Finding My Own Way

07-02-12

2012-02-08T21:44:00.002Z

Just returned home from our University Circus Society (NUCSS) fire safety session - the flat now smells of paraffin! I've been so busy recently, I thought after exams finished everything would calm down a bit..but no! We're currently in the process of planning the first NUCSS showcase, it's a cabaret themed night of circus, comedy, dance and music, and is promising to be an amazing show. (You can buy tickets from me or NUSU reception from 20.02.12.) So we are having lots of practice sessions to get the acts up to standard and everyone is doing an awesome job. I'll try and remember to update on how it goes.

Still on the circus theme, Lee and I are back working on an acro piece, to be performed at the showcase as well as a couple of other events. I also did a German Wheel workshop at the weekend, which left me with a fair few bruises! But I learned loads, and will hopefully be learning more in future.

The Parkour side of my life is almost as busy, although finding the time to actually train is proving difficult at the moment. We're working on the Parkour element of the Urban Games event for summer 2012, including designing a structure to teach, train and perform on. It's going well, and the event looks like its going to be awesome!!!

And uni is going as well as I'd expect it to, I'll find out quite how well when my exam results come back in a few weeks... This term is definitely better than last term though, and having found somewhere to live next year I can get on and enjoy it. :)

bye blog x

Mano a Mano, Work, Cornwall and Indoboards

2011-08-02T22:45:00.004+01:00

The end of exams, followed by the start of the long summer holidays...

On the 2nd of July we did a performance called Mano a Mano, a Tango-inspired piece of physical theatre as part of the Vamos Festival. It was hard work, but the night went really well, and I was happy given my limited (non-existent) acting experience!

A few days later I was moving out of the flat, and after a lot of to-and-fro-ing ended up in Leeds, teaching circus skills to small children and Parkour to not-so-small teens. The Parkour was a part of a Urban Games and Hip Hop roadshow at two secondary schools. Both were good fun, and I met some lovely people as well as encountering something of a learning curve. I discovered the difficulty of working with large groups of teenagers and learnt some techniques for dealing with it. I did a few other workshops over those weeks, which in general went well and had positive feedback. Currently we are working on getting our own equipment to teach on, and also practice on :)

Cornwall was lovely, and much sunnier than usual. I did lots of surfing, coasteering, kite-flying and generally relaxing.

And yesterday our new Indoboard arrived in the post. Been having lots of fun on it today :)

2011-04-24T10:30:00.001+01:00

Just learned 441 and making silly faces from hollie johnson on Vimeo.

2011-04-24T10:29:00.000+01:00

Jumps at Discovery Museum 2 from hollie johnson on Vimeo.

2011-04-24T10:27:00.001+01:00

Jumps at Discovery Museum 1 from hollie johnson on Vimeo.

Saturday

2011-04-23T22:03:00.003+01:00

Gonna try put stuff on here a bit more regular. Just video clips (a load of them right now) and pictures and stuff. I'm getting worse at writing from doing too much maths.

Oh and did a few good jumps today :)

Hollie

Just got beaten at Monopoly...

2011-01-01T22:47:00.001Z

Once again it's been too long since I updated this...so I'm going to summarise.

Summer

In the summer I spent a fair while at Lee's, and we did a couple of teaching jobs with Dynamix Skatepark, which were good fun, the highlight being the task of teaching pre-school children acrobalance! Since then I've been helping teach a weekly Parkour class which has been a bit of a learning curve but it's going well.

Then through the main school holidays I spent a week in Cornwall with my family, which mainly involved surfing and flying kites, and a week walking in Scotland. Lee and I also went down to London for a few days to train, where we met lots of people and did lots of jumping and walking and exploring.

At some point in the middle I got my A level results, which confirmed I was off to Newcastle uni..

We spent a day in Durham at a buskers festival, where we saw several circus acts and got soaked! The following day we did the Stockton River Rat Race, basically a 10k run along the river with several water-based challenges along the way. We're also doing the full weekend London Rat Race in September, eek!

Not long after it was off to Taunton to be part of the NoFitState show 'Parklife'. The weekend in Taunton involved doing short workshops with the locals and working with community groups who would later be part of the show. For the following week we were in Dorchester, doing a similar thing at first, then moving on to preparation for the performance itself. We spent a couple of evenings working with a group of traceurs and freerunners called 'Train Hard', who were awesome guys and put in so much work for the show. It was sad to leave and not be able to return to Taunton for the second show, but I was straight off up to Newcastle to move in for the start of uni.

Newcastle (uni)

Other than doing maths (my degree choice) I have been trampolining, skiing (scary dry slope), acrobalancing(?), passing clubs, and doing less parkour than I'd like... I injured my knee while the weather was ok, which healed in time for the snow... :/ Still, we did a performance with Urban Playground, and another small one at the Sage along with some workshops, for a Generation 2012 event. Then we did a small acrobatics performance at a fundraising event at Dynamix, alongside some very good circus and music acts.

That's about it for 2010...

14-07-10

2010-07-14T11:30:00.005+01:00

Exams all done :D :D they went okay but I'm just glad they're over. Been proper busy since I finished, we had the leavers ball on July 1st, then headed straight over to cultureshock festival in northallerton. We did a fire show on the first night then spent the Saturday swimming, juggling and doing lots of acro stuff. Later in the week me and Lee were back in Ilkley where we started to learn some pitches in the gym.
I had my driving test (second attempt) on the Thursday which went well :) and lots of packing to head up to North Yorkshire on Friday evening. On Satuday me, my dad and lots of Lee's family did the Yorkshire 3 peaks walk which was really hard!
Now I'm at Lee's again - we did more pitches in the gym and then were teaching all day Tuesday :) Off to metrocentre now (woop shopping!)

summmer :)

2010-06-15T23:48:00.004+01:00

Summer actually feels like it's arrived. We've booked tickets for a few days training in London, 1st - 6th of August, so people get in touch if you're around then?, there's a lots of people I haven't seen in too long. Also lots of walking - a week in Scotland, and the 2 lots of '3 peaks', and hopefully the Stockton Rat Race. Training has been going so so well lately, will film some stuff soon :)

last week of school was sad but fun and SO MUCH CAKE!!!

4/5/10

2010-05-04T16:25:00.003+01:00

Hi :) It's been nearly 6 months since I wrote here, time is going so fast at the moment. I've been kinda ill for the last week and now I keep having nosebleeds as well...and I'm so bored of revision that I decided to get writing and get up to date(ish).

Me and Lee went to London again just before Christmas. It was ok, but ridiculously cold and snowy. I didn't get much training done at all, but we spent a lot of time being touristy in Camden. I'm hoping to go back down south this summer.
I did a couple of aerial workshops over February/March, so I'm now almost competent at hanging upside down. It's good fun but static aerial is all a bit posey for me...
We went to the British Juggling Convention, and did lots of juggling (understandably), a doubles aerial session, lots of acrobalance, unicycling, slackline and tightrope stuff and ran a very successful parkour workshop. The weather was actually amazing and the whole thing was great fun. Hopefully doing some circus performances in July.
Since then I've spent a few weekends up in Newcastle, doing lots of jumps and balancey stuff.

Also I've told UCAS that I'm off to Newcastle Uni in September, providing I don't completely fail my A levels! Really looking forward to it, also doing the great north run the weekend before term starts. I think that is everything...

So yup, gonna be running again as soon as possible, A levels start in a couple of weeks and then I'm finished on June 30th! Yay!

holllie x

11-11-09

2009-11-11T20:43:00.003Z

Wooo! Remembered to update this again! I've put up a few of the pics from the week in Newcastle - my favourite being the Hollie & Lee cooking team! Last night I had to do loads and loads of maths, then went out with the people I went to Borneo with. It was a lovely night - although not everyone could be there. :(

Today I was only in school 'til 12, lots more maths and I realised that I really really need to learn to integrate. I went into Leeds, did a bit of shopping and some jumps, mainly spinny rail stuff and playing in trees...my hands didn't look pretty. Found myself in Park Square, so I juggled until my hands went numb. (Which I'm sure they shouldn't when I'm using them...I think I might have circulation issues...) I headed off for coffee, to do some work and get warm, and got stopped by 2 people doing a 'mystery treasure hunt'. For some reason they thought I was their treasure, (I wasn't) and they stopped for a chat. They said they were Christians, trying to spread the love, and told me that God loved me. I don't believe in a God, but it made me smile all the same. I got to Pret in the end, for a cup of their awesome 99p coffee, and got a fair bit of work done. The barista gave me free coffee, so I was in there 'til closing time. Happy, warm and full of coffee, I went up to the Art Gallery for more jumps and fun and balancing :D

So all in all awesome day!

Holliebob x

09-11-09

2009-11-09T15:55:00.004Z

Yeah I've been as useless as usual when it comes to updating this...I might try and post something every week so I don't have to try and remember months worth of stuff. So, since the summer:

I'm back at school :( though I'm actually enjoying it mostly, just doing loads and loads of maths, that's about it. I've just sent off my uni application to do maths, applying to Imperial, Warwick, Birmingham, Durham and Newcastle. I'm dreading having to make a decision :/

I haven't been out jumping in Ilkley at all really, but when i've been in Leeds confidence has been loads better :) also at bradford gym i've been learning new stuff and being less scared of old stuff! I'm hoping to start filming some things when I get my camera charger back :)

I'm currently learning to drive, and not loving it at all! Just passed my theory without problems, but the actual driving is much much worse. I'm getting there though, and hopefully I'll pass soon enough so i can forget all about it.

In October half term, I went with my family up to Edinburgh, to do all the touristy stuff. Had a really cool time especially on the Monday when me and my dad went climbing at the EICA.

The second half of the week I spent in Newcastle, doing a choreography with the NEPK lads and UrbanPlayground. This was a mix of parkour based movement and contemporary dance, and involved several hours of preparation and rehearsal, and then two evening performances. Had an amazing time :D

Erm...that's about it for now, me and Lee are off to London from December 18th to 23rd, so if people are around it'd be great to meet up and train :)

10-09-09

2009-09-10T21:48:00.005+01:00

Summer was amazing!

The three weeks I spent in Sabah, Borneo were hard but so so good. We did some days trekking, stopping in villages along the way, and a project at Sepilok, the orangutan rehabilitation centre. I definitely learned a few things, like how to appreciate a breeze, cold, clean water, and shade! I kept a diary which is full of funny stories and all the best (being on mount kinabalu) and worst moments. The photos are just a few of those that were taken on the trip.

Last day of the trek

Working at Sepilok

End of first day trekking

The beginning of the first day

Beach walk :)

Shortly after getting back to the UK, Lee came to stay for a week before we went off to Lisses. It was a really good two weeks, and although France was stupidly hot (even after being in Malaysia) we had an amazing time, training in Lisses, Evry and La Defense, and we met lots of cool people.

The end of the summer was a bit more relaxing, myself and 7 school friends went off to Gran Canaria for a week, so lots of sleep, swimming and fun nights out :)

Now I'm back to school, upper 6th, so I have loads of free time. Unfortunatley I also have a mountain of maths to do, so the time isn't really free... But I'm enjoying it, getting back into a routine and training more again. I'll try and keep this updated a bit better from now on.

Hollie

31/05/09

2009-05-31T15:51:00.009+01:00

Okay after weeks and weeks of being nagged to do this i'm writing something. You people had better be grateful! Boring stuff - exams are well on their way, got four more maths modules, one physics and science in society left, thats it.

A couple of weeks ago Lee and myself ran the Leeds Half Marathon. Lee did well, running 1.43ish. I didn't do so well but had a horrible cold at the time so there is my excuse! However I ran 2.12.21 which I'm pleased with :) We spent the saturday 'resting' i.e. shopping and eating ice creams with my brother, then a crazy early morning on sunday to get into Leeds for the 9.30 start. The 20 minutes or so before the start were horrible, but once I got into it, it was fairly enjoyable, and I'm glad I did it. So all in all it was a very good weekend. Exams started the following day, so I've been to the gym a bit, jumping a bit, running a bit, and revising less than I should be. There are the pictures from the running on my Facebook, and a few below.

We (my family and I) got back from Spain last night, after a week of sun, sea and sand, and lots and lots of fish :)

Err..Thats all i can think of, got about 4 weeks til im off to newcastle to do some engineering thingy, then life gets really busy. Can't wait. =D

11/03/09

2009-03-11T18:49:00.002Z

Things have been nice recently, school isn't so bad and I'm getting lots of work done especially in preparation for my French oral exam at the end of April.

Running, my most recent was 6 miles which I did in 55 minutes, and I'm hoping to run about 7 and a half when I've finished working tonight. Although it's hard running that far after running hardly at all, I'm getting there, and also getting better at pacing myself. I'm getting sponsorship for the run as well to fund my expedition to Borneo in the summer.

Parkour, is good. My confidence with railings is improving steadily, though it still needs a lot of work. I haven't been out so much due to other stuff but as the daylight gets better I'll be out jumping more in the evenings.

Other stuff, like tricking and breaking are fun fun fun, I went to a breakdance class in Leeds on Monday night, that I got to once before Christmas. It was good but tiring, hopefully I'll get there more regularly now I have money. Also in the gym I'm getting a few things back that I haven't done in ages, trying some new stuff too :)

So yeah, life is busy, but awesome.

Jollie x

Edit: I ran 8.4 milesish :)

24/02/09

2009-02-24T21:23:00.001Z

woop, last night before lent. I had yummy pancakes (the ones that worked) and once again realised my lack of cooking ability. just ran 5 miles (woop woop!) in err, 45 mins (and some seconds) proper pleased like :)

jollie x

times :)

2009-02-23T12:15:00.003Z

It's been far too long since I last posted up here. It's been a good few months, with some ups and downs, but mostly ups :)

I was finding things hard in the lead up to Christmas, with training not going well and having crazy amounts of school work, but I had the best birthday ever, and a pretty good Christmas holiday too.

Since then I've started running some, as I'm entered for the Leeds Half Marathon in May, and I can't yet run that far. Have also been jumping more, and got a job working in a sweet shop on Sundays :)

This February half term I spent up in Newcastle, jumping, skating, film watching, playing on the beach, bouncing on a trampoline and generally having a good time. Sprained my ankle a little but it's almost sorted already which I'm thankful for.

Got an amazing summer planned already, I'm so excited but needing to earn lots of money before then!

