Parkour Stories

Pava: Ladies and Gentlemenz! Got a question for y’all for my little thesis and for the pk panels. People have a whole bunch of reactions when they see me climbing and jumping around while training. Mostly pretty negative reactions, in fact I now train late to avoid all the heat I used to attract when I trained during the day.

I want to hear some anecdotes about the kind of exchanges and encounters YOU’VE had. I’m particularly looking for encounters that involved some kind of verbal communication with by-passing members of the regular public. Both positive and negative stories would be appreciated. One of each would be fantastic.

I’ll start.

I was training at Windsor train station a few months back. The station has a ledge that’s a perfect height for a wall-run, and that’s what I was drilling. It was quite late, probably around 1am. I’d wall run this ledge then hold myself up for a few seconds before slowly lowering myself into a hanging drop over and over again. This guy walks past. Then stops a few meters away. He watches me do my little drill three times then calls out.

“Hey, are you alright?”
I’m a bit surprised at the sudden question, “Yeah, I’m fine.” I get back to it. He watches another run then interjects again.
“You don’t have to do that you know. Don’t force yourself. You’re scared for a reason.”
I’m confused, “What do you mean?”
“You don’t want to get to the top. You need to talk to someone, get another perspective on what you’re doing.”
I realise that he thinks I’m trying to climb onto the roof of the station (something that isn’t hard to do, by the way). When he saw me climb up on the ledge and stop he though I got scared half way, and that every time I did the run I was trying to nerve myself up over and over again.
I try to explain that I’m just doing an exercise. He doesn’t look like he’s buying it. He keeps trying to get me to ‘think things over’. I realise that he thinks I’m trying to get to the top of the station to commit suicide. I can’t help but find this funny. The rooftop is only about 4 meters off the ground. With bad technique you could probably fracture your heels or skull, but killing yourself up there would be a pretty big effort and a pretty poor choice. “I’m not trying to hurt myself up there, it’s just an exercise!” The guy still looks doubtful and sticks around for another 5 or 6 reps. Finally he goes away. The police show up five minutes later. They tell me someone was worried about my safety and, as always, move me along.

Hard to be angry at that guy, he was trying to help. But it kinda shows how difficult it is for people to grasp the idea of doing something unusual in an unusual location as exercise. People are so used to the ideas of exercising having its place that alternatives are nearly impossible for them to accept, even with an explanation.

Declan (the purple shirt): I was training on Southbank with a couple of friends when I noticed an elderly man and a teenage child in a wheelchair coming passing by. They stopped to watch us for a few moments as we were drilling vaults, I was kinda expecting him to react in a negative way to what we were doing possibly give us some lecture that we could injure ourselves and suggest that we could end up in a wheelchair too. This assumption was completely wrong the man couldn't have been more thrilled at what we were doing he told us how it was not only a great way to keep fit but also a "good discipline to keep kids like you away from gangs and off the streets". Even though I somewhat agree with him in that aspect I thought it was strange he said "kids like you".

Smo: about two years ago i was training level arm jumps with some instructors and a girl. a woman roughly aged 50 stopped by as the girl was getting ready to jump and said something like "what are you doing? don't jump there, you could fall! you might hurt yourself and break your pretty face! let the ugly boys smash their faces instead!"

i can't remember what we said to her, but she didn't hang around after she said that crap, she just walked off looking frustrated.

i've also had a similar experience to the one declan has posted. a guy in a chair went past myself and a few others training tic tacs and said "what you guys are doing is really cool, just make sure you don't end up like me".

i've probably got some more i can't think of right now, but i'll post if i remember them.

York Harding: Find some stairs and quadrupedal by yourself. Most people cannot understand what you are doing - many, despite thorough explanation, will continue to eye you dubiously. Quadrupedal is a conversation starter.

sammowhammo18: Yesterday I was playing tip at school and a teacher came up to me and he said "What blood type are you?" "I dont know" "well im sure we'll find out soon enough when your brains are on the ground and you need a transfusion" So I explained to him i'd been doing parkour for a year and that i hadn't hurt myself once (i change this detail depending on who I'm talking to sometimes its never, other times its always) then he said that he wasn't really worried about me "because you do it really well" and that he was more worried about my other friend who doesn't do parkour because "i dont want him trying to do something he cant while chasing after you"
LOL

Pava: LoL, so many social values popping up here. "Let the ugly boys hurt themselves"? That's Priceless old-fasioned sexism! Good to hear a few positive stories.

MOAR!

Are-Gi: I was training wall runs one night, when a guy came up the stairs with his shopping right at the wall as I was walking back for another run at it.

I could tell he was watching me out of the corner of his eye. Then I turned, faced the wall, and bolted towards it!
As soon as he saw me hit the wall - He Took off like I was about to mug Him. I yelled out "TSORIGHT MATE I'M ONLY TRAINING"! But he was gone!!

After an Instructor training in the city, (When some from SA and NZ were over)

We were messing in a tree in the gardens next to the dolphin fountain sculpture for quite a while, and a lady was with her young family at the fountain.
She was watching us for ages and taking photos and filming from a distance. She couldn't stop looking over, until she finally came over and said.
"You guys are amazing, Its so good to see, You guys are so fit and agile through the trees. It really is beautiful !!"
She was very impressed at how we took it so seriously and how we didn't care what others thought. She kept saying "Its so Beautiful".

Sheffield: Was training in "the tree" for a while, around 6-7pm with a few peeps, doing the regular tree shit. Laches etc. Some old guy who looked about 70+ came past and started chatting about how he used to do something similar (I forget now, but I assume it was gymnastics or climbing), he then started to climb the tree himself and was hanging upside down and stuff. Made my night.

LastRunner: Awesome

An Asian: My last year of school, I decided to make a video of a few spots around the school. A friend was taking a few shots of a wall run next to some stairs. I would've thought it was pretty clear that we were making a video, though a passing teacher sees me and says "Next time go up the conventional way and use the stairs." Funny enough she decides to ask me for directions to somewhere in the school after offending me. True that i've been told to move along, or stop because i could hurt myself, but never once have i been asked to stop because it was unconventional. Ironically, I think she was an english teacher, and we're currently being taught about conformity and convention.

Not too much of a story, but it's something.

JumpNinja: I was training at toast once with a few others doing some fairly basic stuff and some old dude was passing on his way to the physio that is there (coincidende?) and said something along the lines of "I wish I could still do stuff like that" and gave us a smile and carried on his way.

Also there is this lady that works in an office that looks over toast that likes to watch us and give us encouragement when she's having a break, but no matter what we say she won't belive that flips aren't a part of parkour :p.

Bun-Bun: i have many stories, here is one.

Training man southbank. Old man stops and watches. Walks over to us and gives us $50 for the entertainment we provided him. We say no. He says take it because he is just going to waste it at the casino. we take the money and buy lunch. win.

Layhay: "You right there mate?" Response: "Yes"
"Are you alright?" Response: "Yes"
"What are you doing monkeyman?" Response: "Excercise"
"Stop doing that monkeyman" Response: "No"
"Calm down monkeyman" Response: "No"
"Oh Parkour" Reponse: Happy

That's all I've got so far, makes me want to train in a more private area away from public or at dark.

CARTER: I got $20 from a drunk guy on Halloween

DaveK: Warming up with a class just this afternoon. About 8 guys and 2 girls. We're warming up the knees just bouncing up and down. An oldish - 60 to 70yrs - lady walks by, stops and starts repeating how we look like we're all training to give birth. We all look at each other and smile at how absurd it sounds to a male dominated group and then give her a smile and a nod before she's on her way.

Training at the beach and the father of a fairly new student is standing next to me before class starts. Out of the blue he looks around and says 'god the scenery is great down her in the afternoon' I just sort of nod and smile and agree then he nods at a blonde speed walking past and says 'more great scenery...' I smiled with no idea what to say...

