Private Parkour Lessons

Parker S. has been training with me for several weeks and here is a sample of some of the skills we have worked.

Call me at 512-921-7563 and schedule your parkour sessions today. All ages and all skill/fitness levels welcome. It starts now.

Proto Parkour

"From a 1977 film called Gizmo, some urban tumbling from the 1930s that strongly resembles the contemporary sport of parkour."



Thanks for the find Mel!

The beauty of Body Mechnics

Lulu Meets Parkour

Some of the peeps over as Lululemon Austin met up with me to learn and experience some parkour. We had a bast and I see another play....I mean training session in the near future. Here is a little sample of the skills worked on that day...

Just hanging out...

Expand your vocabulary of movement.

There is a reason that this PARKOUR blog includes training OTHER than parkour specific movements. I feel one can achieve good things with PK specific training alone, but I know they will have less physical limitations if that training was supplemented with lifts and techniques that focus on strength, body control, stability, and endurance.

Gymnastic Workshops

The fundamentals of gymnastics applies to everyday functional fitness as well as all sports. This workshop is created to teach you better body awareness, build your strength, and teach you new movement patterns that will increase your performance in workouts and your overall fitness level. Each seminar will build upon lessons learned in the previous seminar.

*Learn New approaches to existing techniques
*Conditioning Skills
*Increase your Power and Strength
*Get a better understanding of body Control and Body Awareness
*Learn Exercises you can perform with minimal or no equipment

Saturday, September 20th - Fundamentals
Saturday, October 11th - Paralettes and Bar
Saturday, November 1st - Rings

click here to sign up (spots limited!)
http://www.crossfitcentral.com/content/view/401/99/

here's some pics from my ring training today...

Pics..

Spidey

I had to post this 'cause it made my spidey sense tingle...

Being is non being

Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, "form is emptiness." That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, "Emptiness is form." One should not think that these are two separate things.
-Hagakure

On the Bar

(Activities like this, as well as parkour, place high demands upon the proficiency of the 10 General Physical Skills. The CrossFit Journal from Oct. 2002 s tates that "you are as fit as you are competent in each of these 10 skills. A regimen develops fitness to the extent that it improves each of these 10 skills.")

Balance.

Balance is just 1 of the 10 general physical skills that one should practise and constantly test themselves with in various scalibilities of movements and techniques.




The 10 General Physical Skills
1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity

Chris and Jenny

Fellow trainer Chris Hartwell has been hitting the streets with me on many a occasion for some parkour training. He's been infected and now its in his blood. His face will also be associated with CrossFit Central Parkour. Also ,friend and CrossFit participant Jenny Irvin recently expressed interest in trying out some parkour. She has a background in dance so I knew she knows the art of being nimble and how to carry and propell oneself lightly. So the three of us went out to some local training spots and got in some hard training and had a blast. Video to some soon...

Anytime-Anywhere

With parkour the whole world becomes your playground. Even a bland parking lot offers curbs which can be useful for precision jumps. Bottom line is that whether your on the street, in the woods, at a gym- (gymnastic), or at one of the boxes- (crossfit) training can be found and/or created within just about any environment. Open your eyes and look around. Next time you are out and about look at the achitecture and convert it in your mind into a urban playground. The first step comes with the vision- the ability to see that what you weren't able to see before. Look at your world differently...

No Boundaries

http://www.crossfitcentral.com/content/view/412/231/
(here is a link to the article with pictures and all)


Randal Setzler sheds light on Parkour and how it relates to CrossFit training and everyday life.

"When in a Parkour run you may find yourself quickly approaching a 6ft. wall, a gap to jump, or a series of railings to get over, around, or under. Making Quick decisions and confidence become crucial. Mastery of Parkour technique prepares the practitioner to handle any and every situation that stands before them in any given environment." Randal Setzler, Parkour practioner and CrossFit Central coach.




"Parkour is quite simply the art of navigating any environment quickly, confidently, and effectively with only the capabilities of your body to aid you. It's easy to see that how well it matches the CrossFit tenets of function, intensity, and variance, but it may seem surprising that it can also be universally scalable and beneficial. The concepts of environmental awareness and adaptation are of infinite usefulness to every person. By enhancing an awareness of your surroundings and building your confidence to overcome the obstacles throughout, you are given the key to a freedom that the untrained individual might never realize. To top it off, it's just plain fun! Both the dedicated traceur and the recreational enthusiast will find innumerable benefits from incorporating Parkour techniques into their training.