Ooooh and I'm giving up chocolate for lent, along with some friends and family, as well as learning not to make jumps :)

I'll try and update more often with stuff.

jollie x

Also lee edited me this video :)

london

2008-11-04T18:35:00.003Z

Since getting back from Lisses I've just been getting back into school and training here and things. I spent a weekend up in Newcastle which killed my legs crazily much, and I still dont know why, but it was a good trip in all. Last week I went to London and Crawley for half term, it was very cold and although I trained a fair bit in the city, I did next to nothing for the second part of the week in Crawley. For the first few days when we were staying in central London, we wrote up a few of the things that had happened each day, so it's not the usual "oh i forgot what happened..." What we wrote was very disjointed, so I'm gonna try sum it up a bit here.
Sunday
Got the bus down to London, which was confusing owing to daylight saving and the hours changing and things. Met Lee in Victoria and after some problems at the hotel we went down to Southbank to jump a little. Found some guys from Norwich (HI GUYS IF YOU READ THIS!) jumping over their heads in the sand, and trained with them for most of the evening around IMAX and Waterloo. On the way back we did handstands and saw lots of people from the RFH watching. Walked back up to Waterloo blind :)
Monday
٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶
Headed off to Southbank again to meet Rigby(eventually) and Sorosh, jumped some. Sorosh bought us all cakes which was lovely of him. We walked along the walls of St Thomas' to Vauxhall where we jumped some more, until Sorosh hit his shin (nasty) on a wall, resulting in an ambulance trip and a long long wait in the hospital whilst he got high on laughing gas...and 15 stitches in his leg...
After this we trained some more at the jubilee gardens playpark having met Ash on the way, and headed back to my cousins to watch a film and see it snow!
Tuesday
We went to train at tramps kitchen (via starbucks) to meet Rui, then headed over to Vauxhall again where we met lots of people :) Many fun conversations were had before we got absolutely soaked on the way back to my cousins.
Wednesday
Woke up and went to decathlon at Canada Water. Bought Kalllllenjis (later to become all pritty and sparkly) After a brief stocking up on mocha and hot chocolate walked to jubi(lee) gardens to meet brad, ben and co. Jumped and decided against setting up a slackline and climbed in doorways then went to archbishops park, played on rings, parrallel bars and slackline etc and got cold, wet and muddy feet. Went to that box of walls again then some scaffold and played with random movements, via vauxhall station we went to covernt gardens (via loosing ben) and watched a busker for aaaaaaages and ate (eat.(imperitive))

ps brad can pull off that whole plastic sword look.

Lisses

2008-09-17T21:48:00.001+01:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to get around to writing this! I've finally given into the nagging and decided to do it. On the evening of Thursday 14th of August I trained in Leeds with some of the lads, lots of jumps and pullups is all I can remember. After chilling in the bus station for a while, we all caught the overnight coach down to London, which was 2 hours early, allowing us to walk across the big city at 4am. After a very very long day of travelling, we arrived at the F1 in Lisses, to eat, visit the dame and sleep.

It's been a while since I got back, and to be honest, so much happened that I can't remember right now. We had an awesome time training at a long line of rocks just out of Lisses. I mean really long, there was jump after jump after jump. We spent many days training in Evry and Lisses itself, and most evenings were up on the dame du lac. There were loads of funny moments, including a goose flying into a tree(!)

We met traceurs of 13 different nationalities, all of whom I'm really glad to have met and trained with. We found a really nice spot in Evry, with crazy blue sculpture things, and a horrible scary slide that I didn't want to go down. There's so much more I could write...

But I really don't know how to. Instead here are a load of photos I took.

CLICKIES!

All in all, Lisses was great, life is pretty good too. I'll write again when something happens.

x Holliebob

13/08/08

2008-08-13T14:16:00.001+01:00

After going to Carlisle, the boys came here for a few days, we had some good training and also did some climbing up on Ilkley rocks. Then it was Trace, I loved the earlier mornings up on the top peaks, there's nothing like it. Was great to meet so many new people as well. The summer has been pretty busy, and tomorrow night I'm getting the coach down to London to leave for Lisses on Friday. I'm proper excited, but also a bit nervous. I'll post up a load of photos when I get back, no doubt.

Rain, Pain and November

2008-07-10T12:13:00.001+01:00

Went to Carlisle for 3 days at the end of last week and had an awesome time. It felt like I brought all the bad weather with me, it had been really nice 'til I arrived! We mainly trained around Brampton, and spent a day at the castle in Penrith, where there wasn't a beach, but lots of really nice traversing around the castle walls. I was also introduced to November, the cat on the treadmill. Fun times were had by all.

At the moment I'm really trying to build up my strength to hold a tucked planche, as the best I've ever been able to do is one on paralletts for about two seconds. I'm hoping if I keep at it for a few weeks I will get there. The other thing is the technique on my muscle ups...still finding it a bit weird but I'm just playing around to see what works.

26 June 08

2008-06-26T12:21:00.001+01:00

I finally finished all my exams, about 2 weeks ago now! Since then I've been training quite a bit, and just enjoying the freedom. I've had some pretty good sessions in Leeds, Ilkley and in the gym. After trying for ages I got back handsprings, and some stuff on the bars. Also did my first two armed muscle up which I'm proper pleased with although I'll need to put in quite a bit of work to make them good.

I spent most of yesterday just resting and recovering from the last few days, but I'm training again this afternoon and hoping to go climbing maybe tomorrow or Sunday. Really looking forward to Trace this year, but still haven't got a tent :/ oh well. It's a good summer so far.

Parkour

2008-04-21T18:45:00.001+01:00

I'm getting a bit 'bogged down' at the moment with school work and revision, but it will all be over soon. I'm not training anything like as much as normal at the moment, but I'm doing what I can (mainly conditioning and taekwondo).

I have just finished writing out a piece of English coursework I wrote last year about parkour. After getting it back, full marks(!) I thought I would post it up here. I've edited it slightly, as I was writing for an audience that didn't know of parkour at all, and it was a tad over-simplified. I actually wrote it last summer, and it is interesting to look back at the things I wrote at the time.

Have you ever been walking through a busy city, and seen, just out of the corner of your eye, a flash of movement? Have you ever seen someone moving through their environment; under rails and over walls, like the super-human heroes that fill our cinema screens? We are traceurs, practitioners of the French discipline of parkour, training to move in any situation, any condition, and any environment.

Parkour: movement between point A and point B, with the greatest efficiency allowed by the capabilities of the human body. The words of Georges Hébert (1875-1957) –"One's got to be strong to be useful, not only to oneself, but to others”, are an epitome of the parkour discipline and philosophy.

The discipline originated in the Parisian suburb of Lisses, evolving through the games and scenarios invented by a fifteen year old boy named David Belle. Until the age of 15, David had been taught by his father many ways of training, including the military’s parcours du combatant and Hébert’s Methode Naturelle. This ‘Natural Method’ of training was taught throughout France, and included, walking, running, jumping, climbing, quadrupedal movement (moving on all 4 limbs), balancing, lifting, throwing, defence and swimming. However, upon moving to Lisses, a town of concrete walls, identically angular flats and staircases, David had to adapt his skills to a new environment. He trained hard, becoming stronger through setting himself challenges: imaginary rescue scenarios with a need for efficient movement. The games grew to something more serious, and as more joined in with this art of movement, it became knows as le parkour from the French ‘parcours’ meaning course. From this point onwards, parkour grew.

Although there had been people practicing movement in the UK for years, parkour as it is today really hit the UK in 2003 with the programme ‘Jump London’ and following it, ‘Jump Britain’ in 2005. It was around this time that I was first exposed to parkour. The speed, power and skill of the traceurs fascinated me, and through the internet I found out about a group of local practitioners. Eventually, on March 13^th 2005, I met up with a group of traceurs from West Yorkshire. It was a day that changed my life. I trained in Bradford, and later Leeds, and since then I have trained in cities across the UK and also in Lisses, the birthplace of parkour.

So what does a traceur’s training involve? As parkour is an individual and non-competitive discipline, training can involve whatever is effective for the practitioner. The most important part of training for any traceur should be conditioning their body, including, but not restricted to traditional strength training. A traceur’s conditioning might include traversing, climbing, quadrupedal movement, barefoot work...anything that will condition the body to cope with the physical strains of parkour. Becoming physically strong is important in numerous ways. It could increase the distance of a jump, the power in a vault, it helps increase physical control, and helps protect us from injury.

Most traceurs condition alone, but sometimes meet together to work as a team and help push and encourage each other. One of my first experiences of this was on a Saturday evening in the winter, after some gentle movement training in the city. We began the evening with a simple balance drill; walking about 20 metres along a railing, dropping down and waiting in push up position at the end, until we had all successfully completed the drill. The next part was team work, as we took turns to carry each other, running along a 100m stretch of path, up a set of stairs and back again to swap over. The evening went on in this way, a series of challenges to test and push our mental and physical strength and discipline. We finished the course with a game of ‘parkour tag’, similar to the traditional game, but played in a small area, tightly packed with obstacles. The game is another test of speed, skill, reactions and special awareness, made much more difficult by the previous challenges, but most of all it is a good laugh with close friends.

However, the big event of the week in West Yorkshire is the Saturday meeting, when traceurs from the area all meet together to train, share ideas, and help each other progress. On a typical Saturday, we will meet late morning in Leeds city centre, and move around the art gallery area, practicing different methods of movement and warming up for the day. We will walk or run to various area of the city; the university, the playhouse, the armouries… There are always movements that people are working towards, whether they are jumps, or walls to scale, and traceurs will work together, encouraging and supporting each other. Others might train aside from the rest of the group, focusing alone and experimenting with techniques and repeating movements. “Once is luck, twice is a coincidence, but only three times is success”. Yet it takes many more repetitions before one can really be sure of a technique. So a traceur might drill movements fifty, one hundred times, and more, until the group moves on to train in a different area, where the obstacles are different and provide new challenges and opportunities. During a Saturday some of the traceurs also practice tricking, a discipline which although quite different from parkour, requires a similarly high level of physical coordination and skill. We usually finish the day with conditioning, games and challenges.

Traceurs all train in different ways; this is just an example of how things are in Leeds, but even within the group everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. I enjoy training as widely as possible, as I think all physical disciplines can help my parkour. At present I train in Taekwondo, and have recently started doing a regular gymnastics session. Similar to most traceurs, I love the feeling of progression and development as a person, not only in my parkour, but in life in general. It is in this way that parkour is my life; there is a huge amount more to it than the purely physical aspect of the discipline. This is a mindset that traceurs share, and applies to every discipline, every challenge and every obstacle that we face.

People often ask me, “Is parkour competitive?” and in the sense of conventional competition, the answer is no. However, as David Belle said once, “There is always competition; competition to help others, who can help the most people.” Although some organisations are moving towards the competitive possibilities for parkour, it remains that it is such a dependent discipline, dependent upon the obstacles, the conditions and the environment that to measure a person’s ability would be impossible.

Parkour, the discipline of efficient movement, will always the way of the traceurs, who train to be strong, but most importantly, to be useful.

Lastly, I made a small video last month, it's just a compilation of clips I collected over the past year or so.

British Summer Time Begins!

2008-03-30T21:48:00.001+01:00

So today was the beginning of British Summer Time. And a great start it was too. Had my mum's birthday bash, a walk across the hills to the pub in Addingham, then back to Ilkley for food and drinks. The weather was perfect, and it was brilliant just being out. It was quite amazing, seeing as it snowed a week ago today. I worked yesterday, and I'm in again tomorrow, so training time is limited. Not for long though, bring on the summer.

I've got quite a few things planned in the coming months, the first being to walk the three peaks in Yorkshire. The walk is traditionally done in under 12 hours, and climbs the three highest peaks in Yorkshire, Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. It's 24.5 miles and includes 5000 ft of ascent. Not bad for a days walking.

After exams, I'm hoping to walk the coast to coast across the England, then there's Trace, possibly playing in a folk festival near Manchester, and Lisses of course. It should be a good one.

As far as training goes, I've been in the gym most weeks, mainly working on back handsprings and sommies, and playing on the bars. I've had a couple of really tough Taekwondo sessions doing cardio and conditioning work, and have had a few days training movement in Leeds. Things are going okay, but I majorly need to work on pullups to help improve my climbups and muscle ups. I'll also be looking at my climbup technique, and trying to speed up the whole movement. My precision jumps have improved massively, a combination of technique and confidence I think. And if course I just want to keep trying to get all my movements faster.

Words of wisdom from Bob Dylan - "Don't think twice it's alright"

Improvement

2008-03-10T20:17:00.001Z

Things have got a bit better since my last post. Had a good night out yesterday, and training well tonight. I just need a bit of routine back in my life, after all the chaos with music stuff. I'm gonna have quite a lot of work in the next few weeks, with projects to be due in and exams coming up. My aim with training is just to get some good training in every night, not necessarily for long, but so I will get a steady improvement in my strength and general fitness.

I'm feeling good, and I'm off to the gym tomorrow night. Will be working on backtucks and back handsprings again, along with some bar work. (Cos I love it!)

Today my English teacher said, "I'm a victim of my own efficiency!" which made me laugh. Sometimes in life we can all try too hard, and sometimes it is good just to let life take us where it will. There's a lot to be learned.

2008-03-07T13:31:00.004Z

A few weeks has passed since I last posted here, and stuff has changed a bit. Training has been okay, although not as good as it could have been. I've had a few concerts, and lots of rehearsals, which take up time, along with a fair bit of work. After Easter I will have to work full weekends, so will only be able to train in Leeds on an evening, and during days off. I'll just have to stick with the conditioning and what movement I can do around here. Personally, I'm not feeling too great at the moment. Some stuff has happened which has...kind of changed how I think. I hope in the next couple of weeks I will be able to get back to how I was.

2008-02-07T13:23:00.000Z

Tomorrow is the last day of this half term, and after that I only have 10 weeks left in school :D I'm off to spend some time with family, friends and traceurs in the South at the end of next week. I am looking forward to it, but it will be my last weekend away for a while as I've finally got a job! This means I'll be working Saturdays, instead of training in Leeds, but only 'til the summer. I will try and train in Leeds on a Sunday instead, on my own or with whoever is up for joining me.
I got all my results back from my mocks, and didn't do too badly. Got some running events coming up in the summer, including the Leeds Half Marathon with my form tutor.
Will post again after next week, with slightly more interesting news!

2008-01-21T15:00:00.000Z

Just got in from doing my GCSE physics paper. It was actually the most stupid exam I have ever done. Was more like a philosophy + ethics paper. Never mind though, it was easy enough.

Apologies for the last post (I didn't write it!)

Since the new year, I've been training in the gym a lot, working on a few flips and bar work, and also doing quite a lot of conditioning. I spent Saturday training in Newcastle, with various folks from Newcastle, Carlisle, Middlesbrough and Sheffield. I'd love to train there again, but spend more time at some of the areas.

In two weeks time(ish), on Saturday 2nd Feb, there will be a sesh in Leeds, I think the North East/North West boys will be coming down for the day, if anyone else is coming, let me know?

Timlongs is well fit

2007-12-31T17:42:00.000Z

Today is the last day of 2007. Hollie is hiding in a hole because her typing is epic fail, so timlongs has taken over!

