After a solid week of decompression back home, I find myself remembering my intentions for this trip. It began simply enough, only 2 goals: learn a bit more French and train. Did I accomplish those 2 things? Yes, but it is the in-between stuff that made it all the more enjoyable…
I didn’t realize that I would end up spending the entire month of July training in Paris totally alone. It was really, really difficult to train in a new environment, trying to find good spots in a foreign country where I don’t really speak the language, all while utilizing my time efficiently, which is a major weakness for me.
No one that I was studying with knew of parkour, so many people in my program were very interested in me and my training, but they weren’t coming from a positive place. We have all had experiences with this type of person, “that looks easy, blah blah blah.” When I had no other traceurs or traceuses to relate to, though, that negative mentality really broke me down. I was really frustrated and angry, even though I knew it didn’t matter, all that mattered was my training. One big mental break that I had was just not caring what anyone thought anymore. Stop explaining yourself and just train. Everything happens just when it needs to, in the order it needs to.
Much thanks, love and respect to the traceurs of Lisses and all the traceurs and traceuses in London, especially Dan, Forest, Julie, Annty, Brian and Alli. A longer trip is in the works for next summer, but as for right now? I have some work to do…..
Happy training, everyone!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Thursday July 31st
After a very chilled out day of writing postcards, reflecting, and being sick, I went to the Indoor Class that Forest teaches. Special bonus was that Julie was there, so it was really nice to see 2 familiar faces after nearly 6 weeks of interacting with complete strangers. We began with a nice little "warm-up" which, in typical Forest-style, made me feel as if I were going to vomit. It was wonderful, haha! It began simple enough, just monkey walk 4 steps forward then 4 steps back. Because of the simplicity of it, though, I knew horrible things were coming....
Monkey walk 4 steps forward then back then stand. Next came what Forest just referred to as #2: crouch down, put your left hand in front of you pointing straight, right hand 90 degrees and a few inches away from the left hand. Jump, keeping your hands planted and swinging your legs toward your right hand, land, then jump back to the starting position and stand (shoddy description, but you probably know what I mean...). Then repeat from the opposite direction, and switch the hand placement, right is straight, left is 90. Stand, then monkey walk, #2 on each side but with a side monkey added to it, then stand. Then, monkey walking, #2 with side monkeys, and 10 praying monkeys (get into downward dog and put your forearms to the ground, then straighten back up again) and stand. Next, money walk, #2 with side monkeys, praying monkeys then 10 diving monkeys (do a praying monkey but keep the forearms down, bring your body down into plank, pop onto the hands and push up into the cobra, then reverse it all and end up in downward dog) and stand. Then (finally!!) repeat the whole thing with creeping monkeys added to the end (left hand a bit further forward and right a bit further back than normal monkey walking, when you go forward, have the right knee meet the outside of the right elbow, lower down so the left arm is in push up position. Move forward again, left knee meets the outside of the left elbow, right arm in push up position, same in the reverse. This was the last addition to the monkey work circuit, but then came the repetition! I don't know how much we repeated it, but it was a good amount. Forest's goal was to see us sweat...safe to say we were sweating. A lot.
Next, we sat legs forward, back straight, arms extended up and held it for 1 minute. I should probably point out that it wasn't 1 minute in real time, it was 1 minute in Forest time, which is in fact much longer than 1 actual minute. Then we switched the arms to the sides, parallel with our shoulders and held it. The important thing was that this was a group effort, because if 1 person dropped their arms or their back wasn't straight then everyone had to hold it longer.
We then moved on to some really good partner exercises and circuits. We separated into 4 groups for the 4 stations. The first one was pushups: 1 person bends slightly at the hips with a straight back, their partner has their hands on the ground and puts their feet on the person's thighs and does 10 pushups. Then we reversed roles and kept going until Forrest told us to switch. I probably did 40 pushups, so that's about 4 turns per person depending on how fast you were going. The next station was balance. There were 2 rubber balance things (flat on the bottom, rounded on top, probably has a name, but whatever) parallel to each other. We stood balancing on the balls of the feet, facing each other, arms in front of us with our palms against our partner's palms. Then we did squats while pushing each other's hands back and forth. The next station was a little circuit which I found to be particularly difficult as I am only now getting into my technical training. There was a tic tac over a gymnastics horse off a wall, then side monkey over a balance beam, go under the beam, then reverse vault over another horse, back under the beam and vault over another horse. The last station was just 3 consecutive side monkeys over vault boxes that were about 3.5 ft tall, and while you were in line waiting to go, to had to do a wall sit.
After that, we moved on to the warm down which consisted of some ab work and stretching. It really was a wonderful training session that I won't soon forget. Met some awesome people, got to see Forest and Julie again, and got to witness the spirit of the parkour community in London. It was very playful, but really really hard work. Much thanks and respect to everyone who was there, especially Alli Shelton who was my partner and Forrest for teaching a wonderful class!
