Safety has EVERYTHING to do with Fitness

Based on a forum post where someone stated that advanced practitioners were more likely to get hurt than beginners:

Safety is largely a skill/mental attitude. You can go about a difficult jump with safety in mind, using spotters, progression, and building up to it - or you can just go for it. Most of us choose to go the route of safety - but sometimes someone doesn't know how to be safe. It's an inherent skill to some extent, but must be actively developed or TAUGHT (which is something all three gyms (APEX, Primal, PKV) focus on.) To address later points, these gyms don't just say "Do X and Y and never do A and B." They teach with safety in mind, and through that teaching style students learn how to be safe on their own.

However, I do think Rafe is right about the quote "Safety has got nothing to do with fitness." being incorrect. On Saturday, I took either the worst, or the second worst, bail of my life (parkour, flipping, gymnastics, martial arts, slacklining, firespinning, waterskiiing, wakeboarding all included). The only reason I am probably not paralyzed right now is because of my strength, fitness, skill, and experience.

I wasn't doing anything dangerous, just a simple step up to crane with my off leg. I stepped, leapt, my foot landed on the top, but I had a little bit too much forward momentum and I pitched forward, head first, feet in the air, toward the concrete on the other side. It was about a 4 foot drop, and all I remember is a snapshot of the concrete about 2 feet from my face, and my right arm outstretched toward the ground.

Based on the map of my (extremely minor) injuries and scrapes, I contacted the ground with the blade of my right hand and braced with the palm of my left, lowered myself down into a roll. I hit my thigh on the corner of the wall, and I must have hit my knee at some point - probably during the roll.

I ended on my back, eyes closed, on the concrete. My right leg was extended, and my left knee was bent about 45 degrees. The person I was training with came over, and I calmly asked her to extend my knee and help me unzip my jacket so I could breathe. I walked away about 2 minutes later, and now about 36 hours later the only remaining pain/tightness/soreness is in my thigh, which is greatly diminished.

I was doing something easy and simple. This was something a beginner could probably do. I am sure, however, that this was not something a beginner could have walked away from so easily. I consider myself somewhat strong, but I still do things that are largely not risky. I take great care not to put myself in any unnecessary or excessive danger. This was a technique that was not excessively dangerous. But just like any technique, if the right thing goes wrong at the perfect time...

Physical strength is JUST AS IMPORTANT as mental strength. You can not say that a beginner is exposed to less danger because it simply isn't true. You can not say that because I am stronger, I have to take more risks. Because I was stronger, I am able to move my fingers to type this right now. Life is a long road and we must be strong in order to walk it to it's destination.

Decentralizing Parkour Jam Planning using Twitter

One of the major problems with parkour communities right now is jam planning and coordination. Currently, Rochester uses Facebook to plan jams. Honestly I wish it hadn't turned out that way. The only way to announce your jam was to post on the discussion boards (which no one checks with any real frequency in ANY Facebook group) or to send out a message. Only administrators of the group can send out messages though, so unless I made everyone an administrator, only a few select people could effectively plan jams.

I recognized how detrimental this was to the community and I made a push to start using the American Parkour forums. As it stands, almost all typical parkour communities use forums to plan their jams, and it works pretty well. Forums allow anyone to post a jam, they facilitate easy discussion and planning of the jam, and it leaves a public record of past events. The problem is people had no incentive to check APK because any event we planned was blasted to them through Facebook. Additionally, it's difficult to reach critical mass on a forum (as defined by the amount of activity occurring to keep it interesting enough for people to keep coming back and generating more activity). So short of the leaders of the community abandoning Facebook entirely. I had to find a way to solve this problem in order for the community to be sustainable. How could we decentralize jam planning without destroying the community?

Then the idea. Twitter. It all fell into place, and the solution is SO much cooler than you think it is.

A quick rundown on Twitter lingo in case you aren't familiar. A Twitter update is called a tweet. You can do something called "retweeting" which is basically quoting someone. It's typically used as a way of saying "hey. This guy is pretty cool, you (your followers) should hear what he has to say." Then there are hashtags, which is Twitters keyword system. You can end a tweet with #08DebateTopics, and then whenever someone who was interested in 2008 election debate topics searched for that hashtag, tweets about energy policy, Iraq, and the economy would all come up.

So here is how my solution works:

• Step 1: start a hashtag, #parkourjam. If I want to go train, I write a tweet like "Tuesday. Five PM. In front of the library. #parkourjam"

• Step 2: Run a Twitter search for the hashtag, and then save the RSS feed for that search.

• Step 3: write a perl script to scrape that RSS feed and republish it. (this is necessary because Twitter uses nofollow links, which will screw up the next step.)

• Step 4: run your new RSS feed through Yahoo Pipes. Apply some clever filters and regular expressions to strip out the data you want, clean it up a bit, and the republish that as a new RSS feed.

• Step 5: run that RSS feed through twitterfeed.com. This will check for updates every 30 minutes, then will actually update a Twitter account with the new information.

So what we just did is essentially create a retweet bot. It will automatically search Twitter for new tweets using the #parkourjam hashtag, do a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo back-end magic, then republish any tweet it finds under its own account.

This is obviously useful because now everyone doesn't have to follow everyone else, people only have to follow a single bot.

Cool right? Yeah. But we're not done yet.

Twitter is super phone friendly. You can register your phone with your account, and then you can actually text updates to Twitter. So I can be on campus, find out class is canceled, then without having to go home I can tell people to meet me outside the library in ten minutes to train.

Sweet, right? Sure, but then everyone else still has to be at their computer to see my update. And this is when the project REALLY gets cool.

Remember when I said that Twitter is super phone friendly? Yeah. SUPER phone friendly. You can actually set Twitter up to send you a text message whenever specific people update their Twitter accounts.

Yeah. So suddenly, I can tell everyone who follows this retweet bot that I'm outside the library and I want to train. Where ever they are.

So if your Economics 101 professor is droning on and on about the laws of supply and demand and it's an amazing day outside... You know there is someone who wants to go train. Or if your home alone watching television, or if you dropped the kids off at a birthday party and have a few hours to kill. Suddenly the entire community is at your fingertips. Anyone can plan a jam- either days in advance or minutes in advance.

I feel like this is what Twitter is going to be used for more and more in the future. With a bit of creativity, out of the box thinking, and knowing what tools are out there and what they're capable of, you can decentralize planning while centralizing community.

Keeping Busy This Summer

We're now officially halfway through Summer, and I've been keeping busy. I've started, finished, and am working on quite a few different projects.

1. APK Affiliate Program
Toward the beginning of the summer, I came up with an idea to connect American Parkour more with other websites and communities. This eventually developed into the APK Affiliate Program. I've been leading the charge on this, and Im really happy with where this is going. At the time of this posting, we have four published Affiliates, two more waiting to be published, about 6 more in the works, and I'm getting more and more emails about it every day.

I think this is a great way for APK to boost the visibility of a lot of smaller, local sites and drive a lot more traffic to them. It's also a great way to get the people from those sites connected with, using, and contributing to APK and its resources, which will make APK a better community for everyone.

2. Marketing APK and Primal
I've always been very vocal about my ideas for APK (and I've had plenty), but this summer I was hired on as the official Marketing Manager for APK and Primal Fitness DC and Miami. I've been putting together plans and projects to help get the word about APK out there to new people, and to help grow awareness of Primal Fitness DC and help get Primal Fitness Miami started on the right track. This is an exciting opportunity for me to work even harder to grow and guide the organizations that have helped me so much.

3. Content Manager for APK
For almost a year now, I've been in charge of updating the front page of American Parkour on a daily basis. There is the occasional slow day, but for the most part there is something to post every single day. I have a couple different methods of gathering information: I use a series of Google Alerts to track breaking and developing stories. I check the forums for interesting videos, posts, articles, and information. People email me if they think they have something newsworthy.

I email everything to myself, then use a special Gmail label I set up to label it as a front page item. After I post it, I archive it. This system enables me to search my gmail for the string "label:frontpage in:inbox" and it will display all the stories I have yet to publish.

The role of content manager helps me really keep track of what's going on at a local, national, and international level and stay connected with people all over the world. These connections have enabled me to do a much better job with some of my other projects, like the APK Affiliate program.

4. Nunchucks
This is a bit of a side project. I decided I wanted to make a set of nunchucks, but really go all-out on them. I looked up a local woodworking club and went to one of their meetings. I sat and talked with some of the members for a few hours to learn more about basic woodworking. I went to Home Depot and grabbed a utility knife, then I went to a place in Annapolis called Exotic Woods. I was looking through their scrap pile and found 3 pieces of walnut wood. I cut one in half, and ended up with four rectangular pieces of wood.


The left pair have been sanded, the right pair gets sanded today.

I spent about 10 hours whittling (probably a good 4 hours for the first one, 3 for the second, 2 for the third and 1 for the fourth. I was getting better and better!) them into cylinders. I've spent about an hour sanding and that step is half done. Next, I'm going to use a tool my friend lent me. It's kind of like a soldering iron, but it's for burning designs/lettering into wood. I'm going to engrave four quotes, one on each chuck. I've decided on two of the quotes:

"Power Is Nothing Without Control"
"Etre fort pour être utile." (Translation: Be Strong to be Useful)

I haven't decided on the other two. Leave suggestions in the comments!

After I etch the quotes in, I'll stain it and then attach the chain. And then I'll have some awesome homemade nunchucks, and will have learned more about whittling, etching, and staining.

5. Local Parkour Training
Some locals and I have set up regular, twice a week sessions in the Severna Park, Maryland area. I have a lot of friends who were interested in training, but didn't really want to go off and figure it out on their own. When I came back from college we set these up, and we've had a good number of beginners show up (and stay!). I've done a ton of teaching in Rochester, but this group is a mix of experienced and inexperienced people, so finding a good balancing point of activities has been an interesting task.

I trained with the Bar-Barians a bit in NYC a few weeks ago, and it's solidified my opinion that strength and conditioning is paramount not only for safety, but will also in learning new techniques. See video below to learn about the Bar-Barians.



We were doing parkour with one of them, and he moved like he'd been training for three years. Turns out, this was his third parkour session. His incredible amount of strength made learning new techniques a piece of cake. Because of this, we've been doing mostly conditioning at our training sessions. I'm subscribing to the belief that if you focus almost solely on strength and conditioning for the first months of your training, you will progress much faster later on.

Those are some of the projects I've been working on this summer. While it was definitely frustrating not being hired this summer because I wasn't willing to work for free, I've definitely been keeping busy and staying productive.

Call for Help - Parkour Non-Profit Fundraiser

Some of my closest Parkour friends are from Seattle, Washington. Of the people there, Tyson Cecka has started a non-profit organization called "Parkour Visions."