Year has been pretty good overall. A few bad things, but some amazing trips (like that acid trip with tim lulz)

Playing in France at Trans European Festival
Went to London to train, as well as Rochford and Canterbury
Surfing coaching with Kelly O'Toole
Lisses with Liv
Trace (met Timlongs and fell in love)
Walked 85 miles, Dales Way with Scott
Trained in Huddersfield, said "ciao" to Zayne.
Spent a week in Wales climbing and stuff.
4 days work experience in the Army (epic win)
Trained in Cambridge and Peterborough
Went to Manchester to train
Tim's Birthday (Legal now innit)
London for my birthday with Alistair and lots of other London chaps.
Having sex with Tim (which hasn't happend yet, but JUST YOU WAIT)

Sorted.com

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

2007-12-28T18:25:00.000Z

That last week of school was pretty bad, but now it's the holidays. Had a good christmas, and I can see an even better new year. Got some parkour folks stopping here for new year and a few days before, can't wait.
Got left armed (leading) muscle ups just as easy as my right armed ones, so I'm gonna keep working on those, and my negatives are getting loads more controlled at the transition.
Bad news though, I've got an inflamed heel where it meets the achilles tendon. All I can do is be careful with it, it is worse from wearing trainers, so will be wearing my feiyues again for a bit, and keeping off the running.
Will post up soon with our new year adventures!

London

2007-12-19T18:51:00.000Z

So on Friday afternoon, we went to London, staying 'til Sunday evening. Had a really good time, and met lots of cool folks, thanks to everyone who met us.

Friday afternoon I caught the train to Leeds, where I met Alistair, and we got the 'National Express' train to London KX. When we arrived, the challenge faced us of finding my cousins flat where we were staying. But I was unphased, with the address written on my arm in what I thought was permanant marker. After realising that this street finding business wasn't quite as easy as we had hoped, I got some directions, and eventually arrived at the flat. We dumped our stuff, and wandered down to Covent Garden. We did some training along the way, and this time, even with a map, we got lost...again.

The following day we walked down to the southbank area, being very touristy along the way, and it was really qite exciting. We met up with Ben and Rui, who looked after us for the day. Did some good training, met some other southerners, saw some breakdancers, got locked in a park... Ben summed the day up nicely in a post on Jam:

>Rui lies about the ice cream trucks location (there wasn't one at all)
> A drunk man on Jubilee Gardens explains that he didn't piss himself, but rather split beer on his crotch in the toilet.
> Man dressed as a Jedi.
> The man on the till in Sainsburys refuses to speak to me.
> The man on the till still refuses to talk to me when I go back in.
> Alistair discusses his love for the film Pretty Woman.
> Security did their job pretty well and moved us all on.
> Rui takes Hollie, Alistair & myself down towards the Hospital as we split from the main group.
> We got robbed by some breakdancers.
> We mock Alistair for not doing a big armjump first time - he hates the wall.
> We visit an airport disguised as a hospital...or a hospital diguised as an airport.
> Alistair can't opperate toilet door locks.
> I educate on the sleeping-ness of horses (Although they can sleep, they can't enter REM sleep when standing up. And if they get little or no REM sleep then can randomly collapse in order to recover.)
> We get locked in a park and I loose my gender by not climbing over the pointy part of the fence.
> A man forgets to take his wife with him when he leaves apartment block.

On the Satuday night we cooked(!), ate, did some flexibility work, and generally relaxed; 'twas good. After getting woken up nice and early on Sunday, we headed down to jubilee gardens again, where we met lots of people. I didn't train much on the Sunday, felt kinda drained, but had a great day all the same.

Monday was my 16th XD, and afer having a disasterous day on Tuesday, I went to the evening gym session for the first time in ages. It was a nice surprise to find Ed, Jamie and Scott there, along with Lion. Played around on the beams, and spent most of the evening working on back handsprings. Towards the end I saw the lads doing gainer dismounts into the pit, so had a go myself, and found them really easy. Very happy with that. Below is a little video I made of the few bits we filmed in London. Enjoy. x

Cheer up love, it might never happen!

2007-12-10T20:15:00.000Z

I've been meaning to write for the last few days, but what with training, and the ridiculous amounts of schoolwork, it's all been a bit hectic. Had a nice long weekend; after going into school for 30 minutes on Thursday morning, I had no more school 'til this Monday. So Thursday, Friday and Saturday I did a bit of training, some shopping, spending time with friends etc. Sunday morning I went for a run (5 miles!), then did a job in Leeds, which involved dressing up and jumping about! It was good fun.

Yesterday and today have been depressing but productive - have been training as normal, but getting my head down and trying to finish off all my schoolwork/coursework. On Friday afternoon I'm off to London 'til Sunday, then Monday is my 16th, so I don't want to spend it working.

There is loads more I meant to write, but I'll post it up when I remember.

"Forget about likes and dislikes; they are of no consequence.
Just do what must be done.
This may not be happines, but it is greatness."
- George Bernard Shaw

Thoughts on a rainy evening...

2007-12-01T21:02:00.000Z

Zanshin, Satori, Kenshō ... Call it what you wish, it is what drives many of us; what we live for, what we train for. I'm talking about a state of being where we are totally aware, alert and concentrated. Think about the moment before you commit to that big jump, or the feeling of sprinting through your environment, totally focused. Nothing else matters but what you're doing at that moment. You're not thinking about tomorrow, you're not feeling sad or happy, because all your attention completely focused.

Many people aim to achieve a similar state of focus through meditation. Letting go of the complicated thoughts and feelings of our minds can help us see things for what they really are, and do our best when it's most important. We sometimes feel it when playing a difficult piece of music, or training hard.

In general we take things for granted. We don't appreciate the little things in life, the things that make us smile for no apparent reason. Like the colour of the sky at 6am, or the pattern of coloured windows on the side of a building. Sometimes our views of our surroundings are obstructed by what we already know and what we have already seen.

Every morning I walk the same route through the wonderful(!) town that is Ilkley, and after 4 years of doing this, I no longer really see what is around me. A shop is just a shop; a person is just another person. It's a rainy morning and everyone is hurrying along, heads down. If we just opened our eyes, we would maybe start to appreciate what is around us.

Sitting here I can hear the sound of heavy hail on the window - a sound I haven't heard in a long time. It sounds powerful, and like it will never end... Maybe we should all go out and run about in the rain, just for the fun of it!

"The loosing of the mind is the awakening of the senses."

See The Sun

2007-11-22T18:42:00.000Z

It's been a while...and life is going well. I'm trying so hard not to get depressed by this lack of sunlight, and I'm doing okay. I'm running 3 or 4 times a week now, for about 3 miles, and finding it easier and easier. I was running tonight, and finished it off by sprinting across this muddy field in my town. Was good fun, 'til I finished and felt it.

Also doing a bit more flexibility work as it definitely needs to be improved and focusing my conditioning much more on the things that really need to be improved.

I've had a lot of school work over the last couple of weeks, but for now at least, I've got a bit of time just to train and read and write and listen to music. I'm also trying to find a job, as my 'Lisses Fund' so far consists of £110 and €100 - not so good.

I'm looking forward to the 14th, cos London here I come! And looking forward to tomorrow afternoon, cos I've chosen to do orienteering on the moors, which should be a laugh. Off to taekwondo now - pre grading lesson, so I've gotta be there.

Train well x

Orange. Purple. Green.

2007-11-10T21:06:00.000Z

Today was a very good day.

*smiles*

Often when I have a good day of training, it is because I am focused enough to do movements that I find mentally very difficult. Today was different. It seemed that a lot of movements I would normally find difficult…were easy. I don’t know if this is due to feeling better mentally, or being stronger, or just having lost some of my preconceptions about my movement. I felt I didn’t resist the things that make movements difficult, instead just trusting my ability to move. Either way, something felt different.

I’m grading for taekwondo two weeks today (blue tag); I should probably start learning some Korean. My training with that is going well; recently we’ve been doing a lot more conditioning and fitness work, which I ain’t going to complain about. There’s so much to learn from so many people.

2007-11-07T16:35:00.000Z

Had a good few days training, so tonight I'm taking it fairly easy. Monday I spent a while practicing techniques for vaults, and getups. Then lots of standing jump repetitions, both horizontal and vertical, climbups and general upper body conditioning. Tuesday I played around with some more technical stuff, went for a run and had an aweseom taekwondo session, doing conditioning and weapons training. Tonight on Inside Out there's a feature on Sheffield Parkour and the Trace Gathering, and on ITV a program about Leeds Parkour that we filmed a couple of weeks ago. Should be interesting to see how it's turned out; the filming went very nicely, mainly just training as normal...but I guess we'll see tonight.

Moors and Mochas

2007-11-04T22:06:00.000Z

Today was lovely. Got up at a reasonable time, went for a run, froze my arse off etc... After spending some time with my aunt, I met up with Ali and later on, Gina. We did some jumping on the moors, a bit of "teaching", a lot of talking. My standing jump is getting better already. We went into Ilkley after for coffee and cake. Not exactly a 'traceur diet' but a great afternoon with friends. Then I ran to my nan's and had a nice evening with family. Tonight I've been enjoying new music, and bit of conditioning. It's the way to go.

How it is.

2007-10-31T17:12:00.001Z

Movement
Movement training is going well, recently I've noticed my confidence has improved a lot. I'm finding it much easier to just trust my judgement and rationalise movements that are new to me. Like railings and bollards aren't so scary anymore. I still fail at sticking jumps to them...but I'm practicing them a lot more.

Running
I'm running quite often now, most days just for a small loop around Ilkley. I can now run comfortably for about 30 minutes at a reasonable pace (and that includes hills!) It's quite an improvement in only a couple of weeks. I'd like to run the Great North Run next year...but it's a long way off yet. I trained as a sprinter when I was a bit younger, and used to really hate the training sessions where we'd do interval/endurance training. I've come to love training like that, in a strange 'hate it at the time' kind of way. And just running around the streets is actually quite enjoyable.

Conditioning
NEED to work on pullups. I can pullup...slowly. I'm working on getting the movement a lot faster, which will help my climbups/muscleups. Having done a lot of work on core strength recently, I'm now putting more time into lower body work, specifically more explosive movement.

Gymnastics
Now I'm back at the gym sessions in Bradford, and I've got plenty to be working on. Last night I practiced front tucks, which are improving, but I still need to make sure I jump up lots. And then Irene helped me with back handsprings and roundoffs. I'm hoping to be able to do decent back handsprings in the next couple of weeks.

Finally
I'm wearing in some new Kalenjis. A bit wierd after training in Feiyues for a few weeks, but who says I'll be wearing Feiyues if I need to use parkour practically...?

Manchester

2007-10-28T12:49:00.001Z

Manchester was lots of fun. Was there on Friday/Saturday; I trained, walked, and got very scared on the back of a bike with no brakes... There are some nice places to train in Manchester, I want to go again!

Charlie, Delta!

2007-10-19T20:54:00.000+01:00

I spent 4 days with the Yorkshire Regiment Recruitment Team, at the Quen Elizabeth Barracks in York. It was honestly some of the best days of my life. Very hard work at times, but it taught me a lot. The first day was a fitness test. I passed, with a time good enough to join the Infantry...if I wasn't a lass.
The following days we did lots of obstacle coursing, running, shooting, drill, living in the field, and ambush/recce techniques. It was all good, working in our sections. I won top female effort, which was a nice reward, just wish I could have stayed a bit longer.
Despite all this, I know the army isn't for me. I feel the need for a wider approach to life, not to restrict myself to one way of living and working and training.
Should have some photos in a couple of weeks. For now, here's one of the NCOs and the PT instructer who looked after us, trained us, and made us run far too many laps around the camp!

2007-10-07T20:19:00.001+01:00

It's all been a bit strange...I guess I wont be posting too much on here, 'til the new year at least. Just getting my head down and getting on with it. There've been a couple of tough days (like today) but mostly it's been okay. I'm doing more running training now, as my endurance is poor, but my training is different generally. I'm getting there.

Will be in the army the week after next, lots of early mornings and 'obstacle coursing'.

I'm getting more confident with rail work!

All for now.

2007-09-25T15:35:00.000+01:00

RIP
From Parkour.net:

"Im very sad to report another parkour related death, in mexico...tried to make a 10meters high jump and didnt make it...he was 26, just graduated as a chef and making his way through life like everyone else...
this is the third pk related death i know of..."

The thread is here.

23/09/07

2007-09-23T19:07:00.000+01:00

Since I last posted anything here...a lot has happened. I've said goodbye to a friend, read a book, been on a journey, gone back to school... Silly little things that mean a lot.
I said goodbye to Zayne, who moved to Belize; he is an awesome guy and we'll miss him loads. I remember some of the crazy stuff he used to do back in the day. I read a book which gave me a lot to consider about training and life in general. I went to London/Kent/Essex last weekend for a gym session in Erith, although I was slightly limited by my ankle, I had a lot of fun playing around with foot placement on vaults. I also trained in Harlow a bit, and climbed a school that my mum used to live right next to (though I didn't know it at the time!) And I'm back at school now. GCSEs this year, so I get a nice long summer holiday. Can't wait.
This weekend training has been really good. On Saturday some of the NEPK guys came down for the day, and it was a bit of a crazy day in Leeds, but not bad. Did a few little movements that I'm pleased with, but no real hard work. So when I got home, I trained in Ilkley, working on climbups, and running jumps/armjumps which I've always neglected a bit due to fear. It went really well, apart from a small bail which scratched me up a bit. Today i walked up to the Apostle Stones again, got a bit lost on the moors, and ended up walking a massive loop back into town. Wasn't bad, it's nice being up on the hills on my own.

29/08/07

2007-09-01T10:02:00.000+01:00

Wrote this on the train back from Leeds on Wednesday night:

Wheey...What a session! My forearms are burning but I'm happy. To be honest I didn't expect to do anything like what I dod tonight, 'twas good. We started off by walking straight past the art gallery to the church. Warmed up my ankles with lots of rotations ans did some low level quadrupedy - little jumps and turns, onto a step and back round. We played with vaulting technique over a wobbly rail and tried vaulting through the gap in the middle. (I crashed quite a lot!) Did some vaults up a set of stairs, trying to land as far from the to step as possible, some precision jumps, which are not as good as they used to be but I haven't been able to train them recently. Moved around some more, and went to the courts where there is a orange slopey wall. I did some wall spins, starting by taking a few steps in as normal, then just one jump, then from standing (failing at the latter). I worked on standing cat passes onto/over a wall with and without overgrip, with varying degrees of difficulty. Did running jumps onto the wall, running two fotted jumps onto the wall, and two footed jumps with a single jump in. Was all good training and fun. We climbed up the side of the bridge to cross the ring road to a small playpark in the estate, where I did one shoddy muscle up and played on the swings. In the estate itself, we did some standing cat pass precisions, and lazy palm spins on a railing. After a bit more training in the Uni, I decided to rest as I know my ankle is still a bit weak. We finished up at the LU halls of residence, traversing along a nice wall for climbing. All in all, loved this evening, and it's great to be able to train movements properly again.

