I know, I know...it has been a while, right?
Feeling abandoned? Not like anyone reads this thing anyway, but for the few of you that do, here's what I've been up to...
8 minutes and 51 seconds of pure awesomeness! Hope you enjoy!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, October 20, 2008
Evolution
So, I have to do a documentary on myself for a media class I’m taking. This means, of course, that it’ll be focused on my training because I am utterly and irrevocably mired in parkour.
I’ll be filming myself training over the next few weeks. Going to be addressing a ton of mental block and general fear issues, analyzing technique (aka tearing it apart, heh), addressing all my weaknesses and document the mental and physical progression. I’m coming out of a down period in training right now, so it’ll definitely be interesting for me to watch and hopefully for you all too.
Keep a look out for some snippets that’ll be coming out in the next few weeks! 'Till then, happy training!!!
I’ll be filming myself training over the next few weeks. Going to be addressing a ton of mental block and general fear issues, analyzing technique (aka tearing it apart, heh), addressing all my weaknesses and document the mental and physical progression. I’m coming out of a down period in training right now, so it’ll definitely be interesting for me to watch and hopefully for you all too.
Keep a look out for some snippets that’ll be coming out in the next few weeks! 'Till then, happy training!!!
Monday, October 6, 2008
It's My Parkour Birthday!!!!
Today, October 6th, 2008 is my first birthday within the parkour universe. One year ago, I was feeling very nervous, very anxious and very excited because I was on my way to see David Belle and officially begin my training. I don't think I could have picked a better day to start training if I tried! The sun was shining, the weather was unusually warm for October, and to top it off, David Belle was there. I had never been to a jam before, much less a training day and demo for the New Yorker Festival. Over 50 people showed up to participate. I was the only woman and I felt really, really alone. I tried my best, though, did what I could, and it was a fantastic 2 days.
The famous photo... I won’t lie, I cringe every time I see that footage from the New Yorker video, but with more distance, I’m surprised I wasn’t more intimidated considering that I had guys literally flying over my head, hurling themselves over vault boxes that I was struggling to simply lift myself onto top of. There were three professional camera people filming, an audience which included more able-bodied traceurs, reporters and over one hundred spectators (many of whom were little girls), and on top of all that, David (or “the guru,” as Dino jokingly calls him) was pacing around, watching everyone. Despite all of that, I nonchalantly tuned everything out and concentrated on my body and what I was doing. In addition, I pretty much got a personal training session with both David and Dino for a few minutes, which felt really special. Dino later told me that he and David had talked the night before and knew how hard it was for me to come out and do this when I had never trained before. Any other struggle that I was going through was neutralized by that comment because I didn’t feel alone anymore.
Me and David
Dino from PK One in Germany and my brother Paul
Two months after the New Yorker Event, I left the country for the first time (with the exception of Canada). I don’t think I’ve ever felt more at peace than when I was in Thailand. I did a tiny bit of rural training there, but I was really feeling the cultural differences in the food! I lost 10 pounds off my already small frame, so training was minimal. When I think of Thailand, I feel 2 things, the first is hunger and the second is nostalgia. It was a really touristy trip, so I plan on living there for a while in the near future.
Sawatdee Kha!
I started having the Ladies’ Jams in Central Park in early February, shortly before Stephane Vigroux, Dan Edwardes and Chris Keighley of Parkour Generations came over with Julie Angel for a day of training. Good training and great conversations were had, and I’m very happy I missed class for it!
In May I found myself on a 14 hour bus ride to Columbus, Ohio for a 4 day long event with Parkour Horizons and Parkour Generations. I met Kazuma, Forrest and Johann Vigroux for the first time, and caught up with Stephane, Dan and Julie, along with the Ohio guys, Tyson, Jereme, Levi and a bunch of other American traceurs. It was a really hard few days, but I got some good training in and made awesome friends!
Dan, Stephane, Forrest, Kazuma and Johann with some of the ladies
From late June to early August, I lived in Paris while studying French and training parkour. A little trip to Lisses was a serious highlight, as well as the mental strength that comes from training alone, but then also the brother and sisterhood that comes from training with others.
After that, a measly 5 days was spent in London, mostly sick, but I did get the chance to take 2 classes with PK Gen, which was pretty incredible.
So...it's been a hell of a year. I attempted to give myself the best possible start in parkour, and I think that did a pretty good job: Thailand, France, London, David Belle, Stephane and Johann Vigroux, Kazuma, Dan Edwardes, Forrest...the list goes on. I've made incredible friends and deeply thank everyone who helped make this year what it was.
One year ago, I was showing my parents and brothers Speed Air Man and the UF3 Documentary on Stephane. One year later, I've met them and have been to those places. When Steph came to New York in February, he spoke to us about all the investment you have to give of yourself to really be good in Parkour. The older I get in this discipline, the more I understand that, and the more I want to give of myself. I want to get to a good level and be able to transmit all the knowledge I've been given back to those who want to learn. All of that is for the future, though. As for right now, what's next? Too soon to tell, but one thing I'm sure of is this: I'm going to keep training.
Train hard, train safe, train with conviction and passion, in the right spirit and always for the right reasons.
Thanks so much to everyone I've met over the past year. Lots more training and adventures to be had and many more people to meet. 'Till then, keep training and respect!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
RAAAHR!!!
Haven't forgotten about this thing, promise...
Got some gymnastics rings in today, so that will provide endless hours of fun and torture.
Trained with my brother the other day for the first time in a long while. Did variations of money movement through the yard and around the front of the house, so that was interesting for the neighbors to see. I found myself yelling at him in french a fair bit, which was fun. I tend to bust his chops because he is a bit of a weekend-warrior, but he does make a good effort. Gotta give him that.
Some interesting and exciting things are in the works for the near future, so I'll update accordingly.
'Till then, happy training!!
Got some gymnastics rings in today, so that will provide endless hours of fun and torture.
Trained with my brother the other day for the first time in a long while. Did variations of money movement through the yard and around the front of the house, so that was interesting for the neighbors to see. I found myself yelling at him in french a fair bit, which was fun. I tend to bust his chops because he is a bit of a weekend-warrior, but he does make a good effort. Gotta give him that.
Some interesting and exciting things are in the works for the near future, so I'll update accordingly.
'Till then, happy training!!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Trip Reflection...
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!
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!
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.
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