"Parkour Visions seeks to improve the health and well-being of today's movement-starved and overworked population by revealing the world filled with rewarding mental and physical challenges that everyone can playfully use to improve themselves.

We are a nonprofit organization bringing the exciting new sport of parkour / freerunning into mainstream society in a safe and responsible way through our classes, outreach programs, educational resources, and partnerships.

We believe that fitness should not only be physically demanding, but should challenge us intellectually, put us in touch with our environment, and expand our understanding of ourselves. Through parkour we hope to help children and adults connect with their innate love of movement, get in touch with their surroundings, and experience the full potential of what their bodies have evolved to do."

They're currently fundraising to finance their outreach programs for at-risk children. If they make their goal of $4,000 by the end of June, it will earn them a permanent spot on the GlobalGiving.org, which will help fund their programs for a long time!

The description of the project:

"Here's the deal: I'm betting all of you have had problems before getting parkour recognized as a legitimate useful activity that's not just kids jumping off of buildings and goofing around ;) We're all in this challenge together to be recognized as a worthwhile discipline to the masses and that's why places like these forums and projects like Jump Westminster and Leave No Trace have extra importance.

In Seattle, Washington they've started up a whole not-for-profit organization to help address this and guide parkour into the mainstream. Their largest project yet is launching this month which involves teaching low-income and homeless young people parkour through a public school, four apartment complexes, and a teen crisis center (so far).

They have little money to back this up and are reaching out to the worldwide parkour community to give as much as $10 to the cause. If they can raise $4,000 by the end of this month they can reach the tipping point and fund these programs till the end of the year. That's only one corporate sponsor and a few hundred individual donors. The media coverage and lasting impacts of these programs could be huge and be a big boon for parkour in the US and globally.

Take a look and please help by donating $10 or at least spreading this around."

Please help out Parkour Visions - even a donation of $10 will go a long way to supporting the first Parkour non-profit in America!

The Summertime Challenge

While Parkour takes up a large part of my life, I also study Marketing and Business, with a focus in technology. I spent a better part of the Winter and Spring looking for summer employment, hopefully doing some sort of Internet Marketing. Due to the economy, however, it's unlikely I'm going to be employed this summer. I'll be out making contacts in the community, but there will be a lot more free time than I anticipated.

At school, we don't watch television. My roommate is actually going to sell his TV, it's been so long since we last used it. But in the summer I'm not around as many people, and often I'll turn the TV on as background noise while making breakfast or something. Often I'll get sucked into whatever I'm watching and end up wasting half the day. I always feel like crap after, but it's just what happens.

So now I'm in a quandary. I'm going to have a lot of free time, but I don't want it to get sucked up by TV. So I've come up with a summer challenge for myself, and I invite all of you to partake as well:

The challenge is essentially "No TV during daylight." No movies, no video games, nothing. Computer use is restricted to email and business uses. Instead, I propose everyone create a list - a long list - of things to do.

This list should comprise of skills to learn, books to read, places to go, and things to do. Mark each one in a category, and then write the skill. Don't limit yourself to Parkour oriented skills - use this summer to make yourself a more rounded person.

An exerpt from my list:

Gymnastics: Consistent 10 second handstand
Gymnastics: Front Lever Progression - Advanced Tuck
Tricking: B-twist
Tricking: Flashkicks
Marketing: Read at least two SEO books
Marketing: Attend at least 3 networking events a month
Juggling (balls): Factory on both sides
Juggling (clubs): Cuts with clubs
Juggling (poi): Five beat weave
Circus: Learn to ride Unicycle
Slacklining: Vertical jump
Slacklining: Horizontal jump at least two feet.
Reading: Read 5 fiction books
Reading: Read 5 non-fiction books.
Anatomy: Learn names of major muscles in the body, how to ID them.
Martial Arts: Find local Kali group and learn basics of Kali.
Martial Arts: Track down Taekwondo instructor, train with him.
Cars: Learn how to change my oil
Cars: Teach sister to parallel park.


Again, this is just an exerpt from my list. I want everyone to make their own list for the summer, print it out, and put it on their refridgerator. When you complete an item, physically cross it off.

Your list doesn't have to be realistic for the time constraints. I doubt I'll get all of this, let alone my entire list, complete in twelve weeks. But at least every day, I'll be able to wake up and know that I have a lot of things I can do instead of watching television.

Be Strong to Be Useful... or just plain "Be Useful."

I think to truly understand the phrase "Be strong to be useful," you can simply modify it to: "Be useful."

On Saturday, Charles Moreland and I were driving back from the grocery store. We were already 20 minutes late to our own party, it was raining, cold, and there were 30mph gusts. While at a stop light, Charles noticed a van in the intersection across from us. It was stopped in the left turn lane, cars were going around it, and all the lights were off. The lights came back on, briefly, and then went out again. Clearly, their car was dead.

Immediately, and pretty much without speaking, it was agreed that we'd pull into the nearest parking lot, don our jackets and gloves, and run into the middle of the road to help. We walked up to the car, and I waved. The old russian man cracked the door open suspiciously, as I announced that we were here to help. "I already called Triple A" he said. "They'll be here within the hour." I waved my hand toward the oncoming cars. "It's not safe for you to be in this intersection. Throw the car in neutral and we're going to push you into the parking lot."

I think there was a bit of a language barrier, and a bit of suspicion about these random boys who showed up out of no where to help, but once we got behind the car and started to push, he shifted into neutral and steered. Once we got out of the intersection, we pushed the car (uphill! Damn minivans are heavy.) through the road and into a parking space. I noticed about halfway through, whenever he could, the old man opened the door and tried to help push with his foot.

We got to the parking space, he put it in park, and he and his wife got out of the car and thanked us profusely. She asked us if we were in school, and if we were done with calculus yet (she is a calculus tutor at a local high school apparently), and she gave us her card. The man shook our hands and thanked us many times. I gave them my card and told them to call me if they needed any more help - I lived just five minutes away.

Getting out of my car to help two complete strangers in need? To me, this is more parkour than the biggest prevision, the furthest kong to cat, or the largest drop.

Write up: March 28th Beginner's Parkour Workshop in Rochester

Rochester Parkour hosted their first “Beginner's Parkour Workshop” in December. 35 people attended, mostly regulars. On Saturday, March 28th, Rochester Parkour hosted their second “Beginner's Parkour Workshop.” There was no definitive count, but the lower estimate was 100 people, mostly newcomers. During the first workshop, it was in the low 30s and starting to snow. This time, it was in the high 60s, sunny, and a beautiful day.


This picture was taken at the end of the workshop, after approximately half the group had left.

The workshop was scheduled to start at 2:30, but Zac decided to go a little bit early. When he got there at 2:00, there was already a handful of people waiting. After some introductions and idle chit-chat, Zac noticed a police car pulling up and parking nearby. After watching for a bit, the officers got out of their car and started walking over. At this point, Zac was convinced that the workshop was going to get broken up 25 minutes before it even started! He started walking toward the officers to introduce himself. After a brief exchange of introductions, the officers asked if this was the Parkour thing they saw on the RNews (the local news station). Reluctantly, Zac replied that it was. At this point, everyone else was silent and staring. There was a ten second awkward silence, then one officer laughed and said “You guys aren't in trouble! We just thought it was cool and wanted to check it out. We're not even from around here, we're from the next district over.”

Everyone talked with the officers for a bit, and they even said they'd try to stop back again during the workshop (although they weren't able to). It was a stressful, but overall positive indication of how the day was going to go!

Over the course of the next 25 minutes, more and more people showed up. Introductions were made, a Frisbee game broke out. A lot of teenage boys were coming, but there was also at least 10 girls who came out to participate! There were some adults, and even a few families that came out to give it a try! There was a husband and a wife, and their three young children who did a fantastic job! People just kept pouring over the hill and onto the field, until it was about 2:40, and it was definitely time to get started. A quick estimate of the turnout resulted in over 100 people!

Zac led everyone to the field, and we started off with a brief discussion. Zac explained what was, and what wasn't, parkour, and what was going to be covered in the workshop. Then random people in the audience were asked “Why are you here today? Why did you come to this workshop?” Everyone gave a different answer, ranging from “It's better than sitting inside” to “I've watched a lot of videos, and I wanted to learn how to do that, but safely.” After the Q&A session... it was time to get started!

With 100+ people, the warm up was interesting. We ended up doing two laps around the field, alternating between running forwards, backwards, and side to side – all while trying really hard not to trample anyone. Everyone then lined up and was taught basic QM, forwards and backwards. Seeing 100 people on their hands and feet crawling across a field is quite the sight! Landings were next, and Zac used his step-by-step progression to teach everyone the basics fairly quickly.

From here, the best way to deal with 100 people is to make them... not 100 people. So Charles Moreland took 1/3rd of the group to practice precisions, local traceur Zachary Leo took another 1/3rd to work on rolling and QM, and Zac Cohn took the last 1/3rd to learn basic vaults. The vaulting group started with the safety vault. After most people were comfortable with that, those who were ready learned reverse safety vaults. This was a bit different, but it ended up working really well. Benches were being used to vault over, so it was very easy to progress safely. The vault section ended with the Speed vault for those who were comfortable with the Safety vault, and that pretty much took up the rest of the time until the groups rotated.

After everyone hit every station, it was “free time.” People were free to work on whatever they felt they were weak in, or whatever was the most fun! Zac led a wallrun workshop, while his roommate Artem Sivak worked with people on climbups. This was a wildly successful station, with almost half the group coming over to learn.

After the free time was over, it was time for a game of Follow the Leader. Charles Moreland took the advanced/experienced group, while Zac led the beginners. QM, vaults, precisions, and some climbing were all utilized to give people a good workout, and to teach them about exploring their environment in new and interesting ways. Both games of Follow the Leader ended on the field, where everyone stretched out and chatted with their new friends.

All in all, there was beautiful weather, a huge and diverse turn out, and everyone had a ton of fun. There were many photographer's there, and a news crew from the RIT ESPN Sports Zone. Check out more information on Rochester Parkour, and check out Michael McGowan's photo gallery of the website.

Beginner's Parkour Workshop in Rochester, NY - March 28th

Rochester Parkour is planning our second Beginner’s Parkour workshop. This is a free introduction, designed to inform and educate anyone interested in practicing Parkour. It’s targeted towards beginners, but we encourage more experienced members of the community to come as well.

We will be covering the basics of Parkour, including an introduction to proper conditioning, landings and precision jumps, quadrupedal movement, and basic vaulting. Rochester Parkour also emphasizes an importance on safety and slow, progressive training methodologies in all of our events and training sessions.