2007-08-29T15:14:00.001+01:00

I'm just about to get the train to Leeds, for a bit of training. It'll be fairly laid back no doubt, after all the gym we did yesterday in Sheffield and Bradford. I'm getting there (very slowly) with backtucks, but I keep throwing myself backwards, rather than jumping up. I sort of know what I need to do, so hopefully it will come with practice. I had the same problem with my front tucks aswell, but I've pretty much got them now, just need to take them onto the floor and keep at it. A regular gym session we have on a Tuesday night will help so much, rather than just trying to learn things here and there as I used to. Ankle is doing great, so I'm happy. Gotta run. xxx

New Beginnings

2007-08-27T20:33:00.001+01:00

The name of the song I listen to right now, and I think it is relevant to how I’m feeling about parkour and training. The last two days have taken me back to how I felt when I began parkour, before I knew of the importance of conditioning, before I’d been serious enough to alter my lifestyle to help my training. At this stage, I progressed quickly, had lots of confidence to try things, and had so much fun because of it. Recently I’ve been finding it a lot harder to progress, mainly due to just not playing, not moving purely for the feeling of movement. Mostly when I’m training, I’ll be trying to improve in some way, whether it being a specific technique, or a way of moving. What I’ve realised, is that by doing this, I’ve been somewhat missing out on just enjoying the freedom to move. So new beginnings… The last two days I’ve been playing, training with totally new people, and having a great time. I’m love it, love being able to really move again after 6 weeks with a sprained ankle. A new sense of enjoying movement as I used to, coupled with the conditioning and better lifestyle I have now, is only good news for me. Sometimes I get frustrated because I progress more slowly than those I train with, but now I’ve realised that by continuing to move to the extent of my own abilities, rather than thinking about what I cannot do, I will become more confident with myself and what my body can do. I will still push myself; test myself, but perhaps in a different way to before. I’ve been very much inspired by two people I met today and yesterday, and without even realising it, they have opened my mind and showed me what it’s all about. Tomorrow I’ve got two gymnastics sessions to look forward to; lots of time to practice tricking and see what my mind and body can do.

I Can't

2007-08-27T20:12:00.000+01:00

It's easier to say "I can't" and give up, than to go on trying, and it's something I do far too much. I realised this whilst walking with Scott, so made it an aim to carry on trying in every situation where I would have normally given up. The first time I got the chance was last week when climbing in North Wales on Holy Island. I was about halfway up the mountain, and after being told the only way to continue up was by leaning away from the corner of the rock I was on, holding onto a crack and walking my feet up the rock, I got very scared. After having a bad experience climbing on a similar rockface three years ago, my trust in outdoor roped climbing isn't great, and I stayed still at this point for about 5 minutes. Part of me kept remembering what happened before, and told me to go back down, yet part of me remembered my promise to always keep trying. So I gritted my teeth, took a deep breath and leant back putting my weight on my arms. It was a very scary 30 seconds, but once I reached the top, I laughed. This is how it's meant to be.

Dales Way

2007-08-25T20:26:00.001+01:00

Over 6 days we walked 85 miles, camping and taking lots of photos along the way. We started at Ilkley, and finished at Windermere, and saw lots of different animals! (Like llamas!)

Day 1 - Ilkley to Appletreewick 12 miles

Easy walking along the Wharfe, a nice long break at Bolton Abbey for handstands(and photos). Strid wood, wierd sculptures, a sign that pointed us the wrong way and tremendously threatening rainclouds made the day.

Day 2 - Appletreewick to Kettlewell 12 miles
Went to Grassington for lunch, then across the hills and limestone scenery to Conistone Pie, followed by a drop down into Kettlewell.

Day 3 - Kettlewell to Cowgill 24 miles
A long day, a fair way along the river (via Buckden), a trek up a road, then a track, then a path, up to Cam Houses and Cam High Road, where the Dales Way crosses the Pennine Way. We almost ran down Cam High Road into the valley, only to almost turn back on ourselves up another hill. This last 5 miles was hard, only Scott telling me to carry on prevented me from stopping (Thankyou!).

Day 4 - Cowgill to Sedbergh 9 miles
An easy day, we met up with my family for a bit, ate lots, and generally took it easy. No photos from today.

Day 5 - Sedburgh to Burneside 17 miles
In the night it rained, and all morning it rained, so we were soaked for quite a bit of today. Saw some cool bridges though! Haha, it was today that I really started to feel my feet, blisters and all. Stopped for the night at Burneside Hall Farm, a great place, sleeping ina field with sheep and ducks...Lots of strange noises.

Day 6 - Burneside to Bowness to Windermere 12 miles
Woke up to the sounds of a farm, and packed up the tent whilst Scott paid our rent by shifting bails of hay from a lorry to a barn. We walked first along the river to Stavely for lunch, then over some hills (Amazing views!) to Bowness, the official end of the Dales Way. After sitting by Windermere for a while, we walked very quickly to Windermere to get the train back to Leeds, arriving at Leeds station at 9 in the evening.

Overall had an ace time, hard at times, but good fun and a good challenge. Lots of photos here.

Trace Gathering 07

2007-08-25T20:08:00.000+01:00

Most of the people reading this will have either been at the gathering or read about it already, but more for my sake than anyone elses, here is what it was all about.
On Tuesday August 31st, over 100 traceurs from across the UK and beyond made their way to the small village of Edale in the Peak District. People arrived throughout the day, and spent time putting up tents, having tugs of war and playing various games such as tig and bulldogs charge. We trained in the small but ace playpark that evening, before settling down for our first night.
8am the next morning and we were gathered at the entrance to the campsite, ready for a days training on the peaks and padley gorge. This day and the next were spent much in the same way, training on the rocks, jumping, climbing, squeezing through small gaps! On the Wednesday evening we watched a presentation about New Foundations, a charity for which atendees of the gathering raised a respectable amount of money. On the Friday morning before we left, there was a conditioning session in the playpark, just to make sure no-one left with too much energy...

For myself, training was limited, as my ankle was still quite weak, but I had an excelent time nonetheless. There are several videos out there, and loads of photos, the official video filmed by chris is great!

Smiling

2007-07-30T21:27:00.000+01:00

My two and a half weeks of ruralness starts tomorrow. I'll be camping and training in the peak district for the next 3/4 days, then I get home for 4 days, to be follwed by walking the Dales way with Scott and Ali. It's going to take us 5 days of walking, 84 miles in all, but we'll be training on rocks and in trees along the way. The last night when we arrive in Windermere there are no campsites that will take us so it will be rough camping on the hills (hopefully a great place to view the sunset!) Should be a good week, it'll be hard if it rains, and carrying a tent and food and water, but aren't traceurs supposed to love a challege? Heh, can't wait. And tomorrow I get to see lots of people, some who I've never met, some who I haven't seen in ages. I'm smiling. Hope you are! Over these 2 trips I'm hoping to take lots of pictures for a sort of photo diary when I get back.

My ankle still isn't right, although the mobility has improved loads and I can walk fine, there is still bruising and I can't take any impact without some pain. It's rubbish.

Will be back with photos! xHollie

Update....

2007-07-20T09:15:00.000+01:00

I'm writing this at school, it's the last day and I'm in an ICT lesson, browsing parkour sites mainly...Thought I could do a quick update here. My ankle is improving, but slowly. The swelling has almost completely gone, but the bruising is actually getting worse. The last couple of days it's been much more painful, even when I'm not walking on it, but I'm hoping it's just 'cause it's healing. Hopefully I'll be seeing a physio in a couple of days about it.

Got a ceilidh tomorrow night, which is always a laugh, but tomorrow I think it'll be a day of conditioning. After today I have 46 days of freedom!

Georgia says :
hello! im sat next to hollie and i would like to say hi =] umm yeah so hi

xHollie

Ouch...

2007-07-16T15:01:00.000+01:00

The Past
Last weekend wasn't the best for me; I did the usual training, as I did during the week, but nothing worth remembering. On the Sunday I went up onto the moors barefoot which I loved, and found surprisingly easy. Just after we'd found the others it started to rain, so we hid under rocks for a while, then played a game of catch with a football sized rock. Also played on the rope swing and climbed some trees; it was a good day. The gymnastics sessions are going well and the coach is so helpful, so I'm learning lots. Last week was busy, with coursework deadlines and end of term stuff to sort out, but I am very happy, as today I handed in the last piece of English coursework I will ever have to do! On Saturday a group of us from Leeds went to Liverpool for the Hub Festival. Was a really good day, and Ben has written a little review on WWJ (bless him). bad stuff though, I sprained my ankle quite badly doing a jump from a tree to a rock, I had to turn around in the air, so was focusing on the control more than my foot placement. Its painful, and very bruised, but I have got some exercises to start doing in a day or two, and have been putting lots of ice on it etc. I'm hoping it will be fine for the Peaks trip... On the good side, I now have time to work on upper body strength, and to catch up on a load of schoolwork before the holidays, which has been somewhat neglected recently.

The Future
This week coming I'm going to be taking it very easy. Last week at school though, so I'm going to try to be there tomorrow, Thursday and Friday morning if possible. In a couple of weeks time I'm supposed to be doing a seminar with Roy Wilkinson, one of the most senoir practitioners of Ninjutsu outside of Japan, so again, I hope Im okay for it. The week after is the peaks trip. I'll keep this updated with how it's going.

xHollie

2007-07-01T21:19:00.000+01:00

A fair bit has happened since before... The demo/workshop in Ossett went really well. Getting to play around all day on scaffolding made by the Leeds traceurs was great, and as the whole day was for charity, even better. It actually stayed sunny all day aswell, despite forcast rain. On the Sunday, Scott, Pete, Ali and myself did some interviews for a student doing her MSc in Youth Work and Community Development, who was writing about 'Young people's decision making in relation to Parkour and free-running as a leisure pursuit'. Then we did conditioning and traversing for the afternoon. Last week was training as normal, and this weekend I've been training in Leeds, albeit with less progression than the last couple of weeks. On Tuesday I'm gonna be training in Bradford for the first time since I met the Leeds lads; I'm wondering what things will look like now... And afterwards I'm doing a gym session yays! Oh and last week I passed my 9th kyu in Ninjitsu, the first step on a long path, and my green belt grading in taekwondo. All for now. x

I'm finding my wings, the sky's the limit, time to fly.

2007-06-18T21:24:00.000+01:00

So a lot has happened since my last post. Went to lisses, as planned, had a great time. Went on a bit of an adventure trying to find where we were going, after going to the wrong Evry. But we got there, between my French understanding and Liv's speaking. Go us! Did a bit of balance when we arrived, but nowt much. On the Friday we slept in nice and late, then climbed trees for a while. Did a tree/rock challenge, which was...well, challenging. In the evening we did a conditioning session, but after getting stressed and subsequently falling from a staircase I hurt my wrists, so it was all lover body work for me. On the Saturday, off to Evry where I did a lot of work on standing jumps up onto and off of height, trying to improve confidence, technique...Thanks a lot to Thomas, I really needed the help I was given. The evening was fun, a barbeque at Jonathan's, some hillarious moments watching people's actions but not understanding the language. Sunday we went to Fontaine Bleu. We did climbing, jumping, and generally moving about on the rocks. I did two jumps which I was very pleased with, cos they were high, and I wasn't put off by fear. And Monday Guardian took us to Evry for shopping and sushi - a match made in heaven. We trained at the secondary school that day, in the pouring rain, lots of conditioning. All in all I had an awesome time, and although I've written here what I did, I can't really explain what I learned, or what made it such a good experience.

There are a few pics on Liv's blog - thanks to Silex for taking lots!

Since I've got back I've just been putting a lot more into conditioning. On Friday night I decided that in Leeds the next day I would do two arm jumps. One which is quite big, and another which isn't, but has scared me for a long, long time. And I took time over both, but did both, 3 times each. I felt for the first time in a long while that I was more in control, of my fear, of my body and of my movements. It's a big step forward, and a great feeling. I'm happy.

This weekend is gonna be a busy one - and I can't wait.

Mavericks - Elite Training Squad

2007-06-05T21:35:00.000+01:00

Has been a while. Really can't be bothered to write much. Saturday I got back from Cornwall, exhausted after 5 days of Kelly O'Toole's video coaching sessions. Basically involved a lot of surfing, and then "review and analysis" watching what he'd filmed of us afterwards. As well as that I did some good fun body-boarding, which turned out hilarious, kayaking 8 miles up the camel estuary, cycling the trail to padstow and back and lots more fun and laughs. Tiring but awesome. This last few days I've been doing conditioning, jumping (literally), fighting, and ridiculous amounts of school work, set by concerned teachers who think that a five day trip to lisses might ruin my chances of passing any GCSEs. Pah. Got a 178 page manual to read for PICAXE programming editor, an essay on 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', maths cwk, a project on Media and Technology....the list goes on... Oh, also found out my taekwondo grading is on the 30th. =]

My life in a nutshell. (metaphorically speaking.)

Peace and goodwill to all women. And most men. xxx

This Week.

2007-05-20T12:43:00.000+01:00

My parkour training this week has been almost entirely conditioning and cardio work. It’s going well, and I've been putting loads of work into handstands... I noticed though that when I do them I have a very arched back, unlike most people, but it works for me, so I think its okay. For martial arts, I'm training 3 times a week at the moment, in Taekwondo and Bujinkan Budo Taijitsu. I have gradings coming up next month, which I feel I'm well ready for, although I will be missing quite a few sessions over the next few weeks. This week I've had lots of exams, got two more tomorrow, then I've no more for this year. Got one week at school, then on Saturday I'm off surfing in Cornwall for a week. The week I get back I'm going to Lisses for five days, so can't wait! Lots on at the moment.

The Tree Challenge

2007-05-14T21:19:00.000+01:00

Spent this evening conditioning under 'scattered showers'... Did upper body work; handstands, pushups, pullups, and lots of quadrupedy. Found an old tree with partially unearthed roots, the challenge was to get all the way around the tree standing only on the roots, and using the trunk of the tree to hold onto with my hands (no branches). Was fairly difficult, and got harder as I gradually stopped myself from using some of the more obvious foot placements. By the time I finished my feet were quite sore, but it's all good conditioning and toughens up the skin.

A Freeing.

2007-05-13T19:30:00.000+01:00

Not much really needs to be said, but yesterday evening was a freeing from everyday life. Ali and I went up to the 12 apostle stones on Ilkley Moor; we took a somewhat roundabout route there, through lots of heather, grass and bogs, and headed back just dark was falling on the valley. Got very very wet (it rained, a lot!) and fairly muddy. But I haven't had such a good time in a fair while.

Just to feel the wind and the rain...

2007-05-07T20:22:00.000+01:00

Dunno why I haven't updated particularly recently, guess I just haven't felt the need. I've been keeping off the computer more than usual over the last couple of weeks, apart from today cos I was working.