Increased confidence, agility, balance, coordination, endurance, stamina, power, speed, and strength are just a few of the more obvious rewards. As these improve, more subtle changes also take place, and before too long the athlete will be viewing his entire environment from a different perspective. Mastery of both the body and the obstacles that might otherwise hinder its movement is a profound state. By moving purposefully through the basics in a safe environment, you gain the ability to approach every situation with the skills and confidence to find the most effective way over, around, and through anything that might stand in your way. It requires nothing more than a good pair of shoes and an awareness of a safe and steady progression, so you will rarely be limited by lack of equipment. Instead, you will be able to apply the state of elite fitness we all strive for to any path of your choosing." (CrossFit journal #43 March 2006)

I have been a practitioner of Parkour for over 3 years and have worked to help form one of the largest groups in the Southern United States (texasparkour.com.) What intrigued me the most was how this discipline encouraged, if not demanded, freedom of expression during its methods of movement yet while giving a understanding to practical application of fundamental CrossFit techniques such as the jump squat, muscle up, and more. I quickly saw a parallel of goals such as the 1st set of CrossFit's fitness standards pertaining to the proficiency in the ten recognized general physical skills. "They are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. CrossFit's 2nd fitness standard is the view that fitness is about performing well at any and every task imaginable. Picture a hopper loaded with an infinite number of physical challenges where no selective mechanism is operative, and being asked to perform feats randomly drawn from the hopper." (CrossFit journal October 2002)

Parkour is a perfect example of the hopper situation. When in a Parkour run you may find yourself quickly approaching a 6tf. wall, a gap to jump, or a series of railings to get over, around, or under. Making Quick decisions and confidence become crucial. Mastery of Parkour technique prepares the practitioner to handle any and every situation that stands before them in any given environment. CrossFit proficiency provides a level of quality and consistency inside that performance.

Seen not only as a sport but as an art and a discipline, Parkour finely tunes a person’s skills in their perspective environment. It is through Parkour that possibilities once hidden become seen and everyday obstacles become easily climbable. Watch Randal's Parkour Video

Interview with Nicole Holstrom:

There are a few major criticisms and misconceptions of Parkour: One misconception is that Parkour is a group of kids jumping off some buildings and being reckless, what is take on this public opinion?

This is a case where the internet is both a blessing and a curse. Through the internet Parkour was quickly introduced to the world. Practitioners from around the world are able to upload their latest Parkour video and show their abilities. By that same token. Untrained reckless people also upload videos of people performing very reckless and dangerous acts, like jumping wide gaps between buildings. A true practitioner will discredit and dismiss this . That is not Parkour.

How does this apply to the average person? Say for example, a middle aged - moderatley fit women?

Parkour is applicable to everyone's life. Parkour can help a middle aged woman get out of a bad situation. Let's say she's in a dark parking lot late at night, someone approaches her, and she immediately has the fight or flight reaction throughout her body. Parkour is going to be the flight side of this situation. It will help her quickly and efficiently get out of this situation. If there are obstacles in her path, she will be able to move over them, through them, and around them in the quickest manner possible.

What about injuries? Does this discipline have a higher injury rate than other?

In my Parkour experience I haven't had any serious injuries. Parkour is scalable, which makes it applicable to everyone. We really stress that everyone operates within their own skill level.


Randal Setzler is a CrossFit Central coach and personal trainer. He has helped host and been one of the head coaches at several Parkour and free running workshops in central Texas. For more information contact Randal Setzler randalsetzler@crossfitcentral.com

tell me what you think...

My Parkour Slideshow

Cerate your own path

We know how it is at ground level, we've been passing by at ground level for years, we know the roads were made for us, but no one ever took this way- David Belle

Overcome Obstacles

This is a clip from a Japanese game show. The guy in it goes through a sick obstacle course that demands Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, Stamina, Strength, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Coordination, Agility, Balance, & Accuracy. All of which are listed as the "10 general physical skills" as outlined by CrossFit. What makes them unique here is that it is done outside the box AND even outside the box of CrossFit. To perform these skills under constant variables such as various terrains, weather conditions, with spontaneity, and so much more can be called nothing less than a art. There certainly is a art to parkour. Those who have experienced it will agree.

The Outside In: Female Parkour

A great explanation, description, and perspective from a female practitioner of parkour. I could not have worded it better. This video truly shows that parkour is for everyone.

Impossible?

