Saturday, 5 January 2008

Dryness!

Today wasnt bad, was hoping to get to Leeds but i had no money, arguements with parents ect..
So Woody and me got up to Shanes area and had a prity cool session on this mad spot that i couldnt believe Shane hadnt trained before, it was the first time id goten out properly in a couple of weeks, i've been training near enough everyday but its been drilling precisions, going climbing or tricking at the gym. So yeah it was nice to have a decent session and splash out with a nice amount of strength i've gained lately. The best spot me and Woody stopped at was this pharmacy filled with nice catpasses, precisions, quick flowing movements. There really is so much to do there but it seems like you have to be quite carefull with everything your doing as there's lose rails, dodgey paint that breaks off and things are kind of crampt together, but it didnt stop us getting loads done there, untill i broke a rather large rail/banister doing and arm to arm with ripped it right out of the side of the wall, which kind of contradicts what were always preaching with respecting our enviroments but meh, accidents happen. Im feeling very comfortable with arm jump variations now, this quite big one i got done wasnt quite level but was abit of a distance and needed to be contolled quite abit with a wall slighly in the way of were your jumping and felt i got it done quite nicely with a decent dyno strait from it, will have to get it filmed when im back there monday after school. We trained at another spot afterwards while waiting for Shane to meet up with us, it had limited amounts of obstacles but obviously that didnt stop us, two things i've gained recentally came into play quite nicely, being able to do slanted rail precisions, and having the strength to do a small arm jump afterwards were you kind of have to just clamp your arms onto the outside of the wall relying on your bicepts, finger strength and wrist strength to hold yourself in place. I will no dout get this filmed as well and will go into a little video im peicing together of me and Tee Pee (may only be me though as he rarely trains now and wont be able to get footage of him).

Woody left once Shane got there as he had to get back to work, we met up with Danny strait after and had a muck about on that pharmacy again which was now very dark and you were very limited to what you could do in comparison to the light, but i still managed to get that arm jump done again. We moved around abit more but i was feeling prity achey all over due to that i dont think my body has adapted to tricking yet and the hard slams i keep taking which i've noticed do hurt the next morning even if you dont even feel them there and then.

Alex.

Tuesday, 1 January 2008

End of a year, jam cramped information.

I havent updated it a while, due to the usal reasons forgot/couldnt be bothered to update and it snowballed into stopping blogging. I see it fitting though, since i never share my thoughts and opinions but i think other humans dont actually care, there just waiting for there own chance to speak. I just want to start with saying a genuine thankyou to Scott McQuade and Ben Marsh for helping set the path for me along with all my other friends, im sure you should know who you are.

It has probably been the best year of my life and by far the most eventfull and life changing, i have discovered actually happiness and purpose. I've been many different people through out the last few years, i was angry, violent, frustrated and in denial for years, i thought i was ment for greatness and my life was leading somewere, but it was always tomorrow never today.

This was juring my martial arts years when in all honsety il admit i was an angry loud, deluded thug just expecting what i wanted was going to tap me on the shoulder, it was like i was searching for something that i thought i was ment for, but i was to lazy and in denial about it to see the truth. This lead to frustration making me angry and depressed, which is when i bullyed people and got into fights, looked out for myself with no empothy for others and upset people geting a sickening pleasure out of watching people suffer, showed no apreciation for anything thinking i deserved what i had and more. As i got older i slowly calmed down but i was still spitefull, angry and depressed, by this stage i had stopped training thai boxing really, i would go from time to time but still talk a big talk like i was going to be a world champion and was still thinking to myself that greatness i was ment for. At this stage which was about october 2006 and i had discoverd a thing called Parkour, were i jumped off the highest thing possible subconsciencely to impress other people. This went on till about december when i met Scott and Ben at steel city gym and began my training within Parkour, which has now developed into something i dont have a name for, just living, happiness and improvement.