Manager of the local pcyc, a sergeant, after we've been running workshops there weekly for a year. I'm chatting to him about how he should direct enquiries when people are interested in Parkour. He explains that he sometimes has trouble explaining what we do to parents and the he usually just says 'they learn to run away from the cops'... I resist the strong temptation to punch him in the face and just walk away to deal with it later - when I relayed it to my boss she sent him an 'official' email, cc'd to a few others

Slicelikeaninja: Was in a park one day, nearish to a playground. Was hanging my rings up over a branch to drill muscleups and a old fella who was walking past shouted anxiously "Don't do it!". I was confused and asked him to repeat himself... he once again said "Don't do it, you don't have to do it!" At this point I realised that the one ring I had managed to put up indeed looked like a noose, and he thought I was about to hang myself. I laughed, showed him the other ring, and told him I was just excercising. He said OK, and walked off.

Eliot: Got lectured yesterday by some woman who saw me do a drop/roll. Kept telling me how I'm going to pay for it all when i'm older! Every time I tried to explain what we were doing and how we place strong emphasis on strength and conditioning to prepare our bodies she just kept comparing it to how this random latin dancer can't walk now because of what he did.

Oh I hate people who can tell you all about why not to do something but can't listen to the reasons for doing it.

LastRunner: POSITIVE - I was training at a nice set Wooden Rails at my local library, doing precisions. The Librarian (late 50s i would say) walks past on her way back form lunch and says, "Ah, you are doing parkour, good for you, I wish I could do that, " I replied that I was, and she says "Don't let me stop you, and feel free to train here anytime."

NEGATIVE - I was training my reverse vaults and underbars at this set of rails near a park. This guy who is about 40 walks by and says, "I have seen people on TV alot better than you, you are not nearly as good as them, so don't even bother training, you won't become good at free-running anyways." After saying that he turned his back and walked away.

TJ: This reminds me of Instructor Training in January, near the end of the week we were at Southbank and a few people were doing an armjump near the taller bridge, and a 50ish lady was walking past and stops. I'm sitting at the top of the higher wall watching both the Parkour and the people in general, so I notice her.
She comes over and asks about what we are doing etc. and I tell her about Parkour, and how we are a group from all over the country and NZ training to do volunteer classes, so she hands me $50 and says buy dinner or something. I told her that the APA is a non-profit, and I'd give it in as a donation. She seemed pleased with the interaction as a whole, and left with a smile and seemingly in thought. And I gave the moneys to Chippa.

Your bystanders in Melbs are so much better than ours, I have had almost no conversations or interactions here in SA. Some of the group (there were 4-5 guys and 1 girl) have been set upon by a group of 20-30 (mostly drunk) aboriginals around 11pm at one of our most used spots, right in the CBD, had to run away and took a few hits. Uncool.

And to top it off, Security, who move us on from there constantly, said it wasn't their business/not their job. Fuckers.

Pava: It's really encouraging to hear the positive stories considering that most interactions are brief and unpleasant even here in Melbourne (I hear we have it pretty good, but have no experience to back that up with). There's no doubt that certain people seem to truly resonate with parkour and show an interest in what it is... It's sad that those who don't are the most difficult to actually engage with. The reasons for someone telling you to 'stop that' are always flimsy. They seldom have much actual logic, more a gut reaction, a sort-of disgust with the idea that the things they don't understand or want to try are ever preformed in the first place. And when you try to ask them why they have an issue they react like you're challenging or threatening them.

Mary Douglas was a famous anthropologist who came up with a theory about people on the fringes of social practice. She suggests that society runs through a series of complex norms and rituals. Those who break those rituals become a representation of the limits of that society. They are put on the fringes and occupy a position of both disadvantage and power. The disadvantage is that they symbolically give up the protection offered by the social group and its norms... the power comes from their ability to transcend these rules and potentially offer an alternative. In traditional, indigenous cultures the people on the fringes were attributed power (the wizards and which-doctors) but were feared and shuned. There will always be both, those who seek the comfort of the current social norms and those who seek to transcend them. Just wish there was some genuine dialogue between these. People are so complex, there's no way of understanding without proper communication, or at least some effort.

Reilly: Only 3 off the top of my head:

One time ages ago we were doing a warm up for a class near Star City and while doing ankle rotations and this 70+ asian man with an umbrella comes up to the class nods twice and joins in for the entire warmup.

He left as soon as we started training but for the whole time he only smiled and nodded.

Once at the start of Instructor training while we were running to Pyrmont a lady went "Oh! So Fast!!" and her boyfriend scoffed and said "It's only those parkour guys"

When I was out in the city having some drinks I was looking at a running precision over water and this guy walks up to me and goes "Go on do it" .. I said I could and then after him insisting I did... He then says fair enough and does it himself.

Turns out him and his friend were interested in coming to class lol

Great thread man ^_^ .... Also I hear that Parkour scrambles your brains ... Channel 10 news told me so.

Pava: POSITIVE: Last summer I was doing a training run on the cliffs at Sandringham beach. The trace I was on was about 20 meters above the beach. As I prepared for a gap jump I heard someone yelling "do a flip" from the beach. I ignored it, did my jump and continued on my route. On the way back I passed the same spot again. This time it was teeming with kids and a few adults. One of the kids spotted me and yelled out. A fairly heavy guy in his 40s then rounded the corner and called out to me. I came down to talk to him. He told me that his family had been coming here for decades and that it had never occurred to him to actually explore the cliff-side aria. He said that usually his kids, particularly the teenagers, (they were a family with 6 kids) spent the time whinging and being anti-social but when they saw me go by the younger kids wanted a shot and he sent the older ones to look after them - they got right into it. He asked me what I was doing and how often and then thanked me for one of the best family days out they've had in ages. He said several other families joined them after they went up.

NEGATIVE: I was in Sydney visiting a friend. On the way back from the pub at about 11pm I saw a great spot to practice precisions between two brick walls at the entrance of a large building. I got up there and got right into the exercise. I kinda lost track of time – being a bit buzzed probably didn’t help – and after a while I looked around to find a guy standing a few meters away talking quietly on his phone. When he saw me look he turned and walked away. I decided it was a good time to leave. On the way back a police car appeared out of no-were and spotlighted me. I stopped; they didn’t say a word… so I kept walking. They trailed me with the light and when I was out of range moved on. I thought “that’s weird” and kept going. I turned the corner into the street where I was staying. Another blinding light hit me. It was a torch and it was being pulled towards me by a German Sheppard police dog. This thing was going nuts, barking snarling and coming straight at me. The handler holding the lead screamed to me “cross the road, NOW” and I did. There a group of police were waiting for me with their hands on their holsters. I was questioned and made to empty my pockets (I had a pencil, an eraser and my wallet). Eventually they let me go. I asked what the deal was and they told me to get home ASAP. “Someone’s been climbing around in the buildings here. A robbery has been called in.” I went home to change my underpants.

More stories?

Shrike: POSITIVE: I was training parkour at FamCo in Canberra with my mates when a man around the age of 20 comes up and questions us to what we are doing. He confesses that he always wanted to attempt freerunning/parkour but lived in Brisbane and didn't know of anyone who trained there. I told him about the forums and there he'd find links to classes. He then waved us goodbye as started to walk away. After another ten minutes of training without any disturbances he comes running back and waves at us dragging his girlfriend along. He kindly asks us to show his girlfriend so she would let him do parkour when he got to Brissy. She wow'd and had a good chat to my mate James, then we sent them on their way. I'll be interested to see him at National Gathering if he did end up training parkour.

NEGATIVE: I was training at the Jono-wallrun place with some people when an angry Italian man came over and told us off. He asked us if we lived in the apartments near us and claimed to own the whole apartment block. He lectured us about how we are well past infancy but still acted like children, and scoffed at the shoe marks we made on the wall. We quickly left the angry Italian man and trained elsewhere. Still to this day, the shoe marks remain.

JumpNinja: That sounds more like he has issue with you leaving big black shoe marks on his nice white walls than with you doing parkour. Which is fair enough. Those walls have been abbused by a bunch of idiots that claim to be doing parkour. They go there leave big black marks and write their krew name on the walls in shoe marks (true story) and then complain when they get kicked out. I'm not implying it was you because I know it wasn't (I know exactly who it was) but that dude would probably have a big misconception about parkour based on the actions of those people. I'm sure there would be a better chance of training there if we offered to clean off the marks.