Life is going well. I like the summer, or at least the promised approach of it. Makes me almost as happy as pineapple.
Off surfing in just under 3 weeks, should be good. I love surfing!
Got loads of stuff on in the next few weeks until then, so training in Leeds will be non-existant. Will use the time to work on conditioning/endurance and small technical stuff.
Martial Arts are going well, have missed/will miss a couple of gradings, but that doesn't stop me learning loads.
I'm training for the Leeds Half Marathon with my Dad; I can't run in it for 2 years cos of age limits, but I'm making sure my Dad does. Heh. With that my endurance is improving.
Been trying to focus on one thing each week, just spend a bit of extra time practicing something which I feel I've neglected. So far I've worked on flickups, rail work and tic-tacs. Will put in a bit of work on my running jumps/arm jumps in the next couple of weeks.
On Saturday I did a breakdance class, which was good fun. Did some good trainng as well, quite a bit of conditioning stuff including climbups (which are getting much more consistant) and muscle ups (of which I did 4 in a relatively short space of time). Yays.
Sunday I went swimming, and Scott and I went up on the moors.
Today I rested and sat down to do some proper "worth doing" revision for the first time in my life.
Number #10... Right now I feel like standing on the very top of Ilkley moor in a thunderstorm. Just to feel the wind and the rain and be truly alive and alone.

Used to be you could be sure that a warrior was true...

2007-04-15T19:32:00.000+01:00

As I expected, I spent the first week of the holidays seeing people, eating badly, and generally not doing very much training. Heh, had a good time, and it's Easter after all. During my week in Kent, I trained twice in London (although one of the days I wasn't really training) and also in Canterbury and Rochford. Pushed myself in some areas, and found new strengths and weaknesses in others. My confidence has improved loads recently, and I feel I'm progressing quite fast because of it. Makes me happy. Came back with some new ideas for training as well, so for the next couple of months I'm going to really try and push myself. Thanks to the people who met up and trained with me, showed me the ares etc., had a really cool time. Peace.

And Happy Birthday Dizzy!

Learn To Fly.

2007-04-01T20:12:00.000+01:00

It's Sunday night...Sunday evening I s'pose. Whatever it is, it's dark. I'm bored, and a bit cold, so I felt like writing something here. There's lots to say, most of which isn't compatible with words. So never mind all that.

Didn't do much movement training last week, it was basically just conditioning and martial arts. Any training is good training though I guess. Being a bit nackered after returning from France with not much sleep, my taekwondo training on Tuesday was a bit of a mental effort, but I had a great time on Thursday, doing self defence and sparring. Friday night was also really good, we did some weapons training and lots of repetition and rolling, which is good for me. Saturday involved about 5 hours in Leeds; less than usual, but I got drilling some stuff and had a good time. Had a few rather poor attempts at running front tucks, to put it simply I'm just not jumping up enough. I'll practice in Ilkley this week, see what I can do. Wasn't the best training session I've ever had, but hey, thats life.

Today was my Mum's birthday, so we went out, and I ate waaaaaaaay to much. Went for a run this afternoon, only a couple of miles, and ended up climbing trees and sitting at the top listening to the Fratellis.

Thats my life, I'll be seeing friends and training this week til Friday. Then I'm off down South.

Love y'all!
xxxx

Just a note.

2007-03-27T20:55:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to say that I'm still alive. Had a wonderful time in France, and right now I'm happy, and calm. Just waiting. Did some conditioning and barefoot training tonight which was good, I want to build up the barefoot stuff slowly through the summer.

Being away performing and the like reminded me what music actually meant to me, and I think from now on I'll be putting a bit more time into my playing, both in preparation for future concerts/festivals, and just cos I love it. It's not going to affect my training, as theres always going to be times when I have to rest, and I might as well make the most of this time.

It's like with parkour/climbing/martial arts training, getting better at doing what I love, with the people I love. In case anyone from Roots is reading this, I just want you to know how great you guys are, Robin especially.

Today.

2007-03-18T16:37:00.000Z

Today I went walking; it was meant to snow, and it did, but was the craziest weather I've seen in a long time. As we set off, it was windy and fairly cold, but very bright and sunny. Walked up the hill and it was getting more and more windy. You could see from over the other side of the valley a big dark cloud heading towards us, sheets of rain coming down over the distant hills. I was nearly at the top, and I decided I'd be able to get to some sort of shelter before the rain hit, as it was still moving slowly across the valley. Less than a minute later, I felt the first pieces of hail hit the side of my face. I opened my bag and stopped for a moment to put on my jacket, and in the moments that followed, the weather turned, and I found myself in the middle of a hail storm, unable to see anything at all. I half ran, half crawled to the side of the mound where my brother and his mates were sat sheltering, and curled up, waiting for the storm to cease.

Stuffs.

2007-03-17T18:47:00.000Z

Erm, this last week has been great, got loads of training done etc, etc. Did some good cardio work and general [creative] movement training which has been very fun!

Today - Leeds - got some good stuff sorted. Started off just moving about the art gallery, then attempted a bit of tricking. Did some buildering; haven't done any in ages, and I also managed a muscle up outside! One of my targets! It wasn't too hard as such, but slow and messy so I need to keep practicing. Later on I scraped my wrist :( doing an arm jump from a bollard to a wall with some kind of crazy overgrip, but I did it and I couldn't before so all is good. We finished off at a childrens' play park doing small movements and underbars and all sorts. Got a bit filmed...all in all has been a good day.

Am off walking tomorrow, will be training as usual on Monday/Tuesday, but on Wednesday I'm off to France until Sunday so wont be around.

That's my life.

xHollie

A few things I should mention.

2007-03-06T17:36:00.000Z

First is Ed's parkour and tricking video, which I love cos it has cool music. Oh and the parkour/tricking isn't too bad either... Also it's his 16th on Sunday, so happy birthday for then!

Secondly I'll be staying in kent at Easter, for just over a week (I think!) Won't be around every day, but there will be quite a few days between the 6th and the 13th when I'll be training in London, or if anyone is up for showing me some other areas around Kent that'd be awesome. If anyone is around and can train in London or wherever, please let me know?

xHollie xxxxx

6 Months

2007-03-04T21:15:00.000Z

Just over half a year ago I started writing this blog. So much has changed since then, it's unbelievable. I could write about what's different and all that, but to be honest I've got better things to do. (Sleep!)

I'm hoping that although I have progressed a lot in the last six months, in that much time from now I will have progressed even more again. I'm training better, eating better, getting more sleep, and overall my lifestyle has improved loads. I've got 10 aims for the next 6 months:

1. 10 consecutive pullups from a dead hang.
2. Muscle ups on scaffolding/solid bars, rather than the bouncy gym ones.
3. Half blue belt in taekwondo.
4. To be comfortable with lead climbing.
5. To have significantly improved flexibility and control.
6. Try and start a regular 'hell night' in Leeds.
7. Do a middle distance run (5-10km) or swim (1-2km) once a week.
8. Reach a level where I feel I am able to work on similar movements (technically) to the lads I train with.
9. Learn a bit of tricking and get over some of my confidence issues.
10. To learn to 'move more efficiently'. (In the famous words of Mart.)

I don't know if I will reach all these targets, but I know it is well within my cpabilities to do so. I will train as hard as ever this summer, and in August, when I will have been training for just under 2 years, I will try to make a short video showing my training and achivements over the summer.

Much love to everyone! xHollie x x x

Long story

2007-02-19T19:35:00.000Z

It’s Monday night, and after 10 days of being the best I can, I’m feeling better than I have done in a long time. I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would, about myself, my life, my training, what matters to me and what I need to do if I want to be truly free from the expectations of society and those around me. I kept a bit of a log in my ‘big red book’; I’ll post up some little bits that I wrote each day about how I felt and suchlike.

Day 1 – Saturday 10^th

“Today I got up, and saw the weather was still horrible! There was snow everywhere, but the slushy, brown, half-melted kind. I thought it would be best to stay at home and do conditioning, as I wouldn’t get anything done if I went into Leeds to meet the few people who’d braved the snow and rain. However after a few very persuasive phone calls I decided to go and join the guys to do some conditioning with them in town. Met them at the covered spot, and worked on running, jumping and balancing technique, and then did all the same again but barefoot. We did loads of conditioning challenges, which are quite fun in a group, apart from the ladder pull-ups which I couldn’t do! We were using two parallel bars, one hand on each (obviously) and I found it so much harder than just using a normal bar. But I practiced as much as I could, and did hanging leg raises and L-sits. When I got home, I wrote up that last post, and practiced handstands before getting an early night.”

Day 2 – Sunday 11^th

Sunday I spent doing cardio and flexibility work.

Day 3 – Monday 12^th

I did some core/lower body conditioning, and went training in Leeds, working on climbups, precision jumps and landings (onto slippery surfaces), vertical jumps, and getting distance out of a cat pass.

Day 4 – Tuesday 13^th

“I’m getting so much more done just by not spending time on msn and internet forums. I don’t know if I should just stop using them completely. Though I’m a mod on WWJ, so that would mean giving it up, and I’m not sure I want to do that. I enjoy the community feeling, and what I can learn from and give to the other members… I’ve got time to think about it anyway. Oh and the gym and taekwondo were ace!”

Hate to make lists and such, but with the gym session being back last Tuesday, I’ve forgotten the details… The significant things I remember from the gym session are:

- A cat-precision, which scared me tons, but I did it!

- Lots of control work with the lovely Shane. :-p

- Practicing dash vaults and simply jumping over obstacles.

- Balancing on a wobbly, bendy beam.

- Handstands.

- That upside-down rail dismount thing that Scott taught me.

Day 5 – Wednesday 14^th * Valentines Day *

“Ooooooooh! Today was coolness! After spending the last four days training fairly hard, it was time for a well-earned rest day. I spent the morning pottering around, cleaning up my little bit of space in the house and generally taking it easy. I read a book about Tai Chi, and tried some of the fundamental movements. It was really relaxing and helped me loosen off a bit after yesterday’s gym training. Will definitely continue to learn what I can, would nice to find someone who knows it though to speak to… In the afternoon I went into town to meet Ali. Did a very small amount of moving about the art gallery (I couldn’t resist; the weather was lovely for once!) but generally sat back and watched Ali train whilst thinking about the week so far. I’ve decided that the best thing to do for now will be to keep off msn and internet forums during the week, when I have minimal training time, and only use them at the weekends, when I’ve done all my training or whatever, to catch up with the online parkour world. Anyhow, today was a magical valentines day for me for many reasons. Love to everyone! xxxxxxxxxxxx”

Day 6 – Thursday 15^th

I did upper body conditioning, a bit of flexibility work, and some technical training in after I met Tom in Leeds.

Day 7 – Friday 16^th

“We took it easy today, really easy. Did a ninjitsu class in the evening which was really good fun, and hopefully once the next couple of weeks are out of the way I’ll be able to start going regularly.”

Day 8 – Saturday 17^th

“Trainings in Leeds with the lads. Lovely weather, unlike yesterday. Practiced passe murailles, cat passes, vaulting in general with total ambidexterity. =] Lots of climbups which are improving LOADS, a couple of scary arm jumps, one which was to a pillar; I’ve been wanting to do it for ages. Did some work on tic-tacs, which I never do, and lots more handstand practice. Oh and more lachés, of course! So yeah, today was awesome.”

Day 9 – Sunday 18^th

“Went swimming [FREE for half-term*YAY*] and did 1k in just under 30 mins. Much slower than I’ve done before, but not bad considering my achy arms from yesterday, and my general incompetence when it comes to swimming. After coming home to chill out for an hour or two, I put my head down and got to work for a couple of hours on an RE project that was due in weeks ago. I found some juggling balls in a dusty box on a bookshelf, and having seen Scott and Ben.W.M. juggling yesterday, I decided to have a go. I learned once, ages ago, and subsequently forgot, as you do. Will take a bit of practice, but hopefully I should be able to juggle again soon! Finished the afternoon in a totally relaxed way, learning the second movement of the Tai Chi sequence I’m doing.”

Day 10 – Monday 19^th

Today I did a lovely core/lower body conditioning session, practiced jumping over walls briefly, did a bit of Tai Chi and juggling, and met the girls for a drink and a gossip! Was great.

To be honest, I don’t really know what to say about this week. I’ve learned loads, but it’s not the kind of thing I can put into words. I’ll keep my head down, and train as best I can. Will keep updating the blog, with my thoughts and feelings. Good luck to every traceur reading this, good luck with training, with life, and if you haven’t already, I hope that with parkour you will find who you are and the person you can be.

You have the grace to hold yourself, when those around you fall.

2007-02-10T19:50:00.001Z

WWJ Post

A Special Week

From my week back in November, some things stuck with me, others slipped, and like I said above on WWJ, there is so much more I know I can put in. This week being half term, I have no distractions. A full ten days of living and being as close to a true traceur as I can. I think I'll write up bits as I go on paper, and post it all up next Monday (when I finish). During this time I will not use msn or internet forums. Haha, it will be a challenge, all of it, but I know I can do it. It will be a test of self discipline as much as anything else. Maybe I will have a chance to learn a bit about myself and my direction. From Thursday until Saturday, a friend from Oxford will be coming to stay to learn a bit about Parkour and where to start. I will do my best to show him what I know of all aspects of the discipline, and introduce him to my 'way of life'. As I said, I wont be around in the online world, but I'll still be here if you need me!

I started this morning, and haven't had time to post this up until tonight, but until next Monday night I will do my upmost best to be the person I know I can be.

Feiyues

2007-02-04T18:56:00.000Z

*big smile*

Had a great weekends training, out doing parkour movements on Saturday and climbing today. Saturday started off fairly slowly as usual, but we made our way across to the estate by the swimming pool and I practiced:
arm jumps - getting better!
climbups - two handed of course
passe murailles
a bit of cat balancing
negatives - tricky, spesh when I do them really slow!

Then the guys wandered off somewhere (I was lost!) so Helena, Kate and I went back into town to meet Ali and Scott. Did some more of the usual stuff at the art gallery, and we went to the uni for most of the afternoon. Did a fair bit of training on the scaffolding, where I improved my laches immensely and ripped up both my hands a bit. On the way to the playhouse we passed the 'big orange flowerbed place' where I did the cat precision again a few times as promised.

Today we went climbing at Leeds wall, and without going into too much detail, I did some fairly challenging routes for my ability, both straight and overhanging. Was really good, but I'm nackered now, and need a good rest, so I'll probs do some gentle movement/creativity training tomorrow.

A shiney new pair of feiyues arrived in the post yesterday, from a mr joseph deally, so thanks! I hope that I'll be improving my touch and landings hugely over the next few weeks. There's been loads of discussion about using these thin soled shoes for parkour, but I think I've got to the stage where I'd gain a lot from having to focus on touch and control.

Hmm... Thats about it I think. Oh, anyone in Cambridge who'd be able to put up me and Scott for a few nights at the beginning of half term, please contact me! Thanks! xHollie

Progression.