We encourage anyone interested in Parkour to attend. Whether it’s your first time out, or you’re already an experienced traceur, you’re sure to learn something - or at least have a good time!

Who can come: Anyone! Males or females of any age. Parents feel free to bring your kids. Kids, feel free to bring your parents!

Who is hosting: The event is being run by Zachary Cohn, one of the most experienced traceurs in the state. He is a member of the APK Alliance, a national group sponsored by American Parkour. He will be assisted by Charles Moreland and Jeff Whalley, two experienced and dedicated traceurs.

What: Workshop designed to teach beginners the fundamentals of Parkour training, while emphasizing safety and progression.

Where: The big field above the Ice Rink at Manhattan Square Park: 353 Court St. Rochester, New York, 14607.

When: March 28th, 2:30-4:00pm

Why: To learn about Parkour and to have a great time!

How much: This event is absolutely free! We will be selling Rochester Parkour T-shirts for $10 - all T-shirt sale proceeds will go toward building equipment (vaulting boxes, precision trainers) and our Spring trip to New York City (to be announced).

What you should bring: Bring comfortable clothing and layers. We can’t control the weather, and we will be outside! Bring comfortable but athletic shoes (sneakers, running shoes, skater shoes, etc). If you haven’t already filled out and turned in a waiver, please print out and fill out this waiver and bring it with you.

Most importantly, bring a positive attitude and the expectation of having a great time!!

For more information, email info@rochesterparkour.com.

This Is How I Play #4 –PDQM

Game: Today’s game was invented during one of the Philly jams. It is called PDQM. It doesn’t really stand for anything, just a combination of “Pretty Darn Quick” and “Quadrupedal Motion.” This game is a combination of PDQ and QM Tag.

Rules: All players must start the game on all fours. Any body configuration is acceptable, as long as all four limbs are touching the ground. The game begins like PDQ: each player counts off. No player may move until the player whose turn it is jumps into the air. The twist to this game is that the players must be on all fours. In order to tag someone out, you must tag someone’s hand with your hand, or their foot with your foot. When the player who is “it” is leaping, all other players may move to avoid or to tag someone else out.

Goal: To be the last player untagged.

Variation: Limb elimination. This is actually a pretty standard variant that we play by. If your left hand gets tagged, then you lose that hand, but you are still in the game. You only get “out” when you can no longer support yourself and a non-limb part of your body touches the ground (chest, butt, head, etc). If you lose two feet and a hand, you better hope you can balance on one hand.

Physical Benefits: This game combines the physical benefits of PDQ with QM tag. With the limb elimination modification, it force you to be able to balance in strange positions as well as move from strange positions with unusual restrictions. This game can tire you out more quickly than PDQ or QM tag, and it also is a lot of fun.

Other benefits: This game is an example of the creativity that can be applied to parkour and games. We had two games, and after some modifications to the rules, came up with an entirely new game. Creating games doesn’t have to be hard.

Homework: I want everyone to do this as a creativity exercise. Pick two games. Review the rules in your head quickly, and then figure out a way to combine them. The new game doesn’t have to work well, or be fun, and you don’t even have to play it! Just synthesize a set of rules for a new game from two pre-existing games. I want everyone who reads this to do this exercise three times, and then post the best game you come up with in the comments of this article. Your brain is just like a big muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it gets. The more you use your creativity, the more creative you get. So start exercising your creativity, and let me see what you come up with.

This Is How I Play #3 - QM Tag

Game: This next game is called QM (Quadrupedal Movement) Tag. It's a popular variation on regular tag, except you have to stay on all fours the entire time. These game is a lot of fun, but also is quite the workout as it encourages some mad scrambles to get away.

Rules: The rules are pretty simple. Usually I designate a specific area the players must stay in. This keeps the game fast and intense, and prevents people from spreading out too far. In order to tag someone, you must tag their elbows. This makes it a bit more difficult to tag other players.
Goal: For the player who is “it” to tag another player's elbow.

Physical Benefits: For anyone who hasn't tried it, QM is a fantastic full body exercise. Essentially, walk around on your hands and feet with your hips and shoulders low to the ground – the lower the harder! Once you've walked around like this for a while, try doing it backwards. And then do it up and down stairs, or all around the house. Once you're comfortable with walking around like this, try to balance (not while playing tag though!) and walk on a railing or on top of a fence on all fours.



Other benefits: In addition to making you stronger, compound, full body movements like this teach your brain how to use muscles together, instead of just individually. Whenever you learn a new movement, whether it's QM, juggling, or playing piano, you are actually constructing new neural pathways in your brain. People, especially children, who stimulate their brains in new ways will continue to develop more neural pathways. These people tend to have more active, creative, and powerful brains. By learning how to move in new and creative ways, you can actually get smarter!

Another added plus, it's a pretty effective method of wearing your kids out.

This Is How I Play #2 - PDQ

Game: The first game is called PDQ, or Pretty Darn Quick. This is an incredibly popular parkour game, where the basic objective is to jump on peoples' feet. This is actually one of the more complicated games, it usually takes a practice game for everyone to get the hang of it. I often play a “demo game” as I'm teaching it, so people can see the rules and their effects.



Rules: You start in a circle and everyone puts one first in the center. Someone (usually the winner of the last game) picks a random person, taps their fist, and counts “one,” moves to the next person in the circle, “two” and so on until everyone has been numbered. Once everyone has a number, everyone shouts “One, two, three, PDQ!” and everyone simultaneously takes one jump away from the center.

At this point, you continue in number order (“one” is first, “two” is second, etc). When it is your turn to go, your goal is to jump on someone else's foot. No one can move until you are in the air, however. If you feint and pretend to jump and someone else moves their feet, then they are eliminated. If you jump and land on someone's feet, they are eliminated.

The interesting twist to this game is... you can only jump when the person who is “it” is in the air. However, if you jump and land on someone else's feet, you can still get them out even though it isn't your turn.

Goal: The game continues until only one person remains.

Example Game: John, Sue, Peggy, and Roger are playing PDQ. John is player #1, Sue is player #2, Peggy is player #3, and Roger is player #4.

Round #1: John jumps into the air and lands on Roger's left foot. Roger is out. Sue and Peggy both jump away from John.

Round #2: Sue jumps towards John, but John jumps towards Peggy and lands on her feet. Peggy is out.

Round #3: John feints, but Sue doesn't fall for it. John then jumps, but Sue jumps straight up and lands on John's feet. John is out. Sue wins the game.

Physical Benefits: This game is nothing more than jumping, but it turns it into a very enjoyable and competitive game. It's not highly physically demanding, but it is a great method of training for jumping, as well as precision landings.

Other Benefits: This is quite a fun game because it is actually a bit taboo. We've always been told not to step on people's feet... but now we're supposed to! If you present it to kids this way, they can get really excited about it. This is also a very flexible game; it can be scaled to any number of people. I've played with only my sister, and then I've played a game with 45 other people. The more people there are the more hectic it gets, with people jumping at you from all directions.

This Is How I Play: Introduction

This post is an introduction to a blog series I will be publishing over the next month called “This Is How I Play.” The inspiration for this comes from a book I'm reading, Exuberant Animal, by Frank Forencich. In one of his articles he claims that we “study and test, research and measure, drilling our knowledge down to the deepest levels, and then we wonder why people find exercise so dull and unattractive. We strip human movement down to the sterile elements of anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics and then complain that no one wants to participate.”

I don't agree with this quote 100%, especially for high level athletes, but I think that a lot of fitness programs (especially for school-aged children) should pay a lot of attention. If games were emphasized as the primary method of physical activity, it will not only be more effective but also will be a lot more enjoyable. And that's really the secret to a successful fitness program. If exercise can be made fun, then people will WANT to come back and participate again; they will enjoy and look forward to it.

I'm not talking about sports however – there's a huge difference between sports and games. Sports are fantastic – for athletes. But if you aren't an athlete, you probably aren't going to have many opportunities to play sport-games. Even when you do play a pickup game, there is often equipment, a large number of people, or a specific location necessary for that sport. In order for the game to be played all of these conditions must be met, and that is often very difficult to plan and organize. Then there's the potentially humiliating experience of picking teams and, once the game starts, not being passed to or truly included.

The kind of games I'm talking about are more free-form and creative. Things that really engage the imagination, and don't necessarily have a lot of rules. During this series, I'm going to be giving examples of a lot of different games. Some are games developed by the parkour community, some are games I've developed, and others are just random games that I've come across in my travels. For most of the games, I have also listed one or two variants or combinations, a way to develop a whole new game simply by changing the rules or mixing it with another game.

Creativity and imagination is fundamental to what makes us human, but many kids aren't given the opportunities to exercise their brains and their body together. Encourage your kids to create their own games to play, or you can use these games, or make up your own variations of these games to play! Most of these games can be played without any equipment and can be played by anyone, five to fifty five, skinny or heavy, male or female.

Rochester Parkour Visitor's Weekend

A month or so ago, Bryan Augstein (Maryland) and KC Parsons (Michigan) told me they wanted to come up to visit me in Rochester. I met both of them on my trip this summer, and (through the wonders of free verizon-to-verizon texts) texted back and forth quite a bit during long bus rides. We became good friends, and so of course I was enthusiastic about having them come up! KC Decided to bring a close friend of his, Nate Manly (Michigan), and soon Jesse Danger (NYPK) and Christopher Price (Michigan) were added to the list of attendees. Soon enough... we were having ourselves a Rochester jam!

Jesse arrived at the bus station Thursday night, and we hung out with some friends and watched The Dark Knight on our projector downstairs. We went to sleep late, and then got up early for a workout at the gym. We left straight from there to go back to the bus station KC and Nate arrived early the next morning. After a great (and cheap!) dinner at the local diner, we came back to my house and... immediately dropped to the floor and went to sleep. Jesse and I had 3 hours of sleep and a workout, and KC and Nate had a 14 hour bus ride under their belt. We woke up 5 hours later and went to the Red Barn, the local rock climbing gym (it's a big red barn. Go figure!). Chris showed up, and we all packed in his pickup truck and went to the bus station to pick up Bryan.

Everyone was hungry again, so it was time for dinner. If it's your first time in Rochester, there is only one meal your hosts will give you: a garbage plate:



Ingredients: hash browns, chili sauce, macaroni salad, 2 hamburger patties, American cheese, diced raw onions, mustard, ketchup.

So... I sort of kind of challenged Jesse to an eating contest, to see who could finish theirs faster. We decided on to have a good, old fashioned gentlemen's wager: The loser had to eat a second one. Long story short, I didn't lose. I got annihilated. Destroyed. Pummeled into the ground. I still hold that it would have been at least a fair fight if it hadn't been for the mayo on the mac salad.. but alas. I ended up chickening out of the bet, but I accepted an alternate punishment: The Hundred Burpee Challenge. Outside. In the snow and wind and cold.