Shrike: I was with Ruzkin, Josh, and Conan at the time, and I wasn't the one who coerced with him. But yes, the shoe marks are mingled with the shoe marks from unnamed crews. Who shall not be named on this forum for fear of sparking another 'incident.'

Pava: Love it, that in itself is a great negative parkour story. Goes to show how the actions of those who act stupid before us and label it parkour can have a powerful negative effect on everyone across the community. Goes back to the whole Mry Duglas thing: you're going to be a bad marginal social member (shaman) then people will treat you with (more) distain. Be a good one and your marginal role might just be accepted.

More? Ruz? Nipon? Hainzy? Dutchy? Spidermonkey? Anyone?

Invader GIR: I remember two stories, one negative and one just weird.

NEGATIVE: At a class, Matt was teaching climb ups at a disabled ramp/walkway. During this there were a few people watching. When he mentioned negatives, and not jumping from the top of the wall, the guys watching made comments like "why don't you jump down" and "I'll jump off the wall". He just ignored them and continued teaching. Later on, shortly before moving on, a lady remarked "why are you teaching them to jump fences?" Matt just simply said "I'm teaching right now, I'll be happy to answer all your questions at the end." After that she just left.

WEIRD: At the end of our class, we were doing some cool down stretches. Some men in drag from the gay bar across the street started to "join in". And by that, I mean they did their own version of leg stretches (one involved spreading their legs towards them while lying upside-down). I wanted to take the piss out of them so I showed them my own stretch; sitting down, spreading my legs out and leaning forward (I'm pretty flexible after 2 years of dance). Along with their reactions one guy said "you don't want me to do that". After a little while, they left, but I realised one guy was filming the whole thing.

I guess you could call the second one negative but it was just a huge laugh to me.

Fatigue

Think I'm officially burned out. Its when you stop doing things for a little while and things start piling up then you realise just how much you've been doing. Regular training has been and is fantastic, but it is a constant requirement. There are no excuses that will help you avid deterioration of strength. The knee issues I've had forced me to stop running for about a month, when I returned to training I couldn't run distance anymore. I re-started running and then discovered that a comic con was on a horizon. Then my first university lecture, then panel review.
Tired, but determined to get back to his hectic schedule.

core strength

All the physical activity I've done up to this point has, surprisingly, never had me work on my core strength. At least not to this extent. Now that I'm seeing some results from core strengthening I'm discovering a whole new dimension to movement. I think it is our core that allows us to shift out central point of balance. Free-runners and gymnasts use the core, in concert with the rest of their body, to orient themselves favourably in space.
Most movement requires a solid point of contact to control our orientation and directions. In running our feet push us off the ground and move us forwards. Same with a jump. The physics is basic, we are used to having a stable point of propulsion, movement is the result of force exerted on a greater (more stable) mass. Most common movement requires a stable point. There are, however, irregular circumstances. On a parallel bar, or in free-fall, our usual methods of propulsion are largely unavailable. With no stable point we have to use our bodies to to orient ourselves by generating internal inertia. I believe the core is the source of this inertia. Probably a taken-for-granted fact for people training longer than I, but this is a interesting (and fun) resent discovery for me.

Oh, and jogging is coming along ok. Still need to build more endurance.

Frustrating month falling behind me with injuries (the knee), personal life (leaving of a good mate, birthday) and distractions (comic conventions and work) keeping me from keeping up active training and research. I can feel the backslide as my endurance atrophies.

However, the knee is recovering nicely, and starting from now I'm back into my old schedule. Work and life weren't really the issue this past month. I find that training is a good break for work. However the knee was not something I could ignore. Curious injury, some days it was crippling, others it was practically 100%. There's little to no pain now, and I'm hoping that I can keep the problem away by following some good advice and knowing my limits a bit better.

Currently doing book-research for an MTV article. Working on PKpanels (http://parkour.au.com/) and tutorials (sporadically) and hanging out with the usual APA crew.

Knee Injury

Lots of little bits of pain have turned serious on me. A few days ago my knee reacted pretty badly to a set of precision jumps. Though my knee has been acting up, this time the pain was intense. Since then, random movements and tweaks are painful. Going to the doctor... hoping that I can keep up training.

Oleg interview.

Came across an interesting Oleg Varsav interview. The damn file is up on the Russian Networking site 'InContact'... I think you need member-ship to view the file, but here's the link anyway (http://vkontakte.ru/video-5348136_136990353).
Here's a partial translation:

Oleg seems uncomfortable at being asked direct questions. He's being interviewed by two women. There are a few others in the room.
He denies that what he is doing is parkour. He says that there's no long-term goal to anything he does. His aim is to get away with doing exactly what he wants for as long as possible without putting labels on anything.
Interviewer: You do what you do, but others would call it parkour.
Oleg: Yeah. Other people always make those decisions for you... I just don't think about it.

After some dodging, weaving and uncomfortable silences near the start of the interview, the interviewer agrees to take a less specific approach.

They ask if it's true that he dropped out of school. Oleg replies that it's true. "It happened spontaneously... I simply got tired of putting up with it and eventually, just stopped going... though it was simple at first, eventually you start getting other people's input, and matters become more complicated."

The interviewer (at this point it's clear he doesn't like then and they don't like him) asks if he's worried that that would set an example 'I dropped out, and I'm fine'.
Oleg noticeably cringes: "That's an old (unoriginal) question."
The interviewer presses on: "When we walk out of this room, people will know who you are. Many imitate and idolise you. So, does this example you set worry you?"
Oleg: I'm not so much an egotist to always think of the effect I have on others. I live my own way. I never asked to be imitated.
Interviewer: We've seen District 13, would you like to be in something similar?
*Bad sound quality here I have some trouble hearing his response.*
His response in uncommitted. He reiterates that he has no specific plans for the future. They ask him if he enjoyed a project he was working on in the past. He replies "The past is past"
They talk about some project he was involved in when he was 16. They ask about specific people whom I don't know he's worked with. He answers, but my I don't really know what he's talking about here so I'm not going to translate...

The question continue along the lines of future plans and aspirations. Eventually Oleg states: All of these things you ask, I still haven't answered any. The things you're looking for and the answers you were expecting, I haven't given you those things. Those things you're looking for.
Interviewer: You know what we want (to hear)?
Oleg: Judging by the questions you've asked...
Interviewer: The ones you haven't answered?
Oleg: I know what you want. But I can't give it to you... *phone rings, can't make out the next few phrases*
...I've not been like this all my life. I've been a fake, for money. But now, this is how I am.
Interviewer: What age do you perceive yourself to be?
Oleg: Tough question. I don't really believe in 'ageing' people. In time (currently) in the things I do, it doesn't matter how old I am. Or how old he is, or you. For example, how old are you?
The female interviewer flinches: 28.
Oleg: I don't care.
interviewer: But you asked!
Oleg: (if) I like you. I wouldn't ask if... we were to have some kind of relationship.
interviewer: Also, it's impolite.
Oleg: I don't know politeness. I don't have constant idea of age. I live in time but...
interviewer: What nationality is in your passport?
A series of questions about his ethnic identity follows. He says that he just puts down what his dad put down. Though he identifies as Russian.
Oleg: I studied in Russia, then we moved to Latvia and my passport identity changed.
interviewer: Do you consider yourself a disciplined person?
Oleg: ... I don't want to put myself into those kinds of brackets, I am what I am.
interviewer: Why are you so popular in Russia and Crasnoyarsk?
Oleg: I don't know. (he points off camera) Maybe he knows.
Some guys starts going on about Crasnoyarsk, then switches to broader Russia.
Unknown guy: He does what he does. But people have a habit of splitting things up into categories. They see a guy swinging on bars, so he becomes a 'traceour'. So they fall in love with this 'traceour'.
interviewer: We've met people who put things into two categories: The first is the people who do things for a hobby. That's all. THe second is those who are professionals. That's study, life, income, career. I understand that you haven't really thought about it and don't intend to get stuck in that. You're kind of a third category.
Oleg: I DO think about it. But I try not to. These thoughts come into my head. You can't help... for example, I run out of food - I start thinkig "I need money". I can't move to woods and catch squirrels. Needs keep arising. I look at my offers and I accept one. I don't think about why, but I know that the reason is I need money. THEN, later, I think 'hey this might be cool. This is a chance to travel!'. (otherwise) I'm the type the could live his entire life in one place, without travel.
interviewer: where have you been? Where have you been invited? You've never been to Crasnoyarsk, for example. (I'm guessing these interviewers are from there, that's why they keep brining the place up.)
Oleg: In Russia? Moscow, St Petersburg... my first job was there. Been to moscow two... three times. Just traveling around, jumping from place to place.
interviewer: Where to next?
Oleg: Next? Home. Then London... these arn't upto me, I mean, they ARE upto me. But people tell me to go somewhere, so I go. Are you asking where do I want to go?
interviewer: Where you'd want to go.
Oleg: Nowhere. I don't want to travel.
interviewer: It will come to you?
Oleg: It already has. I'm not concerned about plans and hopes - though I believe in hope. I'm concerned with here and now.

