Topic: My first video

[Rafe]

Its not strictly or even mostly a parkour video, its just a collection of clips of some of best looking stuff my freind dane and I did since becoming inspired by parkour in march. For those wondering Dane is the more skilled guy I am the guy with big hair .

http://washingtonparkour.com/Parkour/video/Rafe%20and%20Dane%20Parkour%202005%20v3.wmv

Here is dane's solo sampler

http://washingtonparkour.com/Parkour/video/Dane%202005%20Parkour.wmv

[Ryan Ford]

good stuff, looks like you guys have been working hard. a few recurring things i saw in the video that could use some work include climb ups, going into vaults faster and cleaner, and when going into your rolls from drops, you had very little forward momentum. if you got more distance from the drop it would look better and make your roll more effective.

note: i dont remember who exactly i am commenting on, more like commenting on the video in general.

[Rafe]

Thanks Demon, I think all of those comments apply more to me, and I have been working on them my rolls only recently became descent enough to use on concrete. Another thing to remember is that footage covers a period from march to september.

[Bachelarius]

Hi Faelcind,

First of all not a bad vid, but plenty of things to improve on

I'll comment on the vid with you both in it

general things are:

Rolls: your rolls need to be more fluid. you seem to be absorbing a lot of impact with your legs, then jumping into a roll at the end. Next time land leaning slightly forwards and just trip over the ground into the roll. It's fast and your forward speed hardly changes at all.

Next, speed, you were moving pretty slowly in that vid, try to work on general speeding up and maintaining a constant speed, as you sometimes jarred in the middle of a vault

Try to resist the vault a lot less and just go with it. For instance at one point you did a saut de chat over a horse to the second one, but you kept your arms locked perpendicularly to your body (of course that was a very big dive, its just one example which stuck in my head). Try not to do this as you can see how much it slows you down, take a look at some of jin's larger saut de chats, he swings his arms behind him to prevent that happening, try it on smaller (lengthways) obstacles and work on getting good exit distances. As soon as you have a decent exit distance, transfering it into a split footed landing is really easy.

Stuff I liked:

The sheer wow factor of the rope stuff, eg the rings and and the bit where you swung over the block/pad/wall thing, really nice shot and looks like great fun

some really nice gymnastics in there too.

Nice saut de chat - precision


keep training, and work on speed, rolls and the vault exits, looking forward to more.

[Flippusmn]

Not bad, and please stop speaking French, this is America. It's all because of that one post too.

[Alex \"Ace\" Scott]

....So what if this is America. You got a problem with foreign languages? I take it you've never taken any form of Asain martial arts before have you?

Faelcind - Enjoyable video! You both have a very good base, but like Bach said, work on your speed, I think that overall that's what stands out the most in the video. Working on the overall speed of your movements will make them not only more practical (obviously) but they feel better when performed, not like you have to hold yourself up, like with slower techniques.

Besides that, your rolls looked a bit ugly, how do they feel when you perform them going over concrete? Then, judging by lack of speed and by some of those saut de chats, you could probably use some strength training, but having only started in March, you are progressing beautifully (faster than myself, anyway) and your rolls and strength will develop with time.

[Rafe]

Thanks ace and back and everone for the complements and advice, allot of the problems your pointing out are stuff I am pretty aware of or stuff that I have adressed since the time the footage was taken. My rolls especially I have really been working the last two months. When I first started I was able to roll on concrete but it didn't feel quite right so I started fiddling with my technique and ended up smashing my hip bones in the ground a few too many times and was gun shy of them for a quite a while. It was only at the end of the last month that I was able to roll comfortable on cement, I think my rolls are pretty good now.

The speed thing is defineatly something I'm working on it think its less product of lack of physical ability and more an expression of mental hesitation. I find I often slow down going into techs and bail more then I need too. As far as measurables Dane and I are fairly similar but his ability translates better into technique because he doesn't hesitate as much. For example I can standing broad jump farther but he preciscion's longer then me cause he is more confident and consistent in his technique.

I did allot of weight lifting right before I got into parkour and was fairly strong, squat 420, bench 205 I weighed about 205 at the time.
Lately I feel like I get all the strength training I need from gymnastics and have been increasing my uper body strenght allot from working on pull ups, rope climb, dips. Allmost have my muscle up on rings now and pressed my first handstand a few weeks ago.   

[Rafe]

Flippusmu let just put it this way French parkour terms > then Dumb UFF parkour terms, and don't give me that monolingual american bull, we should practicing using other languagea as much as possible. Hell I'd start using spanish terms if it would help people actually learn a different language.

[Parkourdan]

Work on agility. All winter. Dont even think about vaults, runs, whatever... I would drop most of that and work hardcore speed/agility if I was you. This is my 2 cents. You will see much better results then trying to refine what you have now.... Its in your head, I can see it, but you dont have the speed/agility in my eyes to do it effectively.

I like seeing videos of people have watched for a while on parkour.net...

Also, I wish I knew where that tree was when I lived in seattle... looks fun.