Monkey walk 4 steps forward then back then stand. Next came what Forest just referred to as #2: crouch down, put your left hand in front of you pointing straight, right hand 90 degrees and a few inches away from the left hand. Jump, keeping your hands planted and swinging your legs toward your right hand, land, then jump back to the starting position and stand (shoddy description, but you probably know what I mean...). Then repeat from the opposite direction, and switch the hand placement, right is straight, left is 90. Stand, then monkey walk, #2 on each side but with a side monkey added to it, then stand. Then, monkey walking, #2 with side monkeys, and 10 praying monkeys (get into downward dog and put your forearms to the ground, then straighten back up again) and stand. Next, money walk, #2 with side monkeys, praying monkeys then 10 diving monkeys (do a praying monkey but keep the forearms down, bring your body down into plank, pop onto the hands and push up into the cobra, then reverse it all and end up in downward dog) and stand. Then (finally!!) repeat the whole thing with creeping monkeys added to the end (left hand a bit further forward and right a bit further back than normal monkey walking, when you go forward, have the right knee meet the outside of the right elbow, lower down so the left arm is in push up position. Move forward again, left knee meets the outside of the left elbow, right arm in push up position, same in the reverse. This was the last addition to the monkey work circuit, but then came the repetition! I don't know how much we repeated it, but it was a good amount. Forest's goal was to see us sweat...safe to say we were sweating. A lot.
Next, we sat legs forward, back straight, arms extended up and held it for 1 minute. I should probably point out that it wasn't 1 minute in real time, it was 1 minute in Forest time, which is in fact much longer than 1 actual minute. Then we switched the arms to the sides, parallel with our shoulders and held it. The important thing was that this was a group effort, because if 1 person dropped their arms or their back wasn't straight then everyone had to hold it longer.
We then moved on to some really good partner exercises and circuits. We separated into 4 groups for the 4 stations. The first one was pushups: 1 person bends slightly at the hips with a straight back, their partner has their hands on the ground and puts their feet on the person's thighs and does 10 pushups. Then we reversed roles and kept going until Forrest told us to switch. I probably did 40 pushups, so that's about 4 turns per person depending on how fast you were going. The next station was balance. There were 2 rubber balance things (flat on the bottom, rounded on top, probably has a name, but whatever) parallel to each other. We stood balancing on the balls of the feet, facing each other, arms in front of us with our palms against our partner's palms. Then we did squats while pushing each other's hands back and forth. The next station was a little circuit which I found to be particularly difficult as I am only now getting into my technical training. There was a tic tac over a gymnastics horse off a wall, then side monkey over a balance beam, go under the beam, then reverse vault over another horse, back under the beam and vault over another horse. The last station was just 3 consecutive side monkeys over vault boxes that were about 3.5 ft tall, and while you were in line waiting to go, to had to do a wall sit.
After that, we moved on to the warm down which consisted of some ab work and stretching. It really was a wonderful training session that I won't soon forget. Met some awesome people, got to see Forest and Julie again, and got to witness the spirit of the parkour community in London. It was very playful, but really really hard work. Much thanks and respect to everyone who was there, especially Alli Shelton who was my partner and Forrest for teaching a wonderful class!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Tuesday July 28th
Last day in Paris!! Went to class for 2 hours in the morning and got my little diploma (go me!). My prof is really cool, I'll miss her. She is super sarcastic, talks really fast and makes fun of us all the time. Her choice nicknames for me were Miss Spiderman and Mademoiselle Yamakasi, ha! Did a bit of shopping today, went out to an utterly french dinner with my friends (bread, french onion soup, roasted chicken, then shared crepes suzette, creme brulee and chocolate cake). We went to a jazz club later that night, it was a pretty perfect evening. I packed 'till about 2:30 in the morning, then went to sleep. Had to be outside at 7:15 to catch my taxi to the train station. I think I am getting good at saying good-bye and leaving places in general. Wasn't too hard for me, but that doesn't mean that I won't miss them or Paris. Just sort of something that needs to happen, I guess.
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Wednesday July 29th
Got to the train station really early, which I was really happy about. I almost had a break down when I realized that none of the elevators were working and the escalator going up was broken. Fuck. It is probably important to note that I have 1 huge suitcase and 1 medium suitcase which weigh upwards of 150 lbs, plus a laptop bag, a tote bag filled with toiletries and a purse filled with notebooks and other such nonsense. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why the hell do I have so much stuff?! I didn't know what I would need before the trip, so I'll just chalk this up as a learning experience, albeit a very annoying one. Grr!
