clothing

How to Get Started Doing Parkour

Parkour is a philosophy as well as physical exercise. Parkour is running, dodging, jumping through an obstacle course, on foot and without any special equipment. Parkour is also about learning to live your life in a better way.

What Parkour Really Is: The Whole Picture

Parkour is more than physical exercise or an extreme sport. Parkour is not about buying equipment or gear. Parkour is not about performing tricks or competing or showing off. Parkour is available for any level of athlete, or non-athlete.

Parkour is a philosophy about moving within your environment (mental and physical) and dealing with the obstacles you face . Through Parkour you attempt to understand and improve yourself. Parkour helps us learn to understand and help others by giving us practical skills and the methods of using them.

Parkour teaches us to move in our environment in a way where we can gain the most ground, make real progression and learn how to manoeuvre in different variety of ways.

Parkour can take place in an urban environment. Also, in forests, deserts, any outdoor element or place where there are some obstacles and space to move around them.

Parkour practitioners are called tracuers or tracueses (for women).

One is not truly participating in Parkour without the combination of philosophy and exercise. Parkour is a physical and mental exercise to improve your body at any level of ability, to give you more confidence and change how you see and feel about the world.

How Did Parkour Start?

David Belle was influenced by his Father who grew up in Vietnam as a child soldier trained through obstacle courses known as Parcours. David Belle’s Grandfather taught him about Hebertism . Both of these merged with David’s own philosophy and experiences to become Parkour.

Getting Started: Keep Moving, That’s What Matters

Move around your personal space. Look at the objects in the room differently. Find new ways to move through the room. Take a different route. Walk backwards. Twirl while you move through the room. Skip or hop on one foot. Crawl or walk on your hands if you can. Simple movements are a start. (Don’t wreck the place, go outside to give yourself more room to move).

Remember the old kid’s games where the floor became something dangerous to step on. I used to swim in the public pool and pretend the stripes on the pool floor were giant whales side by side. I tried to avoid stepping on the dark lines between the whales – the dark space between them surely went on forever, sinking deep, down into the ocean. So, I had to swim over them to the next whale.

Important techniques for beginners are good jumping and landing techniques. The roll which limits impact and carries momentum to continue forward movement is an important beginner technique to master. Beginners also learn how to fall, because falling happens. Other beginning moves include monkey vaults and precision jumps.

Don’t start leaping from tall buildings. Find your way along at your own pace. Don’t consider Parkour only as a physical thing either. Think of ways you would like to move through your life, what is keeping you from moving? Could you find a new way to move and gain progress?

Train your mind for Parkour as well as your body. Take a look at puzzles, mazes, things that make you look at new solutions to find your way.

Getting Started: Equipment to Consider

Originally, Parkour was barefoot.

Of course, one nice feature about shoes is the protection of the feet. A tennis shoe should give better traction. Shoes for martial arts are popular for being close to being barefoot. You will want a shoe which is light, comfortable, flexible with a good grip on the ground. Consider snow, rain and sun too, Parkour goes well with the great outdoors.

You could look at wearing gloves to protect your hands. But, like shoes, Parkour doesn’t require any special gear.

You need fabric that can stretch and let your skin breathe, light, casual clothing which you can really move in and sweat in. It’s also important to avoid clothing which could get caught or snag on anything and slow you down or cause you injury.

Parkour Links

Sentimental about PC Dinosaurs

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Why are we sentimental about old electronics? I’ve seen them at the Goodwill, those thick monitors side by side, the old towers with their dirty keyboards leaning against them and the mouse dangling like a spider. I’ve seen photos taken by others who have found old computers, video game consoles and assorted technological anatomy discarded on sidewalks, rummage sales, tossed out of windows. It’s funny that they bring more feeling than the other debris, the general run of the mill stuff like cracked dishes, beat up furniture and half-dead clothing.

It’s funny that we do care. I get a funny feeling seeing those discarded dinosaurs, unwanted and hopeless. Of course, they have no thoughts about the whole thing. Whatever emotions or passion they ever had were from the people using them. Maybe it’s because they became something more than a hunk of plastic, a tool. They became familiar, like a family pet you give attention to every day, worry about when it’s sick and feel happy spending quality time together.

