American Parkour

http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html

If you live in Suburbia, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
"I want to learn parkour, but there's no where to train."
We usually respond to those people with, "You just have to look better." I don't think that's fulfilling enough. I don't believe a person driving to a viable training spot is the spirit of parkour. That's almost as "free" as going to an indoors, structured climbing gym and climbing "the way it should be".

So what can we do? Do we build parkour parks all around Suburbia (like we see in some PK Russian videos), or should we change our architecture to have less space between houses, less conformity, and more outdoors human interaction?


I'm sorry, this is just something I've been raging about for a long time. Thanks for reading.

So I found this on StumbleUpon, and wondered if it would help anyone in here, since I seem to notice people discussing whatever's popular these days.

http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_mcdougall_are_we_born_to_run.html


Chris McD has been the voice of barefoot running, and I'm sure most of you already know about this. If you're a beginner, this is a chance to understand why there's always somebody on the forum recommending the Vibram Five Finger shoes (VFF).

This video sums it up, including some reasoning to why he thinks early humans evolved as runners before weapons were invented.

If you don't want anything for Christmas, get this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1EaM6wfKhE


They invented the Shooting-Upwards Webster.


Tell me if you LOL'd the whole time as well.

I was going across pictures on my sister's facebook, and she a lot of cute pics of my niece and nephew. I stopped at this one, because I was seriously amazed..


Look:




Cat balance? O_o


The rest are my 1 year old nephew's climbing skills. No one else was involved in his climbing up.



Use your feet when climbing, not knees!




"I must goez to point B ovar dair!"




Oh hell yeah. Donuts are totally worth it.




A higher level of watching Elmo.





If you got kids who surprise you everyday with parkour skills, please share.

Inspired by a topic that was inspired by another topic, this is the question for YOU:

    -Which do you enjoy the most, the journey or the destination?

For those who this is new to this, the destination is a goal you wish to reach, and the journey is the process you take to reach that goal. This question applies to absolutely everything, e.g. doing house chores, finishing homework, walking to the park, finishing a project, etc.


(FIRST!!11 )
It appears that I like the journey more, because when I'm done with a pretty hard task, It doesn't feel that special, or at least as much as I expected, yet I don't regret it.

Now it's YOUR TURN.

I used the search function and looked for this topic, however I only found training logs and how-to's. None of them mentioned a correct way to perform a dip. I also found a relatively old topic discussing pain from doing dips, but I didn't find anything helpful (also too complicated for me). I looked on Youtube, but I can't tell if those are right or not.
So, can anyone provide a video, or if not, a written description of how to perform a dip correctly without passively damaging joints? And if I'm wrong about anything, point that out. I'm just a beginner

Cheese rolling

Ok, so i'm talking about REAL dreams any of you had while you were sleeping. Please do not make up anything. Tell us what you saw. Use creative writing techniques as you wish. I'll begin with mine:

Setting:

Ok, without the big ferris wheel or the snipers, but gloomy, foggy, cold, and dull.


I was walking with a girl I had a crush on six months ago, when I was still in high school BUT IT DOESNT MATTER BECAUSE IT'S NON-PARKOUR, jumping to where it started ...

I reached my classroom on the second floor. the school building had a square shape, with the courtyard in the center. The hallways were open to the courtyard, kind of like a huge balcony.(If you ever played CoD4 - the Bloc map, that's how it looks like, excluding the statue; there was a leafless tree instead). It was foggy, and you can't really see anything.

I sat down in my desk on the right side of the classroom. The door was on the right side. Oh no! my backpack! "Sir! I forgot my backpac--" "Go get it ". That's how cool he was; even though I have no idea who he was but ANYWAYS-----

I run out the classroom. As I said before, the hallway is like a balcony. It's open to the courtyard...below. (Traceur flash-thought: "Sweet!") I monkey over the wall and stand on it, then jump down, near the tree in the middle. I land on top of a small wall thing that surrounds the tree. After that, I find myself near a wall, with some railing on top; that's where I bump into a "policeman"! Yay!

the cop asks,"what's this that you're doing?" in a nice manner. I say "it's called Parkour." "Called what?," he asks. He then pulls out a square piece of paper (not a notepad) and asks me how to spell that. I reply,"Park...oor. Well, like Park...our--" He then just left without a reason. I'm kind of pissed off of course; no one leaves me hanging so I look forward, and I see a black SUV. I figured some FBI people came here. I don't care why, All that's important is what's next: The windows are rolled half-down. (Traceur flash-thought:"....sweet!")

I run, and dive-roll inside the first window, which is by the way on the driver's side. So dive out the second one too, but slowly and in a sloppy manner, because my feet got stuck, so I had to put my hands on the ground and stand up again. Next, another black SUV, same deal. I did a dive inside the first window, but had to try something different. "How about an Underbar 360?" I asked myself. The problem is, there's no place inside for me to place my first hand, which should be facing forward. Thanks to Adam's tutorial, I remembered that stuff. But now, I had to put my hand outside. It was messed up. I kind of twisted my arm  but somehow, I managed to get through, and swing my legs outside.

-Later on-...I reach my class again, with my backpack with me. What could've I forgot?? OH SHIT I'M BAREFOOT. No idea, but I forgot my shoes this time, back in my "apartment". I jumped again from the hallways. no SUVs or authority figures. I was confronted by a big, grand, filled with branches tree. I had to climb the freakin' tree. I don't know if I lost my key or not; I had to climb the tree. You'd think "Pfft, that's a piece of cake." Well, it is a piece of cake, without all the LITTLE DRY TWIGS THAT LOOK LIKE NEEDLES. I had to pull my way over. Imagine wearing clothes made from Kleenex and having to walk through a spiky bush. So, I get all scratched up, head to toes.
I walked back to my class, tired. I saw my crush in the nearby classroom, but Hell, Who cares?




Okay, first, sorry for being so boring. I think I added a lot of I's, which is not very cool, because I think I..okay nevermind.
What's said is said, and now it's your turn. Write your dream if you had one. Don't be afraid to add non-parkour events; just don't overwhelm it. Try to write better than me (sure, easy >.>), and entertain your fellow traceurs and traceuses.