training update

well training is going well dont actaully think my prescion is 10ft which is a pain but am glad to say my drilling has been paying off my prescion is bigger than what it used to be so I have reached my target on a bigger prescion. Been working greatly on my abilty to link movements together especialy on my climbing. I was looking at my terrain to see what movements I could come up with that would get me pass everything as fast and effeicnt as possible. What I love about this place is there is lots of high level balconys and walls you must climb up makeing it an excellent place to practice climbing ill get some footage of me doing a run there some time . My freind timed me and I expected to get somethink like 24 or 26 seconds on this run but got 18! Really surprised me.

Kick boxing is going pretty well still got to get practice abit more on my punching combos but Id say my fitness from parkour has given me a great starting point and edge over alot of the other students am training with. Id say my strong point is kicks at the mo so after the xmas holidays am going to start working more on my kickboxing going to have to train hard got My first tournament coming up.

So here are some targets am going to be seting myself for the end of the christmas holidays.
Improved cardio
Faster and stronger kicks mainly my fronts sides and round houses
And finally get some punching combos down.

Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many forms tonight my Inspiration came in the form of a 5ft somethink kicking machine who compared to me is light years ahead in his training and mind set. He is my kick boxing teacher!. Tonight he talked about how we go about geting our black belts that we must run up mountains and do pad work for hours on end then move across an assult course 3 times in 11minutes. I myself can onley imgaine a small percent of this but the way this man talks about it makes me veiw my own training and mindset and makes me feel like a grain of sand next to a mountain. I still think infact no I know I have yet to feel real training to feel what it is to truely be strong like david bell and my kick boxing teacher.

This is what makes me want to drive foreward and get stronger to keep crossing that bridge to maybe even glimpse what david and my teacher feel. This! this is my inspiration I think this post will be good to look back on in darker days yet to come. So to anyone who reads my blog if you feel like you have no Inspiration no fire dont give up hope as Inspiration comes in many forms!! You just have to keep looking and be hopefull.

I hope every one has a merry xmas and a happy new year all the best with your training

cya next post

Nathan

thoughts and goals

Training is going pretty good knocked me back last Saturday! was trying the kash vault backwards just drilling it on a wooden bench i was holding. I had my left hand on the pillar which is holding the bench together and and my right on the wooden frame I performed the movement pretty well and was happy with this progress so went for it a 3rd time and clipped my foot on it as i was halfway in to the movement and who said 3rd time is the charm.

Knocked me back pretty hard and my wrist so just took a week out to rest in general but did some strength work.

Oh the weighted vest arrived after 3weeks of waiting thought it would never come! Its pretty good i love how you can add weight in to the pockets and remove them as well so this makes it very handy. Ive been training on 5kg and will add another 2kg next month.

Anyway those are just some of my thoughts on training most of my other thoughts have been on what makes a tracuer and what can i really work on. Am going to be setting the goal of working on my prescion distance Ive been working really hard on control the past 5months which am really happy with its really payed of but its time to work on some raw power my prescion at the moment is 10ft we have worked out so am going to really work on this and brake the 10ft barrier!!! My thoughts have also been on the philosophy that comes with parkour to be strong to be useful so am going to be working on good old fighting in the form of kick boxing twice a week this was inspired by a post of blanes here is his thoughts on the matter http://blane-parkour.blogspot.com/2007/06/descent.html.

Havent got round to the weight training yet have alot to deal with as it is so this will hopefully come in time. Anyhow that just about wraps it up on my thoughts!.

cya next post.

armour and its notches

Thought Id give this an update on my training and thoughts havent really done a lengthy post in a while. Training in all is going pretty well My abilty to link movements togeather is at the best its ever been, and Ive been relooking at my precision technique which am glad I did as I can stick rail prescions beter then I ever could in the past and Ive been able to do more challengeing rail prescions. Strength and fitness wise again I dont think ive ever been better Ive gotten my body fat to 5.7 percent which is pretty good considering a year and half back I was 10 percent.

