Recent things

WOO! Lots of things have gone pretty good this past week, namely I got a job, working fairly good hours. I am now a kitchen assistant at a local restaurant, working Friday and Saturday nights. This means I now can save up to go to Canberra in October for the National Gathering, and I can start saving up for a trip back to England!

Also, my knees feel way better, I did a bit of training today. I think next weekend, after resting a little this week, I should be fine. The other day I woke up and just had this feeling they were better.

My raise up handstands are nearly there, here is a little video of how they are going.



Doesn't look that good but I was pleased with the progression I'm making on them. I think in another week I'll have them; all I need to do is be able to press a little more.

One more thing: I want to wish my friend Gainey many thanks, for being a great friend and being one of the main people I keep in touch with regularly from England, he's helped me loads with my training and stuffs. You are a Gainstar mister Gainizzles! Hope you have/had a great time training at Teg's =]

-Wizey

Hanstands and Stuff

Recently I have been having a problem with my knees. I have obviously stopped training and rested, which has been going pretty good. I am aiming to rest for around a month. I can walk and run fine, and do a little bit of technical training, provided a thorough warm up and cool down is done. Also, I don't do any training involving my quads for too long, as I think this is the problem - I reckon I have really early stages of Osgood-Schlatters. Luckily it hasnt progressed far, so I think some rest shall make it good.

Because of this, I have decided to start training handstands a lot more, and my aim is to get raise-up handstands. Since deciding to start this training on Wednesday night, after speaking to Liam, I have done handstands each day. Against a wall for strength, and then kicking away from it for balance, as well as just doing ones on logs or rocks. On Thursday I did about 50, on Friday I did 70, Saturday I did about 50 on different surfaces, and today I did 100. Next Thursday I will update with how they are going. At the moment I am still developing the strength for raise-ups, and working on the balancing techniques - so far it is going good.

This is a video I made last month with some training around my village:



and here is a picture of some handstands down at the creek:








Peace,

-Wizey =]

Climbup Progression and New Penrith Video

Training is going great - I finally got climbups pretty good. So I filmed a few. Here ya go:



And Penrith scene is getting great, its a lot of fun. New video, last one was 6 months ago. Time flies. Robbie edited this one. Turned out really great:



-Peace from Down Under, x

Hawkesbury Gazette Article

Here's an article I did with the Hawkesbury Gazette about parkour, focusing on my journey and training at my park.



-Wizzles

Easter Weekend

Finally, a few days off school to catch up on training and assignments. Pah, as if I'd do those when I could be out training.

Anyways, I headed off to Penrith on Saturday, despite the downpour. I met Antek and Zewelli, who are both from Sydney area, and we decided to head to Sydney instead. No one else turned up in Penrith, so the decision was pretty easy. After an hour and a half train ride, we ended up at Wynyard station, and from there we walked to a spot Antek and Zewelli had trained at previously. It is a really great place, filled with railings, AND it's undercover, so rain didnt get there. Sydney was dry anyways when we arrived.
I wanted to get rail precisions better, and just be generally more confident on railings. The railings varied, thinner white ones, and thicker red ones. After gaining some confidence, I was doing sequences of precisions, but making sure to stick them. There are many other things to try, for example a really large arm jump, which I thought was out of my reach, so I didn't go for it. I strung together a few runs, that involved precisions and swinging around lamposts. Still, there is plenty of stuff there to occupy yourself for a few hours, and I can't wait to go back there again.
The next spot we headed to was around Circular Quay, and it is basically lots or stones, like fake ruins almost. It's a great spot for precisions, many different surfaces, angles etc really help mix things up and keep you on your toes. I got climbups on some of the taller stones really good.
We three felt pretty tired after these two spots, so we grabbed some late lunch, and got on a train back to Town Hall, for a cool down and tricking session at Darling Harbour. I tryed my new sideflip technique, and pulled off a few tricks. Antek did some nice piked fronts and weird 180 sort of sideflips. It was a great day, fairly tiring as well.
Oh, one more thing. There is a wall at Town Hall, where I practise climbups each time I go to Sydney, and monitor my progress. Started off with bad single armed ones, then bad double armed ones. I tried one on Saturday and got a really explosive pullup part, and ended up with nearly straight arms on top of the wall, I was well chuffed.

