Free Running

[DigiTan]

Insane Bump Bonus -200 points

Well so far, it's been pretty quiet up here in the frozen north. But Minneapolis is having their first gym session of the year tomorrow in Maple Grove. This will be my first time out with the PK guys in this region, so it shouldn't disappoint. Sorry to say my flipping skills haven't improved much since the last post, but I picked up a few new rolls & vaults from Texas Parkour this summer. Despite those knee injuries and aging, I'm running faster than ever.

The Austin sessions were really cool. We met at the University of Texas clock tower most of the week and did random stunts until way after nightfall. Attendee ranged from pre-teens to middle-aged and I was glad to know I wasn't the only non-student there. Every now and then, some random student would walk up to see what we were doing and just decide to join in. Minneapolis PK also tends to gravitate to the local colleges and downtown areas.

Anyway, that's my Parkour plug for today. Check it out.

[Super Speler]

I think I'm gonna start doing Parkour. It sucks that I'm super uncoordinated though.

[lordofthegeeks]

does traveling across large stacks of boxes 20 feet hight plus count? we would be swinging sometimes across chasms using pipes running along the ceileing.

Ever since I saw a little special on tv I've been tempted mainly because of the Hey I used to play in a latrge warehouse as a kid. I could do that moment...

[DigiTan]

[DigiTan]

D'oh! Not much progress in this department for me due to lack of practice. Luckily, this is some inactivity my terrible joints can't take credit for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE1aJ4yUh5I...player_embedded

...So these are the Twin Cities guys. Tomorrow, I'm gonna make the 90 minute trip over there for some re-training. I met up with these guys in downtown Minneapolis and it was pretty crazy (although I had to simply run around a few obstacles due to lack of EXP). It seems like the better you get at it, the more ways you can practice though, which is the point of the whole trip.

[Taricorp]

I've 'always' (read: for a year or two) wanted to get into parkour. There isn't much nearby to suit that so well.

Combine with polyphasic sleep, and I could be totally awesome...
:hmpf:

[DigiTan]

Gyms are definitely the place to start.

This session assumed little or no prior experience, which is how I like it for now. They go though the basics: forward roll, backward roll, diving roll. Then the five essential vaults: Speed, Monkey/Kong, Lazy, Reverse, and Dash. Then the focus of that day's class, which was the vertical wall run, tic tac, 2-step tic tac, precision jumps, and then practice gainers into the foam pit. The coveted Gainer->Precision (video) was brought up, but that's something for later days. Personally, I never would have tried the dash vault without a mat, but once you do one it's like...."that's all you have to do?" :D

So yeah, it's definitely worth trying out. Next week: wall flips. 8)


And some silliness...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL4EEH9ECs8...feature=related

[DigiTan]

More hardcoreness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgaADQF1lEQ

Can't wait for Thursday's class. We might get to the basic flips. Also scouted out a few parks and playgrounds in the tri-city area for good areas.

[bfr]

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgaADQF1lEQ" -> That's a pretty cool video. When I was younger, I always wanted to do 2:29, but my parents would never let me.

Also, I used to climb onto the top of my garage and then jump from garage to garage, and then I'd jump from my own garage to a tree house in my backyard. I used to climb trees and then swing on their branches if I could too.

I'm afraid of doing flips and stuff where I'm upside-down and my head gets close to the ground, though. Side-flips don't seem too bad, but I'm afraid of front/back flips and stuff like that.

Anyway, I hope your training goes well. Just don't get hurt.

[DigiTan]

Yeah, I'd wanna put down a lot of mattresses for that 2:29 thing.

Feeling sore today so I napped most of the afternoon today and settled for walking/stretching. Thursday's session was even crazier than last weeks. New stuff included diving rolls, step-up vaults (where you launch off a small object to fly over a big one), step-up front flips, and 3 or 4 variations of kong vaults. I also did my first kong--which I missed last week due to arriving late...heh heh.

Palm spins were really tricky. It took most of us 10 tries or more just to clear a 1 foot practice obstacle without stumbling. (You really have to keep you center of gravity in the right direction). They're fun once you nail 'em though. Since they're the precursor of the gravity-defying Wall spin I want to practice them this week.