My poly training is going very well also here are some of my current max reps

dips 25

pullups 15-18 in L-sit postion

chinups 15-20 in L-sit postion

pullups normal not to sure on these but will find out soon :)

chin ups15-22 normal

pressups in 1minute= 60

situps in 1 minute=59

so am pretty happy with my current strength Ive also invested in a weighted vest the same one as blane used just waiting for it to arive :( going to play around on 5kg so my body can get used to it for a month or so.

Anyhow thats the good news on my armour now for the notches.

I am currently looking at geting in to some weight training Alot of traceuers say this is a bad idea is it can slow down movement but ill onley be useing it for power and strength gains and try and minimize as much mass as possible. A big weakness with me that I discoverd is am alright at poly training but when it comes to lift heavy objects am pretty much useless, I was haveing a discussion with my freind woody the other night about the whole weights subject and he said its imporant to be able to lift heavey objects so that you could lift some one you care for to safety which at the mo Id be hopeless at!.

Parkour wise am looseing confidence in my dashes so ill be re-visting these but other than that its just genral progress I supose and working on to more high level movents and so forth.

So thats my thoughts and current training progress at the moment ill be sure to post in due time with some updates cya next post ;)

Let there be rain!!

Not much really to wright on training wise other than am geting more confident and faster in linking my movements, and Ive noticed a genral strength increaese in my dynos and abilty to hold on to small ledges with just finger strength. Glad to say I cant wait for some good old rain training in the winter its going to be an awsome winter a hopeing just hope I revover from this cold!!!.

winter is comeing!!!!!!!!!!!

With winter comeing training is going to be much harder with the rain and the cold, but as many traceurs would say its just another obstacle to overcome. I havent really reflected on my training much so thought this would be a good time to am happy to say my climbups have never been better and my strength and flow in genral has improved along with my confidence in trees.

Id just say I need to drill things more and stick to my mesocylcles better hopefully this winter should bring results. oh heres my own edit of my 2year video plus it will be somethink to reflect on in time hopefully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3VeZoWdkU

cya next post!

Trace and ville de lisse

havent been on this in a while anyways just got back from lisses and Ive had an amazeing time and ive met so many amazeing people even had a good climb on the dam du lac.

We went with K-swiss to check out the new airakes tyhey didnt have in my size wich sucked!

But still had me meals and transport payed for wich rocked! hope to travel more like this in the future.

Also Been to trace wich was awsome aswell met lots of interesting people and learnt new ways of training thanks dave! anyways that about wraps it up finshed me 2year video also anyhow here the the link enjoy and see you next post! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpx-tYY9KYI

Also heres the link to our trip to lisses http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qx2kDye2K5Q part1

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_nk3-QX3iAg&feature=related part 2

trace and lisses :)

Never did get the tire training done when we went back the next day they was gone!!. But we still had a very intense but great session the past few weeks have been awsome aswell feel like am really improveing on my weaknesses and strengths. I still feel I could do with some more tree training a few days ago I was doing some new arm jumps in to trees and it felt so different to your standard walls and rocks but it felt like a small acheivement nailing these tree arm jumps and I feel its helped me that little bit more but I know i will have to keep up the hard work espeailly with trace and lisses round the bend its going to be epic.

A few picks from some recent training sessions

A new challenge

Well ive done some research in to my strength training and have decided to try out some new methods, with my good freind haatim. Him and his boxing club do a grueling tire workout now from what ive seen and had a read about its a really good cardio and strength workout, so me and haatim are going to be expirmenting with this training method and seeing if it shows good results hopefully it should kill us both of pretty and should give some decent results I will be sure to report back soon with results till then peace :)

pics of snowdon :)

snowdon

its been ruthlly a month since I last posted gotta say training has been very well my strength has increased a fair bit along with my jump height wise and ive noticed other parts of my parkour have improved a fairbit aswell so all in all its been a great month am also starting to find my limit with things so this is a good marker to show where I need improveing and to start pushing my limits. Went to snowdon for a week with my familly anbd i must say it was an amazeing holiday family and training wise climbed up snowdon aswell for the 1st time in my lifethe veiws are breath takeing and makes me feel glad to know i was able to climb up to the summit on such a fine day I will deffinatelly be doing that again but on a much harder path ;) ill be sure to upload more picks aswell.

