Ask and the universe will answer and sometimes the walls too.

Coincidence,fate, karma who knows? but one thing is for sure;


.... one day you might (mistakenly )decide to cheat at Parkour...e.g avoiding a slide monkey on your left because you only like your right and the next day's training will always, eggs as eggs, so frickin certain its spooky, bring that missing lefthanded slide monkey right back to you only this time in a way that means avoidance is not an option. (I write 'slide monkey' tentatively as I thought it was called 'sly monkey' for a good 3months or so....which personally I like better alongside other potential names like 'tricky monkey', 'creepy monkey', 'slippy monkey', 'huggy monkey' although I know it won't catch on). It's almost as if the walls are saying to you...."nice try...but your not going to get out of it that easily". And thats not the only thing they say....oh yes....it seems once you start naming walls, they talk to you, try and piss you off, whisper their doubts, although if their nice ones sometimes they call out to you in your sleep and invite you to play. At the worst of times they say nothing and no matter how you reason, argue, plead, cajole, suprise or spend time with them they remain exactly as solid immovable and constant as ever. But then they are always (nearly!) where you left them so you can go back and try again later.

On the pleasurable side, just as the universe will supply punishment for breaking the Parkour rule DON'T CHEAT!, it always listens to what you need. After some blog musing (and much more actual real world musing) on my dance and parkour techniques and how they could become less disparate and more symbionic what should pop into existence but the SouthBank Dance Parkour project. Perfect!, the first stage of investigation begins!!!!.

CHALLENGE UPDATE
I'm no longer posting a seperate daily challenge as i'm no longer posting a daily blog!. However external challenges from you folks are still welcome and very much sought after. Current outstanding (as in not done although they are also good suggestions!) challenges are:
1Shi- laches on tree branches
2Sola- pull ups
3Dan - 5 consequtive pull ups by October
4Thomas - 2 min rail hang on a round rail.(1 min best so far)

Again fortune has clustered them into addressing similar muscle groups and actions so my daily challenge becomes to work towards these 4 simultaneously. Thanx so much for taking time to think of them you 4.

Estranged

Couldn’t go to class today. Not sure what that was about. Partly it was because my eyes were closing and my chin dropping by 5pm but partly because I knew it would mean conditioning for an hour plus which today was equal to forcing, pushing and struggling. I lost some faith in the process of struggling and to commit your energy you need to believe. Don’t get me wrong, you have to condition, to be strong, to protect yourself, to challenge your mentality and physicality, all of this is an absolute necessity to grow. I know this, I know this, I know this. So what’s the problem (apart from thinking to much?! :.)).

I feel there is a lot to be said for alignment. The peripheries of the body function more effectively when the spine is aligned as weight is distributed properly and muscle chains can function sequentially. The principle of alignment can be taken more broadly to suggest that if your head, heart and body are all heading in the same direction you have unity which brings economy, clarity, and fluidity. If you are running contradictory systems then the point of contradiction leads to tension and struggle.

Its not that I’m wanting to give up. It just feels like hammering away isn’t sensible in a ‘if you do what you always do you get what you always get”. Its hard not to have a voice that says I ‘should’ be able to do this by now (‘this’ signifying kongs outdoors, running precisions, tic tacs etc). The frustration is that I have spent 8 years training very physicality and for 4 years very intensively; a lot of work focusing on form, on flow, on tactility, on dynamic, rhythm, coordination. All of which should be transferable skills but during Parkour they seemed to be locked inside a room labeled ‘Out Of Reach’, my normally communicative body desserts me and I’m left alone with my doubts. I tend to be a holistic kind of girl so I’m listening. However I respect that maybe the best advice is maybe Just Get On With It!!!. The commitment was to keep training and to keep moving and so tonight I took a beginners acrobatics class so that in some way I can say to myself "Yes! I kept moving!".

I also tried out Thomas’ challenge: hanging off a round railing for 2 mins. In 2 attempts I managed 1 min and 1.01 and it’s the fingers that aren’t up to it!.