Topic: Creating a Jam and a community (also - I miss the old forum. :( )

[Oni_K]

There were good topics on there and I had my short username!

Oh well, I'm back (to the forums) but not back in Hawaii. Now back at my hometown in Nevada. Will likely be returning to Hawaii for grad school, hope to resume training someday.

Happy to see Ozzie and Hpk all integrated into APK now, tho. You guys have come really far since my first jam at with ya at the Kailua BBQ (was that 2 years ago now? 2 1/2?) - wish I could have been more a part of it.

Right now I'm trying to help a very small team in Reno organize a beginners jam. Hopefully, this leads to a consistent jam schedule and maybe even a RenoPK community.

I'm thinking of a jam that's 3 hours (maybe extend 5 for the more engaged), 1/3 conditioning, 1/3 fundamentals, and 1/3 application. Will be making some precision bars as well.

Any suggestions for warm-up exercises (definitely will do some monkey crawls, walking on hands, all that good animalistic stuff Ozzi enjoys) and exercises to break down the movements?

I would appreciate all the memory refreshers and advice I can get. Mahalo nui loa!

-Shaun (Oni)

[Gregg HIPK]

Welcome back! Missed you since you've been in Japan. Glad to see you're still in pk.

The old forum is still there, just not used. Except by porn spammers and people trying to sell ED drugs. I go in once a week just to kill them.

Ozzi doesn't train the same way any more... but he and the Oahu crew would be the best for jam advice.

[turtlekarma]

There were good topics on there and I had my short username!

Oh well, I'm back (to the forums) but not back in Hawaii. Now back at my hometown in Nevada. Will likely be returning to Hawaii for grad school, hope to resume training someday.

Happy to see Ozzie and Hpk all integrated into APK now, tho. You guys have come really far since my first jam at with ya at the Kailua BBQ (was that 2 years ago now? 2 1/2?) - wish I could have been more a part of it.

Right now I'm trying to help a very small team in Reno organize a beginners jam. Hopefully, this leads to a consistent jam schedule and maybe even a RenoPK community.

I'm thinking of a jam that's 3 hours (maybe extend 5 for the more engaged), 1/3 conditioning, 1/3 fundamentals, and 1/3 application. Will be making some precision bars as well.

Any suggestions for warm-up exercises (definitely will do some monkey crawls, walking on hands, all that good animalistic stuff Ozzi enjoys) and exercises to break down the movements?

I would appreciate all the memory refreshers and advice I can get. Mahalo nui loa!

-Shaun (Oni)

hey shaun, this is Ryan...I got started about a year ago with my training.  I'm no expert or anything on how to do jams, but I do help out at crossfit, Hawaii academy and some of the bimonthly jams. 

First of all, I'd think about what you've got to work with up there in Reno.  Gyms with nice padding?  Easily accessible urban stuff to play on?  Natural environment?  What's available to you really sets the tone to what you wanna do.  If you've got a gym that's cheap to go to and location wise works for most people in your group then I'd go with that for beginners...but urban an natural setting works great...just going to have to be ready to breakdown that mentality of this place is not for play. 

Then I'd think about what kinds of people you got up there in Reno.  Like really young guys that tend to lean towards tricking and throwing the biggest stuff they can?  Are the people you teaching physically fit already, or do they need some conditioning?  How open is your group you're starting to training in public?  I think the kind of philosophy behind training that you want to expose beginners to really sets the pace for how they adapt to PK.  IMO that 1/3 conditioning, 1/3 instruction, and 1/3 application works great.  A focus with progression really works well in terms of being rewarding, I mean you start off not physically being able to do a certain technique at the beginning of the day ...and at the end of the training session you might not have it perfected, but you definitely have a much greater grasp of the physicality and mentality that goes with the technique.  If you want to get people hooked, be focused on helping them get over a small hurdle in their progression...and let them see how rewarding training can be. 

anyway, good luck with starting your group.  Keep us updated and I hope to train with you one day.

[DarkSable]

Hmm, Hello all, I'm new to these, as well as being new to Parkour.
(Although I have had some background in gymnastics and track & field, although I am by no means flexible)
Anyway, I'm a 15 year old firespinner, in Reno, and I've become more and more interested in Parkour, and I have been looking for a group to practice with / learn from. In terms of places to practice, I happen to know a lot of good places. The University of Reno, NV campus, where I attend, has tons of places that are perfect for Parkour, as do a number of the industrial sites a ways further out. In terms of wilderness, the park known as Rancho san Raphael is an amazing place to run and exercise, and has a lot of medium height cliffs and forest-y areas. I don't know about gyms, I haven't been able to find any yet, but that doesn't mean that there aren’t any.

[Gregg HIPK]

Hi, Nick!
You may want to email Oni directly. Maybe you guys can get something going in Reno.