A New Approach

Recently, I have been giving my training a lot of difficult introspection. I have been wondering what use all this technical training is when the progression has slowed so much that I am not sure if the techniques need so much more refinement any more. I could easily continue training in this way and make progress, but it would surely be slow. In fact, I believe that it is the strength that will be gained over time from technical drilling that would be the majority of the progress made. For sure, that technical drilling would further instill muscle-memory and ensure less failure, which is definitely important, but I am beginning to think that strict technical drilling is a little more useless at this stage in the game than many people consider.

However, it has also crossed my mind that it is merely the focus on techniques that needs to done away with, not just the drilling. While I have lately been focusing much more on conditioning than I ever have before, some new and creative ideas have sprung forth in my mind. Many of these ideas have come as a result of watching videos and realizing that some movements that completely awe me are only so seemingly incredible because I have not trained the capacities to perform in such a way. It was, ultimately, the limit of the technical drilling I had been taking part of; not the drilling itself, but the manner of drilling.

When I return home in two weeks, I will shoot a video demonstrating my revelations. This is, in part, to analyze these new methods and see if they are, indeed, useful, or if I am just wasting my time and energy, but I honestly believe that it is training these methods that will lead to the progress that I want in Parkour. This has nothing to do with increasing entrance or exit distance. This has nothing to do with ensuring that I can vault something six inches higher than I could before. Quite in fact, this has all to do with the control of my body and the ability to effortlessly move through any given environment. This has all to do with learning the body.

One of the ideas that has seeded into my mind has been from a short clip of a video in which a traceur exited a roll into a stand, already in a split-foot position, threw his arms back and launched into a kong immediately. He did not take so much as a step coming out of the roll. I realized immediately that this was an ability I lack, and so I intend to train all of my vaults, wall-runs, etc. coming out of a roll, trying to minimize the necessary steps coming out, and understanding how to exit the roll and set up for a coming technique at the same time. I will do this with a straight-on approach, a left approach, and a right approach, and see how effective it all is... I will see if it cannot improve me in some way. Another idea came from a post on PKNA, which caused me to understand that while I had always been strict about diagonal approaches in my vaulting drills, I never even considered a diagonal approach on a wall-run. The very thought of it seems extremely difficult, and so I will drill this technique to the best of my ability, figuring out whether the inside or outside leg is best to kick off of. Many other ideas in my mind, and we shall see where this all leads.

Happy training.

The New Gym Structure

First of all, before I get into what happened at the gym, I want to get into Wednesday night's training. It was dark and cold, and gloves had to be worn most of the time, which obstructed some movement, but it was overall pretty good. It wasn't the best, but it was some degree of activity that is always good to have when you feel a little bit too sedentary.

As for the gym, we held the newly restructured gym session last night. We arrived a little late, and Dan was already leading the warm-up, but what we went through was still very tough, even coming in halfway through. My quadriceps were giving out halfway through! The sheer amount of endurance to keep up with what Dan sought will take a LOT of training for me to work up to. I hesitate to think how much I would have shut down if I were there from the beginning. I had to step out of the activities once or twice. Partly, this is due to the unexpected nausea from exercise as my body adjusts to this new medication that I am on, but when my body does readjust itself, I hope I'll be able to work my way through to a higher level of fitness and endurance that I was at before, or am at now. I managed to increase my sheer power and musculature, so hopefully, the endurance will not be so much of an issue.

Overall, the new structure went over really well, and I think everyone had a good amount of fun. There was a lot of training going on, everyone training different and useful capacities during the open hour. I had Dan instruct me on learning to take-off split-foot, as opposed to the powerful two-foot punch that I am accustomed to. This is very difficult, unnatural, and awkward for me, but toward the end, I began to get more of a feel for it. I feel like to punch off while keeping my natural stride requires the full use of my arms as well as an engagement with the hamstrings and glutes. It was a very difficult kind of take-off when I was successfully getting it off. When the two-foot, I feel powerful, and my exit distance is muscled out. I haven't been able to get much exit with the split-foot yet, though I understand that I should be getting more once it becomes more natural, but I do feel like I am "floating" over the obstacle. It almost feels like graceful flight, rather than powerful punch. This was unsettling to the point where the first time it happened, I had no clue why or how I was in the air. But I will continue to practice this, in the pursuit of learning my body and moving better.

The snow has recently fallen, so the games I have planned for the Hamilton scene will be taking place soon, if I can get everyone together for it.