Feeling pretty tired, I decided not to go to Sydney again today, so I slept in till around 9, and then talked to Gainey for a bit. He convinced me to film some stuff outside, so I got dressed and showered, and went out. Due to there being heavy rain yesterday, the ground at the park was wet, so if I wore shoes it would transfer to the wood and make that wet too. Barefootz it was then.
I have to say it was a great training session, I was feeling strong and stuff, so I filmed some muscle ups on varying thickness of bars. I have the goal post, which is thick, yellow bar which is perfect size, and the 3 bars at the park which are thin. They are all rounded, but provide different challenges. My muscleups on the yellow bars were the smoothest, and I think I did around 20 in total throughout the session. Some of them were single armed or nearly double armed, but I was striving to get double arms smoother. I filmed two really good double armed ones consecutively, but the camera angle didnt capture it fully. Anyway it was really fast and smooth. I also worked on some runs through the park, which feel so much better barefooted. I put my shoes back on later on and did a small precision, and I didn't feel half as good as with barefoot.
Gainey also wanted me to film some flips, so I headed over to the sand pit, as the grass was a bit wet and slippy to do them on. My sideflips have improved a lot, as have my backflips. I kept overotating on my backflips, as I didn't expect to land them that good. I got those nicely, and thought I'd try flashkicks, which are pretty hard, and still need to figure out what technique to use. Relatives of a neighbour were there, and were asking me about what I do etc and took some nice pictures on their camera of some flips.
I really wanted to film some climbups, so I went to a wall that I thought might be good. However it isn't, as the bricks stick out on the top a bit, making it harder. I can pullup really fast but the bricks on top make the transition harder. Once I get a bit stronger I'll be able to do them on there really well. Here's the video I made today:

New Media Thingz All Around!

It's been a while since I updated this, I really should do it more often.

To start with I will show you the newspaper article myself and Robbie did with the Penrith Star. It went really well, and there were no inaccuracies or misinformation, so it was pretty successful.



The article has sparked some more interest in Penrith, and we have had a few more people join us in Penrith each Saturday. It also caught the eye of the Hawkesbury Gazette, who interviewed me at my park in Kurrajong. The article is due to be published tomorrow, so I will upload a scan of it.

I have made a two new videos since my last blog post: One is a training video at my park, and the other is of a day I had in Sydney with Robbie, Antek and Max. It was a great day, and we explored some new areas of the City. Probably one of the best training sessions I have had. Anyways, here are the videos:

Light As A Feather




Sydney Parkour - 24th Feb 08




I had my birthday on the 11th of February, and I got a new camera - it is a bit like my old one but with so many better features, namely the picture quality, better video quality and the ability to record in widescreen AND with sound this time. I have been taking some pictures each week in Penrith, and they have turned out pretty good so far. Here is a selection, the rest can be found on here: http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g199/Wizey7/












Along with taking pictures in Penrith, Robbie and I are creating a new Penrith Sessions video, this time the aim being to show the growth of parkour in Penrith, as well as to show some new areas and movements. Filming is taking place throughout March, and Robbie is doing the final edit.

So, apart from media-whoring, what else have I been doing?

Well, mainly training at my park - conditioning and working on new movements on rails and bars. I can really feel a sense of freedom and ease of movement there now, and I also feel ownership over the park; I use it practically everyday and hate to see it messy and littered.
The other day whilst training I just felt so alive and confident, and could feel a real progression in my strength and abilities. Muscle ups and climbups are getting better - I have been practising technique for both, as that was the trouble I had with it. One week in Penrith I couldn't do muscle ups on the green bars, then after working on technique, the next week I could do loads.

I did a big conditioning session on Monday with a friend, partly for a PE assignment, mainly to try some new things. Highlights included around 120 metres of lunges and then a sprint back; handstand walking across a wall and quadrupedal. The session was mainly leg and ab based, and thats what aches at the moment. One day this week I'll do a more focused upper body session, most likely on Thursday.

