Viva la Vida!

Well, NatSock is over and I'm beached as. Bro. For those who don't know, NatSock was the 2008 National Jam for parkour in Australia. I realised a few things while I was there, and learned a lot about how parkour should be trained.

The big question came when Chippa asked the group, 'Why do you do parkour?' I didn't really have an answer. I spent much of the downtime for the rest of the week asking myself the question, and I think I have managed to articulate my motivations. I want to be able. Part of this is having the strength, the coordination... but this can be developed from any physical pursuit. The other part, and the part I realise I have neglected entirely is the freedom. By that I mean not just the ability to choose my own path, but also to have the ability to make it work for me. So many options in life are closed by circumstance, and I see so many more closed because people have to live with their bad choices, or worse, the choices that they didn't know they made. Somehow I feel that development here will allow me to transcend this maze of doorways, to find away back from bad choices, across to better ones, and so on. I feel this description is constrained by the analogy, but it works for me now. No doubt as I develop as an athelete it will become clearer.

The next realisation was much more bitter. I suck real hard at parkour. Case in point: A tiny, five-and-a-half foot precision to a rock in a water feature. Two (nearly three now) years ago when I emerged from the womb, I had a rather natural, though accentuated, fear of pain. This was my main motivation to not do things. Two years of chasing the burn has eroded this I think, I remember about a month ago I got punched in the balls and just roared. There was a dull pain then, but thoughts about that were mostly surpassed by the predatory desire to get my hands around the other guy's throat. My fear now, I think, is of failing. Partly, perhaps, the stresses of year 12 pushing me altered my perceptions. Mostly I think, it would be falling short of my expectations, breaking the perception of self that I've forged over past couple of years, and which - through my attitude and what I say - I generally present to others. I value integrity and honesty very highly, so the thought of having lied to myself and others about who I am is a very ugly, distastful feeling for me. Hence, I may try to avoid damaging this story by not doing things too far out of this comfort zone. One thing I noticed was in the case of things such as this, where there is a very obvious, defined failure point (falling in the pond), I'd prefer to do it alone so I avoid any embarrasment.

NB: I'm not particularly proud of this answer. I do feel it is honest, and should be written down.

To work past this fear, I think I just need to be come comfortable with the idea of failure as a learning experience, rather than the more apocalyptic connotations that I currently have for it.

The last question was my reason for attending in the first place. For a while, I have been wondering how to train parkour properly. When I dabbled a few years back, I had no idea and no physical ability. Progress, needless to say, was slow. This year, I had begun the dabbling again. With physical ability, progress has been bordering on acceptable. Watching the instructors train, a privelege I have never had before, I understand why. The two who I watched the most, and whos attitude I found the most inspiring, was Nippon and Cino. They moved constantly and erratically, running, jumping, crawling, vaulting, rolling, etc with no apparent purpose. As one does when one meets their betters, I emptied my cup and copied them. And over this weekend I have progressed more in ability as an athelete than I have at any other time in my life. Fuck it feels good.

It was an amazing week spent with amazing people, and I'm looking forward to doing it again sometime. At the risk of speaking too soon, watch this space. Progression is coming to town.