I just stared at the steps for about 5 minutes then started up. I had to throw the medium bag behind me, up 3 steps, then drag the huge suitcase up 2 steps, then throw the medium one again, then drag again. I am really stubborn and refused to make 2 trips, plus I just feel very paranoid that someone is going to take off with my bag as soon as I take my eyes/hands off of it (even though they are too heavy for anyone to run with). I got up the first section of stairs and was in PAIN. It was bad. I probably should have warmed up first, haha. 3 separate guys offered to help me carry my bags up the second flight, but I refused because I was pissed off and wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself.
Train ride was uneventful, I was very excited to see that no one was in the seat next to me, so I got to move to the window. Small victory, I choose to believe that it had something to do with dragging all that stuff up the stairs.
Got to London, took a taxi to the hotel, checked in and immediately took a shower and a nap. I woke up really hungry, so I walked to this huge mall about 15 minutes away and tried to find food and an adapter. I failed at the former, and ended up going to a McDonald's on the way back, I did get the adapter, though. Came back and was feeling really rotten, a cold has been brewing for the past week and now it is in full force! Took another nap, then re-packed my stuff as I got tired last night and just started throwing stuff in.
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Wednesday July 29th
Got to the train station really early, which I was really happy about. I almost had a break down when I realized that none of the elevators were working and the escalator going up was broken. Fuck. It is probably important to note that I have 1 huge suitcase and 1 medium suitcase which weigh upwards of 150 lbs, plus a laptop bag, a tote bag filled with toiletries and a purse filled with notebooks and other such nonsense. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why the hell do I have so much stuff?! I didn't know what I would need before the trip, so I'll just chalk this up as a learning experience, albeit a very annoying one. Grr!
I just stared at the steps for about 5 minutes then started up. I had to throw the medium bag behind me, up 3 steps, then drag the huge suitcase up 2 steps, then throw the medium one again, then drag again. I am really stubborn and refused to make 2 trips, plus I just feel very paranoid that someone is going to take off with my bag as soon as I take my eyes/hands off of it (even though they are too heavy for anyone to run with). I got up the first section of stairs and was in PAIN. It was bad. I probably should have warmed up first, haha. 3 separate guys offered to help me carry my bags up the second flight, but I refused because I was pissed off and wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself.
Train ride was uneventful, I was very excited to see that no one was in the seat next to me, so I got to move to the window. Small victory, I choose to believe that it had something to do with dragging all that stuff up the stairs.
Got to London, took a taxi to the hotel, checked in and immediately took a shower and a nap. I woke up really hungry, so I walked to this huge mall about 15 minutes away and tried to find food and an adapter. I failed at the former, and ended up going to a McDonald's on the way back, I did get the adapter, though. Came back and was feeling really rotten, a cold has been brewing for the past week and now it is in full force! Took another nap, then re-packed my stuff as I got tired last night and just started throwing stuff in.
Monday July 28th
I cut my oral comprehension workshop today so that I could head out on a solo expedition to try and find the Cinema Museum (tried and failed once before). I came up from the metro and was right near a stadium. My immediate reaction was, "Wow, great spot for parkour..." but as I was on a mission to find the museum and was wearing tight jeans, a shirt that was somewhat low-cut and no sports bra, I decided to keep looking for my museum instead of playing.
I spotted a little park that was on the side of the stadium and was following a sign for the museum when I saw someone in the distance do a pop vault over a wall and then a cat to the wall in front of it. Immediately peaked my attention because I haven't seen ANYONE doing any parkour-type exercise in Paris. It was definitely parkour, it had to be! So as I got a bit closer I saw another guy do the same thing, then another, then another. I thought, "I have hit the jackpot, I ran into some random traceurs training a circuit! I have to talk to them, I don't care how bad my french is!!"
So I walked over to a bench to watch them for a bit planning on talking to them when they took a break as I didn't want to interrupt their training. As I walk over there was a guy standing on a little wall sort of looking at me looking at them, so I smiled as I walked by, he returned the smile, whatevs. I got to my bench, started sipping my water and watched about 6 traceurs go through their circuit. It was really nice to see, they were doing tic tacs off of a tree to a little concrete wall about 5 feet away, then going to the next tree and repeating down the row of 4 or 5 times. There were a few concrete ping pong tables that they got over, 2 of them double konged it, one guy did a side sumi off, some of them just hopped up and then off. It looked like they had all been working for a while and were really tired!
I was watching them for about 2 minutes when something started to click...as they got closer to where I was sitting, I looked over at the guy who smiled at me as I walked past and realized that it was Chau and the guy leading the circuit was Laurent. How random is that?!
