PK: Journal 3

Today I decided to try “Time Trials” at Apex Movement NorCal (my home away from home). No what time trials is… well lets just take that blurble from the website itself.

You won’t find mini tramps, salmon ladders, or rope swings in this class. This will be dedicated to pure Parkour applied to common shapes and obstacles you’ll find in the real world.

Basically it is a class utilizing what you learned in class and applying it to mini obstacle courses meant to challenge your mind and body. I was the only one attending class today. This was the first time attending this class, but after the workout I had yesterday I felt like I should move a bit more so that I don’t stiffen up (more on that later). We ran the course that Alan made for me and after a few runs we starting picking apart technique and ways to improve. Instead of merely vaulting over that box, maybe try this instead. Or try to lache across instead of doing monkey-bars. In the end my body couldn’t handle it but we did get to learn more about what I thought was incapable and in reality it was my mind shutting myself down.

We worked on foot placement for rail balancing. I just recently got some barefoot shoes that I’m not comfortable with. almost about 75%. Then we practiced rail jumps because well frankly I should be able to do them.  I can broadjump pretty far and that is over the distance that I should be able to do rail to rail. We worked on them on the floor rather than at height because my mind is a dangerous thing.

Then we went to my favorite. Kong Vaults. I when training for this, never liked it. My reasoning is because I have a substantial amount of power that I’m learning how to control. I’m also afraid to overshoot in case of injury. We tried a few and Alan watched my technique. He too saw my explosive leg power and we tried to create situations where I would get my muscle memory to act accordingly. After a few times I was satisfied enough with myself to try it without supervision. That was a bad mistake. So we placed to foam towers close to each other to stimulate a short distance I would need to vault over one, and still manage to have enough room to get over the other. I was able to do that. Then being over-confident but still weary, I was seeing how close the distance I could do. There is a skill called a double kong. I have not mastered it because I face planted into the second box having too much momentum and scorpion-ing a bit, hurting my thoracic area and pulling my the left  inside thigh muscles. So now I can’t walk correctly.

 

In news of a more positive aspect. I tried to do our rope climb. The idea of this challenge is to start sitting on the floor and to climb up the rope as fast as you can, control decline, then go back up again. I beat my old time and managed around 18.6 seconds. I will need to try this again.

 Because of the workouts from yesterday and this morning, I thought (bad idea) to practice b-twist or butterfly twist. I can get the butterfly kick due to my practice with kung-fu. I mostly landed this one, at least from what my friend was watching. Still, I’m injured so the smart thing would be to lie down and rest. Which I am going to do after this post. Thanks for the follows! I hope I can recover soon! Til the next time!

PK: Journal 2

Ok not too big of an update since I haven’t been to another class

The things I accomplished were: Glide Kips and muscle-ups (4)

Yay!

Glide Kip

Muscle-Ups

“I’m a Survivor!” Mud run finisher

April 28, 2013

Two friends and I decided to partake in this challenge, the Survivor Mud Run. There were mud pits of unknown depths, tires to run through and jump over, monkey bars, cargo nets to climb up and to climb over, a pipe tunnel, slip and slid into more unknown water/mud, more mud, wall hurdles, did I mention mud?

Here’s how it went down. We signed up late so we got the last heat at 11:15. In case you don’t know… we were up in northern California about 15-20 minutes away from Sacramento in some barren allergy inducing hills. It was such an awesome day, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. (UGH) So we start our preparations, grabbing our bibs, securing the car keys, sunblock, and stretching to prevent over injuring ourselves. Unfortunate for me, I decided to go sock-less and in minimalistic shoes. <– BAD IDEA!

We head over to the starting line, the announcer hamming it up pre-race. Eyerolling we waited patiently to get this over with. At least in my head. The first few obstacles we actually had to run up a few hills. I have to admit that I was quite entertaining through-out the whole thing. If it wasn’t for my snarky whining and complaining, then my antics impersonating a gazelle caught on tape were equally awesome.

Flat ground was fine, I started to feel the pains in my feet. But the tough gets going… right? It was ridiculously hot that I was actually looking forward to the mud to act as a layer of protection from the sun. Another unfortunate thing was that we did not know how large the presence of COW would be in the race. Every mud “pond” was brown and smelled like cow-pies. Being the last heat also had its bad moments because all the mud leading out of the pud pits were conformed to

shoe dips that solidified and then were coated with more mud so twisting an ankle was a huge safety point.

I was really gearing up to use my new-found skills in parkour to get me through this race. There were no actual obstacles needing that skill. I was smart in every encounter taking the least hazardous method to get from point A to B. I actually fell behind my friends, mostly due to my shoes because I lacked a sock to absorb the liquid, they became a bowl of gravel and mud. At times my shoe would twist and I would be running on the side with the heel perpendicular to the ground.

Trying to get over uneven ground was a huge obstacle because of this, which is why I started skipping and frolicking to make the least amount of ground contact because my soles would conform to the uneven ground and cause pain to my feet.