I have to say, I did fairly well. I've never actually done the Hundred Burpee Challenge before, and a time of 9:16 isn't shabby (all things considered). I did it without vomiting, which was A) A nice perk, and B) means I didn't try hard enough. This event gave rise to a series of challenges throughout the weekend, with a complex series of governing rules (such as the hundred burpee challenge is an acceptable alternative punishment for losing, but if you don't “one up” the previous challenge in some way (ex. Faster time, fewer clothes, etc), you had to do the original punishment as well).

We got back to my house that night, and things kind of slowed down. We spent the next few hours laying around my living room, half-trying to find something to do, but really just trying to recover from the garbage plates. Then someone saw the slacklines on the staircase, and we had an idea.

We hopped in cars, drove to a nearby abandoned Kodak building with a huge secluded parking lot, and played in the snow for a while. We ran and slid and played tag, explored some woods, and had some epic snowball fights.

Saturday was Parkour day! We woke up, Happydud's Emporium of Pancakes was once again visited, and then started piling on the layers. We drove up to campus to pick up the locals, and then drove over to Manhattan Square Park in downtown Rochester. After a good warm up (because it certainly was not warm out), we decided it was just too slippery and dangerous for Parkour training. Instead, we had a series of truly legendary snowball fights. We started in a field, then had a Capture the Flag match in another area that was a great mix of nature and urban environments, all the while snowballs flying everywhere. We wrapped up the day with a game of Humans vs Zombies – Snowball Style, then stopped by a coffee shop and a mexican resteraunt for dinner.

After warming back up at my house, we went to a playground for the night. While everyone else was either doing random strength training stuff (rings, muscle ups, finding routes through the playground), or having 2v1 wrestling matches (I still say it was a draw... if I can go that long without tapping out it has to count for something!), Jesse was busy constructing a sled out of two skis and a precision trainer he found in the back of my car.

Well, that was an awesome freaking sled. We went SO FAST. Graham, a local traceur and EMT (foreshadowing!), had brought a bunch of real sleds. We all took turns on the various sleds and picnic table (which, it turns out, makes a fantastic sled as long as you bail fast enough), until Chris went snowboarding on one of the sleds. Turns out, Grade 2 ankle sprains are the reason you use sleds as intended, and not as snowboards. Graham was able to wrap him up and make sure he was okay, but it was still a bummer.

The next day was gymnastics day! I went to our gym, Zenith Gymnastics, and taught my kids Parkour class, and then the visitors joined the RIT Gymnastics club in a gymnastics training session. It was loads of fun, people worked on everything from back tucks to side summis over things, from rings to jumping over things. It was a pretty productive session, and everyone had a lot of fun finally getting to run and jump and flip and horse around. We wrapped up the day with pizza and movies, and then I started shuttling people back to the bus station.

That wraps up the Rochester Parkour Visitor's Weekend. Not much actual Parkour, but still great fun was had by all. I'm glad we could give Nate a great first jam-weekend, and it was great seeing all my old friends again. We're already planning our next few gatherings!

Write up - Leave No Trace/Beginner Parkour Workshop

On Saturday, December 6th, Rochester Parkour held a “Leave No Trace Initiative/Beginner Parkour Workshop.” Thirty five people put on layer upon layer and headed out into 25 degree weather to Manhattan Square Park in downtown Rochester, New York.



We arrived at 2:00pm with three brooms, three dustpans, two (very) small rakes, six pairs of rubber work gloves, and about four thousand gallons of elbow grease. There were a lot of new faces, people out for the first time, so we all circled up and had a brief introduction to Parkour. Zachary Cohn explained what Parkour is, what it isn't, and what it means to be a traceur. We discussed the different facets of respect – respect for yourself, respect for others, and respect for your environment. Respect for yourself included a discussion on safety and an emphasis on slow progression. Respect for others was about respecting your fellow traceurs, pedestrians, property owners, and law enforcement. Respect for environment was the focus of the discussion however – we talked about how lucky we are to have these amazing locations to train on, and how it is important to give back to the community. We discussed how important it is to pick up trash as you see it; such a small effort can make a huge difference. On Saturday, we decided to clean up Manhattan Square Park.

Manhattan Square Park had several years worth of trash, broken glass, cigarettes, leaves, and other miscellaneous junk scattered around it. For the first 90 minutes of the day, we spread out around the park. We raked, swept, and picked up everything we saw. We ended up removing twenty one bags of trash and leaves from the park. It looked AMAZING afterwards, so much better than it did before. And the best part? I found out from a Fire Marshall that was there preparing for a fireworks show that night that there was a parade that evening, and it ended right smack in the middle of the park! So we ended up doing the whole city a huge favor by cleaning up the area for them. It was a very gratifying experience... even if as a whole the city never finds out who cleaned up, we still know and we still can be proud of that.

At 3:30, we started the Beginner's Workshop. The group was split about 50/50 between traceurs who had been coming fairly regularly and very inexperienced people. This workshop was focused on the very basics of Parkour, so that's where we started. Jeff Whalley lead the first half of the warm up, and Charles Moreland wrapped up with quadrupedal movement variants. Once the warmups were finished, Zachary Cohn taught landings in six separate phases: 1) Just jump. 2) Jump and land on the balls of the feet. 3) Jump, land on the balls of the feet, and bend the knees. 4) Jump, land on the balls of the feet, bend the knees, and use your arms when you jump. 5) Jump, land on the balls of the feet, bend knees, and maintain good back posture. 6) Jump, land on the balls of the feet, bend knees, maintain good back posture, and be silent when you land.

After everyone was taught how to properly land, we broke up into three separate groups. One group went to a playground with Charles to work on rolls, one group went to the park benches with Jeff to work on vaults, and the third group went with Zac to the field and worked on precisions. We brought three homemade precision trainers use, and then the precision group drilled footwork by taking two steps and then precisioning to a stair. The vault group learned safety vaults, and then some of the more experienced people drilled their speed vaults. The rolling group started by rolling from a squatting position, and some of the more experienced traceurs drilled rolls from standing.

We had to rush a little bit at the end, they were going to be shooting off fireworks and we needed to clear out. We packed all of the bags of trash into cars, gave out a few of the new “Rochester Parkour” t-shirts, then went across the street and stretched a bit. We decided to head to a local coffee shop for some well deserved hot chocolate to wrap up the day.

All in all, it went off better than we could have possibly expected. The weather was tolerable (and for Rochester, that's as good as it's going to get), we had a HUGE turnout, an article in the paper that morning, pulled out 21 bags of trash and leaves from a great training spot, made friends with several parents who were watching their kids play near us, and we all met new people and made new friends.

All in all, I'd call it a win.

PSA - Rochester Parkour Beginner Workshop

Zachary Cohn and Charles Moreland of Rochester Parkour are hosting a Leave No Trace Initiative and Beginner Parkour Workshop on Saturday, December 6th in Manhattan Square Park. The Leave No Trace cleanup will start at 2pm and will last approximately 90 minutes. Afterwards, the more experienced traceurs of Rochester Parkour will assist Zac in teaching the 90 minute beginner workshop to all of the attendees. This will be a great event for new people interested in learning Parkour, for fairly new traceurs who need to review the basics, and for experienced traceurs who need experience teaching.

Details:

Who: Rochester Parkour
What: Leave No Trace Cleanup/Beginner Parkour Workshop
Where: Manhattan Square Park, Rochester, New York
When: 2pm, Saturday December 6th, 2008
Why: To clean up a popular training location and to instruct newcomers on the basics of Parkour
Cost: Free!

Contact zac@rochesterparkour.com and check out http://www.rochesterparkour.com for more information.

New Parkour Classes at Zenith Gymnastics

Rochester Parkour is offering Parkour and Obstacle Coursing Classes on Sundays from 2:30pm to 3:30pm at Zenith Gymnastics. This class is geared to the 8-14 age bracket, but even if you aren't in this age range, please contact Zenith anyway and let them know you are interested. We will take your contact info and alert you when a new class opens up.

Located in Rochester, New York, Contact Zenith at 585-292-5370 and ask about Zac Cohn's Parkour classes now!

Zenith Parkour Class - A Big Hit

On Sunday, October 5th, I ran a free "Parkour and Obstacle Coursing Workshop" at Zenith Gymnastics in Rochester, New York.

I've been working with Zenith Gymnastics through the RIT Gymnastics club since the end of last summer. I was calling all the local gyms I could find, trying to find somewhere that would give us access to their equipment and facilities and let us train there. After some negotiation, RIT Gymnastics started going there weekly, learning from Sasha and Maria Kourbatova - Russian olympic gold metalists and leaders in their fields. We learned a lot over the year, and we're looking forward to a very successful second year with them!

Amy, the owner of Zenith Gymnastics, has been trying to expand her boys program. My roommate, co-founder of Rochester Parkour, and President of the RIT Gymnastics Club Charles Moreland, offered his help and has begun to teach some of the Boy's Gymnastics classes at Zenith.

Back in August, I called Amy to confirm plans for Gymnastics this year. At the end of this call, I proposed to her the idea of starting a Parkour class. She was interested in the idea, and told me to develop a curriculum and some flyers. I came up with several different ways for the class to work, depending on some of Amy's goals, and we finally settled on a 4 week class aimed towards Zenith's primary demographic, 8-14 year olds.

Yesterday, I ran a free workshop at Zenith to generate some interest. Five kids arrived, and there were between eight and ten more on the list of people interested. Two brothers, around age 9, two fourteen year olds, and a seven year old.

We started with some fun running drills up and down the gym, then I introduced them to QM (Quadrupedal Motion). We did more of what I called a "gorilla run," a fast and galloping motion. After a minute or two of practice with this, I wanted to start getting them engaged.

One thing I've learned in my experience with Taekwondo is that kids are very easily distracted. In fact, I've made a chart:




You can't argue with science this sound.

In order to keep the kids entertained and on topic, I mixed a lot of games into the class. The first game we played is QM Tag. You have to stay on all fours, and then the person who is it has to tag someone's elbows. They enjoyed this a lot, and it was a great way to warm them up.

After a few other warmup activities, we moved straight into an obstacle course.
I started by showing them a simple safety vault over a balance beam, and then they landed, immediately QMed under a second balance beam, and then stood up and vaulted over a third. After that, pull-overs on the uneven bars, QM-balance on a balance beam (floor height), jumping over some blocks, some more qm, and then some precision jumps to and from tape on the floor.