photos of MELBOURNE urbex

LOOOONG exposure, no tripod=bit blurry and yellow.... live and learn.

parkour

For me it all comes back to this notion of parkour's artistic sensibility. In sociological terms, parkour fits neatly into the category of 'lifestyle sports'. Before I get lynched for calling it a sport, this is just a label to help people who don't do much exercise (academics) understand that there's training and physical activity involved. Other lifestyle sports include skating, wake-boarding, base-jumping, and a whole bunch of other activities that practitioners would dispute being a sport at all.

The thing that unifies these is this idea that it's a personal, lifestyle commitment and choice. These people chose these activities because they are not organised, commercial, group events (despite the efforts of some who seek to redefine them). Instead these are personal activities. People, generally, don't take too kindly to being told how to conduct personal activities and often rail against restrictions placed on them. "I don't do parkour so that I can follow rules."

Here's where things get tricky. The more I listen and read from David and Seb, the more it becomes clear that they share this same attitude. People are right insofar as parkour IS a personal developmental, life-style activity... what people fail to grasp is that it's a very SPECIFIC lifestyle activity developed by a specific person for a specific purpose. The confusion comes from the fact that people are using the term is a general way. "Look at me, I'm doing parkour and I'm doing it my own way, with flips and spins." This is like saying "Look at me, I'm soccer and I'm doing it my own way, with hoops and hand-throws." The first one isn't parkour, and the second one isn't soccer. There are only so many changes one can make to something before it stops being what you started off with.

Soooooooooo... I'd say there are two current views on what parkour is:
Parkour: That viral fad/emerging sport/training discipline/philosophy that involves the navigation of any environment using nothing but the human body.

Parkour: The training discipline/philosophy developed and defined by David Belle for his own distinctive purposes.

In the second version to say "I practice parkour" is the same as saying "I follow the path of David Belle". That kind of commitment doesn't really offer as much freedom as many people really want to have. Doesn't leave that much room for artistic sensibility.

Belle...

Caricature time.

armjump

Trace, Jam and Wakeboarding.

Been a good week of training. On Friday I went up to the Trace Facility and had a play on the re-arranged equipment. With the arm-jump focus I trained up a bunch of exercise variants to strengthen my arms, wrists, hands and shoulders. The company was great too. Now that I know many of the APA guys personally it felt great to be welcomed by friends. People were even more forthcoming on the jokes and advice and the training, though pretty strenuous, had all the fun/goofy quirks of a night out with friends. A few of the veterans took the time ot get involved. Chippa (APA Prez), though injured, came out of his ‘office’ briefly to give me some tips. Sasha (one of the more experienced APA traceours and stunt-man) took the time to offer some conditioning advice.

The atmosphere of the Trace was relaxed, despite of the hard work being done on the premises. While people trained largely on their own, a change of equipment or a new challenged was played with by all. Everyone had a go, in a completely uncompetitive way.

Saturday I went along to the general Jam. I met Josh and a bunch of other guys there. This session was more relaxed than anything I’ve done with the APA. The meeting started on Southbank at 10. I got there a bit late. This wasn’t a problem as people arrived all the way through until mid-day. The guys were very friendly. The atmosphere was primarily social. With some people actively training and others doing no training at all. Any activities were lead by gentle prodding and example and participated on a purely voluntary basis. This is casual parkour. Despite of this, quite a number of the traciours there were at a good proficiency level and those who didn’t train showed a good general knowledge of the scene and culture.

I had underestimated the impact of the previous night’s training and quickly ran out of steam at the jam. My arms and wrists were utterly useless after only a few basic manoeuvres. Though I intended to hang around as an observer (there were plenty of those around) the day was cut short at 2pm with a phone-call from a friend who needed an urgent favour. Next time I’ll stay for the day.

I had intended to rest my arms on Sunday and didn’t go to the APA Sunday classes. But things didn’t turn out quite as I had planned. In the late morning I got an invite to go wakeboarding for free. This was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Completely new to this activity, I soon discovered that the muscles I was trying to rest were in for a decent workout. Though I had a blast, my arms and wrists ended up being more sore and worn-out than ever. I spent Monday formatting tutorials and doing a bit of sculpting – taking it easy.

Once they recover I’ll be straight back into training. Looking forward to conditioning with Smo and company later in the week and another solid Trace session. Improving little bits at a time.

rollex

I’ve just recently started practicing some of the intermediate/advanced techniques. It is always interesting to see the way my unconditioned body reacts to new manoeuvres and exercises. When I started, my lower back acted up. These were basic climbing movements. Lower body, mostly. Then I moved onto various pull-ups and upper body climb-ups. These really worked out my forearms and upped abdominal section. Slowly, these muscle-groups became more adept and better conditioned. Jogging worked up my legs and improved my stamina. It took a while to get my legs, lounges and heart up to scratch.

Each improvement felt massive, final. “NOW I’m ready,” I would think to myself. I thought that I had found all of the parts of myself that were weak, and now it was a matter of fine motor skills, experience and further conditioning. Obviously, I was wrong. As I turned to the precision jumps I discovered that my lower abdominal muscles were completely useless. It was like discovering a body part you never knew you had, one you simply never had cause to use. I was back to square one. A short period of practice would bring about the familiar pain of stress and exhaustion. Any exercise freak will testify that after a while that pain becomes a reward. Proof that you’re really training, getting strong.

My lower abdomen is still weak, but I can feel the progress. Unused muscles condition quickly. I’ve added cat-passes and arm-jumps to my training schedule last week and these new moves are helping me discover more weakness. More challenges to address. Recently, in a conversation with my new parkour friends I was told to saviour this experience. “You’ll progress quickly, there’s still so much for you to learn. It will keep thing interesting. It becomes difficult to train and stay focused after you’ve done all your basic conditioning – when the gains come a lot harder. Enjoy it while it lasts.”

I will. I am.

Consent form

Working on the phrasing of a informed consent form... Soon I'll be giving trhese out to all the parkour guys. Here's my first take:

Student/Researcher’s Name:
Department:
E-mail:
Phone Number:

Supervisor:
Department:
E-mail:
Phone Number:

Project:
VISUALISING PARKOUR

My name is Alex Pavlotski and I am studying the movement of Parkour in Australia. This is a part of my doctorate studies in anthropology with La Trobe University. By conducting this study I hope to understand the reasons behind the popularity of Parkour in Australia and write a description of the history and philosophy of Parkour generally. Also, I hope to describe the Parkour scene as it currently is, and the transformations that it is currently going through. This is a part of an ongoing effort to understand popular culture, social movements, culture and humanity in general by the discipline of anthropology.

I hope that you may allow me to observe and interview you as a part of this research. You have the right to withdraw from active participation in this project at anytime.

The purpose of gathering this information is to eventually present it as a part of a thesis, but other publications (such as journal articles, book chapters and conference papers) may draw on the information gathered here. Any personal information will be kept completely confidential and all names will be changed or withheld in the products of this study upon your request. All results and any personal information about you I have obtained will be forwarded to you upon your request.

