Faringdon Pump House Project

More photos of the space and equipment can be found in their Gallery

Almost out of the blue, regular parkour coaching has become available at the Faringdon Pump House, courtesy of The Pump House Project.

The Pump House Project story is a great one - a community project started by the parents of two young traceurs to give them somewhere local to train parkour, they gained charity funding from the community (including from Lord Faringdon himself) and help from the council in converting a disused theatre into a usable hall. Along the way, they also got parkour added to the PE curriculum of the local school, which is quite rare!

It's great to have a community get behind parkour when so often it gets really negative treatment, and hopefully it'll grow well in the future. Previously, the parents were having to drive to Basingstoke or Abingdon for parkour training (though the focus there was more on learning tricks than parkour essentials!) or, once we established ourselves, across to Oxford.

It's right in the middle of the town of town and has a great community feel to it: the space is also used to host other youth activities such as Slacklining, Dance, Media, Radio and a Tuck Shop, with more activities being added and supported all the time!

Dale Wood is a Parkour Generations developing athlete and incredible traceur in his own right. He is currently providing parkour coaching on Fridays and Saturdays, and teaches on dedicated parkour-specific equipment (built by FreeMove), which some of you may have got to play with during the FreeMove event.

All in all, grab the chance to train with these guys while you can as spaces are limited and come term time, preference will be given to the youth, that this charity aims to support!

Public transport between Faringdon and Oxford is limited to a single bus route 66 (link and timetable), but that just means that getting there is possible :)

For more information, visit their site: http://www.thepumphouseproject.co.uk/
Keep track of them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePumpHouseProject

Freemove Event

Hey everyone,

There's a great parkour event happening next Tuesday 21^st May/5^th Week). The summary is:

• one-day parkour park with great equipment and coaching
• 1400-1500 talks; 1500-2000 parkour
• It's at the Oxford United Football Club's Kassam stadium. 15 minute bus ride + 5 minute walk
• You have to register (link at bottom)
• You should definitely come, it will be awesome

Here's the more detailed explanation; alternatively, watch the video linked at the bottom for what it looked like last time.

The company Freemove makes parkour equipment, probably the best in the world, and is doing a roadshow/tour for publicity. They're rocking up in Oxford with some low-loaders and setting up a parkour park for the day. There will be an outdoor park and also indoor equipment set up, and there will be coached sessions run every hour (and the option of just doing your own thing, I think).

If you haven't done parkour, that's no reason not to come. Trying new things is generally good and you have nothing to lose. It's basically just a playground but for adults. You can climb on things, swing on things, jump between things, etc – in part, that's all parkour is. It's also good exercise as it uses your whole body in different ways, and the idea is to move in a natural way. There's no such thing as “not being any good” (unless also as a child you never went to a play area) because the idea isn't that we stand around judging you on how good you are, it's that you have fun and join in. Enthusiasm is all you need. It's also not dangerous like everybody thinks it is – yes, if you try and jump off a 10ft wall or do a backflip you will hurt yourself, but beginners start with the basics and they are pretty safe. Nobody's forcing you to do anything so whatever you do is controlled by you – it's only dangerous if you do silly things.

If you're interest in coming to talks by the national governing body, the coaching group Parkour Generations, and the company, then they start at 1400. If you just want to jump around on things, that's from 1500-2000. I don't mean you have to come for the whole thing, just that the event is during those times, so come any time during that period. To make the most of it I'd say come for a couple of hours, but longer is good too (I'll be there the whole day). There's some bus routes which go from Oxford to quite nearby (link at the bottom) taking around 15 minutes, which really isn't much. The event is free but you have to register (link at end).

It's going to be really good and everybody should definitely come and bring their friends/ family/tutors/etc. If you have a tutorial/lecture/class in the afternoon, get on the bus afterwards (bring food with you, don't wait for dinner); if you have work to do, get it done in advance or do it afterwards. If you're a finalist, then it's a shame you'll miss it and best of luck.

Here's a video from the roadshow they did 2 years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxjMclkzdiY

The link to the event: freemoveoxford.eventbrite.co.uk/

How to get there: www.oufc.co.uk/tickets/gettinghere/

One step at a time

Hey all,

Few things to say in this post. I'm really happy with how parkour is going so far this term, it's great to have 12 people at each session when 6 was the average last term, and it seems that some of the newcomers are going to stick around, which is great! I've also found a couple of new locations for sessions so we can increase the variety so we don't get bored now that we're doing 3 sessions each week. Also the OxStu is writing an article about us which I'm told will be in print on Thursday, so we might even get more people joining us after that!

This does give the problem that it's harder to coach a larger group (the recommended ratio and limit for insurance is 8:1, not that it matters because I'm not a proper coach or insured), but that's a fairly nice problem to have and I'll do my best with it and split the group up and/or give more freedom and less structure.

