6 Weeks of Fun... Here I come!

The Summer Holidays have officially started and so has my 6 week training programme. The logic is that I wont be wasting the time doing nothing useful, I will be conditioning, jogging, handbalancing and stretching to improve form and flexibilty. Hopefully I will be able to see a big improvement by the end of the 6 weeks and by overall performance will have improved or will have alot more potential to improve.

Targets for the end of the holidays are:

• Muscle up!
• Big improvement in Climb ups
• Confidence in precisions
• 30 second kick up to handstand
• Some kind of push up to handstand
• A noticable improvement in parkour due to flexibility
• A successful trip to cambridge with Alex!
  

The holdays wont be all work though because I should be going to Lisse in a week and will definatly be putting everything into going to Ipswich each week and going to Cambridge a couple of times over the 6 week period. Capel is too small now and quite limiting. Its driving me insane. Going to Cambridge and seeing Jin and Phil train has really inspired me and made me realise that how they got so good is not only from having open minds and working hard but also by having an amazing place to train regularly.

Tommorrow sees the end to the 8 weeks of Gym sessions which was worth every penny of £35. It has shown me a great deal in terms of conditioning and gaining confidence in form and progression. I am definatly going to make a video of what I have achieved by atending the gym and training with a coach for 6 weeks and will put it up soon!

Cambridge Joy

Lukes birthday Jam was good fun. Cambridge is Incredible and meeting up with everyone was good too. I didn't feel up to much but I will have to go back with Alex and hit the spots again.

Heres a video posted up on youtube by ant1pk which was mainly filmed on the day. I'm sure he wont mind me promoting it on here. It just shows the sort of spots in cambridge and why it is so great. Plus Anton has got great form and is definatly someone to look up to.



Summer Holidays soon!

Injury Time

Basically, I have stopped training and am going to continue not to train so intensely until the summer holidays for 2 main reasons: 1. I have hurt the bridge of my foot and trying to improve will just make it worse. And 2. I have so much work at the moment. a break in parkour will give me a chance to get on top of it all and who knows i might even find a job. Plus because i havn't been able to put my all into it resently what ever I have done hasn't been so good and I am not feeling so good about my parkour at the moment.

Of course this is all with the exception of Luke's Birthday Jam in Cambridge next Sunday. Will be awesome!!! I hope Alex can come.

Sideflip...

The sideflip has the type of rotation i find the hardest; side rotation. Jumping up, while forwards, while side on, and then pulling your leg in, yet out with your arms, which are pulled by your sholders, giving the rotation which is kept by the looking at the floor by the eyes, in the head which is rotating and staring right at the ground which your whole bodywieght is above it spinning at about 100 mph, and then you have to find the time to put you legs out 1 by 1 and land smoothly.
Can you see why I find it hard?

On a serious note, me and Luwen were working on sideflips at the gym last night and i saw a big improvement in luwen and felt a massive improvement in myself. We were trying to get them through explanation and then our coach; Torian did one and it clicked for me. Before this I had been slinging myself into the foam pit and then teaching from Andy and a demonstration from Tourian saw me getting better and better. Just shows Practise does make perfect (if you know what your aiming for). I managed to land about 2 with good technique onto mats and tryed a couple on the floor.

Heres some of the first attempts into the foam pit. Don't expect much!

Building Strength

To improve form and therefore technique I am going to have to build strength through conditioning. I wish I had started at the start of autumn but I have only jut really just how important it is if i really want to improve.

The 3 main parts I want to improve on are:

• Legs (mainly Quadrecepts) For controll in precisions and general explosive leg power.
• Core (Abs and Back Muscles) For Controll of all movement and to hold form and improve general strength
• Upper Body (Biceps, Triceps, Lats and Pectorials) For improving climb ups, cat leaps and general movement ability.

"For more controlled movement we need better strength"
I've realised that Parkour is movement and for more controlled movement we need better strength so conditioning is a key part of parkour. I have also been suprised by the mental benifits. Obviously I will continue to try to improve handbalancing and hopefully my conditioning will help my hand balancing and my handbalancing add to my conditioning.

Somersault progression: June 24th

Basically this post is to mark my progression of flips in general at the end of June. This includes work at the gymnastics centre where me, Alex and Luwin go every monday to practise and to be advised on technique, and stuff i have been doing in regular training.

Today i managed my first back somersault outside showing me that the going to the gym every week is helping. I've been landing them comfortably at the gym for about a month and today i managed to land smoothly off a few different things. I got 1 or 2 on video so here it is...

I think what i need to improve is the reach up with my arms and the tuck. I am holding back with these because its my first few attempts. I would like to work towards getting a back tuck (back somersault on the floor) but for this i need to have exactly correct technique. I havn't quite plucked up the corrage to attempt them at the gym but have manages to try back somersualting off a springboard onto a mat of the same hieght:





The most resent thing i have been learning at the gym is wall flips so maybe we will see some of them outside in the future. Only time will tell...

Heres how they are going at the gym so far: (2 sessions work)

Rotation is a big issue at the moment as i have huges amounts of hieght but i am not landing fully upright. I am very happy with my progression so far though, because I have spent a very limited amount of time working on the technique wall flips as quite a large percentage of the time i have spent on them so far has been working up the full wall flip. I still find them very scary so I think it will be along time until I am racking up the corrage to try one on a concrete wall outside.

Thanks to Alex and Steve for filming :D

What I'm About

Ok. My names Ross Garwood and I have been doing Parkour for about a year and taken it seriously for about 6 months now. I like to look at how i move and work on things like form and strength to improve my ability. I train regulaly and I am now trying to shape my life to improve at my disapline. I try to go running once a week, condition regularly, go to the gym at least once a week and practise parkour as much as possible. Unfortunatly the weather and my massive amout of work from 6th form doesn't always help me to do this. Yeah so i thought i'd write a blog for me to see my progression and also to put all my work together in a sorta diary format.
So here goes...