We broke it down, piece by piece, so A) I could teach them some of the basics of a technique to overcome that obstacle, and B) so I could make sure they were doing it safely. The only thing people really had problems with was the pull-overs, and so I stood there and assisted them.

Later on, we played a game of PDQ (a game where the goal is to jump on people's feet), ran through another obstacle course, climbed ropes, and jumped in a foam pit!

The two brothers picked it up immediately. While I only showed them the safety vault, they were already modifying it into what looked like a two-handed speed vault. They plowed through all the vaulting and QM and balance. Later on, we were practicing rope climbs. Once they were done and waiting for the other three boys, they asked me if they could practice the pull-overs. I don't really know why this left such an impression on me, but I told them of course they could and watched as they figured out how to do it themselves!

The two fourteen year olds did quite well also, they had some problems with the rope climb and the pull-overs, but they didn't give up! That's another thing that really left an impact on me. Even when they couldn't do it, they were thinking about how to practice or how to build enough strength to do it. I can barely remember all these kids' names, and I'm already so proud of them.

All in all, it was a great experience. The kids had an enormous amount of fun and were really excited about coming back (one of them even signed up for the www.AmericanParkour.com forums already... I didn't even reference it! He must be doing his own research) Amy is very excited about Zenith being the only gym with a Parkour class for 400 miles (er, 200 miles. Stupid Toronto...), and I'm very excited to be teaching it!

For now, there's only one class a week: Sunday's at 1PM. The age range is 8-14 (although I'm sure plus or minus a year won't hurt much). If you are interested in a class, but you or your child is not within this age range, email me at zac@rochesterparkour.com and call Zenith and let us know. If there is enough interest, we would love to open up more classes.

If you are interested in registering for the Zenith Gymnastics Parkour and Obstacle Coursing Class, please call Zenith at 585-292-5370 and let them know! Zenith Gymnastics is located in Winton Place just off the East end of Brighton Henrietta Townline Road.

Rochester Parkour Website

Interest in Parkour at RIT is exploding.

We are not a school sponsored club, although we are working on it, but through grassroots advertising and word of mouth alone, the size of our regular meetings has doubled since last spring. This explosion in popularity is not just limited to RIT however. I have been in contact with many people from University of Rochester, Monroe Community College, and people from around the city.

In an effort to expand awareness of Parkour even more, I have decided to launch a new website, www.RochesterParkour.com

This website will serve as the central hub for all Parkour activities in the Rochester, New York area. We are not a team or a clan, we are simply a community. This website will function as a way to promote Parkour in Rochester, and to direct people who might be interested, but are unsure of where to start, to willing and able teachers. It will be a single website where they can read articles, look at pictures, and watch videos all relevant to the Rochester area. There will be information about workshops and classes being offered, as well as regular training times and locations.

The site is still new, and things will be constantly added. Soon I will be adding an "Articles" section, as well as "Quotes" and a link to our pictures, hosted on Flickr.

In addition to hosting content for the Rochester community, the site links to other valuable resources such as American Parkour, blogs of local and high-profile traceurs (someone who trains Parkour), and other websites.

My hope is that this new site will spark even more interest in Parkour in the Rochester area, and will help people train in a safe and responsible manner.

North Carolina and Table Rock

I got to the train station in Georgia at 7:30pm, Tuesday the 5th. I arrived in Burlington, North Carolina at 10:00am, Wednesday the 6th. It was a looong train ride. I saw TK17/Duncan waiting for me as the train pulled up, I recognized him from his Pilgrimage video. We all got introduced, and then headed to IHOP for breakfast (my first meal in almost 15 hours). Most of Wednesday was spent resting, and I led a small training session at UNC – Chapel Hill that evening showcasing some of the different training methods I'd learned on my trip. The real adventure of North Carolina happened Thursday, though.

We left around 9am from Duncan's house in three cars. The plan was to rendezvous with two other people, and then go hiking all day at Table Rock, a huge series of mountains and rocks, with a valley containing the “North Carolina Wall.” The trip started off well enough, and then we hit a bump.

Two of the cars were already full, the third car had enough room for the two extra passengers we were picking up. The third car also happened to develop a transmission problem that prevented it from shifting out of second gear. This pretty much makes it an adventure to get out of your neighborhood. We parked it at a Dairy Cream off of the highway, and reconsolidated passengers, then headed to pick up the two extra people.

They were waiting in a parking lot of a strip mall, and as we pulled up we realized a new problem. Since the car broke down, we now had 9 seats and 11 people. I spent the next 3 hours of our journey to Table Rock in the trunk of a Honda Element.



Only one person knows how to get there, and he's in the other car. After about two and a half hours, we start to question whether or not this place exists, because we see no tables, rocks, or mountains that look like either. We finally start seeing signs of the mountain, and we begin our ascent. For a while, the paved road was steep and winding as we head up the mountain, but then it turned into more of a dust road than a dirt one. Driving up and down this winding dirt road created a massive dust cloud behind us, obscuring vision. Again, after about a half an hour we started to question if we were actually headed anywhere in particular, or just out for a nice drive.



Finally, we arrived at a parking lot, and saw a sign for “Table Rock Trail.” We made it to the trail! We piled out of the car, which was completely covered in dust at this point, and started out our hike. Several people decided to do it barefoot, so I join them, kicking off my shoes, tying the laces together and slinging them over my shoulder. We reached several photo-op spots, using a bit of creative climbing and Parkour to get on top of boulders. Almost every time it seemed like we had reached the top of the mountain and everything else was descending, but every time we kept going further and every time the view got more and more spectacular.

At one point, our first real view of the valley, there was a rock-peninsula about 100 feet ahead and parallel to of us. Duncan and two other traceurs climbed down the rock face we were resting on, traversed their way through the brush and thorns, and then climbed out to it. It must have been a fantastic view, with nothing obstructing their vision. We continued the climb, and after getting distracted probably fifteen times by interesting Parkour spots or climbing walls, we eventually made it to the end. This was definitely the best view of the entire hike. We were out on a corner of a cliff with the entire valley stretched to our right, and another set of mountains reaching up to our left. We stayed there for probably twenty minutes, just taking in the sights. From valleys to falcons, it was nature at its finest.

It was also dinner time. We'd been out hiking for close to four hours, with a four hour drive before that. We were famished! So before starting the trek down the mountain, we broke open a cooler in the trunk of the other car and got to work on our picnic! It was a great picnic, with turkey, ham, assorted fruits and vegetables, bread and some cookies for desert. After eating, we piled back into the cars, I got back into my trunk, and we were comin' back down the mountain. I almost immediately curled up in the trunk of the Honda Element and passed out. (and let me tell you, waking up in the trunk of a Honda Element is probably one of the strangest things you'll ever experience).

A quick stop at Dairy Queen to pick up the car (and for ice cream), and we headed back to Duncan's house to pass out. I left the next morning for home, and I definitely think that the hike was a fantastic way to end my summer adventure.

MovNat and Methode Naturelle in Seattle, Washington

I arrived at Seattle's airport and called Tyson Cecka, who said he was waiting outside and to give him a call when I got my bag. So I waited. For about fifty minutes. I finally saw my bag coming down the conveyor belt... when someone else grabbed it! See the pictures in the first “Where's Zac” entry for reference, but my bag is pretty easy to identify, and not easy to mix up with someone else's. I started running to intercept them... when I recognized who it was! It was Jesse “Hardcoretraceur” from New York, just with no hair! We went outside and I hopped in the car. Matt Perry from California, Ryan Ford from Colorado, and Tyson Cecka were already inside. After Jesse and I hopped in, I noticed Jereme Sanders from Texas jammed into the trunk.

We headed back to Tyson's house and spent the afternoon jamming at Gasworks Park, an old gas refinery station that they converted into essentially a playground. We crashed that night, and then headed off the next morning in a rented MiniCooper to Bellingham, Washington to visit with Rafe Kelly.

Rafe is a traceur, but he also trains MovNat (an update to Methode Naturelle). We arrived at his house late in the afternoon, and headed to Whatcom Falls, a huge park with some really awesome trails. We asked Rafe to run us through a Movnat style workout, so we could learn more about it. He explained to us that Movnat was all about replicating Natural Movement. The twelve core parts of MovNat are walking, running, jumping, climbing, quadrupedal movement, balancing, swimming, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, and defending. Combining these ten real-life activities into a single methodology trains you to be a truly well rounded athlete. Unlike programs that focus on strength and conditioning to get you ready for an activity or sport, in MovNat, performing the activity or sport IS the strength and conditioning.

For our warmup, we started off running around a field. There are many ways to run however – forwards, backwards, sideways, rotating, sprinting, jogging. We went from one to another seamlessly, and alternated often. We then progressed into walking movements. This is something I always found confusing – I figured walking was walking. First, we just walked. But then we had to try and move as silently as possible. We then tried to walk, staying as low as possible, then switched it up and pretended to step over something very tall. Next, we combined the two. Pretend you have to step over something very tall, and then crouch and waddle under something very short, and then repeat. We transitioned into QM, and did a lot of QM variations, but also added in some crawling (forwards, left, right, backwards, rolling to the sides) on our elbows and knees which isn't done too often in a lot of Parkour warmups. Standing up into a fighting stance, we practiced bouncing, sliding back, forth, and to the sides, and some punches and crosses. This pretty much wrapped up the warmup, and then we moved onto the workout.

Throughout the workout, we moved pretty much constantly. Running through the trails in the woods, balancing on fallen treetrunks and handrails as we went. Several times Rafe had us stop, pick up a rock (a large rock) and we ran with it, passing it off whenever Rafe called out “Pass!” We eventually stopped along the trail, and then practiced lifting. This is very different than lifting weights. When doing a clean and jerk (weight starts on the ground, you pull it up and push it over your head) with a barbell, you have a good hold on the bar and the weight is evenly distributed on the two sides. With a rock, you have to fight to find a decent place to put your hands, the weight is uneven, and we had no idea how heavy it was. Everyone lifted the rock over their head several times, then we played some passing games (just passing the rock down a line). We continued our run, stopping to flip some logs (like telephone poles) and climb up a rock face. We wrapped up the day by finding a big pool of water nxt to some cliff faces about 30 feet up... so we jumped off. A bunch of times.

It was a very educational experience, and I think MovNat something that everyone should try to incorporate into their training. I know when I go back to school, I'll be looking for some rocks to carry around.

Madison, Wisconsin

I'm going to start posting a story from most of the places I visit. I'm going to start out with Madison, Wisconsin:

Alissa (Muse_of_Fire) and I were in the car, driving to a daycamp for pre-teen boys and girls in Madison. This was the first day we were working with Girls, Inc (the group that runs this camp), and we had absolutely no idea what to expect. We didn't know whether we'd be working with boys, girls, or both. We didn't know what kind of facilities we had to work with, or how many people we'd have to work with.

