I posted this on the Pk gen discussion board....I'm curious as to the responses...
if Parkour is a creative art...generative, sustainable, organic why do we have a culture that trains as if we are going to war...hierachical, unforgiving, militant?...
is it the only way to be strong enough to do what Parkour demands?
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Structure and logic plus moaning about the weather.
Yesterday, struggling back through London with my parkour burkha in position (1 hat, 2 hoods,and fleece zipped to the eyeballs) I started to wonder what possessed me almost a year previously to go out into this hostile wilderness and start Outdoor Parkour classes?. Looking at sleet dripping off the railings (and also wouldyoubloodybelieveit snow!), the improbability of a fluid and economical motion passing over them (steady now not that kind of motion :.))was not only unlikely because of slippage and that unpleasant ache you get off cold metal but because the chances of anything removing my hands from the folded positions in my armpits was sodding slim. I went on to wonder...how do they do Parkour in Russia?! which led me to wonder further still....why can't folk like PK Gen stop spreading the love in other cold places like Russia and for that matter Finland and Canada and get to work on some holiday destination communities (Brazil is too far)..PK camp Morrocco please....Bootcamp Egypt....etc.....
Wingeing aside, I had some warm fronts in my heart recently as I remembered that (apart from the sadist instructors:.)) the PK comunity is made up of alot of patient and generous folk with a lot of secret (not to mention overlooked and under used) knowledge that they will happily share to assist your training if you seem in need. Another thing that struck me is how often people have encountered similar problems to the ones I have written about in this blog. It honestly really suprises me to hear someone tell me that they have had the same difficulties as it seems from outside that other folk are progressing along with nothing but enthusiasm and enjoyment.However it seems they may be struggling with more physical or mental demons than one could guess. That's part of the package of problems; they have the potential to make you feel isolated and alone if you believe lets say for example that you are inherently predisposed to be the only one to repeatedly mess up a tic tac.
I was reminded of the solution to Parkour stuggles after conversation with Mr Kong to Couch. After sharing experiences of coming back from broken limbs (his way more serious than mine) the common theme is the necessity to train slowly and systematically. Just as it's a total buzz to master something new, it's a total bum to lose it again either to injury or mind ghosts or even lack of use. You are forced to relearn, and just as everything can be learnt, everything can be relearnt as well. Being systematic by breaking movements down to their consituent parts and addressing where the diffculty lies really pays off and old moves eventually come back. If you think back to when you were a child this is how you first learnt to move, you wriggled on your back and stomach, you rocked, pulled, pushed, slid, reached, crawled, and eventually one day stood....and then things really did start to get interesting. All movement can be categorised as one of more of the following patterns, naval raditation, body half/side to side, body half upper/lower and contralateral and as a baby your curious little form explored each of these patterns mastering one in order to support the next. If you can trace where you are lacking the movement foundation to support a movement (not necesssarily back to infancy although sometimes there can be an issue!)either through strength, flexibility or coordination and then train it, in theory you naturally build a bridge to the next level. I guess its where the truth of the phrase "don't run before you can walk" comes from because even though its thrilling to feel like you made a huge leap but you may never fully realise what you have missed out on along the way.
I still intend to write some stuff about goal setting as I read some useful stuff. Remind me!!!
love to all things that movex
Wingeing aside, I had some warm fronts in my heart recently as I remembered that (apart from the sadist instructors:.)) the PK comunity is made up of alot of patient and generous folk with a lot of secret (not to mention overlooked and under used) knowledge that they will happily share to assist your training if you seem in need. Another thing that struck me is how often people have encountered similar problems to the ones I have written about in this blog. It honestly really suprises me to hear someone tell me that they have had the same difficulties as it seems from outside that other folk are progressing along with nothing but enthusiasm and enjoyment.However it seems they may be struggling with more physical or mental demons than one could guess. That's part of the package of problems; they have the potential to make you feel isolated and alone if you believe lets say for example that you are inherently predisposed to be the only one to repeatedly mess up a tic tac.
I was reminded of the solution to Parkour stuggles after conversation with Mr Kong to Couch. After sharing experiences of coming back from broken limbs (his way more serious than mine) the common theme is the necessity to train slowly and systematically. Just as it's a total buzz to master something new, it's a total bum to lose it again either to injury or mind ghosts or even lack of use. You are forced to relearn, and just as everything can be learnt, everything can be relearnt as well. Being systematic by breaking movements down to their consituent parts and addressing where the diffculty lies really pays off and old moves eventually come back. If you think back to when you were a child this is how you first learnt to move, you wriggled on your back and stomach, you rocked, pulled, pushed, slid, reached, crawled, and eventually one day stood....and then things really did start to get interesting. All movement can be categorised as one of more of the following patterns, naval raditation, body half/side to side, body half upper/lower and contralateral and as a baby your curious little form explored each of these patterns mastering one in order to support the next. If you can trace where you are lacking the movement foundation to support a movement (not necesssarily back to infancy although sometimes there can be an issue!)either through strength, flexibility or coordination and then train it, in theory you naturally build a bridge to the next level. I guess its where the truth of the phrase "don't run before you can walk" comes from because even though its thrilling to feel like you made a huge leap but you may never fully realise what you have missed out on along the way.
I still intend to write some stuff about goal setting as I read some useful stuff. Remind me!!!
love to all things that movex
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