A new view

Latelly Ive been really wondering about where Ill be in a few years time I often do worry about my knees and my body as a whole. Ive been watching tons of videos with the yamakasi and how they talk about rep work ect 100 jumps 200 jumps in a row. So am gonig to be changeing my training regime as soon as my ankle heals a stupid side flip I tryed and failed on, so with the comeing summer and hopefully spring ill be doing a fresh new warmup and really working more on rep work more than single movements. Ill report back in a months time with some hopefully good results till then chow.

on the mend

never did take my 2 weeks rest was feeling pretty strong after 5days of resting so got back in to the swing of things :) been really working on my climbups and am happy to say am seeing results and my rolls are comeing along pretty nice aswell so all in all am happy with my progression other than a nasty bail last thursday we was doing parkour runs but with some one chaseing after you like in a real life scene my legs was fine when i went manchester but its been playing up to day so am just going to be working on strength and balence this week :).

easter trainings

Couldent have asked for a better holiday its been great I must admit ive had my highs and lows.

Been down liverpool alot latelly training and its been epic and tireing we did tons of climbing challenges and parkour circuts I even nailed my first rail prescion from a height :) dont worry I do tons of ankle training and it wasnt so high just in my mind it was Ive also notcied a gradule improvement in my abiltys when sticking landings.

The best time of the holidays was the peaks it was my first time going and it was amazeing wet cold and damp but amazeing I really felt how differnt it was training on the peaks Ive trained on rocks before but the peaks was so differnt I felt it was a very worth while expince and I cant wait till trace 08 its going to be ace. sadly when I retuned I became horriblly ill and drained I think partlly from over training and just a genral asswipe bug :( but it was worth it :) thanks again mark, jj, jake, and nay had a brill time.

well am going to be takeing a week or two out of training parkour just to give me body a good old rest its defflenty eraned it. Till next time ;)

11hours and 1mile

went to manchester for the weekend thinking I would be doing some casul training on sat and helping out with the one mile monkey crawl but instead it turned in to my most intense training session to date. I loved every second of it I really learnt about what i can do and how far my body can really go when it needs to.

We spent the day doing alot of strength training at the busieness school whitch was great we did lots of new and challengeing strength rountines, on the bikelocks courtesey of Dave from sheffield whitch was great I really got to know the guy and his views on what parkour are and I learnt so much of him in terms of strength training and my parkour alone. By the afternoon we was just doing parkour movements and alot of rail work and I finally nailed this anoying 180cat, at last thanks to scott showing me how I could improve on my current technique I also manged to get this monkey to cat whitch always got at my mind after watching my freind mark bail on it, in the end I just calmed my mind and instead of thinking I felt and bang i had done it after this I thought to myself I can monkey to crain this and bang ran at it I felt my hands touch the cold metal at the same time i felt my left foot comeing up to hit it but i hit the edge and fell back haha. But this onley made me try harder 2nd time i fell but like they say 3rd times the charm I managed to get it and very easy aswell am looking at a monkey procsion next time :).

We basecily spent the rest of the day climbinground before heading back to scotts flat for a two hour break and then going back out at 11 at night for a nice 1mile run, in the rain follwed by some prescion training on to some wet rocks this I thought was impossible until scott did it and he shown me how to land corectlly on wetsurfaces I must say this was the most challengeing thing I had ever done mentally after a few jumps and foot work on the wet green rocks I really found a new confidence in my abiltys and could do it like I was on dry rocks after this we did more challengeing mental excersises thanks scott for teaching me what my body can do and that rain is just another obstacle to overcome:).

The next day it was time for the 1mile crawl I was already dead after training 11hours with onley a 2hour break and onley 7hours sleep but I onely rose to the challenge we all stayed togeather as we did it. My legs where on fire the first 100meters the guys had been training for this I hadent but still I pushed on and on I was on my hands and knees by 150meters and was about to just stop when i seen ste strugling to keep going and then somethink awokein me, I cant really describe the feeling but I got back up and kept going and going my body had just lost the pain it was unreal I even slowed down to keep up with ste and cheer him on let me tell you its so much harder and intense when you slow down doing the monkey crawl, but I didnt care alls I cared about was pushing my freind ste onwards and thinking about all those people we where helping.