OOOH! Just remembered, I also had a really great gym session in Homebush for my birthday, and Danny Ilabaca was there, as he was over for a K-Swiss promotion. He remembered me from the WWJ workshop in Lincoln, which was cool. That night I learnt back tucks, and have got them on grass as well now. So yer, basically an awesome month of training.

That's all from me for now, good luck in all your own forms of movement. Happy trainingz!

-Wizzles

Updates

Well, I haven't updated this in a while, I have just been busy with training and things. It is nearly the end of the holidays, and I have managed to get quite a lot of training in. So, what's been happening since I last updated:

Training in Penrith each Saturday - I have accomplished a few new movements and me and Robbie have found some good new areas. We have also been experimenting with new movements and such in our current spots. "Epic Spot" still is epic, and we spend quite a bit of our day there.

Had a session in Sydney, where I got a big precision near Darling Harbour. I looked at it when I first went to Sydney, and thought I would never be able to do it. Leading up to the city session, I had noticed big improvements in my precision distance and control, so I knew it was right on the edge of my limit, but I went for for it. Did a few nice front flips at Tumbalong Park aswell.

A few days after that, I went to a gym session in Homebush, my first one which was really awesome. I got to practise some new tricks into the foam pit, and I got piked fronts aswell. I am going to try those at home in the sandpit when I get around to it. I also did 5 double armed muscle ups that night, which I was really pleased with. I got them pretty easily aswell, with hardly any swing.
I slept at Robbie's house that night, and had a full day training in the Mountains with him. It was a really tiring day, a lot of walking, and a lot of training, but it was well worth it. I was so tired the next day.

I haven't been able to train at my full potential for the past week and a bit, due to a back injury I sustained whilst learning to waterski, but that is nearly better now. I think it is the muscles between my shoulder blades that got pulled and stretched and used for the first time extensively.

And the highlight of the holidays so far has been an interview with a journalist named Gemma, along with photoshoot with a photographer in Penrith. She contacted me after seeing the Penrith training video and being really amazed (looking back at it, I dont think it is that good). That took place yesterday, and Robbie and I had a great time. Some photos will probably look a bit faggy and staged, but oh well. The interview went great, we chatted for nearly an hour, and Robbie and I talked extensively about parkour and a lot of its aspects. The interview was less based on the movements in parkour, more about why we do it, the philosophies behind it, and mine and Robbie's journey so far in parkour. The article and some photos will be in either this week's Penrith Star or next week's, depending on space, and all the photos will be available online as a slideshow. When its done I'll link the page and maybe scan the paper.

It is my birthday soon, and my goal was to get double armed muscle ups, and seeing as I got them, I made my goal to get them consistent and regular. I can do them on certain bars, but not all. So I am doing conditioning to work on the transition and pull up part a bit more. Once I have that goal, I will keep doing them until I can do more and more consecutively, whilst working on my other goal of getting raise up handstands.

Photos, videos and newpaper things to come soon,

-J

Training 17.12.07

I am going to Nelson Bay tomorrow for a few days, so I had a good couple hours training today. I filmed a little video, which I am pretty proud of, however the camera makes a few things look smaller than they actually are. Anyways, enjoy:



-J

Holidays Have Arrived!

Finally, my summer holidays have arrived. I left England before my summer holiday, and then came here to face another 2 terms of school. It has all been worth it though, as now my long awaited holiday is here. I aim to progress a lot this holiday and reach a few of my goals, mainly double armed muscle ups and better climbups. There should be a lot of training and exploring in Penrith with Robbie, and hopefully some Sydney guys will come down. I also plan on going to Sydney quite a bit aswell, there are a lot of things I want to get there.

WOO HOOO 8 weeks of holiday!