Second thing I've got to say is a couple of announcements. Firstly, the Freemove tour is hopefully coming to Oxford – they're a company which make parkour equipment and they're doing a national tour for publicity and want to come to Oxford. They turn up with some low-loaders and vans and make a parkour park for one day, I went to one a couple of years ago and it was great. It's on the 20^th May 2pm-8pm and there will be sessions coached by proper coaches as well as freedom to play – hopefully we can introduce a load of new people to parkour there too! Still waiting on confirmation of a venue for that though, Oxford is a hard place to find space in!

The second announcement is regarding a parkour project in Faringdon. Called “PumpHouseParkour”, a group consisting of a couple of teenage practitioners parents has managed to find funding and got a lease to turn an old theatre into an indoor parkour venue. It won't be completed until our summer term finishes, but hopefully we'll be able to use it sometime next year - it's a ~40 minute bus ride or drive away but sounds like it's going to be pretty good! This also means that there is a parkour coach not too far away who we might be able to get to come to Oxford, but that's just an idea at the moment.

Apart from that, I just thought I'd share a reflection I've had the last couple of weeks. Over the Easter break I managed to learn a couple of new tricks which I've now managed to do outside, and looking back on it, I've realised that I've got to a level of parkour that I'm quite happy with. I can remember when I started out with parkour I had massive mental blocks with doing flips and a few times was considering giving up (I took a half-year break at one point) and saw some of the things I can now do as really difficult and scary, but without noticing I've brought myself up to that level I looked up to. I'm not claiming to be great, but I've got to a stage that I had doubts I would get to, which makes it encouraging looking to the future about what else I'll find myself able to do.

With this, I had the thought that although it's nice to have a vision of where we want to get to, that can often limit us by making it seem too far away. Instead, what's important is that we keep improving ourselves and making continuable progress. Often we don't notice the change as it's gradual, until we go back somewhere and have vague memories of something which is now done with ease being difficult at some point – I know that's what's happened with me. It's also important not to get stuck in a rut – focussing on one particular thing or movement might get us stuck, but forgetting about it and coming back to it after doing some other things often helps. I tried learning backflips for three to six months, then gave up on them for half a year, and when I tried again, the first one I did was the best one I had ever done!

A journey of a thousand miles always starts with a single step – and you're only ever getting one more step further from when you started.

Using time and training smart(ly)

Aged 15, I spent one two-week school holiday doing nothing apart from playing computer games. At the end of it, I felt pretty terrible: I looked back and realised I had wasted two weeks and got nothing out of it. I resolved to do better next holiday, and the following holiday I ran 3 miles every day for two weeks. To begin with, it felt like a chore, but towards the end I was enjoying it. That was definitely better than the wasted holiday, but looking back I could've done better. The point of this post is firstly, to encourage you to use holiday time to train, and secondly, to try to give some tips on how to train well.

I'm sure if you sat and thought about it, you'd agree that it would be beneficial to exercise - it probably isn't too much of an exaggeration to say that during holidays we waste a lot of time, and I know I could easily fit in a lot more than I currently do. So what are you waiting for - do it! A couple of weeks of decent conditioning will mean that when it comes to parkour next term, you can spend more time learning and improving and less being tired. So use your will power. Don't procrastinate - if you're watching TV or on your computer and have nothing better to do, do something right now! Or put it as part of your schedule in the morning, either before or straight after breakfast.

So, now that you've got off your bum to do something, what do you do? Whatever it is, make sure you're training smart (or smartly, for those who follow rules of grammar) - at this point my example of running 3 miles each day was not such a good one. Firstly, mix it up: don't repeat the same thing, as while it will be beneficial, the benefits are limited, and without variety it's harder to continue improvement once you reach your first plateau. If you want to get fitter, don't just do continuous running: do interval running, vary your speeds, etc. This applies both to speed work and endurance work (there's more variety than that, but we'll keep it simple). So an example of different sessions that a distance runner might use: 30 minute continuous run, 20 minute fast run, 5 x 2 minute runs (2 minutes break between), 15 x 200m runs (but break it up, so 3 lots of 5 or 5 lots of 3, with a certain time between each 200m - can be 30 seconds or 2 minutes depending on the speed you want to run!), and so on. The same is true for speed stuff: sprinters do sessions which range from 20m to 600m with a variety of recovery.