Issue of confidentiality (please check one):
____ I would like for the researcher to use my actual identity. I realise that people who read the completed research project will be able to link my responses to my actual identity.
____ I would like for the researcher to keep my identity confidential. I realise that the information I shared with the interviewer will be used in the research project, but the researcher will use a pseudonym to protect my identity.

I _______________________ have read and understood the information above, and any questions I have asked have been answered to my satisfaction. I agree to participate in the project, realising that I may withdraw at any time. I agree that research data provided by me or with my permission during the project may be included in a thesis, presented at conferences and published in journals on the condition that neither my name nor any other identifying information is used or at full disclosure as I have specified.


Name of Participant (block letters):
Signature: Date

*Name of Authorised Representative (block letters):
Signature: Date

Name of Researcher (block letters):
Signature: Date

**Name of Student Supervisor (block letters): Date:

The thing that scares me is MTV's track record on this kind of stuff. They've successfully commercialised a whole series of “freeform sports” way before networks like ESPN had any interest in them. MTV often leads the way for greater commercial interest and backing. This is great for a few individuals who get in on the ground floor and grab the sponsorship from the start, but it usually takes a pretty negative toll on the activity/sport itself. I’ve already mentioned feeling nauseous while watching the snowboarding at the winter Olympics, and the way the athletes feel the need to project a particular image as well as act as adverts for their boards, clothes, headphones, etc. No other competitors acted this way. It really cheapened the event. But it doesn’t end there.

The image of parkour that’s projected by MTV normalises the idea of competition and injury. It makes these things look like they’re natural elements of parkour. It also projects the idea of commercial progression. So, instead of aiming for better technique and more training, it suggests that we should be aiming at bigger stunts and moves so that we can all get more famous and better paid. The goal becomes greater showmanship, not skill: Safety, responsibility, philosophy, history and personal integrity fall by the wayside.

Finally, MTV has a mass audience. This means that the misconceptions they spread are ingested by a bigger and more ignorant audience. U$F did some serious damage to the integrity of parkour, but their reach was limited to people who were already interested in parkour/freerunning/martial-arts/break-dancing. MTV amps up the spectacle and introduces these misconceptions to a much bigger audience. We might see the day that we miss U$F’s relatively clumsy attempts and profiteering when MTV’s various teams of experienced, professional promoters sink their teeth into parkour.

THE END IS NEIGH! REPENT, ALL YE FREERUNNERS AND PARKOUR PURISTS. THE TRUTH SHALL FALL BEFORE THE BEAST AND THE WORLD SHALL BE CAST INTO DARKNESS!



MTV Summary:

10 grand, do it for the money, monkey boy! And keep an eye out for the girlfriends, hangin’ out in the background and nodding.

Contest 1: MAKE THE ULTIMATE PARKOUR VIDEO!
Videos is what parkour is ALL about! We wouldn’t be as well known, we wouldn’t be nearly as good (might have some merit there, I hear videos help lots of people), we’re the BEST in the world right now.
Two injuries! Michael Turner out with a bruised heel and a cut-up hand, King David out with a massive failed arm-jump/faceplant.

What do we learn? Uhhh…. Do big jumpz, film ‘em, you’re a superstar!

Contest 2: HIGH-SPEED RACING!
Parkour is all about point A to point B, FASTER THAN THE OTHER DUDE! Highlights: “I go faster when I almost fall!”, “There’s only one chance! If you miss, it’s over.” “This guy is gonna run the course with a hurt foot fresh stiches. Let’s hope there’s no more bloodshed.”
Daniel Arroyo, taken off in an ambulance in a neck-brace after running into a fence off a jump, headfirst. Daniel Ilbaca: “It was a choice that he make, y’know what I mean? It’s not inevitable, he didn’t just fall. It was a choice because he chose to listen to the pressure. But he’d already learned from it because he got back up, d’ya know what I mean? He got back up and carried on!”
Michael Turner hurts himself some more.
Lesson learned! Go as fast as you can, pussies plan. Go, go GO!


Contest 3: 1 freestyle run with 6 targets, hit five and LOOK GOOD DOING IT!
Highlights: “Our athletes need to brave 3 storey drops!” “This dude has a metal rod in his leg, crazy that he’s even here!” “The catness in this is ridiculous.”
Brian Orosco, nearly knocks himself out by messing up a big flip. Commentator: “Its alright, you had an awesome run going, you were nearly finished anyway, (falling on your head) isn’t going to hurt you (your score) too bad.” WHAT ABOUT HIS HEAD?

Daniel Ilbaca won the cash. Sorry for the spoiler.

MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge - Part 1 - HD

Cash, injury and fame. Commentator: “Thanks for showing us, really, what parkour is all about.”

Getting ready to do some serious writing. Tying ideas together, bringing the theory and the practice into a cohesive whole. Just a start, mind you, but it feels good none-the-less. Still doing things for and with the APA. My health is FINALLY getting there and I'm back in training with more training and research ahead. No comics coins for a while, no illustration gig to get in the way (for a while) time to focus.

Been watching video after video lately. A bit worried about this whole big move on parkour by MTV. If anyone can sell it, it's MTV... they're experts. This is scary.

Wooooo! Getting some of this stuff out of the sketchbook and onto the screen... I expect some tweaking yet...

ARGH! Two of the other strips are 'corrupt'! Shit! I'll have to format them again!

Extracted from the APA forum. This was brought up by another member and it reminded me of something I experienced in Japan.

gyro16: Actually, I'm really intrigued by your post. I haven't had the time to follow up on this particular link, but I encountered a crossover between parkour and Buddhism while traveling through Hiroshima, Japan.
The city is surrounded by mountain ranges, and I spent a fair bit of time hiking and climbing around those ranges (mountains 15 min walk from my inner city apartment... I was in HEAVEN). There's one mountain on the north-west side of Hiroshima centre that was particularly interesting. On top it had a statue of 'mother Buddha', a female incarnation, erected to watch over the city. When I went off the hiking trail to find places to climb, I found intricate Buddhist reliefs, carved into the strangest places. Also, some of the steeper climbs had steel chains welded into the cliff-side. I had no idea what they were for, but they made some of the impossible walls climbable. Naturally, I loved this. It made the mountain both, a good challenge and an interesting mystery.
I visited the mountain often, and one day I met a monk on the peak. Monks in Japan are great. They love to chat and, unlike their Christian counterparts, they don't sling their faith onto anyone who listens. He spoke bad English and I spoke bad Japanese, so we were able to communicate. He had committed not to leave the mountain for a period of time as a part of his service, and had been living there for half a year. He wondered the range daily – it was a sacred site – slept on the mountain and lived on donations (he never asked for money and it took some time to get him to tell me how he got by, the Japanese give freely to monks as it brings good karma).
I asked him about the carvings and the chains and he told me that it was a part of the local Buddhist order. The monks would aim for physical purity by climbing up and down the mountain daily. The chains were installed to make it possible for them to scale the sheer walls. They would climb non-stop from top to bottom as quickly as possible to, over time, attain a state of meditative physical flow.

How parkour is that?

In your studies, under what circumstances did you see that overlap between Buddhism and parkour? This is something I'd LOVE to know more about.

---

The convention circuit is in full blast. Just got back from Brisbane and Melbourne is next weekend. I had a blast but this all is disruptive to training and parkour comic work. There are some new strips and I'll be scanning them and posting them here soon. Though, I need to get some more strip ideas from the traceours I'm working with. Plus, still need to do some admin stuff for the Uni. Ugh, least fun thing for me - admin.

Going out to train tonight, hopefully get back out on track. Another post will be up soon.

Whew. Last couple of weeks have been quite frustrating. I got sick and couldn’t do any training just as I was making really positive progress. I’ve been working on my jumps, vaults and balance. Getting a general grip of the all-round movent and doing regular work with some of the folks in the parkour community. Then, I got sick. The frustration continues. I got better, and I’m back in training, but the comic convention season is taking off, so I’m running around doing printing and organising… Having to cancel on more meetings and training.

Shit. Going to Brisbane tomorrow, then to another con in Melbourne next week. I’ll train in the interum, but I’ll have to do it alone, so I’m not cancelling or messing people around. Back to Thursday night runs next week. Just sorry that I’m not a consistent as I’d like to be. But… that’s life.