-J

Penrith and Sydney

Instead of having a conditioning session on Friday, I did more of a technical one, and felt so good about it. I managed to get a few new things at the park,my climbups felt a lot better and I came so close to getting a big cat-precision from a rail. This great session put me in a good mood for Penrith the next day. When I met Robbie, we went straight to out "epic" spot, and I got the cat-precision I had wanted last week. We also started filming a video of our training in Penrith. We found a great new spot and trained there for a while after going to our usual places, however we didnt get enough footage to make a decent length video, and hadn't trained at all the spots we had wanted. So, Robbie suggested we come back early tomorrow morning and finish it, then head off to Sydney at midday.
We met up again the next day and trained a the spots we hadn't visited the day before, and we managed to get this underbar at a park, and did a few runs that incorporated it. We both felt pretty pleased with ourselves, there were a few things that usually I wouldn't have gone for, but I trusted myself and knew that I could do them, so I was in a good mood. We got a train to Sydney at around 12:30 and we met Max on there. We had a great chat on the way to Sydney, and then we set off for the Basics class.
I managed to get almost all the way along the rock wall, it is roughly 100 metres long, and we traversed across it. I then got a large wall run, for which there was some applause, and we trained in a tree for a while. Myself and Wiseno both laughed a lot at an Asian lady who fell over when rollerskating, it was so funny.
It was a great weekend of training, which I haven't had in a while, and the video at the end of it was great. Enjoy:

Penrith Training 27/10/07

I had a great session in Penrith today with Robbie. It is the first time I have been there purely to train, and what a time. We both explored around different areas and spots we had seen before, and the only place we didnt get time to go to (I had to get a bus, I think Robbie explored though) was the council and performing arts place near the Plaza. All the spots we found were really great, with a lot of varying things to do, and so close to each other aswell. Both of us accomplished a lot of things, and we are going to make it a regular thing. Next week I am taking my camera to film a training video of both of us, so you will see the things we did and so I don't have to list all the amazing things.

I cant wait till next week!

-J

Conditioning and Plans

I started my new conditioning routine today. Last week I had a rest from any training, as the weekend really took it out of my elbows. So for the week I rested and started to draw up a new conditioning program, which includes lots of stretching, mobility and of course strength work. I did the first part today, which was upper body, and it went really well, as well as I had expected. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week now. On Thursday it is another upper body day, but after school I am playing soccer, and when I get back it is dark. So, I am going to do my exercises in the morning, at around 5:30 when it gets light, before school. Sounds crazy, but it should be pretty fun.

On Saturday I am meeting up with Robbie Mann, who lives up in Lawson, about 45 minute train ride away from Penrith, the place I am meeting him. We are going to have an explore around some potential spots that we have seen, and train a bit. Then, the next week we can train properly and make some sort of regular thing out of it.

Feiyues are on their way, they should arrive sometime next week, Monday or Tuesday apparently. I got some nice green closed bottom joggers, good quality Saucony ones, reduced to $10, so I thought these would come in useful for with Feiyues so the bottom doesn't trail on the ground.

Yesterday we went on the boat, with Nathan and his family, which was great fun. We drove under the Sydney harbour bridge and saw all the sights, including the Opera House and the Prime Minister's pad. As we pulled into a jetty and beach, I spotted the sand, and there was a drop of about 3 foot onto it from the path where people would walk. I immediately thought about flipping off it, as there was ample run up and landing space to roll aswell. So I lined myself up, and front flipped failry okay, but it could have been better... after a few more attempts, I had a really nice swan dive, and the landing and roll were great. My mum filmed one, so I may put it up here. After a bit of a drive we anchored a little way out from another small beach, and then Nathan, my sister and I swam ashore. We explored the rocks for a way, and then Phoebe turned back, but we carried on. We went about 1k on the rocks, crawling, running, jumping and climbing - there were some hair-raising parts. We reached the end of the rocks, and headed back again, and then jumped into the sea and swam back to the boat.

So, there are my plans and things that have happened. I may write something later in the week, I have an article I wrote for LincsParkour website that I may put up, and I have been having thoughts about another.