Still, they are totally useless now. Unless you can make some kind of modern art with them, deconstruct them and build a new system using some of the old parts. Those old clunky monitors are too far gone though. But, they could make a very unique fish bowl for your goldfish. So there is always hope, if you really want to save your old PC.

Airhead Geek?

You are a Benevolent Inventor.
You are an Inventor

Your imagination, self-reliance, openness to new things, and appreciation for utility combine to make you an INVENTOR.

You have the confidence to make your visions into reality, and you are willing to consider many alternatives to get that done.

The full spectrum of possibilities in the world intrigues you—you’re not limited by pre-conceived notions of how things should be.

Problem-solving is a specialty of yours, owing to your persistence, curiosity, and understanding of how things work.

Your vision allows you to identify what’s missing from a given situation, and your creativity allows you to fill in the gaps.

Your awareness of how things function gives you the ability to come up with new uses for common objects.

It is more interesting for you to pursue excitement than it is to get caught up in a routine.

Although understanding details is not difficult for you, you specialize in seeing the bigger picture and don’t get caught up in specifics.

You tend to more proactive than reactive—you don’t just wait for things to come to you.

You’re not afraid to let your emotions guide you, and you’re generally considerate of others’ feelings as well.

You tend to do things on the spur of the moment, not sticking to a set schedule.

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people’s notions of style.

If you want to be different:

Try applying your creativity to more artistic arenas, and letting your imagination take less practical forms.

How You Relate to Others
You are Benevolent

You are a great person to interact with—understanding, giving, and trusting—in a word, BENEVOLENT

You love being in crowds, as you feel comfortable enough with people to be yourself.

Your caring nature goes beyond a basic concern: you take the time to understand the nuances of people’s situations before passing any sort of judgment.

You’re a good listener, and even better at offering advice.

You’re concerned with others at both an individual and societal level—you sympathize with the plights of troubled groups, and you can care about people you’ve never met.

Considering many different perspectives is something at which you excel, and you appreciate that quality in others.

Other people’s feelings are important to you, and you’re good at mediating disputes.

Because of your understanding and patience, you tend to bring out the best in people.

If you want to be different:

You spend a lot of time taking care of others, but don’t forget to take care of yourself!

Sometimes you can get overcommitted, and when you sacrifice spending time with those close to you, it can make them feel unimportant.

Good Morning!

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Today I am sewing an apron, maybe more than one, for Christmas. I love to sew. But, for the past dozen or so years I’ve sewn everything by hand, no machine. My Mom bought me a wonderful sewing machine for Christmas while I was living in the US, married down there. But, I only used it briefly before the divorce and moving back to Ontario. Then, we thought it was missing for a couple of years. Turned out it was packed into something else which I hadn’t looked in. So, it’s now found.

Now, the trick is to thread the machine, to learn how to use it. Also, most of the sewing I’ve done has been mending clothes. It’s not the same as creating an article of clothing. Mending is pretty much sewing a straight seam with small, strong stitches. Same for hemming, which I’ve also done plenty of. Button sewing too, of course. None of those have kept me in practice for creating aforementioned apron.

That’s why I’ve procrastinated so many days. I knew about this a few days ago. My brother said he wanted an apron for Christmas, a nice fancy one. 😀 I love typing it that way, makes me laugh. He wants it for Sherry, his girlfriend. If it goes well and I’m doing ok with time I thought I would make two more for my sisters. I think I have enough stuff, certainly enough fabric. I’m a fabric addict, there are metres and metres of fabric stored away. Most of it is, sadly in half metres as I bought it with the idea of quilting (crazy quilts which use small pieces patched together and embroidered all over) or doll making and doll clothes (Raggedy Ann or any other rag doll facsimile).

It will be an interesting day. I can do it, I know the basics. I even have a book about sewing which I bought when I wanted to know how to thread the machine when I first got it. It’s all just a matter of starting. First, I made a fresh coffee, added a bit of pumpkin pie spice to flavour it up and inspire my creativity and inventiveness, both of which I will need. :)