Writing in this blog less lately. I've taken to scribbling my notes down in notebooks instead... But I shouldn't neglect this blog. Still training. Got sick two weeks ago, was out for that time. Went camping and took a hike into the cathedral ranges. The natural environment was great training. I've got tonnes of energy, I attribute that to parkour.

Doing great deal of reading. Background research. Digging up key articles and ideas. Full steam ahead. Saw "Copout" today, had a parkour reference in it...

APA Strip

week 2


week 1

Went to trainer training today. I'm really starting to enjoy them. Generally, I've started to adopt the training attitude of the APA. Work hard, push past your boundaries. I'm starting to really enjoy the military-style training. Which makes it really disappointing when I injure myself. I feel like I should be working extra hard to catch up to everyone else, instead i fall further behind with injury. Also, I realised today that I've been focusing on working up the basics (strength and conditioning) but I haven't been applying the more advanced techniques. Need to start doing 'lines'. Actually using parkour moves and practicing things like arm-jumps.

Plus I like the people and the social atmosphere. Good folk.

Pardon the long break. I HAVE been quite productive and industrious. Comic work. Working on the paperwork at university. Some training during the week, but TONNES of training on the weekend. Sore everywhere. A friend and my girlfriend have gotten into jogging. Saw Jump Britain. Still haven't found Climbers of Cambridge and Jump london...
Proper post later.

Few interviews this week. Still transcribing that stuff. Too much paid work to really do much on the Sunday classes book. But a few hour in there.

Was hoping to go to the training yesterday. Gave myself lots of time to get there and found myself stuck on a broken down tram. I was worried about coming across as an unreliable flake, but when I caught the guys afterwards they seemed friendly as ever. I missed the full-on training... crap. That makes this a slack week all around. REALLY have to tell my boss to lay off so I can put in some time at the uni and some time into training.

Unrelated: Hooked on the winter olympics.

Hand is just healed enough to get back to muscle-up and kip training. Had a short, cautious run tonight. The night was absolutely fragrant.

Been talking to the APA guys. Much respect.

Had a fantastic trainer-training session with some of the guys on Thursday. We met at the ususal spot, near Spencer Street. It was raining. We ran down to the docklands. Smo lead the class. He told us all to jump into the bay, near some docks. We swan about twenty meters and climbed out. Rolls and lunges followed. I was nursing an injury that prevented me from flattening my palm against anything. We ran some more. Climbed up a monument. Ran some more. Ran up a car-park. Using a beam that ran along the ceiling we did some over-hands. I did with my injuy. We ran some more. Backwards quadropedal and lunges up 12 floors in stairs. At the top the guys did 1500 crunches. I only did a thousand. Push-ups, wall sits and we were done.

Hellova workout. The guys were great. Still sore, two days after.

There’s a particular element of Parkour that creates noise in the process of understanding. In the various long-topic discussions I’ve read on the APA forums all seek to establish some coherent ideas about the basics of the disciplines. I’ve been taken in by questions about the culture of parkour, its philosoph(ies) and the misconceptions that surround it. The community is self-aware, and keen to establish perimeters, social values and shared ideas. There is, unquestionably, a community of parkourists in Melbourne, and they unquestionably share a culture. There are marked similarities in terms of outlooks, goals and attitudes. Yet, a common philosophy remains difficult to pin down.

I believe that the lack of total agreement in this community is the result of parkour’s artistic sensibility. The words ‘freedom’, ‘individuality’ and ‘art’ are often used in discussions of parkour. All of these suggest a level of personal involvement, not just through the physical practice of a common activity, or even a mutual participation in a shared discipline, but a personal creative effort. Parkour remains a personal physical expression. This does not contradict the ideas of community. Art can, after all, be communal. Unlike sports, parkour does not have a clearly delineated goal, or a set of rules. The team does not train with a specific task in mind that is the same for every team member (get ball past defence, into goal). The challenges are personal.

I’ve been doing research. The academic articles I read tend to see the practitioners of parkour always practicing in opposition of something: repressive environments, the capitalist hegemony, fear, the status quo. Few practitioners have told me exactly why they do what they do. Most simply say that it appeals to them. Hard to argue with something when you know exactly what they mean. For me the reasons I encounter, the explanations of others, don’t challenge some personal philosophy of parkour. Instead, they help me create one. Sure, its better than being herded through traffic. Sure, I want to resist being constantly forced to play the role of consumer. These ideas come together as more reasons for me to do what I love.

Having said all that, I think parkour needs to have the structures and community it currently has (and culture). There is growing evidence for something many people at the APA would take for granted: the mind and the body are not separate things. Engagement with parkour is total. We don’t just train our bodies while thinking up a new recipe for strawberry shortcakes, all elements of self are equally engaged. We are forming ideas, analysing our actions, justifying our experience, creating personal philosophies. At the end of the day, we are compelled to try to communicate these thoughts. We may find people who agree and disagree, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we find people who care enough to listen, contribute, and sometimes argue. We find people who help us justify our own passion, and just like in the art community, we learn new techniques and define ourselves among others. The APA doesn’t go around knocking on doors to get members. People come to them. Other people form their own groups. The most important evidence for the need for structures and communities is their very existence.

Shared personal passion and creativity as a basis for community. Sounds good to me. Politics aside, I think we are onto a good thing here. Communities built on diversity, personal freedoms and freedom of expression are called democracies.

Whoa, been a week since my last entry. Not massively eventful. I did a whole lot of sketching from life on Monday - two more pages of "The Sunday Lessons" done. Did some training (though I always feel like I should be doing more) and a fair bit of research. My University office has unlimited academic article access. I love it. More specifics later.

The Temptation of Disintegrating Boundaries

I took my run out of the usual training grounds today. I started off training at the local train-station. As my training became increasingly focused on conditioning I included the local park as well as the running circuit of my urban block. Today I though I’d see what else my immediate surroundings offered.

I had the St Kilda junction pedestrian underpass in mind for some wall-run practice. A lit underground tunnel - broken up by a series of narrow valleys - the graffiti covered walls, in the sections that aren't cut off by ceiling, offer a steadily rising gradient of heights to challenge a wall-runner of all levels. However, when I got there other things commanded my attention.

A transformer building had a ledge that called out to me. Easy grip, a textured wall that offered good traction for an experienced foot. Getting to the roof would have been easy. And I would have succumbed to the temptation if not for a noisy road-crew, working just a few meters away. I turned around to head home, but discovered the route back to my familiar training grounds suddenly littered with temptation.

Every fence struck me as a challenge. Each reachable ledge promised something exciting. I sought routes that might take me home, not via accepted roads, but along ledges, rooftops. I wanted to explore, forge my own way. I didn’t dare. This time. I did, however, find myself poised on the verge of a climb or jump that would take me across that imaginary boundary. As my training pushes my physical boundaries it seems like a natural progression to push the boundaries of society. When a fence no longer holds the power to contain, or close off, allowing it to block your explorations seems like a lame excuse.

I do some more ‘safe’ exercises to clear my head. The curiosity doesn’t fade. On my way home I see a car with spotlights sweep across a street up ahead. They must have seen me because seconds later the same car came back, lights glaring, and slowly cruised past me. The police: a reminder that social boundaries are not without guardians. Were they looking for me? Did someone see me sitting on the fence, contemplating taking the next step? Maybe… but that makes it all the more exciting.

From the APA forums:
The HJM: Funnily enough Sam has actually stated something that is/was at the heart of the punk movement. I think Pava may have missed the point regarding punk. To say it is destructive is to buy into the straight media version the same as saying Parkour is about jumping buildings. As a former punk (and still a punk at heart really) I have to take issue with the comparison there.
Skater punk is a different animal and evolved into a more anti-social, loutish sub genre as a result of the party hard behaviour of some professional skaters with scant regard for themselves and others.
Check out a some of the following bands and their lyrics if you want to see a different side of things: Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Sperm Birds, Fugazi, Poison Idea, Husker Du, Suicidal Tendancies etc etc

SGeek: Well articulated, Pava (Axel?) - that all makes perfect sense. Now, about those psychological and physical changes...

