AdamKuebler.com » parkour

The Secret to Nailing Techniques

Adam Kuebler — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:02:33 +0000

Picture by Kiell of Parkour Generations

Amateurs practice until they get it right, pros practice until they can’t get it wrong.

I see thread after thread after thread on parkour forums say that they could do some move or technique or combination one day. Then they come back the next day or a few days later and can’t do it. They are baffled and frustrated, and I completely understand.

Everyone goes through this until they learn the secret to overcome it. It’s not mental discipline, it’s not visualization, it’s not having eaten healthy that day, and it’s not how tired you are. All of these things have an effect sure, but there is one thing that is the difference between nailing it once, and nailing for good.

Repitition.

When you do something new for the first time, it is a combination of mental strength, preparation, lack of fatigue, etc. But until you have that in muscle memory, you will have to have the same combination of factors every time you do it.

Muscle memory is very like your regular memory, there is short term and long term. When you do something, you now have it in short term muscle memory. You could go back and do it again and again the same day pretty easily. But it is not in long term muscle memory.

This is why if you go back the next day to do the same thing after only doing it once or twice, it will be much harder to do because only a little bit was committed to muscle memory and the short term memory has all but faded away.

So in order to nail techniques, once you do something for the first time, do it again, and again, and again. Then go back the next day and do it again and again and again. Until you can’t get it wrong.

It’s also at this point that I should bring up: practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes permanent. So if you are practicing something incorrectly, it will be incorrectly nailed into muscle memory.

The important thing here is, repetition, but not once you become fatigued. Once you become fatigued your form won’t be ad good and you will begin to commit bad habits to muscle memory.

Hope this helps! Now go train!

Jumping Higher and Farther

Adam Kuebler — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:49:15 +0000

So, you want to jump higher and longer. You’ve tried doing squats and pistols, and have had mild success. But you really want to grow your distance. You don’t need more strength (per se) you need more explosiveness.

How do you do this? Go jump! That’s it, it’s that simple. Pick a couple different jumps, low to high, same height, and high to low (preferably in the same area, picnic tables are good resources if you can’t find anything better). Then just do the jumps, over and over and over again. Even if you are well conditioned as far as strength goes, you will be really sore!

And if you are more advanced in your training or do this for a while, you can start doing more plyometric stuff. The important thing here is explosive movements coupled with weight lifting is what really gives you jumping ability.

Mobile Parkour Park

Adam Kuebler — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:06:29 +0000

Parkour Generations have announced that they will have a parkour training facility which can be folded up and moved. Full article is here. The really interesting thing here is the little tidbit about it being up for retail soon. This is the first (that I know of) retail parkour structure.

For the longest time I wanted to make a business out of parkour because it combines two of my passions. However, the parkour community is a bit apprehensive to commercialization. I am not against commercialization, but I think there are plenty of people who would take advantage of the parkour community to make a quick buck (WorldWideJam). And I didn’t want to be associated with hose types of people, so I have patiently waited until I had an idea which fit the time for something which would build real value for the parkour community and which I could run profitably.

I know, you thought the idea was here. Well for now the idea will remain under wraps. If you are interested in potentially getting involved with me on this one, send me an e-mail. adam(at)adamkuebler(dot)com

First Week Back Training

Adam Kuebler — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:22:59 +0000

Well, after making a commitment to getting back to training, it has been a week. This all started about a month ago when I realized that after not really training at all (minus the periodic gymnastics) had made me weak and unsure in my body. I had made renewed commitments to training before but I had always fell back into other work.

The thing with me is, all my training areas are at least a 10 minute drive away. And on top of school, I am starting a couple businesses. So it is really easy to think that I don’t have time to go out and train because there is this pile of work on my desk. When in reality it is just time management.

So I decided I would need to set aside time everyday where I would do some sort of physical activity. Be it lifting weights, parkour training, or gymnastics. Also, one of my motivations for writing this parkour blog was to keep honest in reporting my progression.

This past week I have mostly been getting re-conditioned. I’ve been in the weight room about three times. I have ran for distance and sprints. And I have done some basic body awareness in my apartment (basically running, jumping, climbing, vaulting, and rolling around the small and simple obstacles).

This has been amazing! After only a week, and no real technique training, I already feel so much better in my body. I feel stronger, quicker, and more agile. I am a little sore and tired (but not overdone, been stretching). And that stretching has really improved my flexibility.

So I’ve shaken a lot of the rust of and my old self is beginning to reemerge. Next week I’ll start technique training, and we’ll see how that goes. For now, a couple days of rest and massage from my girlfriend!

David Belle Interview: Perfect

Adam Kuebler — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:26:10 +0000

I’m not a big fan of David Belle fanboyism. He’s a man which brought an amazing discipline to us, but sometimes the worships is a bit much as parkour has largely evolved by the community and not necessarily by David Belle.