This was the very first time in my life i had began to not care what other people thought of me, i was doing things not for other people, i wasnt sucking up to anybody trying to impress them or being somebody im not. This leads me into peoples ego's and people staying in denial, i wish so much that humans didnt see life as a competition, this is talking from personal experience and what i now see other people doing around me, putting people down with the intention of getting ahed with someone more "popular" or if somebody's in a relationship they will try and be dominant by doing something like playing chicken with phone calls who's the first person to buckle and call up there partner. But i must say, i am a hypocrit, all my thoughts and veiws that i was spreading to other people went right out of the window the second i liked a girl which brought me back down to earth letting me realize howmuch i have to learn and that i am only human and no better then anybody else. I have flaws as does anybody, but now i can see my flaws and understand and admit i have them, i am very hypocritical and do still put people down without thinking, i do let thoughts come into my mind thinking im better then other people, i do snap at people with half thought out philosophys believing im helping when im just confusing them and making them upset or angry.

I feel happy constantally now, im breaking free of trivial thoughts and focusing on whats actually important to me and what is important for me to do, to help people, to be happy and to be strong. I no longer fear death, i used to say i wasnt afraid years back, but when ever faced with a situation my lie's turned to dust, then i did become afraid feeling i had something to do in this life and wanted people to know i existed but now i realise these things actually dont matter, what matters is helping people and being yourself, death is just apart of life and if you want to actually be someone and do something you will do it regardless of what happens, if people know what you'v done or if it's just the effects people notice.

I have realised who my real friends are this year, i've realised so much about who i am, what im really made of, what i am capable of, what anybody is capable of. I was judgemental and sometimes i still am, i am ashamed of some people i have judged and not actually made the effort to listen and get to know that person, as much as this my anger some people i will say it anyway because this is in the past and this is me now with no past or future. This is an example, before the trace gathering i judged livewire (tim) from urban freeflow jumping on the bandwaggon with everbody else assuming things, which was just taking a step back from what i had learned from Parkour, not following what other people tell me i should. This actually sicken's me to think now, the fact i judged Danny and Shane before i knew them, when they are such great people.

There really is so much more i could and can go into now, but i think my computer could crash at any second and im going out for a jog with James. I will probably write more at some point with a refreshed mind.

Alex.


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Monday, 5 November 2007

Half-term training (burbage)

Much to write about, not sure how much il include.
Firstly il acount the camping trip to Burbage me, Tom, Dewi, Matt and Will went on, this was the second time we've done this. Me and Tom arived in the woods at about 11 and started collecting fire wood quickly and putting other sections to our ilamatic base which we were both extremely happy to see was fully intact. About half an hour later Dewi turned up and got stuck in helping out cutting up wood and building our miniture village.

After chilling out for a little bit eating a nutrigrain bar and having some water me and Dewi sharperned our spears and went for a quick hunt to the get the blood pumping, we spotted two sheep and pincer attacked round them, moving silently using the side step technique developed through parkour. Once we got to close they did the usal animal instict and stuck there heads up from the grass and just glared at us comfused, we decided to like wolfs and pick just one to go for, Dewi darted at it causing it to run in the opposit direction finding me i smacked at its side with my bo staff type weapon i was holding it swung round and charged at Dewi and had a bit of a scuff with him head butting him in the leg i quickly got to the scence and cracked it right in the ass with my bo staff then it just bombed it off into the woods were we intercepted it for about minute were we just ended up letting it run into the distance. Il just quickly elaberate, we dont try and kill the sheep we hunt (asif we even could) there to fast and its more just the thrill of the chase and team work of sneaking up in pincer type movements, also there so hardy from years of evolution the sheep in the peaks they can take being smacked by a few sticks without really feeling to much of it.

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We headed back to camp and continued building up the base and collecting fire wood, we snuck down by the river avoiding being seen by an expedition of 12 of 15 people walking by the river which seperates the two parts of the woods. We sat down and relaxed enjoying each others compony and keeping a look out for Matt and Will who were getting to the woods for 1 oclock but didnt come with us the last time so had no idea were we camp, and probably wouldnt even be able to spot our camoflaged den even if theyd searched, after about ten minutes or so chilling by the stream we caught sight of them and went and met up and showed them to the camp.
We all got our gear and weapons together after two hours of all meeting up together and went out hunting. I cant really be bothered to go into the entire thing, but we hunted and played about the woods for hours going into secitons i didnt even know existed when i thought i had the whole place sussed out. It started to get very dark as we trecked through the woods back to camp, i really felt a sense of brotherhood (nothing in comparison as i do for my traceur friends) all moving through the woods together, regardless of how loud they all clomper stomped through.