The physical changes for training in any endurance activity are fairly straightforward, I think. Physical fitness (aka S&C) improves radically, aging (according to various scientific measures that I won't detail right now) slows, stops or even reverses, new activities (eg. higher wall-runs) become possible and all actions become easier.

The psychological changes are also fairly straightforward, though obviously there's more to them than what I'm about to say here. These changes, which I know mostly from my interest in distance running, can be summarised as follows: reduced tendency toward stress, improved concentration, greater capacity to endure pain, and a general increase in willpower. Hope I haven't left too much out of that list - I'm just too eager to get onto the sociology. As a bonus, I think my thoughts on the sociology might even be original (in the weak sense).

Modern humans, (almost?) without exception, maintain emotional barriers against other humans. In order to form a close relationship (eg. a genuine friendship), these barriers somehow have to be overcome - not a trivial thing, given that most of us don't have conscious awareness or control of all of our own defences. This is an area in which I think there is a notable difference between sexes, so I'll note at this point that I'm talking specifically about men - any relevance to women is merely fortunate.

There are quite a few traditional ways that men bond with each other, but the examples I can think of offhand use only three basic methods of disinhibition. Shared drug use is the most direct method, and especially in the case of alcohol it is highly significant. Shared emotional exertion is another, for instance the communal watching of a sporting event about which the watchers care very much. The third general class of disinhibition, sadly a lot less common than the other two, is shared physical exertion. Parkour training (at least in its Melbourne form) achieves this in spades - anyone who takes it at all seriously ends each session exhausted, at which point the usual barriers are mostly down. This makes group parkour an excellent bonding activity (among other things), and at least partly explains its ability to ignore traditional social distinctions. It's also a very powerful shared experience, especially when repeated - this is a major part of forming a community with its own culture, constituting a 'common basis of experience' as mentioned by Pava.

Me:The HJM: Sorry. Right you are. Skaters also picked up a territorial aggression from surfers who pushed the boundaries of the activity and competed with each other for space on the waves. That's my theory anyway. Punk philosophy and music has many more messages that "fuck you", and general anger... I guess its never any one thing, instead, there's many bits and pieces put together.


***Wank warning!***

Bonding is tricky. Your ideas are very interesting, Sgeek. Mine would have started off in a completely different place. I’d be drawn to the psychological changes from the perspectives of the people who participate in the culture of parkour. What they can talk about and share, in terms of common understanding gained through experience (I think they call this the phenomenological approach). From this perspective, it would be stuff like: parkour vision (looking at the physical layout of your environment in a way that meshes with your new abilities: i.e., “I see so many more things that I can climb/get-around than before.”), increased physical self-awareness and the flow phenomenon (good article on that in parkourpedia). These are just a few ideas, I’m sure that people can name many others.

You picked my sociology background here. Is yours a psychological perspective? Good stuff. I’ve never heard of this disinhibition stuff before. Still, largely, it makes sense to me. At the same time… I’m hesitant to be so quick to divide such things into categories. For me, there’s no such thing as pure forms of interaction. Bonding always happens on multiple levels at the same time. For example, part of bonding over a sporting event is physical (you feel more comfortable with the bloke that gets up and screams – like you do – than the bloke who just loves your team) and physiochemical (simultaneous release of endorphins and adrenaline) as well as emotional.

All the ideas on this thread just demonstrate that we’re getting multiple perspectives that illuminate the various aspects of parkour on various levels levels. Trying to understand from as many perspectives as possible is always a good way to look at things. Yours, Sgeek, is in everyway as good as mine, and everyone else’s… but OURS is always better. More ideas would be great! I’m still trying to work out my own…

Been training with C one of the guys behind the APA, and a bunch of other trainers. Recently I've come to realise the value of pushing BEYOND personal boundaries. The Muscle-up experience made me feel like I was back-pedaling on progress. Training with people that far above my own level was another thing that has brought me down lately by making me realise how far behind I really am. With all this going on it's easy to become discouraged.

Then you have another good moment, and you're back to reality. I realised today that I haven't suffered from hayfever at all in the last two months. A resent experience is behind this realisation... I trained with a guy who has asma, he told me he knew of people whose respiratory problems improved significantly after reaching a certain level of fitness. I though about it and realised that the really severe allergic reactions I always have during this time of year have entirely disappeared since I started cardio training. I'm getting fitter and stronger, in ways I didn't even initially realise. As for the muscle ups, I'm going to let training take its course. Get back to the conditioning and not try to force it.

The APA has asked me to help out with some diagrammatic illustrations. I'm happy to do it, though it has made my work-load a little ridiculous. Ah well, all part of the research. I spend an average of 10 hours a day drawing and writing nowadays. Add two hours of training and you have one dull boy. At least nobody can say I'm not being productive.

Here's what I have so far, though it's far from finished:

I surrender. Training is one step forward, two steps back. I still can't do the move I'm trying to master... but I'm doing much better than yesterday. Tonight I worked my upper body, my arms are killing me. I'm getting the right muscles ready. Trying to visualise the technique.

I'll keep trying. Just you wait, I'll get it. This time I won't announce victory until I've won.

Lesson learned.

Went out tonight and was totally useless. Can't do the thing I thought I'd mastered - the muscle up - at all! My balance sucks and my confidence is shot. Shit. You have your good days and you have your bad ones.

Forum reply... parkour culture

I’ve been saving up a while to contribute to this one. I apologise in advance for the truckload of wank coming your way, but this is something I think about a lot, so I’ll probably go on a bit. Please feel free to tear my observations apart - nothing like a good correction to bring one down to earth.

I’ll start by taking things back to the idea of culture. There is no question in my mind that parkour in Melbourne (my only point of reference) has a definite culture. As far as I am concerned, a culture is a shared system of meanings (Clifford Geertz came up with that definition, and its the one many anthropologists - the guys/girls in the funny hats that study cultures - use). It can be localised, it can be global, what really matters is that those participating in a culture understand each other and share a common basis of experience. Within the boundary of each local culture this common exchange of meanings needs to be articulated and understood by its members, so the culture develops a language and a common set of goals. All this is often held together by a history and a shared philosophy. Put all of this is one sack, shake and allow to settle and what you will pull out will be a community. Correct me if I am wrong, but I definitely see that in Melbourne.

I suspect that the culture in Melbourne is distinct and unique. I wholeheartedly embrace the idea that leadership and organisation helps to cement and define a culture. Leaders cultivate the philosophy and history of a culture and define the goals of the community. Cutos to our leaders, the Melbourne culture is healthy, self-questioning and open. Having said all that, we must take for granted that both culture and communities are in a state of constant evolution and change - as 13th tribe pointed out earlier. Systems of meaning are re-interpreted, new meanings are formed and old ones are discarded, upgraded and forgotten. Communities change. Members come and go, numbers grow and shrink and communities divide and merge together.

All that said I don’t believe that parkour culture is still in the process of ‘forming’ – because it always will be – I believe that is constantly evolving. This is healthy and good. The second it stops forming it will be dead.

Now would be the time to go grab a coffee and a muffin, cause you’re half-way…

This thread has returned regularly to the idea of skateboarding as parallel culture. Something others often compare parkour to. Fair enough, the two are both similar because both involve the use of public (and sometimes privare) space in new and creative ways. Both are about practice and the refining of skill. Both are often perceived as forms of personal, physical expression. I’m not saying they are the same, but clearly many of us see the similarity. A clever bloke called Duncan Humphreys wrote an article about the artistic sensibility of activities such as snowboarding and skateboarding. These are forms of physical self-expression. Personal activities that are more akin to art than sport. I think parkour also fits this category. These are supported by personal goals and an over-reaching philosophy. However, the philosophies of skateboarding/snowboarding are different from the philosophies of parkour. Humphreys suggests that individualism and personal style are at the very centre of boarding. This individualistic focus is enforced by the influence of punk culture. Punk culture gives these activities an in-your-face, destructive, uncompromising, counterculture edge - an “I’ll do what I like and fuck you” attitude. You can find elements of this attitude in skater/boarder-videos, mags and the behavior of skaters themselves. Not all skaters try to be ‘punk rock’ (I skate a bit and snowboard a lot) but it is a part of the culture.