If you believe...you can break the laws of gravity. You can beat time. There are those who dream they can fly while sleeping, but there are also those who can really fly when awake...

Methode Naturelle... The Grandfather of Parkour

Georges Hébert (1875-1957) was a pioneering French physical educator, theorist and instructor.
An officer in the French Navy prior to the First World War, Hébert was stationed in the town of St. Pierre in Martinique. In 1902 the town fell victim to a catastrophic volcanic eruption and Hebert heroically co-ordinated the escape and rescue of some seven hundred people from this disaster. This experience had a profound effect on him, and reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. He eventually developed this ethos into his personal motto, "Etre fort pour être utile" - "Be strong to be useful."
Hébert had travelled extensively throughout the world and was impressed by the physical development and movement skills of indigenous peoples in Africa and elsewhere:
Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in Gymnastics but their lives in Nature.
While still at sea, Hébert began to systematise a method of physical culture training patterned on the abilities of the indigenous peoples he had encountered.
Upon his return to France, Hebert became a physical education tutor at the College of Reims, where he began to define the principles of his own system of physical education and to create apparatus and exercises to teach his "Natural Method". As well as the "natural" training regimens he observed in Africa, he was inspired by classical representations of the human body in Graeco-Roman statuary and by the ideals of the ancient Greek gymnasia.
The final goal of physical education is to make strong beings. In the purely physical sense, the Natural Method promotes the qualities of organic resistance, muscularity and speed, towards being able to walk, run, jump, move quadrupedally, to climb, to walk in balance, to throw, lift, defend yourself and to swim.
A training session consists, then, of exercises in an outdoor environment - a course of greater or lesser distance (a few hundred meters to several kilometers), during which, one walks, one runs, one jumps, one progresses quadrupedally, one climbs, one walks in unstable balance, one raises and one carries, one throws, one fights and one swims.

This course can be carried out in 2 ways:
1 - the natural or spontaneous way; i.e., on an unspecified route through the countryside.
2 - within an especially designed environment.

All of the exercises can be carried out while progressing through this environment.
(info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_H%C3%A9bert)

Behind the Jump

Not many know of the lonliness of the long distance runner. Few have experienced the sensation of training alone. Having only your thoughts and a camera with you for training companions as you constantly and consistantly put yourself in harm's way as train and be ready for the unexpected. The untrained eye rarely sees the moments behind the jump. The hours of conditioning and repetitions involved with each movement. I've learned that the observers aren't going to be there with you on early morning runs, or hot afternoon sessions- but they will stand at the finish line to see that brief moment of glory as your chest breaks past that ribbon making all that training worth while.

CrossFit Central's First Parkour/Free Running Video

After the last UTB on a Saturday morning I decided to take my camera with me as I did some parkour/free running training at UT campus. I made this video out of it which shows some of the movements and techniques I was focusing on that day. I have been a practitioner of parkour for a little over three years and I still find new ways to interact with my enviroment and to challenge myself as I attempt to navigate various terrains in a swift and fluid manner. Here's the result of that day's effort...

Parkour is Here!

Parkour is a relatively new activity that everyone's been talking about and eager to try- but what is it?
Parkour is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment—from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls—and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are referred to as traceurs (male) or traceuses (female).
Founded by David Belle in France, parkour focuses on practicing efficient movements to develop one's body and mind to be able to overcome obstacles in an emergency.
Parkour is a physical activity that is difficult to categorize. Often miscategorized as a sport or an extreme sport, parkour has no set of rules, team work, formal hierarchy, or competitiveness. On the contrary it is more like an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the ancient martial arts. According to David Belle, "the physical aspect of parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, as to help you gain the most ground on someone or something, whether escaping from it or chasing toward it." Thus, when faced with a hostile confrontation with a person, one will be able to speak, fight, or flee. As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, parkour is a form of training for the flight. Because of its unique nature, it is often said that parkour is in its own category: "parkour is parkour."

An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency. Practitioners move not only as fast as they can, but also in the most direct and efficient way possible, this characteristic distinguishes it from the similar practice of free running, which places more emphasis on freedom of movements, such as acrobatics. Efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term, part of why parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last).
Those who are skilled at this activity normally have an extremely keen spatial awareness.
Traceurs claim that parkour also influences one's thought process by enhancing self-confidence and critical-thinking skills that allow one to overcome everyday physical and mental obstacles.

David Belle stated to the BBC news that "Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move."