We got to camp and had hour Tea and realised it was only half past five which shocked us all as it was about pitch black, we got the fire roaring to cook our food on and hung around talking and collecting fire wood till about nine when Me, Tom, Matt and Will went on a night mission to the high rocks of burbage. About half way there Will and Matt said i think we should go back to check on Dewi and ended up leaving us and not having the incredible experience, me thinks they got scared.

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Once we finally reached the masive rocks faces we sat and absorbed our surroundings, just imagining the veiw since you could barley see and thing, full moons arent as bright as youd expect. We moved down to the bottom and i suprised Tom saying lets find a good bit to climb
i had a nice warm up getting used to the rocks climbing a fairly simple problem going up about 20 feet, then worked my way back down to find Tom again i got a really hard problem which was probably a silly thing to do because it nakered my arms out for the next climb i did and mite of nearly died. It was overhanging and you had to dyno all the way up for 15 feet which was made harder having to be so precise in the dark after getting half way up there was a nice little crack down the rock making it nice and easy to climb to the top for another 15 feet.

Yet another problem...this one was alot more based on technique and picking the right holds, this was a problem as i could barely see so i just had to mainly rely on strength, 10 feet up i could barely move my arms and below me darkness and jagged rocks on a hill. i managed to struggle my way up SLOWLY with my arms alomost unable to move they were so tired.

Tom then finally came into action and had his go at this climb, Toms got alot of upperbody strength, the same type of build as livewire and funnily enough, he's ridiculously good at handstands. Tom got up quite nicely as he was at full strength, we did a few more climbs with eachother for the rest of the night and headed back to camp were we met up with the others, we went on a couple more night missions just moving around the woods, went back to camp had some more beans followed by custard then slept like a baby.

Saturday, 8 September 2007

Stealth God

Im very bored, i fancy writing up some stuff.
After feeling abit depressed lately, like i dont have the guts i used to, for example i had level arm jumps back in easter and now i dont. But after looking back at old footage back from easter also, i noticed my abilitys are so much more full circle its just my arm jumps are dragging me down every time i spot a level arm jump, its only level arm jumps though i guess my standard ones are feeling prity good at the moment and far better then they ever have.

Thursday Stef came out training since his thumbs out of its cast and were back at school its easy to arange just going out at night, we also got our mate Joss to come out training whos come out twice before and is showing real promise he actually reminds me alot of Blane the way he moves and his build, i just question his dedication is all if he will actually start training parkour and come out often.

I was quite happy with this session, i hadnt gone out properly for like a week and a couple of days as i mashed up my heel abit at the art gallerys.
This was a very nice session, i did alot of responsible teaching, making Stefan and Joss do lots of repitition and very basic fundamentals, i did some nice speedy wall scales, quite big precisions on these stumps in a play park, a noticeable difference that my lil standing jump its getting bigger. I came to a level roof gap that i turned down over a month ago, about 13 steps onto a sort of platform with just enough room to stop and not go off of the edge (this is sounding worse than it is, mite make a video of the footage iv gathered lately with this gap included) it took me about ten or fifteen minutes to get the guts to do it, i think this is quite and acheivement for me as you all know, im apauling with anything height related.

Friday i did a little barefoot training for like an hour or so just up the road, i had a good fun relaxed session in my shorts, landing 360 cats easy and unique creative movements that just came naturally, fast climb ups, i just felt so instinctive all my hard work of night training, barefoot traing and peak district stuff seemed to have payed off. I did some shoulder and bicep based conditioning that night aswell.