The night before, Alissa, Chad (her training partner), and I had dinner and planned out what we were going to do the next day. It took about two hours, and due to The Game (if you say certain words, you have to do 10 pushups), there were pretty constant distractions - but we finally worked out a rough lesson plan. We would start with a Julie Angel video, give a brief talk about Parkour, then, boys or girls, we were going to focus heavily on games.

We pull up to the driveway and get out of the car. We examine the Kennedy Heights Community Center, it's pretty much just a big temp building. There's a wooden fence outside for balancing, and a playground around the back. The director of the camp came out to meet us, introduced us to the girls, and we were on our own! There were eight girls, I'd say age 12 to 14. Long story short, they were not impressed by our pep talk, or by the Julie Angel video. Looking back, we probably needed something a bit more action oriented.

Once we got them outside though, we started to play some warmup games. Alissa started by having them all run in place, and then drop into the landing position whenever she said drop. We did some side QM, and did some other fun warmup activities. We wanted to start off with a game, so I ran a game of QM Redlight/Greenlight. Went to the fence to do some partner balancing drills, and then we played a balance game. Two people would stand about arms length apart, and try to push each other over without moving their feet. The first person who's feet moved, lost. We then played a finger jousting game, and then I taught precisions.

This was the only thing "taught" and "drilled" all day. Later on in Seattle, Rafe Kelly brought up the point that children and adults learn differently. Children are very "lets go go go stop talking and let me do it!" Adults have goals, they want to see progressions, and they want a specific set of steps to get to their goals. When teaching children, at least in the beginning, drilling something will only drive them away. It bores them, and they do not understand why it must be done. I felt it was necessary, however, to "drill" precisions, just for a little bit. We used one end of a sidewalk to another, so it was maybe two feet. I had them jump twice, and then I taught them something new.

First I just had them jump. Then I taught them about jumping in an arc, instead of straight to it. I had them jump two more times with this in mind, then I taught them about landing on the balls of the feet. Jump two more times, and then I taught them about bending their legs and compressing. Jump two more times, and that was it. I feel like this was the best way to introduce them to all the necessary concepts. I didn't want to drown them in information, or have them just standing around listening too long, but they needed to know those three basic concepts. It worked well, too. They didn't get bored, and they had fun with it.

As soon as we were done the lesson, the girls got to learn about some practical applications during a game of PDQ. It was a little bit bigger than optimal (8 girls, the director, Alissa, Chad, myself), but it was still a lot of fun, and some of the girls really got into it!

PDQ was the last game and activity of the day, and we gave them a quick pep talk, and then left. When the girls started, they were pretty typical pre-teen girls. Completely uninterested and unengaged. By the end, they were running and jumping around, talking and laughing and having fun.

I heard back from Alissa yesterday, who just had the second meeting. Apparently, I'm the cute one, because all the girls were asking where I was and when I'd be back. Which is cool....

Kinda. :)

Chicago Parkour Jam

This is the video for the Chicago jam from June 28th. Over 75 people showed up, representing everywhere from Washington, Texas, Virginia, and everywhere in between.

New York Parkour Jam - 2008

NYPK (New York Parkour) had their annual jam the 20-22nd of June. Here's the video!

An Apology, a Promise, and a Video.

So, I've been neglecting this blog a little bit. I feel bad, but I've been quite busy. I left June 6th for my cross country trip, and since then I've been in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bloomfield, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, New York, New York, Columbus, Ohio, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. Tomorrow I leave for Madison, Wisconsin.

Everyone I've stayed with so far has been awesome, and the people I've met have been awesomer. I haven't, however, had a lot of time. I have a to-do list that's about 37 entries long, and sadly updating my blog is not at the top... For each of the major jams I've been to, I've written a summary and edited together a 3-5 minute video. I've been working on several other really great projects too, and I'll be announcing or releasing those fairly shortly.

I have to go to bed now, I'm totally worn out from Chicago. But long story short: I apologize for not updating more, and I promise I'll be updating more often. Over the next few days I'll be posting links to the videos of the major jams here, so check back often!

If you want to follow my trip more closely, you can check out Where's Zac? on www.AmericanParkour.com. I'm posting my write ups and videos there for the whole Parkour community to see.

For now, the Philly video:

Summer Trip Details *Updated with bloglink*

So it's been a little while since the last update. Whoops. I just wanted to fill everyone in a little on some more details about this summer:

I have a couple of goals for my trip.
First, obviously I want to meet traceurs and traceuses from all over the country. I want to share training techniques and stories with people who are more, and less, experienced than I. I've trained with a lot of different people, and I think that I can share quite a bit of knowledge with the people I visit. That being said, I hope to learn just as much from all of the traceurs and traceuses that I meet on my trip.

Second, one of my larger goals. I am going to record this entire trip on video. I am going to edit it all together into a documentary, sort of a "This is how America Trains" kind of thing. I'll be taking a lot of footage, and I'll be releasing smaller "jam coverage" media peices throughout my trip through American Parkour, but look for a longer documentary at the end of August or beginning of September.

The current itinerary of major jams follows. Note, I may be arriving the night before, the morning of, or sometime during the day of these dates, depending on bus schedules:

*Saturday, June 7th - Philly Jam II
*Friday, June 13th through Sunday June 15th - PKFR International Pittsburgh Jam
*Friday, June 20th through Sunday June 22nd - PKNY (New Jersey and NYC)
Monday, June 23rd through Tuesday, June 24th - Columbus, Ohio
Wednesday, June 25th through Friday, June 27th - Ann Arbor, Michigan
*Saturday, June 28th through Sunday, June 29th - Chicago Jam
Monday, June 30th through Wednesday, July 2nd - Madison, Wisconsin
Thursday, July 3rd through Friday, July 4th - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Saturday, July 5th through Wednesday, July 9th - Seattle, Washington
Thursday, July 10th through Tuesday, July 15th - San Fransisco, California
Wednesday, July 16th through Thursday, July 17th - Phoenix, Arizona
Friday, July 18th through Tuesday, July 22nd - Denver, Colorado
*Wednesday, July 23rd through Tuesday, July 29th - San Antonio, Texas
Tuesday, July 29th through Wednesday, July 30th - Tampa, Florida
Thursday, July 31st through Friday, August 1st - Miami, Florida
Saturday, August 2nd - Athens, Georgia
Sunday, August 3rd through Tuesday, August 5th - Charlotte, North Carolina
Wednesday, August 6th through Friday, August 8th - Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Saturday, August 9th - back home to Severna Park, Maryland!

*'s denote "National Jams"

I hope to meet as many people along this trip as possible. I plan on putting together an email list to keep people informed of how and what I'm doing (if you want to be on it, comment on this post!), and I'll be making regular posts on American Parkour detailing more of the Parkour oriented aspects of my trip. You can find a lot of the pictures, videos, and bloggings here, or you can go to American Parkour, go to the top-menu item "Where's Zac" and see the listing there.

If you'd like to contact me about my trip, or you're interested in meeting me somewhere along the way, send me an email at zaccohn@gmail.com and let me know! I'm sure we can work something out.

Spring Break? More like Spring Active.

My titles really are lame sometimes...

So I am recently returned to Rochester from RIT's Spring Break. I went back home to Maryland with my roommate Charlie. Our break was incredibly fun and exciting, and anything but relaxing.

We got back on Wednesday and were treated to some of my sister's fine cooking, and Thursday we woke up nice and early and headed to Primal Fitness, the Parkour gym in Washington DC, for the day!

Primal was, as always, awesome. We arrived around 11am and spent a few hour hanging out with Mark. We talked about Parkour and future plans, I accidentally interrupted a video capture that had been taking hours to complete, and we helped out around the gym a little bit. Lunch time rolled around and we grabbed some Chinese food, ate Mark's, and played with his dogs (SO ADORABLE). By the time we got back to the gym, it was time for the evening workouts and Parkour classes. During the Crossfit Workout, we met up with Steven Low and fooled around a bit, and eventually ended up doing weighted pull-ups. We started light (bodyweight + 40lbs), and kept increasing to our max. I died at about 80lbs, Steve managed to knock out an incredible 115lbs - which is practically as much as he weighs!

The Crossfitter's started to clear out, and then it was time for the Parkour class. While I was helping some beginners with their kongs, Charlie and the rest of the class was working on more advanced Kong techniques, primarily double kong's and kong to cats. I popped by and gave it a few tries. It appears I have an issue misjudging the distance I travel when doing a kong, because I had some fairly epic bails while trying to cat. I think I'm going to work on my kong to precisions more to fix this.

That was Thursday, the first day of my break! Stay tuned tomorrow for an outline of Friday. Sadly, I didn't take many (if any) pictures over the break. I was a bit too busy training to carry around a camera. Here's a picture halfway through a kong to cat though, which is what we were working on at Primal:




Also, don't forget to check out my new video, PK Vision! See yesterday's post, or use this link

PK Vision

Wow, a lot has happened since I last updated. Sorry for the long break. I'm planning on updating much more frequently, hopefully once a day - even if it's just with a picture or a video.

Speaking of videos, last week I went back home to Severna Park, MD with my roommate Charlie, and filmed a video for Brian "Doc Akh" Belida's "Mid-Atlantic Monthly Member Movie" project. Found below!



Link to youtube version of Zac "Happydud" Cohn's PK Vision

A bit of history on the name: The phrase "PK Vision" is what some people call your shift in how you observe your environment once you've been training for a while. You start to see possibilities everywhere, whereas before you just saw a table, or a wall.

Study time now, but I'll be updating tomorrow probably about my Spring Break, and all the fun that was had.

New York Parkour Goes Primal

On Wednesday, January 2nd, I hosted a group of traceurs from New York and New Jersey who bussed and drove down to visit Primal Fitness and the DC scene. Chris "Phreaknite" Salvato (spelling) is moving to Colorado soon, and wanted to visit Primal before he left. So over the course of a few weeks, we planned out and organized the trip. In the end, nine traceurs came down and joined Travis Noble, who was down visiting Primal from Michigan, and RandomPKGuy (RPG) and I for a really great jam.

It started at 10:30 when I picked up Jesse “Hardcoretraceur” from the bus station in Baltimore. We came back to my house, cleaned up a bit, and then I (almost) taught him to juggle while waiting for everyone else to arrive. We heard Vert and Arfel yelling as they got out of the car, and so we met them at the door, along with Pheaknite, Pyro, and Ish. My roommates from school, Artem and Charlie "ChadManX", arrived shortly later. We hung out in the basement until it was time to go to Xtreme Acro and Cheer, a nearby gymnastics gym. We called M1L3S, who was still en-route, and had him meet us there. We piled into cars and drove an hour to Acro to meet up with Travis and RPG.