2007-02-01T20:15:00.000Z

Okay, I'm tired and have much to do so this will be short and sweet. Might add some more tomorrow if I've got time. Went out training in Leeds last night with Scott, after an afternoon of ice-skating. It was really warm and I got some good stuff done. Started with passe murailles at the art gallery, which are improving and becoming much faster and easier. After moaning about always being scared of the red rails, I found myself able to vault them fairly quickly and confidently, and I did a fairly dast two handed climbup which made me happy. I've improved my jumping technique considerably, and can now jump just under 8ft for a standing precision. I overcame (to some extent) my fear of laches, and did a few much to my surprise. Also did a running arm jump up and over some steps which was ridiculously easy but so scary until I did it, something I'd have never thought I could do before. Basicly, I'm getting to the point where I'm showing myself what I can physically do, rather than what my mind will let me. There's still a long way to go, but I'm definitly starting to overcome some of my irrational fears, and lack of trust in my own ability. Overall I'm very happy with training atm.

Hollie.

Continuation

2007-01-30T17:29:00.000Z

Eeeeh dear, just realised how much has happened since the last blog update, and how much of it I'll have forgotten... Okay, so I left off on Tuesday, at school. To be honest, Thursday and Friday I spent mainly just sleeping. I needed a rest and it did me good, 2 nights of about 14 hours sleep and by Friday evening I was up and ready to go! So I did a bit of conditioning, but prioritiesd the party. Which was awesome (thanks Molly!)

Saturday was off to train in Leeds again, it was really warm in the morning, so I just did some training at the Art Gallery as usual, moving, doing flickups and vaults... The guys wandered off towards the courts, where there was an arm jump to a pillar that I've never seen before. I did it from a level (it was from steps) that I was easily capable of, yet something I'd never have done a few months back. I could have done it from the next step up easily, so I'll aim to do that when training tomorrow or Saturday. Then we went to an estate just over the road where I practiced various passe murailles/climbups. Then, as usual it was back to the art gallery to meet Ali and Scott. Did a bit more training there, it really is the best, and off to the armouries via a big flowerbed. The big flowerbed is, well, big. The lads were doing cat precisions over it, and I didn't think I'd be able to, but with a bit of friendly encouragement I had a go and realised I could cat pass up onto it fairly easily. I tried the cat precision several times, each time making it onto the other side with one foot. As I was just about to go for it again, someone said something which annoyed me immensly, and this little bit of anger made me really put power into what I was doing and I made it! So next time I'll train that 'til I can do it every time. At the armouries I did some standing arm jumps, and a bit of vaulting on my own, looking and different angles/speeds/takeoffs etc.

On Sunday I couldn't go to Cas because I had huge amounts of work to do. But I got it done, so all is good.

And last night I ran to the 'Bluebell Woods' in Ilkley, explored a bit, did a bit of training, then ran back into town to buy food! As it was still light, I went out and trained precisions and running jumps; I'm told my technique is awful, but thanks to Ben and his tips I think I'm improving lots. By the time I finished this it was totally dark and I couldn't see a thing, so I ran home for good food. :) Did lots of upper body conditioning, and slept.

Today it's freezing! And i have quite a bit of work to do, so I'm going to do some conditioning and taekwondo but not train outside.
Ahhhh life is good.

xHollie

Some pics from the summer. When I wasn't as good as I am now.

2007-01-28T18:51:00.000Z

Back in the summer, I learnt a lot in a few evening sessions in Leeds. Found these pics and they made me smile...

No school = extra work :(

2007-01-24T11:55:00.000Z

On Saturday I met Jamie and the kaox lads for a bit, then after going back down into town to meet Ali and Scott, we trained at the art gallery for a bit, doing some work on precisions and climbups. I'm nearly there with two armed climbups on the wall at the art gallery. I'm usually ok with them on grippier walls, and at the art gallery I can do the pull up and transition but always struggle with the last part. So I'm going to keep practicing those. Then it rained, so once again we found ourselves for the most part of the day training at the covered spot. Did more work on ambidexterity and confidence in vaulting, I'm getting better! And faster! We did a mission around the spot which was fun, and then did loads of work on balance. Scott teaching Jamie, me teaching Ali. I think we got somewhere, and its all good practice. Did some small underbar variations and a bit of precision/control work, then off back to Keighley for a bit of training in Ali's garden and lots of stretching.

Sunday invloved a fantastic trip to Horbury. It rained, so much; we didn't stay for long, and after warming up back in LUU I looked around the shops for some new trousers. XD

On Monday I went shopping, did about an hours flexibility work and a fairly intensive lower body conditioning session. Tuesday was fairly uneventful; I had to go into school to pick up a load of work to be getting on with, which I've been doing all morning, grrr. Had a really cool basketball tournament though. And today I've been working all morning. I'm going to go get chicken and other good foods, work some more, and have lots of training time this evening and tomorrow.

Ambidexterity

2007-01-19T14:12:00.001Z

Saturday, I went and trained in Leeds as planned, and spent the first hour or so doing my own thing, mainly vaulting but focusing on confidence and going for harder movements. It was cool, I'm definitely getting more confident with my abilities, and during this week I've noticed it even more. I stuck with the guys for a bit after that, did general movement training, but my hand was still trying to heal, so I took it fairly easy. Got to the uni, the lads started tricking, so I wandered off and practiced a few passe murailles and climbups on my own. Found Scott, and we trained pretty much in silence for about an hour, again I was working on my confidence with vaults (mainly getting more speed into them). After meeting some of the others we headed back down to the art gallery for an *interesting* game of tig, with a load of people I've never seen before. Good stuff, but way too many people sitting around. Me, Jamie, Scott and Declan went down to the scaffolding where we did mainly pullups and the guys did some muscle ups. We were doing a '100 pullup challenge' - I got to 10 before I had to sprint off back to the station for my train. At home, I continued the challenge, making it to 56! Yay! Also did a load of other conditioning (100 pushups/situps etc.) in sets of 20.

Sunday I went out cycling with my mum, we made it to Bolton Abbey, but just as we started to head back, her bike went kaput, so we walked the 5 miles back along the river... Lovely day, and very relaxing :P

Monday, I spent about 90 minutes doing balance work. Most of the time was spent cat balancing up a very slippy rail near my house, then did a bit of 'standing and walking' in the words of Andi. After this I spent about an hour just moving around this one rail in the rain, going round it, over it, using different movements and different directions. Finished off by doing conditioning at home.

Tuesday afternoon I went into Leeds to train with Scott and Ali; I was full of energy. Did some work on flickups, and can now do them relatively comfortably to the side, and straight up when I really focus. Also did a fairly good catpass over the red rail at the art gallery, which I guess kinda surprised me, because up until now I've never had the confidence to go for it properly. Did some precisions, and once again proved to myself that when I really try I can actually jump further than I think. Need to keep working on flickups and ambidexterity, something Scott showed me the importance of whilst training.

Wednesday I rested, generally had an easy evening.

Thursday morning a bit of the roof blew off my school, so I got the afternoon and Friday off school. I trained movements and ambidexterity like I'd hoped and had lots of fun in the park. Taekwondo was unusually tiring, but I signed up for a Ninjitsu taster session, which sounds like fun. Did a load of core conditioning, which is always hard for me, but I feel great for doing it.

Today I did some more movements training, went for a quick run, and found my brother and his mates playing in the woods by the river, so I joined them for a bit, running, jumping, vaulting, swinging and climbing. This afternoon I'll be doing some flexibility stuff, and I'm off out with family :)

All is good. Looking forward to the weekend.
xHollie-Al

Coleman's

2007-01-12T20:18:00.000Z

Stuck for a title. So it's Coleman's, the name of the song I'm listning to right now. As aforementioned, this week I've pretty much left the technique work, and focused mainly on aerobic exercise. Tuesday night at taekwondo we did a killer conditioning session, mainly lower body, which was just what I needed. Its all good, and involved 7 and a half minutes in a sitting stance against a wall, didn't quite make it to the 8 minute mark. And I'd spent the afternoon training precision, running jumps and control on the astroturf at school, so I was already fairly tired (meant to be playing football, but the teacher didn't mind)... Wednesday I rested, Thursday again I did some endurance work, taekwondo and a bit of conditioning. Tonight I went for a run (bout 4k) and conditioning. Tomorrow I'm going to take the oppertunity to do a decent days training in Leeds on my own, working on confidence and judgement. I'm going to work really hard in the morning, and probs come home fairly early, it's meant to rain later anyway, I can run home in the rain. :P I'll update tomorrow night, hopefully with a few pics. So I'm off now to get my stuff sorted for tomorrow.

Ooooh and linkage to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a cool story about the one who dares to be different, to seek self improvement and progression.

All for now. xHollie xxx

Wednesday til now.

2007-01-09T17:46:00.000Z

Tuesday 9th Jan
Thats today. This week I'm taking it easy with technique training, and focusing on endurance work. Partly because i want my hand to heal as quickly as possible, and partly because my enurance could be improved by a lot. And all the rain makes technique trianing quite nasty, specially in Ilkley in the dark. So I did another little run, and I'm off to taekwondo in a bit, can't wait as I haven't been in ages. Feeling quite negative about school at the moment, fed up of it all to be honest, but the summer is on its way, and summer means fun. :D
Monday 8th Jan
Monday I went for a very quick jog, and did some tabata training, thanks to Ben for the explanation. I did 8 rounds of: 20 seconds max effort, followed by 10 seconds res, so all in all it takes 4 minutes. Good stuffs, and I did sprinting, which I love. Sprinting = much adreneline, until I get tired, when it just equals lots of hard work.
Sunday 7th Jan
Me and Ali went climbing in Sheffield with Sam and his Dad (and siblings). Had a really good day, learned a lot, although towards the end Ali fell whilst lead climbing. He had quite a way to fall before the rope took his weight, and I didn't lock it back quick enough, resulting in some rope burn and a bit of a shock to us both. But we're okay, and definitely learned a lesson form the experience.
Saturday 6th Jan
I moved around a bit in the rain, not training anything, just enjoying the movement, and seeing how much I'd progressed this winter. In the afternoon I went to see Casino Royale with my family *YAY*
Friday 5th Jan
I didn't do a huge amount on Friday, just some vaulting, and a bit of work with comfidence on rails. Because me + railings = fear. I got comfortable with cat passing a rail, split foot, and I was even diving into it a bit, so keeping up my speed. I trained this for a bit, slipped once, which scared me quite a bit, but overall was good.
Thursday 4th Jan
Thursday, I went for a run, basicly to the other end of Ben Rhydding (village next to mine) and back. Its about a mile there, up a little hill, and a mile back. Not too bad, and there's something relaxing about running in the dark and the wind... Got back to my area, and did some work on precisions and running jumps, as well as a bit of balance, and some flexibility work.
Wednesday 3rd Jan
Wednesday was a nice day of rest after the gym sesh. I did some conditioning, mainly leg work, because as I'm training more, I'm obviously taking more impact, and up til now I've done very little conditioning for my legs.

Later

2007-01-07T22:14:00.000Z

Will write up for this week/weekend tomorrow (Monday). I'm nackered now and my hand hurts, but had a great weekend. XD

F***ing Spiders! Gym sesh. (+muscleups!)

2007-01-03T19:32:00.000Z

So after waiting at Leeds Station for a few minutes, Scott ran in to join us and we all got the train to Sheffield. Journey was a bit longer, due to 'signal failure' but we arrived with plenty of time, and just before 12 Maria arrived to open up the gym. Was quite cold to begin with, but we soon got going and I got a fair bit done to be pleased with. Did some backs and piked fronts into the foam pit, and some running fronts, which I did my best to try and control, but found it quite hard... Did a few laches and some other stuff, then we set up some boxes for vault combinations. The first was a relatively small cat precision. It was within my physical ability, but I found it really hard to commit to, and over and over again found myself landing it one footed. With a bit of mental encouragement and motivation, I eventually commited to it and landed on the edge of the box with both feet, just to bounce back off again. Didn't have a chance to try again, but I know next time I would do it with a split-foot take off (the box was fairly high so I wasn't very confident), and could get the bit of extra distance that I needed. After this I practiced split-foots over higher obstacles, and found them just as easy as jumping ones; this gave me the confidence I needed to use them over anything I could vault by jumping into.

The box was then moved round to set up a vault to arm jump combination. We started off with a very small one, so small that I pretty much crashed into the wall through putting too much effort into it. It was gradually moved back, and I kept up with the lads for a bit, after which I couldn't get the distance out of my vaults, not sure if I can improve this with technique or power or both. As the box got moved further back, we moved onto some standing arm jumps which again I was pleased with. Its annoying though, because I proved to myself that I can physically (and very easily) do arm jumps which I find mentally very challenging outside.

So I was swinging around on the bars, like you do, doing some pullups (yes I can happily do a few in a row now) and got to the point where I thought I could do a muscle up. So I did! It was slow, and not particularly neat, but I did it, and two more later in the afternoon. Its definitly an achivement for me, but I know I'll have to put in a lot of work to get them up to scratch. Overall the four hour gym sesh was a success, hopefully I will be able to build on everything I did when I train outside.

After the gym session, most of the guys went to KFC (!!!!) and me, Ali and Orlando trekked up through Sheffiled to 'The Foundry' climbing centre. Took us long enough to get there; we had to get directions off the man who didn't seem to like spiders, but thanks to him we pretty much found our way there. Got a harness *YAY* which I got to try out on the wall, and then back to the station to make the journey home. There was something else really really good bout the day but it's a secret!

Today I had a nice long rest, got about 14 hours sleep and generally just relaxed. Back at school tomorrow, so I'm aiming to keep up with the training I did over the holidays, and hopefully try out a 'Tabata' session. I was planning on doing it today, but I realised that I would gain nothing from doing it whilst really tired, so I'll probably do it on saturday morning before I train in Leeds. Sunday I'll be climbing in Sheffield with Ali, Sam, and Sam's dad, so really looking forward to that.

Lastly, to Liam: Well done, you're progressing so much at the moment, I know you'll go far. The gym stuff was very impressive btw! Should be around for training on Saturday afternoon, there's something I'd like to talk to you about.

All for now. xHollieMy shiney new harness ^^

Life.

2006-12-31T16:01:00.000Z

Thursday, we met a guy from London, it was raining, so I bought some new trainers and a top! :) Did a bit of practice on standing arm jumps, getting lots of height, creating more momentum for a climbup. Did a bit of control work and generally moved around as much as I could in the rain. Friday I went to Leeds wall to try out a harness, didn't do much else. Saturday: normal training in Leeds - wet to begin with so we went for a little walk, during which I learned quite a bit, but it dried out really quick so we did loads of control work. Some silly people had put a fairground at the art gallery! So we didn't do much there. Did more work on arm jumps and some stuff at the scaffolding, which was quite fun. And practiced some vaulting over a slightly slippy wall. Finished off playing tig (I didn't play cos I was nackered!) Sorry this is so brief, but I can't remember a huge amount any more.