I don’t see the punk-rock element in the parkour community of Melbourne, though I do think that the underlying artistic sensibility is there. There are also elements of self-empowerment, altruism and physical and psychological discipline and responsibility. These things are nearly the total opposite of the self-destructive and anti-social elements of punk. The difference is massive. Outsiders don’t take the time to notice this, they see the similarities and assume these extend to self-destruction and anti-sociability, the fact that both activities have an element of risk makes things even more complicated. “These crazy people are trying to kill themselves! They’d think nothing of damaging our property…” is the reaction. I haven’t spoken to enough people who protest parkour, but I think this is part of the reason people have such negative reactions to traceurs in action.

There’s more to be said about psychological and physical changes that all traceurs experience as a result of their training. The passions and perspectives that they develop that help forge a common outlook on the world… These things also shape the culture of parkour, but these ideas are only half-formed, so I’ll save them for later. Whew, that was long.

Anything to add?

Visualisation...

Ah, this is a topic close to my heart. I think visualisation is so important to parkour that I couldn’t imagine trying to study parkour without it.

It’s curious that many of these articles can make the simplest point opaque. The simplest and most direct way that we all use visualisation is in obstacle assessment. Look at a wall. Can you imagine yourself running up it? Our first reaction to any given obstacle is an automatic visualisation of ourselves – with our entire range of skills as we would perceive them – attempting to overcome the challenge. If we imagine ourselves succeeding the climb we give ourself a roadmap towards success: a sense of the technique. If cannot imagine ourselves overcoming the challenge, or worse, if we can only imagine failure, then we are far less prepared to face the challenge then we would be with a positive visualisation.

It is a useful trick of self-empowerment to imagine success. However, while a large part of visualisation is psychological, there is also an element of physical self-assessment inherent in the process. Some walls are simply too high to mesh with a realistic self-visualisation of success. Some self-projections of failure are necessary to generate useful self-protective responses such as fear and caution.

For me, visualisation is absolutely key. Watching others and the way they move gives me a sense of what I would need to achieve in order to be able to duplicate the process. By the sounds of things, this has been a first step for many of the advanced practitioners at the APA: people learn via the imitation of other peoples’ movements and the replications of useful techniques.

The problem with visualisation is that it is very seductive. Watching others, we are drawn into the beauty of good technique. Inspired, we forget our own limitations and presume that visualisation alone might be enough to carry us through. This can be embarrassing and ultimately dangerous. I’m reminded of that meme of the StarWars kid trying to imitate light-sabre wielding jedi and making a complete fool of him self. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM4O4-jT3x0) His visualisation of himself is based on his careful observation and mental absorption of the movements in his cinematic fantasy, and it is so complete that he doesn’t realise how far away it is from the reality. He thinks he’s doing it right, he can see him self doing it right… but we can see that his visualisation of self is far from reality.

On the other hand, those practicing can become too concerned with projecting a fluid image of their own movements and give up effective technique for the benefit of ‘style’. Kung-fu movies are the epitome of this. Impractical, attractive movements and athletic feats make a fight-scene elaborate and visually interesting to follow, but most of those seasoned fighters would cut their movements down to essential basics in any real physical confrontation. No real fight is ever as pretty as its choreographed counterpart.

Still… I’m going to argue that it is nearly impossible convey parkour without visualising, or visually depicting the movement. The visual is sensory. The verbal is abstract and cranial. I’d say to really understand the practices of parkour we need to see ans well as speak. That’s why I’ll be using comics in my attempts to understand parkour. It’s techniques, its practitioners and its culture.

Went to training in Coberg at the trace last night. There was a bunch of Traceurs staying there from around Australia and New Zealand. The APA was hosting them. Networks are being made and information is being exchanged. I spoke to the guy from Adelaide and he assured me that though their numbers didn't match Melbourne's, they are very dedicated to their training.

I made a breakthrough on the muscle-ups! I'd been doing exercises to condition and strengthen my upper body. For a while now, I've felt like I should be able to do them, the strength is there, but the movement never felt right. I'd get my shoulders over, and bring up one arm, but the other would always get stuck half-way. Almost there every time. I spoke to C about it and he looked at my technique. We both puzzled about what was wrong. He assured me that I was strong enough for it. I showed him the two exercises I've been doing. When I showed him the kip practice lifts he told me that that was it. We tried to work out a flow to the movement and, with a few attempts I, managed to get over the bar. The moment helped us both. For him he better understood a technique that he had learned intuitively. It improved his teaching. For me it was the next step forward in mastering a technique.

Some balance drills and wall-runs later a pair of skateboards came out. Some of the guys had decided to incorporate some skating into their regular program. I couldn't be happier. Skating was something I knew something about, I'd done it for a few years. The conversation turned to skating. I'm delighted to have a reason to brush off my old board. Doesn't hurt to be an all-rounder.

Mmmm... wonderful run tonight. I was feeling a bit off colour. I blame it on my sedimentary lifestyle lately. 10 hours work a day, from home, doesn't leave much time for socialising or even running around outside. I felt offbeat, my inking was rough and unsteady, my attention was lacking, the summer heat had me sweatin'. When the time came to go running I was happy to step outside and burn some of that energy. The cool summer night was a instant pleasure and an immediate bonus. i've been running a fair bit lately, but doing little else. My desire to improve my stamina has had priority and other than some chin-ups and over-bar drills I've done very little else. I ran a few laps and then headed out to the old training ground for some classic workouts.

I expected trouble. Wall-runs (one step up a wall, quick grip on the upper edge and a quick pull-ove the top) were first up. I was delighted to discover that they've gotten easier. Being able to comfortably hoist my own weight was the first thrill, the second was the discovery of surprising quadropedal stamina. I guess all my running around lately is paying off. Then I spent some time on conditioning and balance - a whole new discipline recently discovered.

Not even the nagging late dinner could detract from the sheer pleasure of exercise. I've really been getting a kick out of discovering my own limits. Today I've started to feel like progress is almost tangible. I've been steadily falling in love with my newfound fitness. I hope this will enrich my research. I've read, in 'A Diary Of a Boxer", an anthropologist purport a full surrender to the subject of one study. A pledging of loyalty to the physical discipline and culture one is discovering and trying to understand. I can see that happening here. In the best possible way.

What I'm starting to realise is that all methods of training offer something. Some are general and all-effecting. Others are specific and targeted. All are worth pursuing. Parkour is a way of life, this I can see. The philosophy is more difficult to grasp in practice (though I am exposed to great amounts of theory), but I have faith in experience. In time it will come, as the physical is becoming clearer, so will the intellectual. I just have to keep at it and, hopefully, keep clear of injury.

Went for a run with some of the trainers on thursday (testament for my lack of diligence, I haven't really done much training since then). It was great. Just me and two other guys, casual run. I'm still really behind. Plus a late lunch almost had me puking after the warmup run. Took about an hour for my stomach to completely settle. I think I carried it off too, the other guys just though I was being slack. I really have to take my training schedules more seriously.

I'm learning more about the structures and tendencies of Australian Parkour movements. There's a lot of depth, and that is really encouraging. Gotta do some chin-ups for overbar practice tonight
before bed. NO EXCUSES.

Peace.

Whew, out of a holiday straight onto a full workload. The parkour comic is delayed as my illustrating work is three-to-four times intensified. Shitter, I really wanted it out by christmas. Good news is the progress in distance running and jogging. 3km distance is pretty comfortable, kipping and chin-ups are getting better. At the same time, I'm doing 10-12 hours of illustration a day... Training and work are in definite competition.

I start my studies in about a week, that'll solve most of the problems. Work will fall back, parkour will come full force to the fore. Seems weird, just a few months ago I had the same problem with my old retail job, now my illustration job does the same. It's a common sentiment among regular traciurs, parkour is a way of life - seems like I'm starting to nderstand the full extent of that statement.

Now that I'm back and blogging hopefully my motivation will come back too.