We finshed the mile in an hour and 15minutes I was so happy for the group and myself I descoverd strength when I thought I had non. Am going to wrap it up here by saying thanks to scott for teaching me so much about what we are really capable of and helping me find stregnth I didnt know I had and thanks to everyone for helping push me on and just an overall great acheviment everyone should be proud next year its 1mile with no rests or 3miles wooo i cant wait.

Why i do parkour

Ive noticed why looking at a lot of others tracuers blogs that they explain there reasons for training parkour. so I am going to explain why i practice this amazeing art now ive onley been training just over a year and a half now so I cant really say why i practice parkour but I can say how I feel about it. I train with the thought of geting stronger in mind,body and spirt so i can be strong and useful to my family and freinds parkour has also so given me so much its a chance to escape from the problems of life it helps me with stress when am at college it gives me motavion to do things i never thought possible and probally the most important its givein me freinds for life who are just as if not more important then the movement itsself. Now i know alot of people say that parkour isnt there life and that there is more to life than parkour but right now at this point in time i am happy to say that parkour is my life my way to look at things. I could go on about this amazeing dicsipline but i think ill stop here. Remember train hard stay safe and know your limits and remember there are things that are just as impotrant as parkour.

training update

this week has been awsome yet again stayed in liverpool for two days thanks again skippy bro the first day was pretty fun it was more playing round and such manged to monkey and clear my first wall was well pleased the next day was alot more brutal we got in to otters pool for 11am and started are day with movement in and out of the trees it felt so good to get back to nature i think anyone that does parkour should give it a try we did mostly flow and footplacement that day but after this we did some sprint training and some uphill sprint training followed by a nice climb around i luved every second of it I remember last summer when i went and couldent really do alot but it was refreshing to go back there and test my new body and skills on everythink a good reminder of was there are these red bars there and there was this monster lashey i was looking at geting i told myself train hard and you will get it next time ya back down want to know wever i got it or not you will have to watch the vid that follows it ha ha anyways thats pretty much it check out my new vids there thier to show my progress with me flow and foot placement enjoy the vids and thanks for your time all the best everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fj8oMt90sU parkour movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIWmKffKgss forest play

barries broken

just a little update on me training this week. Me little bro waas out training with us thursday whitch is mostly strength and technical training ect we did a lot of climbing whitch we have not done in a long while so it felt nice to get down to some of this we had to climb across the outside of the libary the main idea behind this exersice was team work and trust my bro really surprised me and his self when we got to this one bit where you have to climb on to an edge and do a cat to cat me bro found this the most challengeing but didnt give up he just kept trying and in the end he suceeded the rest wasnt so bad so after this we stoped for a break and then went to these blue bars to drill balance and some strength i really surpried myself with this i manged to do 12 muscleups a new personal best and get me 180 muscleups so i was very chuffed.

we made a move fot TJS where we did more balaence and climbing i manged to really push my monkey to cats really hgh as i was reaching new height i didnt think possible with them and onley with a three step run i think i did pretty well after this we made a move for the bike locks to finish up are strength training and then we did a huge monkey crawl this got the legs burning for are cool down. Today (saturday) was also very fun got lots of technical stuff done and the control on my presecions has improved and i manged to spot so many new movements whitch was good fun after about 4hours of this we played round with some good old tricking ive got some nice kicking combos comeing on and after this we did a nice cool down and headed for home thanks everyone for a good week cyas all soon.

what a week

Had an amazeing week done so much seen so much. Well its been a very eventful week i feel ive trained really hard this week also ive been watching my freinds grow and they have improved so much my personal progression has been great ive done my biggest rail presion to date will get it on video soon. My genral flow has improved that little bit more also would like to say thanks to ken and his parents for putting up with me great people and also skippy what a leadge loved the sprint training bro. Dave thanks for showing me and ken around childwall aswell has an imensnse really hepled me parkour loved the forest run to well thats it for this week.

