Obstacles vs Accessories
It is not what happens to you that matters but rather how you respond to what happens to you. I could easily get metaphorical about this with the many things that have happened to me (especially in the recent past) but I've got two very specific things to bring up regarding this concept.
Parkour, Freerunning and overcoming obstacles
Almost 4 years ago when I first found out about parkour, I was drawn to the concept of training to overcome obstacles physically and using this training to help you overcome all obstacles - mental and physical. Well this year, in my new home of San Jose, I've decided to train parkour at a facility called Guardian Art. At Guardian Art they don't relate the same way to obstacles. In fact, they don't relate to obstacles at all. Everything is an accessory.
When I look up the word accessory, this is what I get:
For the sake of movement, obstacles can be treated instead like accessories. You can choose to use it or not to help you move through space. Knowing how to use an accessory in your movements makes your arsenal of motion more complete, adds convenience for you in getting from place to place and with practice your movements may even be pretty.
Yes, and...
One other thing I've begun training recently is improvisational comedy. I started taking classes out at DSI Comedy Theater in Carrboro, NC and am now training at ComedySportz San Jose. First off, I highly recommend everyone take an improv comedy class. There is something for everyone. Second, improv has given me practice in relating to whatever life throws at you as accessories.
When I'm on stage with my teammates doing improv, I have very little idea what is going to happen. However, we have been taught to take whatever each other does or says as a gift to help the scene move along. You'll often hear improvisers use the term "yes, and..." to describe what they do. This is because you always say yes to the reality someone is bringing into the mix and you add onto it. In other words, they bring something onto the stage and you use it as an accessory to help out the scene.
In conclusion
If you find yourself trying to overcome some sort of obstacle perhaps you could instead try to adjust your point of view. Can that obstacle be an accessory? Have you accepted the reality of your obstacle accessory yet? Can you add to that reality to create something even more amazing? I'd love to hear where these concepts have worked for you in some way. Please comment below to let me know how you can see this in your own life.
Monkey See - Parkour Training Videos
I have mentioned parkour in the past because it is a great way to have fun while getting in shape. It is a good way to train through mental blocks. While there are many resources out on the net, not many of them come from a respectable source. When I was perusing americanparkour.com today I noticed a video series that some of the guys from the website put together to help people learn the basics. Combined with the tutorials on the site, these videos can be a great place to start your training. ...
These parkour videos are available at monkeysee.com, an interesting video how-to site that is currently in beta. To help the tutorial videos without requiring extra close-ups and slow motion shots, their video player has those functions built in. Just click on the tools icon in the lower right hand corner.
Parkour/David Belle at New Yorker Festival 2007
The New Yorker has always seemed a bit uppity for me. That cover they always show in their ads just makes me think that. In other words, there is no basis in fact. So it came as a suprise to me to find a parkour video available at the New Yorker's website. It's great video that includes a good interview as well as audience question session with David Belle. ...
What I like about this is how much it shows the patience one must have while practicing parkour. In parkour videos it looks so easy, but it rarely shows the months and years of practice that go into those gravity defying moves. David Belle even talks about having vertigo when he first started training and how many of the people starting out, that we see in the video, are better than he was whe he began his journey. To top it all off, not all the parkour in the video is fluid. In fact, most of it is a bit more realistic as to what a person should expect of themselves in the beginning.
This video and links to other New Yorker parkour links can be found athttp://www.newyorker.com/online/video/festival/2007/Parkour
Parkour Day
It seems today is parkour day over at you tube. All the featured videos are parkour related. As I had fallen out of practice of parkour this is nice. It reinspires me at a time when I am just re-beginning. I have recently been focusing on the psychological aspects of parkour while I get myself in shape for accomplishing more in the physical realm of parkour.
...
While this next video is obviously not aimed at me, I'm not a shoe guy :D, I like what it is trying to do.
Parkour is definately a community that is open to and can use more women.
Inspiration
Often times, inspiration comes when and where you are not looking for it. Inspiration may unearth a desire for you to take actions you have not yet taken. You may have noticed that much of my inspiration recently has come from parkour. Once again I found inspiration in parkour, but parkour isn't the only inspiration that came to me. ...
