When many people begin parkour, they look at specific techniques and try and learn them. This is what I did, this is what most people do, this is how I have taught up until now.
Now when someone comes out to train and asks which technique we are going to learn first, my response will be:
none.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Twitter: @adamkuebler