In addition, many people contribute many of the philosophical aspects of parkour to Sebastien Foucan (see Jump London). But I believe the latest interview with David Belle by APK really speaks to the philosophy of parkour in a way many, including David Belle, have yet to express so succinctly.

Certainly there are other great philosophical explanations, Jump London, and the recent video from Daniel Ilabaca which I think is absolutely awesome!

But back to the David Belle interview. The idea he encompasses is this: “Parkour is a training method men should train because it helps you displace yourself in urban or natural environments and learning to adapt yourself to it.”

He goes on to say:

However, for me, learning to do stuff like cooking is as important as doing Parkour. Knowing how to repair a car, how to help someone who’s having a cardiac arrest etc. For me those are the basics of life. I am not like an old martial artist at 80 years old who’s always practicing the same punches. It’s even likely that the guy has never fought for his life and I would like to tell him “Stop punching, relax yourself, live normally; enjoy your life,” because there is too much rigidity when people focus too much on something. And I don’t want to end up like that. When you’re getting your first aid diploma, you are not going to be saving people every day it’s more “if something happens, I will know what to do.”

This is something I think hasn’t been explored too much in the parkour community (that being said, I have’t been too involved in the last year or so). This is something that was driven home to me last night when I watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie and my recent training.

As to my recent training, I haven’t trained consistently since October. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to start training consistently again. The first couple of times I just did conditioning to start getting back in shape. I could tell I was out of shape but nothing to worry about. But when I started doing some technique, I no longer had the feeling of complete control of my body. I didn’t have complete confidence that I could move anywhere I needed to and do anything I wanted to.

I saw the Sherlock Holmes movie and watched how parkour wasn’t given a certain scene like the Casino Royale scene, but a sort of physical presence in the movie. What I thought about it was that this is the way it should be. Parkour should be a tool in your toolbelt. This is nothing against people who make their lives around parkour, that is absolutely awesome! You should focus on your passion and try and make a living out of it. But not everyone needs to do that to be trained in parkour. This training is what is necessary to strengthen sharpen your parkour tool. Again, another excellent quote from David:

Now if you come telling me “Hey I want to learn Parkour, but go easy on me, I don’t want to push too much,” well go do something else! It is for warriors. A training method for warriors. It is not like “I want to learn how to fight; but please don’t hit me too hard because I don’t like it.” If that’s the case, go do something else! If you want to be a real warrior you have to go through hard times.

I think the bottom line here is this. Parkour is a skill I think everyone should have, and everyone should train hard to have. Because we should have the freedom to move our bodies in anyway we want, and to move anywhere we want by using just our bodies.

My New Website and Categories

Adam Kuebler — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:43:02 +0000

Hey everyone! After a long Christmas break, I’m back to blogging.

I started blogging about entrepreneurship this past November. I wanted to start in aviation and pakour as well but didn’t want to have them all mixed together. I know many people would like to hear about entrepreneurship but could care less about aviation. I just switched over to Wordpress and divided each into their own categories each with separate RSS feeds. I realized that I want to share with people all my passions, not just one. And as a head’s up, watch out for a video post or two to come, especially in the parkour section. So I hope you like the new site, and enjoy what’s to come!

One of the things which influenced me was Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It!. If you haven’t read it, check it out, it’s a great read!

Choose What To Do by the People You Want to be Around

Adam Kuebler — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Last night I had a great evening hanging out with some really cool people. (Robert Dempsey, Greg Rollett, Ryan T. Browne, Nick Pettit, and Jim Hoskins) They are all guys who are into technology and entrepreneurship and it was a great atmosphere. It confimed something that came to me while I was at the Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization’s National Conference in October. That is that I love being around motivated, exciting, aspiring young entrepreneurs. The feeling of being around these type of people is just awesome. Which made me think, you should choose what you want to do by the people you like to be around.

I first got this sort of impression when I went to my first parkour jam. It was the summer of 2007 and two friends and I drove up with my dad from South Florida to Atlanta. But the experience was amazing! I just loved being around other traceurs (people who do parkour). I have since gone to a few of jams around the southeast with better and better experiences every time. The people are what really inspired me to keep training harder.

The experience I had in Chicago was as great if not , even greater than that of the jams. It was truly awesome and made me really realize that this is what I wanted to do with my life. I had been interested in entrepreneurship before (and had started my own company), but Chicago was the turning point. This was reconfirmed last night at dinner.

The point of this story is that if you don’t know what you want to do, get to know some people in the areas you are interested in. These are going to be the people that you spend most of your time with, so find the type of people you really enjoy being around, and then carve out a unique space for yourself in that area.

In the end, everything in life is about people and relationships, so pick an area where you really like being around the people. Whatever it is, people who love basketball, people who really enjoy wine (Think Gary Vaynerchuk), people who are real into fashion, and the list goes on. Don’t know where to start? Check out www.brand-yourself.com for tools and a blog with lots of great insight. Also watch any video with Gary Vaynerchuk.

Work around people you love, you will have a much happier life for it!