Lately I have been putting some thought into what I want to accomplish this year when it comes to my parkour progression. I've got some ideas, and I'm starting a new 30 Day Parkour Challenge.
The last few weeks the weather here in Utah has warmed up from winter. I've come out of my hibernation and got out a few times already to train. I've been able to notice some gaps in my ability and have noticed a stagnant plateau in my growth. Its time to analyse how I currently do Parkour and figure out some new ways to make it fresh and different so that I can progress and get better.
One of the things that has gotten me into this mode is that I'm coming to the end of my 9th year doing parkour. I would like to have more to show for what I have accomplished over the years. Writing these blogs are nice, but I also want to film more of my movement.
One thing I've noticed is I'm just not strong enough, especially in my climb ups. I've wanted to gain more muscle in my upper body for this reason for some time, but I also haven't been working to really get it there. Ive seen some improvement in the last week working on them a bit but i have a long way to go.
I've noticed I am in a rut of doing the same sort of training and types of movement. It's taken some time for me to figure out what I wanted to do. I've noticed that I am really good at the basic flips, I want to add more twisting movement into my flips. Like being able to do A-twists and such.
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I have also had this urge lately to do bigger Parkour lines and more controlled big stuff. This is from seeing Dylan Baker do so well at the Origins Parkour North American Parkour Championship and seeing some of his online content lately.
Start Playing the video below of the NAPC 2015.
Skip forward to 1:12:00 to watch the Sprint Course. This is a short run the athletes must go through and are timed to see who can run it the fastest. Dylan's run is at 1:25:50. Most of the fastest runs were in the 13 second range. He got a sub 12. Not totally impressive, but he ran the the speed course with some great power, control and speed.
Where he really impressed me is During the Roof Mission course. Similar to the speed course but with more Vertical Changes in the environment. Dylan dominated this run. The Roof missions start at 1:35:00. Most of the fastest athletes were coming in around 20-22 seconds. Dylan dominated this challenge because of the ability. Just watch his run at 1:51:00 to see at and find out his amazing time.
So for this March 30 day challenge I'll be working to improve my my parkour in 3 ways.
1. Strength Training
2. Simple Tech for better Areal Control, Power and Awareness
3. Power Movement
One of the main elements I am concentrating on is in getting out of my comfort zone. I want to build a better physical and mental base so that I can do this. There are a few ways that I will be accomplishing this within the 3 ways I want to improve this month. Whether this is with bigger movement, with control or with simple movement that can be applied to gaining more control, body and arial awareness, break falling etc.
Here are a simple list of things I want to do within the 3 categories.
These are some of the things I know i want to work on this month to gain better strength.
-Muscle Up
-Climb Up
-Pull Overs. Legs first around a bar forward which means improving my lower core.
-Standing Long Jump
-Strides with Right Foot. My left is my stronger foot.
What I mean by this is I want a better fundamental base for being able to do spins and technical flips. This will help me out for this summer when I plan on working these sorts of things more. I want to get myself up-side-down and rotating in ways I haven't been for parkour before.
-Revers Kong side flip out movement
-Push Gainers.
-Wall Flip Back Handspring Variations.
-Spinning. 360's
-Downside bar work.
-Trampoline Flips for Arial timing.
My goal with all this will also learn to break fall from movement of this sort.
I've been very impressed with the power movement I've seen lately and want to incorporate the style into my movement. See more below.
-Bigger Jumps
-Bigger Lines
-Plyo Technique
-Strides Up and Down Tech.
-Precision training
-Precision Stride Training
-Mental Training for Height and Bigger Jumps
-Height Training
The elements from category 1 and 2 will lend themselves to my goals in category 3. The Power Movement with Control is what I want to concentrate most of my training on this month. I've gotten a lot of inspiration from Dylan Baker's runs at the NAPC 2015. Aswell I have also gotten some inspiration by watching this edit with content from Dylan's 2014 videos.
I just really like the way he moves.
He has some really powerful movement. But he does it with such control. In talking about overcoming fear he says that its a mater of being Composed in the times that it is necessary. I think this comes out in the way that he moves. There is such Grace and Control even thought the stuff he does is big and technically difficult.
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Another Video I have taken some inspiration from recently was this edit from Jehan Martinez. He has lots of Control. It takes a lot of strength to move like this. I would like to be able to train lines like these to build better strength rather than just doing push ups and such. Ill make my working out part of lines I can do for parkour. I plan on doing this by finding lines I can do that will challenge my strength.
We will see where I get in one month of training this way. Of course I plan on filming lots so I can take you on my journey.
Eric Higgins. March 2016 30 Day parkour Challenge.