Overall I 100% recommend trying a gymnasium/academy. Wish I'd tried it earlier. Everything's padded, so you can really go at these obstacles without worrying too much about how you'll land. Flips are coming up next Thursday...

[DigiTan]

Tomorrow we're doing backflips with spotter(s). Just for a little mental prep, I checked out some videos to avoid the common mistakes. It looks like us first-timers tend to jump back instead of up like a handspring gone wrong. We'll see how well it goes.

[DigiTan]

Ouch! Some minor injuries this session:

• Smacked my face with my knees. Note to self: tuck head between knees during frontflip, and not on them!
  
• Scraped elbow sliding down a mat
  
• Got smacked in the back of the head by a rope knot while swinging around like Tarzan
  

Unexpectedly, we got to Kip Ups and beginner-level Windmills (aka: Sonic's "Come on! Step it up!" taunt). Did backflips and wallflips with spotters, and inadvertently pulled a Flip vault. I wanna be able to nail at least one of those before our last class next week. Kongs still need work--not sure if I'd do one outdoors yet.

[ztrumpet]

[DigiTan]

No injuries this session. Today we got to cartwheels, running cartwheels, one-handed cartwheels, kong gainer, pop vault, and the webster (precursor to the loser frontflip). Did more spotted wall flips with almost no assistance this time, though I couldn't quite stick the landing yet due to flip disorentation. Unfortunantly, the is the last class until September so I'll have to practice elsewhere for the next month. The $10,000 question is where to train in the meantime. Due to local tick infestation, I'll probably trade the grass fields for the garage, local gym, or occaisional trip to the cities. Hopefully, September will be even more action-packed than this month!

[ztrumpet]

Good Luck.

(Concrete hurts )

[DigiTan]

It's in some kind of alien language, but I thought this was really funny. An yes, that is the Gummi Bears theme, which I found oddly fitting. :D

Team Ukemi PK roll vs. Martial Arts roll:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GmfsqzC-eo

[DigiTan]

More gym fun. This one felt a little awkward. Or maybe the tricks are just getting more difficult. We started implementing front flips into our standard warm-up. I'm usually landing on my back because it's just plain weird. But last week I was landing on my head (in the foam pit!), so probably by next week I'll go another 90°. :P

Funny stuff:
* Front Flip Tutorial
* Back Flip Tutorial

[DigiTan]

Things got a little out of hand today. :D

This sunday and last sunday, a bunch of us from all over the Twin Cities area got together on the University of Minnesota campus via Meetup.com and Americanparkour.com. A few came from as far as Duluth, MN (200 miles away?) and one guy was there from the Seattle area. Sometimes you run into people who travel all over the US and Europe just for new techniques, so this is always a treat. I was glad to discover last year that the U is certainly one of the most "vertical" campuses I've been to in a long time. Maybe even more so than the University of Texas. You name it, and this place has it. Trees? Pick one! Walls? To the ceiling! Rails? Like a train depot!

* The General Area (Will try to take some pics next time)

So there we are. You go to the meetup point and stretch for a bit. Or if you're like me...show up an hour late and run around looking for everybody. After that, it's just kind of freestyle. Chilling and jumping over random stuff. Everyone hangs at an area for a few minutes to use whatever challenges it has to offer before moving to the next area. And don't think for a second this stuff is pre-planned. You'd expect it to be a bunch of competitive dare-devils and showoffs, but it's almost the exact opposite. Basically, you stick to what you know and learn new stuff if it's safe. Today I picked up the Turn Vault, which was giving me hell until I learned the wrist thing.

Anyway, today's party was over a tad early due to the police telling us to scram. (D'oh!) Gotta work on stealth next time.

[cjgone]

Lol that sounds really intense!

[DigiTan]

Yeah. I mean I'm not overly acrophobic or anything, but a lot of the real basic stuff is really nerve-racking when you add a dropoff of even just a few feet.

...
Here's some stuff from tonight's session. On the left, our instructor is explaining a speed->lazy spin combo. If you look at the blue far wall, there's a hole about 7 or 8 feet up, just above the wooden panels. This is actually a footprint left when someone took their wall flip a little too far. :P

On the right, one of the kids is doing some weird breakdancing move...thing. I thought it was funny. The vaults we filmed blurred too much, so I might need another camera a some point.