Ed, Scott, Me, Ali and Jamie - Nike Whores!!!!

Rain.

2006-12-27T16:18:00.000Z

On monday I was hoping to go out and do some training, but I wasn't allowed; instead I went out for a short run/walk with my Dad: lovely. Christmas was good, one of the best in a long time. Tuesday I practiced vaulting, focusing on doing things on both sides, taking of both feet (not at once :p) and improving my confidence of using my left hand in speed vaults. Basicly meant lots of reps, i liked it, cos I can always notice the progression. I did some quad walking up and down the big steps near my house, then did some cat balancing. My shoes are dead though, with absolutely no grip, so I did it barefoot. It was easier than with shoes, but quite cold. Today I wanted to go out but by the time I'd finished everything else it was pissing it down. I might go out now actually, it's nearly stopped raining, so I can do some work on arm jumps and climbups. Tomorrow I'll be in Leeds to meet some guys form London and Birmingham. I like Christmas holidays. Apart form the dark and the rain and the cold...

[Update] Yup, I went out in the end. Was a bit wet, but not slippy or anything, so I did running/standing arm jumps and climbups and negatives and shizzle. Then I realized that I just had to do some more lovely split-foot cat passes. So I did a few over a higher wall and found them insanely easy compared to two-footed/jump stop ones. Lovely. Im a happy girl.

Lots of Training

2006-12-23T20:14:00.000Z

On Wednesday, after meeting up with Jamie, Ali and Sam, we went up onto Ilkley moors for some training. It was freezing!!! We couldn't really do much in the way of running, jumping etc., as it was so slippy; instead we found ourselves working on balance and control to stop ourselves slipping. We did some bouldering, and as it got dark, we wandered home for soup... I had my birthday party that night, it was cool, and the lads stopped over. We met Scott the next day and spent another whole day climbing, swinging, jumping and rolling over the hills known as Ilkley Moor. Great two days in all.

Today (Saturday) was the usual training in Leeds. Once again we made the first train and were there before 7am. Did a bit of work on my passse murailles and vaulting, and then some precision and control work. Found a nice new spot, but got kicked off pretty quick, so we headed back up to the art gallery where thae guys had a great game of parkour tig. I didn't join in - by this time I was feeling a bit crap so I watched and took some pictures. I was an ok day, but not the best. Tomorrow will be resting as I visit my relatives in Sheffield.

Some pictures from the last few days:

Parkour Tig - Boydo

Look at Jamie's face!!

Scott

Jamie making funny faces again!

Running away

Seb, Ali, Me, Ed and Jamie (hiding)

The boys: Jamie, Ed and Ali

Group pic: Ali, Me, Ed and Jamie

Goodness. (For want of a better title.)

2006-12-19T20:41:00.000Z

On Monday night I had lots of good training :) Did reps of standing and running armjumps, with and without climbups, from increasing distances. To a wall with a railing on top, so the climbups are relatively easy. Did some balance work and then some 'proper' climbups on a normal wall, two hands at once etc... Today I had the afternoon off school so went training in Leeds with Ali. DId some more whale-slapping (also known as buildering to normal people), some vaulting and pop vaults! I got them, finally. Soooo happy, as I've always found them hard cos of confidence. I know, its gay. And a random guy who didn't speak English showed us some really useful stretches and started to teach us Tae Chi... Tomorrow and Thursday we're off onto Ilkley Moors, for some good old rural training. I'll rip my hands up sooo much, but apart from that it should be great, and I'm sure the boys will find some excuse to strip down to their lycra!

[EDIT] A link to the whale-slapping of saturday, note, just after the clip stops I touch tht top then proceed to fall on Ali! Link

Long Post

2006-12-17T19:11:00.000Z

Last Saturday

I got the 10.10 to Leeds with Orlando and Michael, two lovely lads from my taekwondo group who wanted to have a go at the 'Parkour thing' that I do. When we got to the art gallery I left Ed and Jamie to teaching them some basic rolling and vaults. We did some training around Morrisons and the Uni, where we did cat pases, speed passes, armjumps, precisions and turn vaults. I didn't do the Morrisons arm jump (pleasae don't shout at me guys!) cos although it's unbelievably easy it scares the hell out of me. One major confidence problem that I need to sort. I was closer to doing it than I've been before, but I couldn't commit and didn't really try. :( We had Ben with us as well, he's a photographer, and a really cool guy, there are some pics of our training on his site.
Later on we made our way to the Royal Armouries, a good and slightly different training area than what most of us are used to. A small incident (haha, but its sorted now) stopped my training for a bit, so I went to the pattern for a bit or remedial climbing, it works wonders on the mind! Practiced a bit of endurance stuff, and for the first time tested my ability to climb up, rather than traversing. I only went halfway up the wall, and back down again, but I think if I wasn't tired I'd have no problem getting all the way to the top and back. Just need a nice early morning. Then we played some parkour tig and I got smacked in the eye...again! Silly Scott.

Mid Week

Insane amounts of coursework, a school christmas concert, and a bit nervous about my first taekwondo grading on Sunday. Got contacted by Brad to be a mod on WWJ so thats cool and I'm mainly looking after the girls board. Just need to try and get some more girls involved; splink suggested a sort of promotional vid, with some footage of parkour, and stuff from girls who are into it. So thats a maybe, but I'm not the best at getting round to filming and finding things I can do that I really think are worth filming... I'll keep you updated. Much love to Ed, Alistair and Jamie, the guys I train with, they do a lot for me. :)

This Weekend

Saturday morning was awesome! Got up at 5am, to once again get the 6.09 train into Leeds. Had about two hours training in the dark, with no-one around, I love it. As it got light we went to the top of a car park to watch the light spill over the city... Took some photos, and had a chat with a nice security lady. Did lots of work on precisions - take offs, use of arms, distance, control, etc., and stopped for a lovely breakfast of sandwich, milk and fruit at about 10. When the other guys arrived we headed off to do some more precision work and found this amazing wall for climbing (a.k.a. whale-belly slapping!) Had to head off for a bit to do a bit of x-mas shopping, and returned to find all the guys but Jamie in lycra...scary. Did a bit of stuff there, including a very nice two-handed climbup, and then had to go home...to party!

Today was my birthday! I did all my English and French Coursework, passed my taekwondo grading with distinction and ate cake. It was cool... I also got a nice pink top for training, yay!

Some pics from the weekend:

Leeds Station from above

City at 8am

First Light

And again...

Alistair Precision

Jamie in a tree!

Climbing

It was really hard!

Reflection of Jamie

Dom...on Jamie

I was a Ninja!

2006-12-03T15:10:00.000Z

No, I'm telling the truth! I really was a ninja, just for a day. A certain band from Leeds, called Royal Vendetta, are in the process of making a music video for their song: Soothsayer. The guy making the film, Matt, is someone who a few of the traceurs from Leeds know quite well, and he asked some of us to be in this video. It involved us all wearing black trousers and hoodies, with black veils oves our faces, running around an underground carpark in Leeds. There was some tricking, and lots of crawling around on all fours whilst looking scary! It was really good fun; we had about 5 hours of filming which was a bit nackering though. The film should be finished sometime before christmas.

After we had finished filming, we started our hell night in Leeds Uni. However, owing to 'unforseen circumstances' we had to move out of the university, so we did various othe conditioning challenges on our way back into town...

CDV News
The website is now 'under construction' and will hopefully be up and online ready for the new year. The CDV t-shirts have also been designed at long last and with our names printed on the back you will always know who we are! We're hoping to do a bit of traveling next year, visiting various cities in the UK. Can't wait! But for now, it's training through the winter and earning the money I'll need for the summer.

Manchester, NextGen and Winter Training

2006-11-27T20:50:00.000Z

So I got up at 6.40 on Saturday morning to catch the 8.10 train to Leeds, where I was to meet Jamie and Ed. We caught a train to Manchester Victoria, ran (well, not quite) across Manchester, and got another train from Manchester Picadilly to Stockport. Whilst wandering aimlessly around Stockport station, we saw a guy swinging on some rails... It was Jin! haven't seen him since August so that was a nice surprise. We waited 'til the rest of the crew arrived; Liv, Jason, Nathan, Phil and Teg, and piled into two taxis which took up to the studio. The audition thing itself was a bit wierd, but I know I did my best I could in the situation :) and everyone else did aswell.

After, we trained for a bit in Stockport. Was quite cool, and great to see Nathan and Phil again aswell, as I haven't seen them since August either. And I am now a part of Next Gen; really cool, as the lads are very very talented, I'll have to work extra hard. We made it back to Leeds in time to say hi to Ali, Liam, Scott and Boydo, before running very fast to catch the train back to Ilkley.

And my training tonight:

Went out training on my own, not cos I like it as such, but cos no-one else does parkour in my town. I started with some general stuff; vaulting, arm jumps etc, just some easy stuff as a warm up. Then a fair amount of stretching I got bored of the smal area where I usually train so I found some precisions, there are about 11 of varying sizes and heights, which I repeated lots of times.

Then I ate fooood, pasta to be precise.

I did some more precisions, then worked on balance and climbups for a bit. My balance is good, but Im struggling with climbups. Being v weak I find it really hard to do a fast clean climbup with both hands at once, so I trained that, and did six fairly good ones before they started to get worse again.

I finished off by training my cat pass, generally improving my take offs; I can do them comfortably off both feet, but I really need to get the technique into my head. That was going well, until it rained. So I came back home, and did a bit of conditioning and some stretching.

What a lovely day!

xHollie-Bob

Tired.

2006-11-19T19:08:00.000Z

Yesterday we did our first trial of Leeds' Hell Night. It was nackereing! We started the day with our usual training, though I didn't do anything like as much as normal because it was sooo cold and my hands were numb! We did a bit though, and Jamie showed me how jumping to the right out of a turn vault then rolling over my right shoulder didn't work so well, so I tried rolling over my left shoulder and it was much nicer. Did a few little arm jumps but I kept falling off the bigger one, so I was a bit disappointed, but ah well. Eventually we made our way up to LUU to eat and rest before beginning the circuit. Flapjack and milk... And warmth. After some debating about what to do with bags etc., we started the first part - a reasonably easy short balance up a rail, followed by a walk along some smaller rails, hard to explain but it was quite tricky. We held ourselves as close to the ground as possible on our hands and feet whilst waiting for everyone to finish, then began the next part. It involved 3 sets of stairs. For the first part we had to get up the set using only the rail, and up and down the next two using backwards quadrupedal movement. Then back down the first set using the rail and onto the fun part.

We paired up and ran a stretch of about 150 metres carrying each other, swapped over and ran back. The first to finish had to grab the bags and take them to the next part. This was making our way up a slanted wall in arm jump position, then back down the other side. When we reached the top there were forfeits for the number of times you had fallen off. Next was some traversing in dip position, which killed us all, some precisions, a stretched out thing, where we had our hands on one rail and our feet on another, and a cat balance along a thin wall, which was way harder than anyone had expected. So by this point we were pretty tired, and so we followed it up with a balance on a really thin fence, and a short mission on some bollards to another set of stairs. Here we had to jump up 3 or 4 stairs at a time to the top of two sets, and then back down 2 or 3 at a time. Once again the first to finish took the bags to the dyno spot. There was only room for 3 people at a time here, so we had a quick break and some stretching in between doing 5 sets of 2 dynos. I have never been able to do these before, and despite being exhausted, I managed them! Next there was some climbing on these 'big square pillars' and a relatively easy traverse around a car park. We refilled all our water bottles, and went onto the next part, which was a small arm jump onto a wall, then getting round it in anyway possible, and shimmying up the edge of a stair set.

This was where our plan finished, so Scott took over, and continued the evening. We took a run around the block then in pairs did a traverse around the front of a building. Whilst we were waiting for our turn to do the traverse, we jogged up and down a set of steps to keep warm and improve our endurance. A quick break to sort out Boyd’s ripped up finger, and then we did some more quadrupedal walking backwards up stairs. This took back to near the LUU, so we did some low level walking under rails, and jogging round a circle. For most of us, this was the end of the circuit, and so we ran back down to the station just in time for the train home.

As well as being really hard work, doing this brought us together as a team, and helped us improve our physical and mental endurance, our strength, and out cooperation. Everyone did really well, individually and as a team. Thanks Blane for the idea! We’ll definitely be doing this again.

Just remembered: I have some new climbing shoes, they're Matt's old ones, so they're smaller than mine (size 5, rather than 6.5) but they'll be great for technical stuff! Very happy!

Wonkey Bus!

2006-11-11T21:43:00.000Z

I saw a wonkey bus! It was really, really wonkey, it looked like it was about to fall over... :-\ Anyways. To the training. I spent the first hour or so in Leeds wandering around trying to find people. It was very cold, so I just kept walking, and eventually, after asking many groups of people, I found Ed, who was on his own, no Jamie! He did a standing gainer as a welcoming gesture which was a nice surprise. So we met Ali, did a bit of training and met up with some young lads. They we're only 12, but very good. We (mainly Ed) taught them some rolling, landing, climbups, precisions, cat passes, etc for a couple of hours until it started tipping it down with rain. We took the lads back to their mum, and ran up to the covered spot at the uni, though by the time we got there we were too wet for it really to make a difference. Everything was pink; a tad confising but it looked pretty.
We found ourselved in the students union, warming up over lucozaade and chocolate. Lovely. But it was pretty much dark, and we had done no substantial training, so we hunted out some possible places in the Uni for conditioning. After reading about Blane's 'Hell Night', we realised that doing a similar thing in Leeds, albeit not quite as hard :P would be really benifical for all of us. We found loads of stuff, so we're going to have a trial run on saturday night, see what works, what doesn't etc.
After this, we did some traversing at the church, and some climbing at our wall. In the dark and the rain this is very hard. We didn't do any challenges, new or old, but just went along the wall and back. I did this three times; my fingers hurt so much I nearly fell off, but didn't! And it's considerably harder whan you can't see what you're doing. Following this I got smacked with a climbing shoe and punched in the eye, *Scott* but all was okay. Good day considering the weather, but didn't get much done.