So when they went on their water break, I went over and introduced myself. They were asking about New York, the people that train there, how I train, etc. I told them a bit about my trip thus far and training alone in Paris. It was then that I found out that they train every weekday at that place. GRRR! Oh well, though. Training alone has been a huge confidence booster, and I still have 5 days with PK Gen to look forward to, so there is no shortage of experienced teaching in my near future. :o)
Laurent said they were very tired from about 2 solid hours of training, but they were going to play a little bit if I wanted to join them. I looked down at my jeans and shirt and knew it was going to suck training in them (especially without a sports bra, aaaagh!!!) but hey, I won't let my clothes stop me.
Laurent, 2 of the traceurs from the circuit, 1 little boy (about 6 years old, it was adorable), an older gentleman and I did demi-tours on one of the concrete ping pong tables for a half hour or so. I have major fear when it comes to them, so that was really hard for me. The table came up to just above my hips, we did one from the right to the left in a constant line. I was using one foot on the table in the beginning, trying to get my confidence up by moving it more and more towards the edge as I continued. Going from the left to the right was sooo hard, definitely my weak side. I was getting really frustrated because I had made obvious progression going from the left to the right but was still having the same problems with the left, so I went to the other side of the table and drilled them from the left with 1 foot on the table. Got better, closer to a proper demi-tour. The guys finished up, but I continued with my demi-tours. One of the traceurs that was training demi-tours with me was apart of Majestic Force, this 21 year old guy Tony (could be a weird french spelling for that), I think he said he had been training for about 2.5 years. He came over and helped me build up to a demi-tour from the right. It took a while, but I got it! Not perfect yet, but it's a start. :o) Super cool guy, merci beaucoup, Tony!!!
They suggested that I come train with them, but I only had 1 more day in Paris and I needed to do some major running around. Next time I'm in France, though!!! As for right now? I'm off to London.......
I spotted a little park that was on the side of the stadium and was following a sign for the museum when I saw someone in the distance do a pop vault over a wall and then a cat to the wall in front of it. Immediately peaked my attention because I haven't seen ANYONE doing any parkour-type exercise in Paris. It was definitely parkour, it had to be! So as I got a bit closer I saw another guy do the same thing, then another, then another. I thought, "I have hit the jackpot, I ran into some random traceurs training a circuit! I have to talk to them, I don't care how bad my french is!!"
So I walked over to a bench to watch them for a bit planning on talking to them when they took a break as I didn't want to interrupt their training. As I walk over there was a guy standing on a little wall sort of looking at me looking at them, so I smiled as I walked by, he returned the smile, whatevs. I got to my bench, started sipping my water and watched about 6 traceurs go through their circuit. It was really nice to see, they were doing tic tacs off of a tree to a little concrete wall about 5 feet away, then going to the next tree and repeating down the row of 4 or 5 times. There were a few concrete ping pong tables that they got over, 2 of them double konged it, one guy did a side sumi off, some of them just hopped up and then off. It looked like they had all been working for a while and were really tired!
I was watching them for about 2 minutes when something started to click...as they got closer to where I was sitting, I looked over at the guy who smiled at me as I walked past and realized that it was Chau and the guy leading the circuit was Laurent. How random is that?!
So when they went on their water break, I went over and introduced myself. They were asking about New York, the people that train there, how I train, etc. I told them a bit about my trip thus far and training alone in Paris. It was then that I found out that they train every weekday at that place. GRRR! Oh well, though. Training alone has been a huge confidence booster, and I still have 5 days with PK Gen to look forward to, so there is no shortage of experienced teaching in my near future. :o)
Laurent said they were very tired from about 2 solid hours of training, but they were going to play a little bit if I wanted to join them. I looked down at my jeans and shirt and knew it was going to suck training in them (especially without a sports bra, aaaagh!!!) but hey, I won't let my clothes stop me.
Laurent, 2 of the traceurs from the circuit, 1 little boy (about 6 years old, it was adorable), an older gentleman and I did demi-tours on one of the concrete ping pong tables for a half hour or so. I have major fear when it comes to them, so that was really hard for me. The table came up to just above my hips, we did one from the right to the left in a constant line. I was using one foot on the table in the beginning, trying to get my confidence up by moving it more and more towards the edge as I continued. Going from the left to the right was sooo hard, definitely my weak side. I was getting really frustrated because I had made obvious progression going from the left to the right but was still having the same problems with the left, so I went to the other side of the table and drilled them from the left with 1 foot on the table. Got better, closer to a proper demi-tour. The guys finished up, but I continued with my demi-tours. One of the traceurs that was training demi-tours with me was apart of Majestic Force, this 21 year old guy Tony (could be a weird french spelling for that), I think he said he had been training for about 2.5 years. He came over and helped me build up to a demi-tour from the right. It took a while, but I got it! Not perfect yet, but it's a start. :o) Super cool guy, merci beaucoup, Tony!!!
They suggested that I come train with them, but I only had 1 more day in Paris and I needed to do some major running around. Next time I'm in France, though!!! As for right now? I'm off to London.......
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