-J

Sydney 14-10-07 Training

I went training in Sydney yesterday, after not going for a few weeks. Met most people (including Robbie who I have been wanting to meet, he lives in the Mountains sort of near me) at Town Hall at 11, where we warmed up for a bit, then headed down to Darling Harbour. After training at the ramp, where I training armjumps across gaps at various heights and a few movements, we headed over to the play area.
I front flipped into a large sand pit a few feet below, and landed them really well. I did a few swan dives and all the parents and kids were watching. Antek did a few great sideflips, then we moved on. The flips really pumped me up, and I felt a lot better training afterwards.
At the place with steps and walls, Antek and I drilled some catpass precisions, I am working on getting the third step. Both of us then went to the cubes, where we met everyone else again, and played around with different movements over the cubes and rings. I did a cool pop up and switch-handed 90 degrees straight over the otherside, it looked pretty cool. There is a great atmosphere developing now I am getting to know people. My confidence is growing a lot more now aswell.
This time it was about 1:30, so we started heading up to Pyrmont. When we arrived, Whale Park was all boarded off, as the construction people are moving it about 50 metres down the road, because of the redevelopment of the area. Hopefully there will be some good places to train when it is finished.
The APA Basics Class started at 2 and ran until 5. and after a warm up we split off into 3 different groups, and trained around Pyrmont, being led through different movements around the area. Our group started at one of the trees, where we swung through and linked different movements on the walls. After, we headed up to the courtyard part, where we drilled wallruns. This particular one was double my height, arms stretched out. I managed to get it after a few tries, and then hopped over the rail at the top. Then I ran along the grass, jumped off the rock and rolled, and then did movements down some step-type things, a bit like the ones at the College in Lincoln. My movements seem to be a lot more powerful and purposeful now aswell.
After this, we headed to this big sloping wall, with small handholds at a few points, and we did circuits going up, down and across it. My shoes offered no grip on this, so even when trying to run and spring up it, they would give way. Also, this made part of the grip nearly peel off, but that is now stuck down again. Definetly ordering some Feiyues, I love those shoes.
The class involved quite a bit of conditioning which I enjoyed, even though both my elbows started to ache and hurt a little. Luckily not above or below it, just right on it, so not tendonitis I'm pretty sure. They need a rest I think though, then I'm going to strengthen the muscles around them in my conditioning.
After the warm down, involving quadrupedal (woohoo!) Antek and I headed back to Town Hall for the train. Made it with 2 minutes to spare, wahey!

So yer, the day went well. Next time I go, I'm thinking of taking my camera and filming a jam video. Got school tomorrow, (Tuesday) as I have the day off today for some reason, then my two weeks holiday is over =[

Next blog post will be with my Feiyues in hopefully when I order them. If the people from kungfudirect eamil me back with postage prices and they are reasonable and quick, I'm gonna get some pure white ones, and then customize them somehow.

Till next time,

J

Creek Training Video

Me and my friend Lochlan, who I havent seen in years spent pretty much the whole day at the creek, just exploring and things. I got some training in, and decided to film a few things that I had done before, and a few newer things I had found. Anyways, after WMM screwing up a lot, here is the finished product:



Enjoy, folks back home!

J

So close....

Went out just now to practise double armed muscleups, I am getting so close. The other day I couldnt do the first part of the transition, now I can nearly get my chest over. I didn't have the last little bit of strength for the transition, but I reckon some conditioning today should get me a whole lot closer.

End of the week I will have them I tells ya!

Also, handstands have improved, even just over the course of a day or so. I love this progression feeling.

Conditioning etc

I have been conditioning quite a lot recently, and I am getting so close to double arm muscle ups now. In a week or so I will get them I reckon. Handstand, pressups, pullups and raise ups I'm gonna work on, upper body hell wooo!

Started filming a little training video for the people back home, and just to have a look myself. My climbups look way better, as do my rail precisions.

I have also noticed a big difference in my ambidexterity. I can now do most vaults over both sides, and take off and land on right foot and left foot comfortably. I have noticed myself just adapting a whole lot more, rather than doing set vaults I will just approach something from whatever angle and jump however feels natural, whether that means twisting in the air or tapping my foot on the obstacle as I go over, everything is just starting to feel a lot more natural.

Anyways, off now, gonna do more conditioning!

J

The Creek

Today I was out training at the park all day, with my friend and next-door neighbour Nathan. We also watched a bit of cricket my school friends were playing.

However, the best moment of the day came when Nathan said he would show me the creek that is at the bottom of our road through some bush.

We went around a few paths and the first thing I noticed was there were a few rocks. And then as we got right near the creek, there are some great rocks for training on. I looked at a few runs and jumps, and then we headed on, and decided we would come back and train there later. We crossed the creek using some thin logs, and then followed the path on the other side.