[Rafe]

Dan I had some trouble making heads or tails of your post, so forgive me if I misinterpreted it. You seem to be saying that you think I understand what i am trying to do but am not physical able to do it well?  I think that is a kinda insulting thing to say, basically that someone is not good enough to increase their skill by practicing parkour. It also rings very false to me. The fact is that my measurable chareterstics are pretty good. I have a 29 inch vertical leap, a 9^4 inch standing broad jump, and can run 40 yards in right around five seconds. None of those are those of suberb athelete but their all fairly good.  My biggest challenges in parkour have not been physical but mental, I doubt backing away from practicing parkour would help me overcome those mental barriers.


The tree is in bellingham actually at WWU.

[Parkourdan]

Are you... (in the first scene) .. The guy with the red shirt, or guy with the white shirt? My comments apply to the guy in the white shirt.

I used to bench > 300, squat > 400 .. But I wasnt agile, and I looked like that person. Dont worry about numbers or whatnot, they are not important in the scheme of things. Seriously they really arent and Im the last person on the internet that will be impressed or change an opinion by such things. Being in the fitness world a long time I know many apon many situations where numbers mean absolutely nothing when it comes to real world performance. The reason crossfit exercises are here instead of normal ones has to do with this same point.

Its not the stronger, but the more useful/real world athlete that excels in parkour.

Im merely saying that instead of drilling the movements more and more, that person would excel faster if they took some time and worked on agility, footspeed, general nimbleness and co-ordination and etc. To me this is what I view he is lacking the most, that individuals problem area. Theres no intensity, explosiveness.. like BOOM vault.. Waam long jump. Yes some of that is probably lack of trust still, definetly, but theres more to it. That person is what I personally call a 'slow athlete' based on what I said in this post and the last. Not that theres anything wrong with that, something very fixable.

I dont mean this as an insult at all, but after watching I believe there is more then mental barriers. You can take this as an insult, which its not meant to be, or as advice as to something you should work on. I could have listed everything I found needed improvement in the video, but im opting to give some better advice because you came from Parkour.net... You wont see my responding like this to other people videos, or watching them for that matter.

You can find me on messenger or pm me and we can talk about this more if you want.

[Brian Belida]

Nice video! Those gym sessions look fun as hell, clever bit with the swinging rope over the wedge and the rings to the parallel bars [although it looks like Dane slammed his shins after that :\ ]. My two cents would be to work on your speed and I personally like to have the feeling of one long run in a video if that's something you'd like to try in your next video!

And until your next video, keep up the good training!

[andi k]

thanks for this video.   weve had a lot of fights in the past, and i always thought whats his reference for telling me those things, and now i need to know what i needed to know. thanks :-)

andi from austria

[Rafe]

Mysterious as allways Andi. Don't judge my parkour based on that video though, as I said above it just a sampling of some of the more interesting stuff that we did that got caught on tape this summer, most of it is tricking even when it is a parkour technique. The video includes footage from march to septermember and it wasn't untill july I started understanding parkour, and I haven't yet had someone video tape me when I was actually practicing it.


Dan thanks for your advice sorry if I took it personally, yes I am the guy in the white shirt. I know numbers are fairly meaningless, that's why I don't have any desire to return to traditional style training which is what its sounded like you were advocating. I'll look you up on MSN I would like to get your training advice.
 
I

[andi k]

Don't judge my parkour based on that video though, as I said above it just a sampling of some of the more interesting stuff that we did that got caught on tape this summer, most of it is tricking even when it is a parkour technique. The video includes footage from march to septermember and it wasn't untill july I started understanding parkour, and I haven't yet had someone video tape me when I was actually practicing it.

dont worry, im not judging your parkour. im judging your movement, your body expression. there is a nice quote...  'show me how you move and i tell you who you are'..  and that vid told me all i need to know.

Mysterious as allways Andi.

Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
_{Elbert Hubbard
US author (1856 - 1915)}

[Gearsighted]

That's definitely not the worst first video I've seen. I'd second Danno's post, more plyometrics and agility training will do a world of good. I'd say that if you want to strength train, do so bodyweight, and do as much gymnastics strength and balance drills and you can stand. The more spatial awareness you have, the better you will be, and the quicker you will get there.

If you do plan on working Parkour techniques, I would focus on taking individual techs and doing everything you can to make them faster, smoother and more powerful. Once you get to a point where you see a huge improvement in individual techs, your agility will benefit greatly if you find areas to string together sequences, trying to get them faster and more effecient each time.

But, like I said, it wasn't that bad, you have an excellent base to start with, and it seems as if you're willing to put in the time, so you definitely improve if you work smart at it!

Good luck, and keep up the good work

[Rafe]

Yeah mostly I am getting allot of advice in line with change I have allready made to my training, after I saw the footage of myself I knew I needed to be faster so I have been working doing sprints. I train in gymnastics 2-3 times per week and all the strength training I do is gymnastic oriented. When I first started training for parkour gymnastics I put on 10 pounds as my body adapted to the new strenght demands, since then I have cut down 20 pounds of overal body weight without losing strength and feel much faster lighter on my feet and more mobile. When I first started I was mostly working on increasing the size of the techniques(higher longer vaults) I could do now I am mostly working on increasing the speed with which I do techniques and the speed with which I transition out of them and stringing runs together.

I want to film a little video of my current training so you guys can give me better analysis of were to take my training based on were I am actually at.