PM »
It has been a long three months, but as of next week on the 14th of December my doctor is giving me permission to resume all physical activity! For those who do not know, I broke my collarbone back in September and had to get surgery to fix my break. In the past couple of months I have been focusing on leg work, including various leg exercises and I still participated with my local parkour group but with limited movement, but I was determined to keep the spirit anyways (plus some of my best friends I have made in college are in the group, also to add that I am a founding member of the group also).

I honestly have to say, breaking my collarbone gave me a different view on parkour and life in general. I learned that it may be good to push yourself, but always, always listen to your body. That's why I broke my bone, my body was too tired, but I kept on pushing it past its limits. My body taught me a lesson the hard way. I also came to realize how fragile humans really are, I didn't even fall from that high, and that we must progress to make ourselves stronger if we want to accomplish more.

I know breaking a collarbone is pretty minor in the realm of bone breaking, but never the less I got a better lesson on life in general. In a strangely optimistic way, I think breaking my collarbone is one of the greatest lessons I have ever learned in my life, not to mention it helped my focus more on my first semester of college with my lack of physical activity. The biggest lesson I learned was that you need to take things slowly in a progressive manner if you want to achieve anything. So in the words of an internet meme, learn from my fail. haha

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Now I have some more goals in sight that I plan on achieving, such as the obvious: getting back to the basics, regain my strength. But when those goals are finished I plan on becoming an official Texas Parkour certified coach, which won't be easy but it's a goal I plan on achieving eventually.

5
Parkour And Freerunning / Martial Art
« on: November 13, 2010, 10:57:25 AM »
I need to take up a PE credit at my university for my degree (which is undecided: Mechanical Engineering or Physics, and for some reason physics requires a PE credit) and I was looking through the list of PE classes they offer at my university and noticed they offered different types of martial arts. I'm well aware that martial arts are great for parkour, so I really want to take one. Only problem is that I'm undecided, I'm not sure which martial art is most practical for self-defense, parkour, or tricking. Here is the list of the martial art classes they offer:

- Tai Chi
- Aikido
- Ju Jitsu
- Karate
- Tae Kwon Do

Out of those four what would you fellow traceurs recommend for parkour or tricking?

6
Consumer Whores / Parkour Posters?
« on: October 05, 2010, 04:13:00 AM »
Are there any posters of any well-known freerunners/ traceurs out there? Or just a poster of somebody conqouring the city using parkour?

I really need some for my dorm room, right now my wall is semi-boring.

Let me know if you know of any!

7
Socialize / I miss you parkour ='(
« on: September 20, 2010, 08:39:35 PM »
Five more weeks (minimum) 'till I can resume you again, this is going to be painful.




Stupid broken collarbone.   :'(





 Keep up the spirit APK, I'll still be active in the community but for the activity I'll have to take off. So does anybody have any suggestions, for a college kid like me, to take up as a side activity that doesn't require that much arm use?

8
General Fitness / Arms free Routine
« on: September 16, 2010, 06:06:06 PM »
So if you haven't heard, I broke my collarbone (badly, as in I needed surgery to have it heal properly), and I will be unable to use my right arm for the next 2-3 weeks (5-6 weeks before the bone fully heals).

Being the determined person I am, I'm currently looking for a routine that is only focused on the legs that will develop strength (maybe some cardio), but requires little to no stress in the arms. (Bonus points for any suggested ab workouts that fit the criteria).


I personally can't think of any good leg workouts except for squats and stationary bicycles at the gym. Although I am open to any suggested workouts (body weights, free weights, and machine) I would prefer any that keep me away from the gym to prevent any chances of infection on my incision.

Thank you in advanced.

9
Parkour And Freerunning / Over Confidence: My lesson learned the hard way
« on: September 12, 2010, 05:50:06 PM »
I would like to say that I have learned to never be over confident again when it comes to learning a new skill.

Last night I was working on my back-tucks for my first time, and sort of getting used to the motions. I had a spotter and a pad, but now I wish I used my spotter more. After getting used to the motions with a spotter, I moved onto working on my back tucks without him, still on the pad. I was failing pretty badly, but I had some decent ones here-and-there, so I kept on going until I was weak and rested. That is where I should have stopped. Unfortunately I was so high up in my game that I became determined to get a back-tuck down before I left.

So after a ten minute rest I resumed doing them without a spotter, feeling confident and rested, and that's when it got bad. The first flip failed badly, but I wouldn't let that hold me back. So I did a second flip, and either my legs were too weak or I didn't jump at the right angle. As soon as I got into the air I immediately feel face down but allowed my shoulder to take the impact. I was in serious pain probably the worst pain in my life. I thought I just badly bruised my shoulder, it wasn't until I went to the doctor's today that I learned that I fractured my right collarbone (thank god I'm left handed). Now I can barley use my right arm for the next six weeks, and I may need surgery to speed up the healing process.

Learn from my fail, do not (I repeat do not) ever trust your mind over your body. If there's anything last night taught me is to listen to your body and not your confidence, the body may not say that much, but when it does speak it knows exactly what it means.


Now to do my longest hiatus of parkour ever, but I will spend my time working on leg training to make up for my lack of upper body work.

10
Tricking / Problem with tricking
« on: September 08, 2010, 08:55:45 AM »
So I've been doing parkour at a serious level for nearly a year now, and honestly I'm starting to get bored of parkour. Not the discipline itself, just going out and training the same moves over and over is annoying, I want more of a challenge.

So I tried tricking before, and ended up failing at everything. I couldn't front flip, I can barley do a 540 kick, and I haven't tried anything else. As much as I want to get into tricking I have difficulties. So what I was wondering is: are there any progression exercises to get me ready for the basics of tricking? Like something I can easily incorporate into a daily routine? An other issue I'm having is that the town my college is in lacks any gym with an open gym night, so all my training will have to be outside on the grass.