I am awake

As i am writeing this sore and dead from what has to be my best manchester jam to date i feel like ive grown that ever bit stornger and i think my confidence in my body is what has improved the most. Now am onley going to wright bits about what ive done today as we did so much id probally be here for hours sarcasim. Right where to start well the day started with me geting up at 7 and haveing breakfest and meeting craig, kev, pete and ken just want to say congrats to ken and pete the time ive been training with these guys ive seen vast improvements when we reached manchester we did a nice long warmup and got are selfs going with some nice little movements. There was this huge wallrun where you can grab a small ledge and then grab the top of the wall next to the ledge but no one had done the wallrun dean was looking at it with a few others so i had to give it a try when it was my turn i didnt think i just felt on the movement and bang i did it first go i was really chuffed after spending what must have been 3 hours we moved to some more nicer spots where we pracsed flow and strength ect the thing i loved about the day was it was so hot you could just rip ya top of which i did but not litrally rip it lmao now the thing that caught me of the day was this huge huge catleap every one was looking at i looked at it and again didnt think just felt i jumped and felt my body slip in to what i call a sliding cat and bang i had done it doing this jump was more than just parkour to me after doing this jump i felt awake i felt a calming moment in my mind which stuck with me the rest of the day and even as am writeing this now still is there. Right wouldd like to say thanks to everyone for a really amazeing day college had been geting me down but today has really strengthed me not onley on my parkour but life as a whole thank you eveyone look forward to training with yas soon.

another platu another a new challenge

Right where to start on this thing got in to liverpool on saturday of the new month me and kevan jogged up to st georges hall to get warmed up witch involved a nice 5minute jog and then a grueling monkey crawl from one end of the hall to the other to my surprise i have really improved on it the first time i did it i was panting like anythink but this time i had onley a light sweat.
at this point we met up with our freind ken hes a cool guy. We headed of to what every one calls the apetous spot where we did some nice little movements to prepare are bodys for the more grueling movements ahead. Why we was there we did lots of nice little movements the one that i liked the most was the 180 cat we was doing i started with the smaller section and built my way out till i did the more difficult one with i did pretty good after this we moved over to some rails to play around where we met up with danny,mat and the rest of the group and then went to the fountains to have a little play around. When we was there i was looking at going in to a dash to turn vault now let me tell you this was very scary as it was my first time doing it with a drop on the other side it took me a few tries to get it but nailed it the end and then spent the day just doing that basiclly after this i moved on to some flow we had to get up these huge pillars and back down them the fastest we could wich proved to be very fun. Most of the day was just flow and and foot placement after that also got some nice tree work done. After this we went the univerty where me and kahild was looking at this pretty big monkey to cat i felt i could do it but apart of me told me am best waiting till anotherday in a way am happy knowing i know my limits and when to walk away. The rest of the day was just playing round with new and old movements then a nice cool down wich involed a jog around the gardens and then a nice 5minute stretch of and then after this we went subway and said are good byes. Thanks for a good day every one the atmosphere was geat and every one worked hard now i think its time for a well earned rest and a shower lol

lost

lately alot has been on my mind with training parkour i see all these amazeing people moveing truely like water and i think to myself i hope i can oneday be like these amazeing people free of stress and anger. I have also heard of what people say when they do an obstacle how they feel there mind at ease there is onley here and now I have reached this state of mind a few times but want to try and experince it more and free my mind but to do this i think i allready know the answer. Just keep training with time and effort ill feel free and know what it truly feels like to move effortlessly in my envoirment my playground. Am guessing we all have bad days from time to time hopefully after some nice training over the weekend ill be able to clear my head and stop worrying abut how other people are moveing and concentrate on how am moveing.

winter training update

Up to now I think I am starting to learn more about Parkour and its roots how deep this amazing art really is. My mental thoughts on how I approach my obstacles has also improved vastly. I truly feel I understand and have faith in what my body is capable of. I must say up to now I've really enjoyed winter and the challenges it has brought me. I've really found my limits and learnt how to push them and I've found new ways of moving round, things I would never have imagined a month or so back, I only hope this progression continues. Here is a little vid my friend Skippy made of my training in winter so far - hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IF0c7s3E6w