Much fun was had at Acro! Wallflips, backtucks, layouts, frontflips, diverolls, trampolines, butterfly kicks, and more. We ended up staying about 30 minutes past when we were supposed to, and then packed in the car and came back to my house. The twelve of us promptly ordered 7 pizzas, and finished them off in about as many minutes. The rest of the night was pretty low key, the highlight being Jesse giving himself quite the shiner after running into a pole in my woods while playing Predator versus Prey (Aliens!).

The next morning Charlie and I got up at 6:45 and started making pancakes. Artem soon joined us in our endeavor, and Happydud's Emporium of Pancakes was moving along at full steam ahead! 64 pancakes, 1 box of pancake mix, 7 eggs, 5 cups of milk, a dash of olive oil, and one failed batch of pancakes later, everyone was up and eating pancakes, cereal, fruit, yogurt, and anything else we could find in the house. We managed, amazingly, to get out the door by 9:00AM (I did NOT think this was possible) and we headed to Primal Fitness, the main attraction.

After some creative convoying, we got to Primal as Jesse “Gearsighted” Woody, Steve Low, Leonn, and Britney were setting up a projector. We projected a big PRIMAL FITNESS onto the far wall, traced it, and then painted it in red. Other things got painted throughout the day as well, like the spiderweb, and a recreation of a Banksy. As far as the Parkour went, it was pretty awesome, as always. Leonn and Travis ran a really good warmup, which actually gave me a lot of ideas of what I want to incorporate into my standard warmup. Skipper stopped by, and the training continued throughout the entire day. The room was rearranged every few minutes to create new obstacle combinations and to drill different techniques. Later in the afternoon, Mark decided to run us through a workout.

The warmup: 3 rounds: 25x20lbs sumo-deadlift high-pulls, 1 lap of QM, 1 lap “uncomfortably high stepping” (stepping through a line of 3 to 4 foot boxes), 10 decline pushups.

I'm still convinced that Crossfit style “warmups” are equivilent to the workouts that some people usually get.

After the warmup, we got to the workout. Mark yells “Okay, who's ready for 3 minutes of conditioning?” I respond sarcastically “Only 3 minutes? This should be easy!” We went back to the line of eight 3 to 4 foot plyometric boxes and lined up.

The workout: 3 minutes, as many rounds through as you can. Two footed jump from the ground to the top of the first box. Jump from box to the ground. Jump from the ground to the next box. Rinse, wipe hands on pants, repeat. It was pretty hellish. By the end of the third minute, my legs felt like lead.

Afterwards, we ran through some jumping and landing drills designed to facilitate the ease of continued running after a landing, without stumbling, slowing down, putting your hands down, etc. We were supposed to start at one speed and accelerate throughout the course. We started by running and jumping off of different sized plyo-boxes, and then we eventually built up to running, jumping onto one box, jumping to a higher box, and then leaping to the ground and resume running without ever slowing down. We then modified to it getting over the second box the fastest way for you. For some people, this was a kong, for others, it was stepping on it and jumping, still others speed vaulted it or just leaped straight over it. It was a fascinating thing to watch: to see four different people could pass over the box in four completely different ways, and each path was the most efficient for them. It was a great example of how there is never one correct way to do something, and how what works for one person may not work for another.

In the end, everyone eventually went their separate ways and headed back home. Everyone had a fantastic time, and the jam just reaffirmed something I see traceurs from different places training together. Despite being from DC, Brooklyn, Michigan, or anywhere in between, despite some people having never met before, or others only having met once or twice, traceurs can come together and instantly become best of friends. We may come from different communities geographically, but we're all one big community when it comes to Parkour.

Goals for Break: Take 2

Winter/Christmas Break is upon us, and with this break comes another set of goals. (Some ALREADY accomplished by the time I made this post!)

• Wallflips. (Already learned. I can do them in the gym, I want to practice there a little bit more before I try them outside, but they're pretty easy.)
  
• Layout from height. (Already learned! I would like to practice these a bit more, but I am really, really confident in them, so I could probably do them outside right now.)
  
• Sideflips. (Already learned! Kind of. They need a lot more practice in the gym. The landing is.. sparradic at best, and I have too much rotation in the wrong directions.)
  
• Handstands. Getting better, but I still can't hold it solidly for any decent length of time.
  
• 540 kick. Again, getting better. I can land them more reliably and correctly now, but still want more work.
  
• Frontflips. This is a maybe. If I'm doing really well with all my other goals, I'll start learning and practicing the basics of a frontflip.
  

In other news, about half of NYPK is coming down on January 2nd and 3rd to visit. The plan is to have some people drive and meet at my house, and others take a bus to DC, then we're going to spend the day at Primal and various spots around DC, perhaps Silver Spring? Then that night, we're going to come back to my house and crash, and then go to AACC to train the next day, and perhaps Emilias or Xtreme Acro (gymnastics gyms) to train for a bit, then they leave. It should be pretty awesome, expecting upwards of 10 people, plus all the guys I train with here in Severna Park.

I can't wait! This is going to be a good break.

Goals and Presentations

Well, I didn't complete all of my goals, but I did a decent job. I ended up going on a self-imposed week of rest first week of break, because my body was just self-destructing from overuse. After the week, I felt FANTASTIC though, and training resumed, and it resumed hard. Tuesday I trained with Doc Akh in Westminster, at McDaniels, and then we went to Acro (gymnastics gym) and I helped him teach his Parkour class. Wednesday was training at AACC with Disciple, Thursday I went down to Primal Fitness to play with Disciple and take their Advanced Parkour class.

And then Friday. I got at text from hardcoretraceur at about 8PM, telling me he was coming down to DC (He lives near NYC) with Kasper (who was staying with him, and lives in the Bahamas). Long story short, I drove down to DC at 4AM to pick him up from the bus, we came back to my house and crashed for a few hours. After breakfast, we met up with nickm, Ben Horn, and Disciple to train at AACC, and then we went to Primal to build things, hang out, go through a few Crossfit workouts, a Parkour open gym, and then we slept there. The next morning, we trained at Primal for most of the day again. So anyawy, things I accomplished:

GOALS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

• Hold a handstand - AND CONTROL IT - for a solid 6 seconds. - I didn't do as much handstand work as I would have liked, but I was able to hold a handstand for a good 4 or 5 seconds, although I had to use the wall to get up.
  
• Hold a bent-knees flag for 5 seconds. - Did not have time to work on this.
  
• Land my back tucks on my feet, consistently. - Figured out the main reason I'm screwing up. (Bringing knees and shoulders together, instead of knees to shoulders.) They're getting consistently better, so I'd say goal pretty much accomplished.
  
• Learn how to do a 540 roundhouse, at least well enough to teach it to someone else in Rochester. - My 540 is pretty good, though the landing needs more practice. I'd give it a Mission Accomplished.
  
• Start learning wall flips. - Did not have time to work on these.
  

Others:

• I am a lot more comfortable with my Kong to Cat now, as well as my Kong to precision.
  
• Started training on some trees. There are some trees that are hotspots by themselves...
  
• I think I finished getting all the footage I need for Countdown (movie I'm working on with Ben Corwin). We should have it finished by Christmas.
  

In other news, I don't think I ever posted a link to the presentation I gave to Campus Safety. You can find the Power Point presentation here. This does not include what I said, which really is the important part, but it is mostly just a list of topics I covered. Feel free to edit and use this for your own purposes, just give credit where credit is due if asked.

Also, RIT Parkour now has their own subforum on American Parkour. You can find it here. So if you go to RIT or are from Rochester, or just want more information about our training plans, swing on by!

RIT Training Video - Fall 2007

Sunday, we decided to make a training video. It became a 13 hour ordeal... but it is done! 4 hours of filming, (about 2 hours of eating,) and then a 7 hour marathon editing session... but I think it turned out really well.

Unfortunately, there were only four of us on Sunday, so the video doesn't give an accurate representation of the usual group, but there was still a good variety of skill levels present. Charlie and Artem are still relatively new, Joe had a decent amount of experience, but has never really trained with anyone else, and Zac (me) has been training for almost 2 years.

In Mid-Atlantic news, Primal Fitness (the Parkour Gym in DC) has moved! Only about a mile, it's just the next subway station down from where it was before. They have moved to a bigger location, and now offer more classes. If you're ever down in the area, I HIGHLY recommend you check them out. Mark and Jessie (the owners) are really great guys, and their Parkour classes are great for beginners and advanced traceurs alike.



Youtube version of the RIT Parkour Training 2007 video.

Well I've had my Phil...ly

Artem, Charlie and I travelled down to Philadelphia this past weekend for a jam at Drexel University. It was quite awesome. Pretty good turnout, had people from NYC/NJ, Rochester, Buffalo, Philly, and even Baltimore, MD.

We got to Philly at about 2AM on Saturday morning, and promptly went to sleep. We woke up at 8:30 to meet the rest of the tracuers coming in and we started jamming! We began at 30th Street Station doing some precisions on Jersey Barriers until the K9 unit showed up... After that we met up with M1l3s from NYPK - he was running 10 miles for the Step Up to Fight Diabetes charity event. Then it was a full day of walking, from Drexel's campus, to Temple, UPenn, Central City/City Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art (where the stair scene from Rocky was filmed), and more. Saturday night, people headed back to Drexel to go to sleep, except for Jessie, Pyro, Blaarg and I. We decided to try and train all night long. We may not have ended up training all night, but we were out in Philly all night, and it was really awesome. We did SO much walking and we were exhausted, but spending the entire night in a foreign city is definitely a cool experience.

Sunday was spent doing a little bit more training at the Museum, where we had three or four groups of people come up to us and ask us what we were doing. We demonstrated, and taught, some pretty basic precisions, and then we got our pictures taken. After that, we were all very tired, and we started the 6 hour drive back home.

Thanks to everyone for making this an awesome Jam!


In other news, I'm in the middle of reorganizing all of my pictures and videos. Here's a new link to a (probably) temporary Picasa page with two albums (one for pictures, one for videos). Most are fairly new (a lot are from Philly infact, so if you want to see some of the pictures and videos from there, check it out!). Hopefully more will be added soon!

Only 363 days left to train...

Artem, Bryce and I ran the Urbanathlon in NYC this past weekend. It was pretty great.

We drove down to Artem's house in New Jersey, dropped some stuff off, and then took a train to NYC. We got to the gym to pick up our registration packets at 7:40, and saw Jessie/Hardcoretraceur, X, and M1l3s there. We hung out outside the gym for a while, then split ways and headed towards Artem's grandparents house in Brooklyn.