Saturday i was ment to be going to notingham but i did wank in my science exam so that went out of that window. It was about three and i realised i was doing nothing so i just stuck my joggers on and went up to notredame and did nice relaxed neat movements, eyed up an arm jump which iv had as a challenge for a little bit now, but left it as i wasnt warmed up properly yet. I heard someone coming round the corner, it was a guy with a leaf blower (you get kicked off instantally when you get seen on the site) i grabbed my stuff and dropped to the floor and didnt get spotted, i moved round the corner of the other part of the school with little to train, but i thought to myself there is always something to do in any enviroment and continued training untill i heard a leaf blower again, i moved round silently (made harder by having to hold a water bottle) checking round walls and noticed there was two of them i remembered Liam had mentioned him and McGuire were coming to tapton today so i set my self the challenge to not get spotted by eather of the guys with leaf blowers so i waited to the one by the gate to start making a raket with his leaf blower again and bombed it round a cornet, scaled over wall and got out unseen, very nice feeling.

While i was in this mood i thought id try and sneak up on Luke and Liam i had a bit of trouble with this as taptons been locked up prity tight now so it was hard to get into silently and over all the broken glass, i heard them talking and trecked round a building then inside of it, got onto the roof after looking out of the window waiting for Luke to turn round got up to the roof sneaked around till i was as close as i could get then just sprinted up on them and met two other guys they were with, trained round tapton for like half an hour untill Liams friend Brandon was to ill to stick around any longer, we trained around notredame a little on the way back were i looked at that big arm jump, i think i mite of been able to do it, but Liams friend was looking really ill at this stage so we set off again.

Ohhh and just thought id mention, on quite a thick peice of wood like part of a shellter i managed to muscle up fairly easy when last time i couldnt even at full strength and this time id been training two days before and done loads of pull ups the night before.

Monday, 27 August 2007

Barefoot night training. Stronger-Smarter.

I just had such a random training session, after my dad didnt wake me up to go out bouldering with him and my brother it ment i wasnt going to do any training today which kinda bummed me out.

But it got to about eight, and i had nothing to do so i thought id nip down to the boulder five minutes from me, just grabbed two bannas a bottle of water, my camera and no shoes. I trained doing a bunch of dyno's/plyometrics and problems and realised how much stronger i am since i trained on it with Scott, Tee, Alistair and Jamie.

After this i wondered up to the Salvation army at 9 and by this point i was just in my baggy shorts and trained some basics on a wall at the Salvation army like pop vaults, lazys with the outside leg, kind of speed dash's (to big to dash to speed vault it and finish in a dash)

Then started training interesting new movements thinking of Brad Moss's videos, then some quick wall scaling (not small enough to pop vault but not to big to have to really sprint at) trying not to scare off a cat that was looking at me from the top of a wall, but it boomed off the second i i jogged up to the wall. I got home, i managed to grab abit of footage while i was out the funky night mode, but i cant upload it to the computer untill wednesday till i get the firewire cable.

Shortly after ariving home i did 10 pylo pressups, 10 regular, 10 wide apart and 10 close grip. followed by 10 pull ups, 10 wide grip and 10 close grip then 50 grams in my protein shake, a bannana and a pear.

Sunday, 12 August 2007

Short Lisses write up.

Godddd were to begin...Lisses was mad, must have got in a good 50 hours of training in while i was there. I learnt so much its unreal, i met up with a bunch of awsome polish guys who have been training 3 or so years, theyv done snickers adverts and run workshops over there.
A good 10 things they helped me do that i would have turned down without there advice and support, they were all great guys, sooo funny with absulutly mad abilitys.

I met up with Stuart, Sean, Brownie and Ant who were all really cool guys.
I was perticulaly impressed with Stuart, i didnt actually realise how good he was untill i trained with him in Lisses, he's just such a good all round traceur, id say he's really inspired me but thats a bit of a cliche now saying someone inspires you, i learnt alot from just watching him train he's really given me alot of ideas of ways to train and has helped to "inspire" me to train harder...

Im so glad i got back into the habit of just being able to do well, jumps. For about a month my legs seemed to just freeze up if i was trying a big jump (anything with a slight element of height) and id just wuss out, but now if got the right state of mind back that i can tap into so all is good.

Sunday, 8 July 2007

Liam and Tee


Parkour Energising Britain