We passed underneath some huge rock overhangs, which were spectacular. On one you could see lots of layers of rock, they started off horizontal but as we carried on walking they twisted to about a 45 degree angle, it was really cool. I need to take pictures of it.

After walking along the path for a fair way, we came to the dam wall, which we balanced across, back to the original side. The paths here were very bushy, so I suggested we crawl up this large fallen tree, which was laid across and above the bush. After coming off the other end the bush thinned out, and we crossed a cow paddock back to the park, after some more walking.

Then we headed back down to the rocks for a while. I spotted a fairly large arm jump across a water gap onto this rock, which I subsequently did, and then did a few runs and tic tacs. I suggested we explored to the right of the rocks, and we ended up doing this big long run through the trees, over branches and rocks. It was so fun, we felt like proper animals.

After all our fun, we headed up back onto our estate, fully tired and sweaty and dirty. Only later did we find out that it was getting warmer, so there could have been lots of snakes. We knew about the spiders and leeches and lizards, but it was lucky we didn't see any snakes. Will look out next time, Kurrajong is Funnel Web Spider and Common Brown Snake central, the deadliest spider and one of the deadliest snakes in the world.

Rail Precisions + Conditioning

I have been out training in the park quite a bit this week. On Monday and Tuesday I did quite a bit of conditioning, my left thigh is nearly equal in size to my right thigh now, all those pistols have nearly paid off, and all the upper body stuff I have been doing has helped, I can do 7 pullups in a row now rather than 3. Pretty poor still I know. Im working on getting simultaneous muscleups, so pullups, pushups and various dips is what I have been doing.

Today I didn't feel like doing conditioning so I did movements instead. I've got a training partner now, my next door neighbor, who is a few years younger than me, but is pretty eager to learn things, so I have been teaching him a few things. Today I noticed quite a bit of progression. I have been getting gradually more confident with rail precisions, on these wooden beams. Today I did barefooted ones, which were nice, and felt really good. All my training recently has been barefooted, except for a few rail precisions I need to get more confident with. There are some precisions I have been looking at for a while now, onto these thin metal railings from a wooden plank. The plank is at an angle, so the further you move to the top, the further away it is from the railing, and the more level it becomes with the railing. The precision at the bottom is a small distance but upwards, so I got that first,and did it a few more times. Then I moved up the plank, further away and more level with the railing. I did the precision from the middle a few times, until I was happy with it. Then I did it from the top of the plank. I knew this part of the railing was slightly slippier than the rest for some reason, but after a few tests with my foot I knew I would be able to stick it well. The first time, I landed it and stuck it nicely, so I was really pleased. The second time however, after I had landed, my left foot slipped behind off the railing. Luckily I managed to control my fall pretty well, by moving my left foot over the railing, so I wouldn't scrape my shin, and then rolled out of it to stop myself cracking my face, and I then landed on the dirt on the other side on my back. All I got was a tiny cut on the base of my thumb from the wire fencing underneath the railing, and the little scab on my elbow came off and bled a bit. I got up, being pretty pleased with myself, as I had acted instinctively to stop the fall from hurting me. The fact that it felt like I knew what I was doing as well, I could have so easily panicked and hurt myself.

So thats my training from the past few days, can't wait to go train there again tomorrow. I'm so lucky it is only a fence-hop away.

Leaving Party Photo

Just thought I'd share my leaving party group photo:



Seeing this just reminds me of these very special people I miss.

Love you all.

Sydney//Richmond.training

Well, been making this for about a month, finally got the chance to film a few things in Richmond today, so I edited it together. My thumb/hand has healed enough to put weight on it, but I can't put it at weird angles and push off it.



The catpass-squirell is harder than it looks, I only landed it once properly because my right foot kept slipping off the tree, as I had worn the rough bark off it. It took about 20 minutes to get it, as there is a thin gap to fly through, a fair distance (I couldnt get an angle to show it much) quite a high box to vault over and clear, and then you have to get your feet exactly right to stick the landing. I was so chuffed at finally getting it!