An other question is, are front hand springs a good progression to learn a front flip?

11
General Fitness / Running after leg lifting
« on: September 01, 2010, 11:21:03 AM »
I was wondering if it was okay to do some long distance running the day after a leg/ core lifting day.

Recently I have developed a new workout routine that consist of three times a week of lifting; one push day (focusing on muscles mostly used for pushing in the upper body, obviously), one pull day (same concept as the lift day), and one leg day. Along with two rest days a week and two days dedicated to parkour training.

My goal is to gain the freshman 15 in muscle, but I also enjoy running long distances and I feel a bit incomplete without running during the week, plus it's a good way to keep the excess fat down. So far my schedule looks like this-

Monday: Push Day
Tuesday: Leg/ Core Day
Wednesday: Running day (possibly?)
Thursday: Pull Day
Friday: Rest Day
Saturday & Sunday: Parkour Training.

Now my question is if it's okay to run the day after my leg day, or should I instead arrange my schedule in a different way so that way I can run safer.

12
Socialize / I keep coming and going
« on: August 28, 2010, 10:29:27 PM »
Sup guys! It's been a bit since I've last been on here, a couple months since I was last really active I'd say. I've been too busy prepping and getting ready for college, now that I'm fully moved in I finally have down time to go onto APK. My activity on APK has slowned down, but my activity in parkour has not. So wut b up?

13
Injury Reports / Sore wrist
« on: July 05, 2010, 09:16:08 PM »
Date of Injury: June 21st, 2010
Time of injury: Around 15:00 (3:00 pm)
Your DOB and age: 4/11/1992 (18 years old)
name (remember this is the internet, name is helpful but not mandatory): Kyle Smith
City, State: Was in Galveston, TX at the time of injury
# years practicing Parkour / Freerunning: 8 months
Hours of training per week. (real, not what you'd like to do): Currently around 2 max, used to be at least 5 or 6
Other exercise / fitness experience: Backpacking
Location where injury occurred: Living room of a rental beach house
Conditions of location (wet, dark, icy, etc): Sunny
What you were doing / trying to do when injury occurred?: Trying to kong an obstacle without warming up
Where any other people involved?: No
Part of body  - description of injury, rating of severity 1-10: Wrist, sore pains if applied pressure from the hand (like doing a push-up) severity: 2-3, annoyance: 7
Did you see a doctor for diagnosis? No
Did you get X-rays or MRI's? No
Could you / how could you have avoided the injury? By not konging that couch.
Notes on the experience? There is no swelling at all, just small shocks of pain that mess up my technique now.

14
Parkour And Freerunning / Stuck on a Plateau
« on: July 02, 2010, 11:44:33 AM »
It seems as if for the past month or two I have been stuck on a plateau. I seem to be unable to get any better at anything, like for instance front flips, I can't do them and I've been practicing them for months. I can't dash vault, I can only speed vault low objects, and the worst of the worst is that I can only vault on one side. I feel as if no matter how hard I try I can't get any better. It's really annoying.

Do you have any advice on how to over come these plateaus?

15
"The Freerunner" Magazine / Unable to receive the eMail
« on: June 28, 2010, 09:37:49 PM »
I seem to be unable to receive the eMail, and when I try to register for it again it states that I already am on the email list. Any ideas on why this is happening?

16
Socialize / It has been a while...
« on: June 28, 2010, 09:10:11 PM »
... since I last logged onto APK, mostly because I'm working a lot now and I never have time for parkour I just sort of pushed it to the side, hopefully reparticipating on APK will boost my motivation! I kind of feel guilty, so what's up people?

17
General Fitness / Regaining Strength and Endurance
« on: June 07, 2010, 04:34:21 AM »
It has been over a month now since I last did any formal strength and endurance training, so I decided to resume again today. I was surprised how much strength and endurance I lost, it was more significant than I imagined, so what I was wondering is: how long does it take to regain a months lost of strength and conditioning if I were to follow the same workouts I did to reach that point? Would it take longer, faster, or the same rate?

(so this is a question more about, how quickly it takes to gain strength verses losing it)

18
Socialize / My Apologies
« on: May 07, 2010, 11:04:08 AM »
Well I feel like an idiot for how I acted yesterday (complaining that it was the end of parkour due to MTV and all), I really don't know what got into me. I guess I was too prideful, and stressed out because of a stupid sickness that I had to get so close to my AP exam on Monday.

Please forgive me, all of those who had to deal with my immature complaints I put on facebook and APK yesterday. Although I do not support the show still, it was unnessicary of myself to act that way. I'm still a complete and total noob to parkour (about to go onto my 7th month of serious practicing) so I had no right to act that way, maybe in a couple of years I will be able to complain and make a lot more sense. haha

So please forgive me those who found what I said offensive and over the top.

19
Socialize / Wel this sucks
« on: May 05, 2010, 07:22:56 PM »
Why must this always happen to me? Every time I try to do something personal something always comes up? For example this week was going to be the week that I would resume my work-outs, start going back to the gym, and start my Saturday training sessions. And what do you know? I get sick.

Now I need to wait for my body to over come this sickness, nobody knows what it is (strep, mono, and flu were all negative) before I can start.

I just can't stand how every time I plan something big that's personal, something else always comes up.

Sorry about my ranting, but does this ever happen to any of you?

20
Consumer Whores / VFF Questions
« on: May 02, 2010, 03:27:56 PM »
So I have been thinking about buying some VFFs (preferably KSOs) only problem is that my feet are two different sizes, one is at least half a size larger than the other. I have a feeling this will bring up many complications with the shoes. What should I do?

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