Ohio Ladies' Jam Write Up

I don't know why I didn't post this earlier, but here's my write up from the ladies' training day during the Ohio State/Parkour Generations Training Seminar last year, along with some pictures and a video of the day made by Kaisen of PK Horizons in Ohio. Enjoy!

Ohio Seminar- Ladies' Jam Write Up

Parkour Generations:

Dan Edwardes, Stephane Vigroux, Forrest, Kazuma, Johann Vigroux

I find that things usually happen exactly when you need them to. In the days before the Ohio Ladies' Jam, I was really feeling the pressure and stress of being a woman in a male-dominated discipline. I was in somewhat of a parkour funk, something I think we are all familiar with.

The day began at Black Sheep where 9 traceuses met up with Stephane Vigroux and Julie Angel and Kaisen and Ryan from Parkour Horizons. After a short introduction of names and how long we have been training, Stephane led us in a short joint rotation warmup. We woke up our touch with some simple balance drills: walking on a rail, balancing on the balls of the foot, lowering into a squat and then standing straight up and holding the resting position.

Steph & Ladies - Balance Drill

Stephane with some of the Ladies at the Ladies' Jam

We then moved on to various forms of quadrapedal movement: monkey walking backwards and forwards, side-monkeys but with the hips up and frog hops. After that, we started doing different types of vaults over the fence. Stephane really took time to help all of us overcome any fears/reservations and work out any technical problems we were having. Julie even set down her camera a few times and helped some of the girls with their balance and vaults, as well as offer encouragement and tell us a bit about the female scene in London.

For many of the ladies there, it was their very first training day, but their enthusiasm, determination and willingness to learn was so inspiring. Training under someone as experienced as Stephane may be intimidating to some, but when such a talented traceur approaches teaching with no ego, it creates an incredibly positive environment which allows one to drop any preconceptions about training and just train. That mentality allows us to fall, laugh, have fun, play, progress, be happy and work incredibly hard without realizing it.

Terace and I doing quadrepedal movement

From there, we moved on to a circuit led by Stephane which made us heavily utilize our touch and strength. The circuit involved quadrapedal movement, small precisions, cat leaps, balance, etc. The goal was simply to keep moving and find our own way over the obstacle with no stress and no hesitation. If Stephane saw that I was hesitating on something he would recognize it right away and just say, "too much time, find another way," which was exactly what I needed to hear.We then broke up into 2 groups according to level of training. The inexperienced group worked on a small tic tac, while the more advanced group worked on a larger tic tac to cat, then muscle-up. The spirit of all the ladies training together and everyone's enthusiasm was unparalleled to any jam I have been to. Everyone was encouraging and applauding each other (literally and metaphorically). Instead of ignoring the fact that we are women, we acknowledged it, thereby allowing us to overcome the obviously illegitimate mental block that women cannot perform at the same level or train as hard as men do.

Tanya and Ann

After a short lunch at Subway, we moved on to a local parking garage for a really relaxed session. Stephane asked what we wanted to work on, and the main consensus was rolls, so he did a roll tutorial on the grass and worked with each girl one-on-one. Julie also helped out while Steph was busy working, and the girls offered constructive criticism and a helpful eye to each other. At that point Muhammad had dropped by to let Steph and Julie know how the big meeting went, so some of the girls worked on little pop vaults over a small wall, some worked on cat balance and some continued with rolls. We then played a rousing game of qm tag, and finally, Steph led us in some stretching and breathing exercises.Jamming with the ladies, Stephane and Julie made me realize why I love parkour and how much I love it. I am utterly and irrevocably mired in it. It is something that lives inside me, which is something I can now say with conviction. Finding one's place in the parkour universe as a woman can prove to be difficult at times, but jams like the Ohio Ladies' Jam are so beneficial because they open the line of communication and create strong bonds between women training, which is important, especially at this point in parkour's progression America.

Some of the Ladies posing with PK Gen