All I can say is: Goddamn can Russians cook. And goddamn DO Russians cook. We must have eaten two or three meals in the... 2 hours we were there and not sleeping.

Got to sleep at 11:30, then woke up at 3:30 to hop on the train to Manhattan. We all got to our places with varying degrees of fail (Artem took the express train by accident, the train I needed was closed so I had to walk, Bryce missed one of his trains), and then the race began! Artem ran the first leg of the race, and did quite well, running a 22 minute 5k, including the time it took to pass the obstacles (Jersey barriers, climbing through tubes). He passed me the timing chip, and I took off. Passed my obstacles with absolutely no difficulty. I was actually a little bit disappointed in how easy they were (Scaffolding maze, Marine hurdles). I passed off to Bryce, who took off up the 52 flights of stairs in World Trade Center Building 7. He completed those in 13 minutes. Absolutely amazing. We actually missed him on the way down, because we didn't expect him to do them that quickly.

We all met up again at the finish line, where Jessie and I took to playing with the taxis hurdles and the 8ft wall climb. We got a nice shot of us simultaneously konging the taxis (I actually slipped and had to roll on the concrete, which worked out well), and then we flew over the wall, much to the surprise of the marines milling about.

Afterwards, the six of us met up with Pyro and Exo, and we went to central park to play Ultimate Frisbee. Then our team went back to NJ, ate about thirty pounds of Russian food, and then passed out.

It was a great weekend. Next year, we're running it all solo. And actually training for it a lot more (broken bones are not conducive to training).

What I learned at NYPK

I wrote this on the train leaving hardcoretraceur's house at 4:45 in the morning the Monday after NYPK. Some of these are inside jokes/references, others are more universal:

What I learned at NYPK
-Why hardcoretraceur is so hardcore. Or at least stupid. (The shoulder/dragging thing)
-Why 3-day jams are both a horrible, and fantastic, idea.
-No matter how perfectly things are planned, and how many redundancies are in place, things will still get screwed up. Tough luck. Figure it out and keep on moving.
-Accidents and pain happen: It is how one responds to these that matters.
-'Nam was "crappy." (Crazy vet on the light rail)
-"Don't get high, go do something." (Crazy vet again)
-There is something to be learned from _everyone_, regardless of skill, politics, or path.
-Be strong to be useful.
-Running with the pack is better than staying with the flock.
-Make no excuses not to train to your limit.
-In order to break the apple, you must first break yourself.
-Pyro's shoulder looks like Ravioli. It isn't supposed to, however.
-What you put in is what you get out.
-When discussing which is worse, slavery or the Holocaust, check for cameras.
-With a positive mind, one can have an iron will.
-There is always something you can train.
-Anyone who suffers from friends who don't support their love for parkour, but train anyway, deserves some serious respect.
-Drama, while it should have been left at High School, often isn't.
-Try to leave Drama in high school anyway.
-Stop talking and move.
-And my last quote, which I've decided is my new personal motto: Once you hit rock bottom, start chiselling.

The place of "Go Big or Go Home" in Parkour.

In short, there is no place for the extreme sports "Go Big or Go Home" attitude in Parkour.

When I started "parkour," (i put that in quotes because of the following) I really didn't know what it was all about. I just saw the techniques, I saw the videos, and I went out and did some really stupid stuff that could have seriously injured me. For a little while (and really, a VERY little while) the group I train with were all about "Go big or go home."

I realized, pretty quickly (thankfully), that this was not what parkour was about. It isn't "Go big or go home." It isn't the X-Games. It's not about "jumping off of s%@*." I was damn lucky I didn't break both my legs. As it is, I bashed my hip on a screwed up precision (though that wasn't a "go big" thing, it was just sandy and I didn't check my surfaces (ANOTHER lesson learned)), and to this day a year and a half later, it still gets sore if I lay on it for too long.

Don't trust me on this. Don't blindly take my word for truth, or lies. Read. Read the articles stickied on the .Net forums. Read the articles on APK. Read the articles on NYPK, Colorado PK, any of the other matured community sites (meaning not www.ihartpkandjumpingoffastuff.com). Read and THINK about it, ponder it, meditate on it - whatever on it - until you realize WHY parkour is not about "go big or go home."

I think too quickly seasoned traceurs tell new people that big drops aren't what it's all about, but they don't give any reasons (other than the obvious health/safety reasons which a lot of people apparently don't care about.)

In a thread I was reading recently, a new guy was saying he was drilling 10 foot drops - great. Now you know you can do it if you have to. What's the point in doing something THAT risky over and over and over again until you get hurt?

A traceur named Hardcoretraceur, whom I really respect, said something at the NYPK07 jam: Someone pointed to a roof and said "Could you jump from that?"
He replied "Yes, but I don't want to."
Hardcoretraceur believes, and I agree with him, that the best way to train for drops is to do drops. Which means while squats and pistols and whatever else helps condition the legs, nothing conditions them for drops like doing drops. But he, and I, want to be doing parkour when we're 30. 40. 50. We value our knees, so we stay ground-level. There's no reason to practice jumping off of buildings. If you ever need to, if you train hard enough with low drops, you'll probably be able to make a few big drops without a problem. But if you train a ton of high drops, the damage you're doing is going to prevent you from doing ANYTHING pretty quickly.

So please, anyone who is still of the "Go big or go home" attitude: Don't change because I tell you to. Or because M2 tells you to, or Sebastian, or eZ, or David Belle. But do LISTEN to us. Take our advice. The advice of people who have been in your position. And then do your own reading, your own thinking, and keep searching until you find the path to the same conclusion we found.

Zackie Chan, Bruce Leo, and Matt Damon walk into a bar

Parkour was good today. The group is quite impressive, really.

Today (9.22.07):
*Worked on wall passes. People are getting much better, but most people are still using their elbows.
*Introduced people to a wider variety of vaults. Taught people kongs and speed vaults, then demonstrated dashes, double kongs, dive kongs, among a few others. A surprising amount of people got the kong down today. And most of the people who didn't will have it next time, I'm sure.
*Did some simple precisions onto a rock, demonstrated how to properly come down on an obstacle, especially if it isn't nice and flat (like a rock.. isn't.)
*Moved onto the gates. I did a short demo of how techniques can be strung together. I was hoping to get a turn vault to underbar down, but it was too high for a decent turnvault. People drilled underbars, prepping them for later underbar practice.
*Precisions onto the stairs. 
*Practiced some aerials and one handed cartwheels. I ended up doing some sort of bastardized one handed front handspring roundoff.
*We lost a few people here, but then gained a few people. We headed down to the SLC and worked on some taller wall passes, and then it got interesting. Hit the jump, as they say, for more details.
*We drilled underbars next, hard. We went to the Bookstore, where they have a slanted double rail. I was working on increasing the height on my jump to underbar, and I discovered I need to work on my reverse underbar, because I can't figure out how to come out of it without a broken spine.
*We finished up with precisions and rolls at the Kodak quad. I didn't work on my max-distance precision, just a few shorter ones. I tried a running precision, but couldn't get the... precise.. part down. Kept overshooting.

Okay. Now for the story. So as we were training at the (second) wall pass spot, I had noticed a lot of security across the field. (They were setting up/getting ready for a concert tonight) As we began to walk away, I noticed a security guard on an intercept course. I led the group and we kept on walking, when he called out "Hey guys, can I talk with you for a sec." I looked over at him, and pleasantly as I could (while I was thinking "crap crap crap") said "Sure, no problem."

Basically, he gave the usual, albiet humourous, speech about if we start climbing, and then smash our face in and lose all our teeth, not ONLY will the girls not find 
us attractive anymore, but he'll have to call and explain what happened to our mothers. He then asked us what we were doing. I briefly explained parkour (kind of like obstacle coursing, except using just whatever is around. People walk up and see a wall that they have to go around, we see an obstacle to move over.), and said that while I totally understand your reluctance, we didn't just start with this. We started with much smaller walls, and we practiced safe ways to land and fall, and basically that training safely is paramount. After I reiterated this in several different ways, and pointed out that I was just teaching several people the proper way to land, he kind of nodded and I think he understood. He then said, "Alright well.. just be safe." and then I introduced myself, he introduced himself, and we parted on good terms.

I'm actually planning on emailing him and thanking him for his understanding, and then inviting him and a few other members of campus safety out to see what we do. I think this is the best course of action. I'm hoping it will show that we're safe and responsible enough to alert them to what is going on, and what we're doing, and perhaps even let them participate, if they want.

I think the funniest part of the whole thing was when he was semi-lecturing us, and he was telling us to "think outside the box" (i suppose in terms of safety/what other people are responsible for). I just giggled (silently, to myself) and thought about how we actually WERE thinking outside the box.

More details to come in the saga of Campus Safety and RIT Parkour.

Episode VI: Return of the Zac-i

Today was great. Woke up a bit late, which wasn't so good, but from there I went slacklining, took a calc test, then went to Taekwondo. Donning my sparring gear once more (first time in ~3 months) was a near religious experience. Had 5 matches, 2 against white belts, 1 red belt, and two black belts. I was very impressed with (everyone, but especially) the black belts. Looks like there's going to be some seriously kickass sparring matches this year. I've lost a bit of my speed and flexibility, but I think I mostly just need to knock the rust off of me and I'll be back in the groove.

Invented a new "takedown" today... accidentally. As one of the 
blackbelts was coming up for a roundhouse to the head, I was  doing a spinning hook kick. My leg wrapped around his, and my spinning inertia took us to the ground. We both rolled away and got up quickly, but it was very interesting. And then the other blackbelt match was one of the best matches I've ever had. We were both tired, we had 30 seconds, and we were both going 110%.  I quoted Casablanca, "... I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Definitely good times.

Headed to the Commons for food (Food is always good) and we were trying to explain parkour to someone. Then I saw a gate I had passed at least 4 times a day, every day, all of last year. I saw it with new eyes, and yelled "Impromptu demonstration!" That's my new favorite spot on campus. It's these two trapezoidal shaped gates that are chained together in the middle, so cars can't drive past them. Except it's fantastic for kongs, side vaults, underbars, kong/turn vaults to underbars,  QM, and so much else. Definitely going to be there.. a lot.

Then food. Then as I was riding my bike out, I saw the same group of people a bit infront of me (a bunch of these people are coming to my new weekly (or more often) Parkour jams) jumping onto a random rock on the grass. So then I decided to test out my hand (cast had just come off). Lets just say I felt exquisite. I found a picnic table, and was demonstrating kongs, dive
 kongs, speed vaults, dashes, precisions, and anything else I could think of. 

It felt so good to be back in the game. Tomorrow (first 'weekly' 
jam without my cast) is going to be so awesome. Expect a post about it.