I found this recent inspiration on AmericanParkour.com. Demon, a traceur and member of the tribe from Colorado, got a chance to train in France with some of the Yamakasi. Not only did he get to go on this parkour pilgrimage, but he took the time to write about his account of the training.
Some of the inspiring parts of his post came from the way the yamakasi trained. Thinking of doing a drill eleven times as really doing 10 + 1. Making sure to do difficult movements at least 3 times instead of just once to prove to yourself that you can. Thinking that the real training, much of it mental, comes after you are physically tired. The usefulness of training by yourself or with others. This was all great information that has inspired me to train more intensely.
The suprising inspiration came not from parkour, but from the writing of the article. Many of my posts, including this one, are written fairly quickly while I have a break during the day. From reading many other postings online, it looks like most people do the same thing - even for professional sites. Demon's article was different. He obviously put a lot of time into organizing his thoughts and putting together an article that many different people could read and get something from. His writing of that article inspired me to work towards writing better posts in my own blog.
So as I go onto my 100th post, I will take the time and improve my writing ability. Even short articles can have a little extra time expended on them to polish them up.
Strength Training without a gym
Having been a personal trainer I get asked the question, "What should I do to get in shape?". Well that or one of many variations. Often I focus on the philosophy and psychology of training over the physical act. Training doesn't require any specific exercise to be done right. In fact, what is right for one person may be wrong for another. Some people don't have the money for, or have enough discipline to train without, a gym. It can take some creativity, but bodyweight exercises are the easiest way for someone to start getting in shape. ...
Some well known body weight exercises are:
- Pushups
- Pullups
- Crunches / Sit ups
- Squats
Going back to the psychology of working out, workouts are most successful when they are fun. Doing the above four exercises only is not going to be much fun in the long haul. So it takes some creativity and some times a little inspiration from others. Here is a video of some parkour enthusiasts showing their form of strength training, maybe it will inspire you.
So be creative, have some fun and move your body. That is what you can do to get into shape.
Failure is the BEST option
The cliché says,"Failure is not an option". In some very rare occasions this is probably a good mindset to have. Most of the time, however, failure is the best option. We should try to fail, and fail as big as we can.
I'm not saying that failure is all you should ever do, but it is a great tool to success. Watching my two sons grow up is a treat to watch. They are experts at failing, and learning from it - as all children are. When a child is learning to walk, they fall down a lot. What if the first time a child tried to stand up and subsequently fell down they decided to never try again? Or worse yet, what if they never even tried to stand up in the first place because they don't know how? Nobody would walk. We can learn a lot from children. ...
Sometimes we need to try stuff and fail at it to get a good look at a problem. Take for example someone starting parkour. They might try a vault and come crashing down in any number of ways. Many people might decide right then and there not to try again. Some people, might think to themselves "What went wrong?" and "What do I need to do to make that vault?". Still other might just keep on trying to get a some more looks at the problem.
The people who give up might do so because they are nothing like the people they see in parkour videos. They might watch video after video of people who make it look easy. The truth is those traceurs and traceuses bite it once in a while too. In fact one of parkour's founders, David Belle, is in a great video that showcases this point.
Watch the great David Belle fall on a simple( for him ) vault.
Everyone who has ever succeeded, has failed at the same task. Nothing comes so natural to people that they don't have to learn. Everyone starts out as a blob with flailing appendages and very little control. But we also don't think failure is a bad thing until we get a little older. Sure, it is sad to fail or watch someone fail, but it is inspiring to be or to watch someone turn failure around and into success. Be inspiring, fail.
Quality Parkour Trip Documentary
A group of traceurs from England participated in a parkour pilgrimage to Lisses, France. As with many traceurs, they brought along a video camera. Unlike some, they actually put together a decent parkour documentary. Check out the video below. ...
For now I've got the links posted, but I may be making a way to see them all soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mzyvI3e2rA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0uLi4gHhfU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ4Nk8Cxim8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YoaLttVJns
Too Much Parkour
I guess I watched too much of the Vault 102 parkour video with my son. ...
Not too bad for a 3 year old :)
Improving Your Vision
No, this post isn't about laser eye surgery. Instead it is about improving your ability to see possibility. In order to do this I'm going to take you along my own recent journeys into training for parkour. Since the philosophies of the art of movement relate so well to the rest of life, let's learn a little bit that we may have just forgotten. ...
