Second parkour class was SO fun. This week we focused on rolls, challenging but a great feeling when it went right. Our regular instructor was there and he's great, explains things very well, breaks things down when things don't go right, gives great tips to do it better. He's more into the old school version of parkour where it's all about strength and doing stuff on the ground and not so much the flashy spins and jumps. Which sounds perfect to me, that's exactly what I'm looking for. Strength, movement, fluidity. Not really looking to jump off of rooftops. Not yet anyway, we'll see how hooked I get on this stuff.
Here what the beginner roll looks like.
We did sideways rolls and backwards rolls as well. Rolls with a jump from a small height with a little drop. I opted out of the dive rolls, not feeling ready for those yet. Then rolls into quadrupedal movements from last week. So much fun and lots of ways to mix it all up and be creative. In just 2 classes I know plenty of stuff though it'll take some practice to get the moves down so they're more fluid and automatic.
Then some strength work. Chin ups with scapula (shoulder blades) engaged and palms facing forward. Very challenging. I could only do 2 consecutively and we were supposed to do 5. I usually do chin ups with palms facing forward but this position is not good for pulling yourself over a wall so I'll have to do more palms forward. Something else to work on.
So sore though, spent a fitful night with twitchy legs. Probably a hydration issue, forgot to drink a bunch of water when I got home. Hopefully I won't be as sore in 2 days as I was last week. Glad I didn't try this during tri season.
Agility seminar this weekend so maybe I'll have some interesting things to pass on next week. I've got a couple of working spots with Tracy Sklenar doing international type handling and I may audit a Loretta Mueller session, we'll see. Have no idea about either instructor so it'll be interesting. Supposed to be in the 50's and 60's over the weekend so I may get antsy and want to be outside instead of a dusty horse arena.
Oh wow I love watching parkour and how those guys move, I had no idea there were classes for this :)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think is the reason that they all move so fluidly? I mean, if it would be just one guy I would understand, but all the videos my Facebook feed brings up look like a sort of dance... so effortless and smooth!
I've only had two classes so I'm no expert but this fluidity is encouraged right from the start. The first class we worked on squat jumps and the big thing about them was to land quietly, using muscles rather than joints to support the landing. Here's a short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_878245&feature=iv&src_vid=BmMF7VF2-uI&v=aDL5FGWFI7Y
ReplyDeleteYou can see that he lands and squats into his landing rather than just landing with straight legs. The rolls are also designed for least amount of impact and you come out of the roll with your legs a particular way so that you can flow right into the next move, you're never allowing your head to touch the ground or putting pressure on your neck. They're big on teaching technique right from the start.
Very interesting, thanks!
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