American Parkour

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!

My bad, that was a typo. I mean repetition not reputation. But yeah, I always hear that having a consistent routine is what is needed for strength gain, but I really suck at having consistency in my routines. I'm better off with doing some random workout a day (probably something from crossfit)

Great thread, it was a good refresher to my return to parkour. I'll continue:

1. Listen to Your Body I highly stress this in my trainings, especially ever since I broke my collarbone. Breaking my collarbone put me out of parkour for three long months and set me back a bit in my training.

2. Set Reasonable Goals If you want to learn a front flip, double kong, etc. and you can't just achieve that movement just yet, set goals that are more reasonable and are apart of the progression exercises to reach those movements.

3. Eat Healthy Before parkour I didn't have that great of a diet, now that I have started parkour I have become more health conscious about the foods I eat and their effects on the body. The right foods can help you gain the right strength for parkour.

4. Create/ Join a Parkour Club or Training Group If it wasn't for me and my friends starting parkour at the same time I probably wouldn't still be active in parkour. Friends are a great motivator.

5. Expand Your Interest Ever since I started parkour my interest has increased in other actives other than parkour, such as: gymnastics, break dancing, urban exploring, skateboarding, etc. Try finding other hobbies similar to that of parkour, or maybe even not. When you feel down or bored of parkour take up some time in those hobbies instead and return to parkour when you're ready.

6. Research Before doing something new try research the proper ways to preform the movement or exercise in order to make sure you don't get injured or end up practicing the wrong form.

7. Having Problems Conditioning on a Regular Schedule? Try doing an "as the day goes by" approach. When ever I'm feeling less motivated to do a routine I will always set smaller conditioning goals and then try to do them as the day goes by, that way you don't feel pressured to do everything at once. (ex: 2 sets of 30 push-ups in the morning, 3 sets of 10 pulls-ups in the afternoon, and five to ten minute hand stand progressions before going to bed)

8. Having Problems Deciding What to Do for Conditioning? Try doing the APK workout of the day, if you want something different try the Crossfit work out of the day or the Crossfit random workout of the day generator (found here: http://www.wodshop.org/wods.html.)

9. Create an Inspiring Playlist This is something I like to do, and really helps me. I have an entire playlist in my music library filled with songs that remind me of parkour, and when ever I listen to them I always get inspired to go out and go train.

10. Do Care What Others Think of You Lets face it, when you first start parkour, nothing you do ever looks impressive to observers. It takes time and dedication to reach certain levels, and most people who don't do parkour do not really seem to understand that. So sure you might look like a fool for your first couple of months of training, you might feel embarrassed. Just remember that no matter what they think of you, hard work can and always will payoff in the end.

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.

I feel like you at some points, especially after I broke my collarbone working on backflips.

I suggest you condition on days you do not practice (take some rest days every once in a while though) and try starting a parkour training group. I'm a freshman in college and everybody I met through my training group are probably the best people I have met since I began college, and our training group is almost going to be an official student organization.

An other great thing that can help you is this article a friend showed me when I felt like I wasn't progressing well enough in parkour. It helped me realize the importance of progression and taking it slowly. Here's the article, hope that helps.
http://blane-parkour.blogspot.com/2007/04/dilution.html

Well I'm sure there has to be some thread for this somewhere. I have no experience with tai chi but it is supposed to help with breathing. Akido would be good because there are throws and rolls used so it would be good cardio. idk about Ju Jitsu for parkour. Karate and Tae Kwon Do would probably be the best choices though. And out of those Tae Kwon Do. However University classes may not have the supper flashy kicks tae Kwon Do is known and a semester is not a long time to study any martial art so it may altogether be superfluous it will depend on the teacher.

Also as for self defense most people would say Ju Jitsu which may be true until there is more then one person and they are all kicking you while you grapple with one. Or if he has a knife....  Um For that matter a collage martial art class probably wouldn't be that good for self defense not enough time to learn. 

You do have a point, and I completely agree, but there is a club that's not affiliated with these classes too that I can always join if I want to pursue them further. And of all the PE classes that are listed for my college, the only ones that interest me are the martial arts or weight lifting, the rest are all team sports (which I personally am not found of), yoga, swimming, or walking (why they have a walking class, I do not know). So I need to decide anyways.

Defiantly, defiantly put me down as adventurous! That's the whole reason why I started parkour, for the adventure!

-ADD or ADHD - usually untreated.
Defiantly true, although it has only been speculated by my mom and I, I seem to have the symptoms of ADD, but neither of us believe in treatment

-Random as hell humor
Depends on the situation, lately I have been becoming more serious... I should fix that....

-very intelligent, but the grades don't/didn't show it. generally lack of interest in school
Hell yes, I studied quantum mechanics and string theory when I was taking conventional high school physics. Plus I always loved figuring out how things work on my own time (thus the reason why my grades are all over the place, A & B+ if I'm interested (i.e. physics, psychology, math, etc) mostly B if I'm halfway interested in the class (i.e. history), C if I'm not so much (i.e. English) or if it's a new concept (i.e. calculus))

-good at sports but dislike the rules (might not do school sports purely because of the rulebook for them)
Never really was good at sports, my type of games were always things that push the individual more than the team (part of being an introvert I guess) thus why I do parkour. I do really hate professional/ over played sports though, such as football, I never enjoyed it one bit. My type of games are things like capture the flag, track, etc. Plus I have strong belief that the power of the individual is more valuable than the power of the team.

As for being good looking, my girlfriend says I am so it must be true!

Right now my college has a game going on, we're two days into the the outbreak and we only have 20 infected so far, out of the 500 and something registered players. I haven't been tagged yet!

I only watched up to episode three of EMH and I have to say I wasn't that impressed. When does it get intense?