Thats all for now, loving pinkness and wonkey busses.
xHollie

Edit: Thought I should update on the changes I made to lifestyle/training that I mentioned in an earlier post. They're good, especially the ones about planning ahead and not getting dehydrated. :)

Liverpool

2006-11-08T21:08:00.000Z

I didn't train in Leeds on Saturday like I normally do, instead I went out with my wonderful family! :) Mainly because I would have to be up at 6.15 the next morning to go to Liverpool, for the WWJ workshop. So I got up, and after getting ready, which took a long time (making rice, washing/drying hair etc.) my lovely mother and aunt gave me a lift to keighley to pick up Ali, then on to Leeds station. We planned the transport in advance, so we knew there would be no problems getting there, but being silly, we forgot that there were no trains between Ilkley/Keighley and Leeds before 9.30 in the morning. Great! But we got to Leeds station, to meet up with Law, Jamie, Ed and Boyd, and after buying tickets, we got on the transpenine express to Liverpool Lime Street.... It took us long enough to get from Lime Street to Brunswick though, we wandered round lost for a bit, met up with Sam, wandered round a bit more, found a bus....and missed it, and eventually ended up walking (it wasn't that far at all).
The workshop itself was great, though I realised quite how awful I was at pistols, compared to the guys anyway. We did a warm up, some stretching, and then a bit of conditioning. Then in smaller groups, we did arm jumps with Andi, some creative thinking, and 'use of space' with Danny, and finally some 'obstacle coursing' with Jason, which involved follow-the-leader type activities. But when I was running round the gym, I hit my knee on a metal thing, and it hurt. A lot. :( So I sat with some ice on it, and it's okay now, thakfully.
After the workshop, we made our way to Moreton, where Danny showed us some of his training spots; we only had an hour, but it was cool anyway. Some very impressive stuff I have to say, we're hoping to go back sometime, maybe next summer, and see what we can do. The train journey back was hellish, we left Moreton just after 6, and I didn't get back to Ilkley until about 20 to 11. Yuck. But hey, it was a good day, and I met some great people.

Over and Out. xHollie

A Special Week

2006-11-01T20:45:00.000Z

So....After reading on WWJ Ben's idea for a 'hardcore week' I started thinking. (I know! It's a miracle!)

WWJ Thread.

The guys had chosen the half term week, but what with the parties and the promised pizza, I knew it would be no good. So I waited until this week, a normal school week, when the routine of everything would let me try to change my ways without interruption. Going mainly by Ben's suggestions, adding a few of my own ideas, I worked out what were my weaknesses in my training and lifestyle in general, and tried to change them. The main things were:

Not enough sleep. I don't get much cos I tend not to sleep too well. The only thing I can do about this is going to bed a bit earlier, so at least I'm getting some rest...
Dehydration. Speaking of which... Okay, now I have water. I never drink enough, and I know this, because when I do, I feel so much better. So drinking more water.
Healthy eating. Most people who know me know that I usually eat well, but occasionally if I'm bored or tired I eat lots of unhealthy stuff. Silly but true. The only way I can stop this is with willpower. I've done well so far!
Training. Where I live, there is very little I can practice, technique-wise. So I often find myself wandering, trying to find something to do. Before I go out I need to work out what I need to practice, think of somewhere I can do that, and set myself targets; drill this until I can do that...
Planning. Planning ahead how I will spend my evenings helps get things done. If I work out when I do my work, training, family stuff, I can get it all done, rather than getting distracted and achiving nothing.

I think that's it for now...If I remember some other stuff, I'll put it up here. In addition to those things, I've started to look at some of the articles on parkour.net that are in French. Takes a bit of time, sorting through the parts I understand and the parts I need to translate, but there is some good stuff, a lot of which is not available in English.

All for now. Hollie xx

Wierd Conditioning and Other Stuff

2006-10-28T21:32:00.000+01:00

Had a great days training today :D Its probably quite obvious from previous posts, but recently I've been working quite hard on my upper body strength and climbup techniques. Today I managed to do some half decent pullups on scaffolding, aswell as a pretty good climbup from a hang (both arms at once, no elbows) on a wall with a good slopey bit to grip my hands over (a bit harder than a rail in my opinion). Also, I did another nice climbup on a flat topped wall, without my elbows (a lot harder), although I did do the one arm at a time technique. Still I'm very pleased, as upper body strength is something I've found really hard to improve on, and I'm finally noticing progression...
We did lots of random conditioning stuff today; like backwards quadrupedal walking up and down stair sets, which is a lot harder than it sounds, but lots of fun, especially when you can't see where you are going. Did a fair bit of balancing on the red rails, a little bit of practice on split foots, a few arm jumps and slightly dodgey underbars at the scaffolding, some core and lower leg conditioning and some vertical jumping with help from Scott. My vertical jump is appalling; i really need to work on my technique.
Then we did some traversing missions around the church; very funny, followed by a trip to our newly named 'climbing wall'. Its the red and black brick square thing thats in a picture in another post somewhere. Started with a short warm-up, just simple traversing, then I did the 'corner', something both me and Ali have been trying for several weeks. We needed another challenge, so for a bit of endurance training, we did a traverse where we start at opposite ends of the wall, and have to pass each other in the middle. We did this by Ali getting as low as he could, and me climbing up and over him, very scary, took two attempts, but we did it! :D
We ended the day by playing 'parkour tig' around the art gallery in the dark...

Cat precisions, and gym training.

2006-10-25T16:39:00.000+01:00

Oooh, Leeds was cold on saturday, well it must have been, for Scott to wear a jumper :0... We went up to a new spot, and spent ages doing cat precisions. The lads did them, i should say, they were too big for me so I spent the time trying. I was quite pleased with what I did, especially later in the day when I felt I was as comfortable with split foot cat passes as I am with two footed ones. Also, big news, I can do pull ups now! Okay, it might not sound like much, but I've never been able to do them from a dead hang and now I can. They're easy, I dunno why I had such a problem before. And I did some climbups, without elbows, but again they were on a wall with a railing on top; I find it so much easier. And I WAS going to film some stuff there, but we got moved on just as I was getting the camera out. So watch this space.
On Monday a few of us from Leeds went to Sheffield for a gym session, which was great, apart from the horrible horrible journey there.

I arrived 15 minutes late, after finding that there were no trains between Ilkley and Leeds, so I ended up going to Bradford FSq, then running to the Interchange, getting another train to Leeds, then to Sheffield, followed by a run across Shefield to the gym. Great fun. In the gym I did handsprings, loads of speed and cat passes, some laches, some running fronttucks and I tried to learn ariels. Those didn't go too well though... But it was a really good day overall. :-D

:o

2006-10-17T21:26:00.000+01:00

Saturday. Training as normal. I can hardly remember what happened now, it was so long ago... I did some cat passes, worked on my pop vaults, which aren't really getting anywhere, but only practice can change that. Did some more arm jumps, and my confidence, although being nothing to shout about, is definitely improving. Met Liv, did a bit of climbing, and eventually turned in for the day. To be followed by another day's training on the moors, which was fun, but cold. Got some stuff filmed, and did some lovely precisions, mainly concentrating on my landings and swinging my arms fast for extra distance. Sorry this is short, but I can't really remember much, also there are no photos I'm afraid. Also the notorious 'Hollie and Ed' are no more. We'll still be training together, as part of WYPK, CDV, but just as mates.

This weekend. And Thursday.

2006-10-08T19:30:00.000+01:00

I'm tired... Had a great day's training, but I don't know where to start. Right, Thursday. Um, at school I had a choice of doing a run or a swim, so naturally I went for the swim... Simply 'cause there were only two of us swimming, so we got the whole pool to ourselves. Did about 35 lengths in all, 29 of them in 12 mins, as part of my assessment (I'm a very slow swimmer - it's a small pool!) Then we just did snorkelling, which was great fun; I haven't done that in years. And due to our open evening we got the afternoon off, so I spent it running and climbing and jumping in the rain. Oh and playing on the beach - childish I know, but I loved it. Got home soaking wet and covered in mud but very happy.

Then there was Friday. Day of rest and music. As in absolutely no training, just stretching, playing my violin and generally being a lazy so-and-so. Followed by Saturday. A day of great opportunities, ruined by my total lack of confidence. I tried so hard to get over it, but found it really hard. Just one of my off days I suppose. Did a tiny laché, but after quite badly bailing my last attempt, I didn't attempt any decent sized ones. Did the art gallery arm jump until I could do it every time with no-one spotting me, a few nice precisions, and some vaulting etc. Nothing that really felt like an achievement, but ah well.

And today! Today was great; Ed, Jamie, Alistair, Seb and myself went up onto Ilkley moors to try some parkour in a different environment along with a bit of casual bouldering. After getting to the famous White Wells and topping up on water, we headed on to the rocky valley, an amazing place for precisions, arm jumps and balancing.

A fantastic photo of the guys I was with today: on the left - Seb, carrying his bike whilst doing v scary jumps etc. Then Ed, Jamie and Ali (not sure what he's doing, but his arms look strange).

Ed on a rock...

Our first official bouldering route! Level: V0 so apparently quite easy. Not as easy as it looks though, but we all got up pretty quickly, so it was cool.

Level: V1? None of us completed this one, Ali got closest, but after the first part there is seemingly nowhere to put your hands. Better luck next time I suppose.

Level: Unknown, but going by the standard of the other routes, we decided: V-5. Or when we found the slightly harder adaption: V-3.

Level: V1 I got up the first part of this; the 'hand jamming' technique wasn't a problem, but to get over the top needed a lot of arm strength. Being weak, tired, and fairly scared stopped me from getting over the top, but next time I'm here I'll try it first, before I get nackered doing anything else.

So thats about it, as far as I can remember... We ended up climbing at the calf rock, incredibly easy but fun all the same. Finally, running at high speed down off the moors, and some stretching at the station. Oooh, and a cold shower of course, feels great after 2 days training. :)

An early morning and a totally wierd day.

2006-10-01T15:37:00.000+01:00

Sooo, I got up at 5am. It was nice and dark, very quite, and a little bit cold. I got some warm(ish) clothes, and my usual bag, got ready and caught the 06.09 train out of Ilkley. It was really strange, all the mist down in the valley looked kind of creepy, but by the time I arrived in Leeds half an hour later, it was starting to get light. I met Ali, and we immediatley headed off to the Art Gallery. We did a bit of the usual training; cat passes, balancing etc. There's this place at the art gallery where you can do an arm jump from different steps:
I used to have a real problem with arm jumps, and I didn't have the confidence to go for any where I would have to concentrate on the distance/height and the technique. So if it was easy enough to do without putting in any effort I was fine, but anything more than that... Anyhow, the one at the Art Gallery, I only used to be able to go from the second step (orange dot!), but a couple of weeks ago I went from the next step up, and now I'm comfortable from the second step from the top (pink dot!). Only two more to go...
Also, I did another similar arm jump, and improved by two steps straight away. I think I'm finally getting my confidence back, so I'm being able to see more what I can physically do, rather than what my mind will let me. Which is good. We did a bit of climbing as well, and practiced some precision/craneing techniques.
<< The clock at the town hall half an hour after we arrive in leeds :P

In the afternoon, I did a sponsered dip in White Wells (a victorian spa pool on Ilkley Moor). It was 6 degrees apparently, but felt much colder, especially after the 30 minutes we were in it for. Between the 3 of us who did the dip, we raised about £180 pounds to help fund a farm in Africa, so all was good.

And today, I went up onto the moors again, and found a lovely little arm jump, which was very small but felt great, so hopefully I'll be off up there with some of the Leeds lads sometime soon.

Arm jumps, climb ups, and lots of innuendo...

2006-09-17T12:58:00.000+01:00

Training was hard. Ed, Alistair, Jamie and myself split of from the rest of the West Yorkshire guys quite early on, and trained around some different spots to usual. I found some smallish standing arm jumps to work on, as mine are awful, and by working on those I started to get my confidence back up. I also found a nice spot for easy running ones, taking off from behind a marker. I gradually moved the marker back and increased the distance. I managed a few sort of climb ups, the one in the clip wasn't my best, as i lean right over the railing, but i was pleased all the same. I find them quite hard, not having brilliant upper body strength.
By about 5 in the afternoon I was so tired I gave up on any technique work, and just did some strength work, whilst watching the guys practice precisions. By the time we met back up with the rest of the group, we were all so tired we just watched and chatted with them. Its amazing how much harder we all worked in a smaller group, and how much longer we had training in certain places before we got moved on. Here's a piccy of us all yesterday afternoon:

2006-09-09T21:13:00.000+01:00

Buildering, bare foot training, and rolling took up most of today... I got quite shaken up in the morning, after bailing a lache on some scaffolding, but apart from that, things were good.
I finally got a chance to do a route I've been wanting to do for weeks, I had my rock boots, and it wasn't raining! It was hard though, and by the time I'd got to the end and back my hands were shaking loads. There was also an easier route just around the corner, so I made it more fun by trying to get along one wall, around the corner, and along the next, but despite being supported for the hardest part (thanks to Ali) I didn't quite make it. So that's my challenge for next time.

I am also now in love with my fluid take off for cat passes. Off my right foot, I can get loads of distance - the first time I went for it I nearly landed on my face, 'cause I was getting so much more speed and distance than I had expected. Off my left foot, they aren't quite as good, but I'm getting over walls without problems, I just need to get myself completely confident with them.

Last thing today; some barefoot training. Not something I've ever tried before, but its great! I found precisions and vaults so much easier, and my landings were loads softer and more controlled. Hopefully I'll do some more in the near future, before it gets really cold and I realise I'm too much of a wimp to do it in winter...

Finally, I've just started to learn tae kwon do, in the hopes that it will improve my fitness, strength, agility etc...as well as my self discipline.

Split-Foot

2006-09-04T22:15:00.000+01:00

Just for the record, despite not training today, I still ended up practicing parkour...a bit. My split foot takes offs still need a LOT of work, so I thought I might as well start well by learning off both feet. Its a bit wierd at first, but cool when I did it. I've only been doing a few cat stalls up onto a wall, so the next part it to try and get over the wall, using alternate feet to take off from. Its strange though, how much distance I got on to the wall, even on my first few attempts.

Leeds...Training...?

2006-09-03T14:48:00.000+01:00

It rained. All day pretty much. Quite depressing really, as I was full of energy and psyched up to try some new stuff. I learnt to do a turn vault off one foot, but its not very controlled yet, unlike my super cool jump-stop ones... But I'm working on it. So what was going to be some good training, turned into...shopping. With the boys. Which was very very boring. And on top of that, I got some really bad stomach pains, which meant that by the time I got home, I was hardly able to walk. So all in all, not the best day of my life. But I got a nice picture!

Sheffield Gym Session

2006-08-28T20:30:00.000+01:00

Yup, so the gym training was absolutely great, and as I expected, mainly tricking. I learned to backflip tucked and untucked into the foampit, as well as off the blocks onto a crash mat, although I didn't land them, which i think was a confidence problem, as I was fine into the pit. Also landed one front summie on flat, out of many attempts, but I'm getting there, and a few diving cat passes and cat pass - precisions. I'm shattered now, but happy with what I learnt, next time I'm there I will get even better!!!

Leeds

2006-08-27T19:54:00.000+01:00

Training yesterday in Leeds was good, did a few quite nice cat passes, including a level one over a railing which i was pleased with. Did a fair bit of climbing as well, there should be some photos somewhere, I might upload a couple when I get them. Off to Sheffield for a gym session tomorrow, so an early start, but I'm hoping to learn loads, mainly tricking I expect, but I'm sure there will be some parkour in there as well.