When I first came across parkour I looked at moving from point A to point B a little differently. All of the sudden I started to wonder, "How else could I get there". From my initial introduction, I learned to at least look for other ways.
I started to take a look at how to start training for parkour. AmericanParkour.com has a page called "How Do I Get Started" and a section with tutorials on practical movements( members only, but its free ). After reading these I started wondering, how was I going to be able to practice? When would I have time? Where can I go? I was blocked by my current level of vision. I could not see any possibilites, and I was stopped.
I kept going back to the pages and kept re-reading how to get started and the tutorials. I was also reading some good articles. One great that inspired me was "The Beginner's Mind". Watching my children learn everything they know from nothing has always been a pleasure. As we grow up, we stop learning from nothing and start to avoid knowledge we don't already posess. I got inspired to approach this from a child's mind and start from knowing nothing. There is only one place to go from there. All of the sudden things became clear. I shouldn't be able to do anything, I've never trained parkour before. Maybe I should learn to land first ( the same instructions from the "How Do I Get Started" article ). There are lots of places to jump down from.
So one day at work, I used my lunch break to go outside and practice landing. It went well. I was having fun. I got excited, tried a Kong Vault and landed on my hand. Having worked to gain weight as a wrestler, I was just over 230 pounds and most of that weight came down on my hand hard. I don't think I broke it, but it hurt for a couple weeks before I could use it normally again. All of the sudden I was asking my wife to open jars for me :).
That didn't stop me though. I could still practice the basic landing, without using my hand too much. So I did. Eventually, I got bored of landing and stopped practicing. I didn't know how to move on from that point. Once again, I was stopped by my current level of vision. Where was I going to train? When was I going to train?
In the featured articles section of AmericanParkour.com, there are a line of articles called Demon's Drills. These are some great ways of how to improve your physical and mental training towards parkour. They were all inspiring, but The one that got me moving was Muscle Ups and a related follow up Theme Training. Muscle ups were something I thought I could find somewhere to perform, at least a modified version. I started doing a few while playing with my kids at the park, which I am doing more now that I am training. However, I didn't feel I could train it enough to make that much difference. I wished there were some way I could do it at my gym. Well, the universe provided me that wish. I came in one Monday and they had moved some of the equipment around. This forced me to look at workouts just differently enough that I saw an opportunity to do modified muscle ups on the smith machine. This was great because I could start at a lower height that I felt comfortable with and then move the bar as high as it would go. It was a great plyometric workout and my vision improved.
Soon after starting this exercise, I started looking around where I live and work. One day I walked from the gym to work ( which I do from time to time ) and started to see more training possibilities than I had ever seen before. Ledges to do muscle ups and possibly kong vaults ( I still was a bit leary of that ). That day, I took my lunch break outside for some training. As I was moving around doing different muscle ups on the ledges, I ran up to a shorter ledge and popped myself up to the top without even thinking about it! It was almost a Kong Vault, and I believe it was higher than the place I hurt myself before. I was stoked, but my lunch hour was over so I would have to wait.
The next day, my wife needed the car so I would need to walk from the gym to work again. Insead of having her just drop me off at work, I asked her to let me drop my bags off at the office first. Then when I walked to work from the gym I had nothing keeping me from trying out some kongs, wall runs and tic-tacs. My lunch break consisted of this too. This is where I currently am and now I am consciously trying to improve my vision. Now I'm looking for the next obstacle for me to overcome. I've seen new places around work that I didn't even know existed. I'm still a novice and I most likely move slower and do less than many traceurs and traceusses out there, but that doesn't matter. Parkour is more an approach than certain movements, a philosophy to life that is practiced through the art of movement.
Below, I've linked a video put together by Demon of Demon's Drills called Vaults 102. Its a bit more than the basics ( it is a 102 class after all ) and it approaches vaults in an interesting way for improving your ability to overcome obstacles ( vision or ability to see possibility ).
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opUoIXgEdAk]
The good part is at the end, putting it together into a flow. Even more so, the good part is the text at the end of the credits, which you don't see in this version but here is a link to the full .wmv file at AmericanParkour.com.