Another fun obstacle was the monkey bars. I brought workout gloves but I was unsure on how I would feel with them on. In hindsight, I should have used them. The monkey bars were only about 12 bars in 12 inches distance apart. I was watching people fail at them so I mentally prepared myself. We do monkey bars in parkour so I was ready for the challenge. The bars in themselves were no challenge at all. I grabbed the first bar and using my hips as momentum I went every other bar to finish in less than a minute. What I did not expect was the amount of mud that was encased on each bar causing my hands (my hands are recovering from burns I acquired from Starbucks back in 2005) to immediately turn red and swell. “Lucky” again there was a mud pit coming up so I used that to cool my hands.

There was a camaraderie in this heat. A lot of guys came with their significant other or friends and paved the road for them being very gentlemanly. We had a bungee maze to maneuver and we basically all stood on the bungees in sections so everyone in that pack can make it through. We would offer advice and ideas on how to get through something.  In the end the race was not thoroughly exhausting but nor was it challenging. It was a good experience and a learning one too. I did not injure myself as much as the race I did last year. I did not come unscathed, I have numerous scratches on my legs and arms and a nice cargo net imprint on the right side of my face. My pride is still intact and I’m still here to write about it.

  

PK: Journal 1

I figure I could list what I feel are my accomplishments when I do parkour. There is a lot of mental breakdown that I have to hurdle over (if you excuse the pun.) My mind and my body are not agreeing and either one will stop me if it feels I’m being stupid. Granted I have to take risks in Parkour, however it’s a long process to get my body to over come my mind.

Today we were working on [CASTING!]… I forgot the term. I’ll ask and update later. Basically we would have the bar at our hips and swing up with our legs off it to get our feet on top of the bar. I promptly pulled something. (wonderful, still hurts too…) We move from the low bars to the higher ones. After a few tries I stood on top of the bar! I have never ever, stood on top of that bar. It’s maybe 10 feet off the ground. I have this horrid fear of heights… well my mind does. Meh.

Took a break and we practiced walking around on top of the lower bars. Until this day I’ve only walked around on the bars maybe a handful of times. I’ve been attending the gym since late February. So I was able to walk around nonchalantly and foolishly once. Then it was time to get to the higher bar. Basically froze. Didn’t know what to do, starting whining like this sad sad puppy, scared. I had a great support team around me. So I somehow crawled up to the top of the pole, which had a corner so there were points I could stand on. But I squatted. I just couldn’t get up. I still thank everyone for not giving up on me and believing in me. Eventually after 5 more minutes of whining and complaining (I believe her name was) Elise coached me and we stood up together. Which I froze again. About maybe 7 minutes passed with me standing on top of the poles, legs getting tired because they are stressed out from focusing on standing. I really was in no danger to fall… and I realized that… mentally. But my fear of heights took hold. The next move was to take a step. The distance was about 4 feet. In the end I did it, and I was fine. (damn you fear!)

The next thing to do was to jump from a box to do a landing continuum (figure out the options in case you don’t make it, basically.) Again, stupid mind wouldn’t let my body work. I kept “half-assing” the jump because of injury fear or over thinking the process. I wasn’t able to complete this task and in the end I had 25 push-ups and 50 pull-ups as my punishment.

I didn’t know that this would be so challenging overall in body and mind! But it is and I’m loving every minute of it, even the minutes where I fail. I know that if and when I try again, I will succeed! Until then just ignore my “mews” and “whines”.

Thanks for the support guys!

-W

Response to “Tyler Ward’s Song – The Rescue”

“This is your life” in the last moments of the song. Watching the video made it all real. That everyone has their own personal journey to partake, and each one is different yet it is all similar  We all have our demons to face and those demons are what’s stopping us from taking charge of our life. Grasp it and take it! We waste our time pitying ourselves,  perfect strangers, family and friends when we could be moving forward. Life is not meant to be sat upon watching the scenery change around you. Everyone needs that one thing to help them breakthrough. Be it religion, music, friends and family, sports, self-expression… Find it! and Own it! Don’t worry, we are all here to support you.

This video shows so many different people from different places in different times of their lives. But they had the courage to post a video of what they wish to be rescued from. Stand up and find your courage! Don’t worry that no one around you is standing, the ones that matter are inside your heart! Be an example of what you live for! You live for you! Not anyone else!

I’m writing this because I admire Tyler for showing me his love in his music. I’m showing my love by writing. If not just a handful of people, that is enough to show people what they are capable of. To be a loving living example of Life, may it be a spark in a long line of firecrackers. Each explodes in different ways but combined can create a magnitude of light and warmth. Be that. Take a second and watch the video. Regardless of your own personal opinion, we all come from different walks of life… but walking leads to running. That’s where I want to be.

-W

“So I’m here breaking down your door
Calling out your name
I want to take away the pain
You know I’m here like I was before
Screaming out your name
Waiting for the change

[Chorus]
I am captivated by
The way you look tonight
And I’ve seen what you’ve been into

So I will never cross the line
I won’t tell you any lies
I was sent here for the rescue”

A Reason to Move (Cerebral Palsy – Parkour)

Boy who could not walk now rock climbing

Reblogged from Sykose:

A BOY who two years ago could not walk unaided is now rock climbing and swimming in what his mother describes as a dream come true.

Two years ago this month, Ajay Mallan, now seven, underwent costly surgery in the USA to help him walk independently for the first time.

Read more… 313 more words