But we don't simply want to get good at putting one foot in front of the other: this is true for all exercises. For press-ups (for example, a staple upper-body exercise), don't just do as many as you can every day in one sitting - yes, this will help, but a smarter workout would help more. Mix it up between explosive press-ups (for example clap press-ups, but if that's too hard then just try and get a bit of airtime) and slow ones (taking 10 seconds per press up). Make it so that on some variations the most you can do in one go is 3, and on others go up to 15. Also repeat it - don't just do one lot, but give yourself a few minutes rest and go again. So, an example: three sets of press-ups with 5 minutes inbetween, in each set do as many of a certain type as you can. Another way of making press-ups harder is by raising your feet (incline press-ups) so that more bodyweight goes through your arms.

Make sure you're working towards a certain target too. If you want to be explosive, do exercises that work muscles explosively. If you want improve your endurance, do exercises that work that, remembering that what you're working is endurance at a particular strength. For example, if you want to improve your strength, don't do 20 press-ups, as this works the endurance more (it will improve your strength, but not as effectively as something targeted). Instead, find an exercise where your maximum is around 5.

Mix up your exercises too. Don't do standard press-ups all the time - I can think of around 15 different variations on press-up that work the same areas of muscles, but in different ways. Wider or lower hand placement or uneven hand placement, for example. Doing panthers/dive monkeys (same thing, two names - google it!) are also good for this.

As well as mixing up your exercises, make sure you're working the whole body - legs, core (both abs and back), chest, arms, and upper back.

I'm not going to list exercises or plans - there's plenty of information out there - but if you are stuck feel free to ask me anything.

Aside from standard conditioning, get out there and practice parkour! I improved my balance a lot simply by using the road sign at the end of my street - every time I went past it I would jump on it. Either two-footed facing it, taking off one foot facing it (alternating feet), or running from behind it and trying to jump on and carry on running. Once you're on it, walk up and down, turn around, try standing still facing forwards, or even do squats (or one-legged squats!) to practice balancing. Similarly, there's a lot to be done on a simple kerb or wall. Doing ten minutes regularly will make a noticeable difference! Again, if you're out of ideas, search the internet or ask me.

This has dragged on a bit, but hopefully you can see there's a lot you can and should do!

Next Term

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile since any update to the blog and despite my earlier enthusiasm, I don't think that'll change much. But today I've been doing a bit of admin stuff for the group and thought I would write one about next term.

The group started small in Michaelmas, but we persevered and we got to a nicer size in Hilary. Despite needing to train in the snow and the rain, we still had an average of 6 people per session, double the previous term. The people who've been around since the start have really improved and that's really nice to see. The sessions were hopefully enjoyable - I tried to keep the normal ones to a decent standard of variation and fun (as well as hard work!) but we also had a couple of jam sessions, a trip to london, and a games session.

Next term it's going to be more of the same, but increased to 3 sessions a week. I'll try and do a poll closer to the time to decide when they are but it should be a variety of times - weekend and weekday, morning, afternoon and evening, and may change each time. Also, hopefully nicer weather and longer light will improve this. I've also been thinking about what the sessions will be and with 3 sessions there's more scope for improvement and variation.

There will be more conditioning - and this isn't a bad thing! I've been reading a couple of blogs which reminded me of the importance of this, and a phrase often heard is "to be and to last"; also on the London trip, the guys who came remarked that the session run for us by Steve, one of the PKGen coaches in London, was much tougher than our usual ones and that we needed to step up!
Given that we are throwing our bodies into and off hard things in movements they may not be used to we need to make sure they're up to the challenge. It also helps to strengthen our minds to deal with pain and fatigue and give us more resolve. Whether I designate a certain session to have lots of conditioning or just add in bits to each session, I'll try and make sure there's more.

I'll also try and involve more games in our sessions. We had a games session towards the end of last term where we played tag, capture the flag, chase and last man standing. I've used some of the group funds to buy some bandanas which we can use as tags (like tag rugby) or to designate teams for games, so we'll be putting these to good use!

The other minor things is that there's now a membership form which I'll be pushing next term; I'll try and actually get us a committee sorted to help with the admin stuff and prepare to continue the group next year when I'm not around; website update hopefully to be done in the next few weeks; and I'm trying a publicity drive through some newspapers (again) and I'll hit the email newsletters when term starts.

Hope you're all managing to keep moving over the vacation!
Alex

Snow need for an awful pun about the fact we kept training in the snow

It snowed. We still trained. Rugby was cancelled, athletics was cancelled, the libraries shut early (fair enough, they do need to get home), and I'm sure many other sports were cancelled, but parkour was not! And why should we? It's only a bit of snow.

Admittedly in the days before it I was considering not running a session, but then I remembered that we just don't do that. Part of parkour is about adapting to your environment, and weather is just a part of that. I saw a blog post awhile ago about treating different weather as a blessing: you can go to the places that you usually go to, but it's different. The environment has changed. The same way that we shouldn't seek out an easier obstacle for a certain move, we shouldn't expect certain weather. It makes a lot of things more difficult, and we should be glad for the challenge. It helps it to stop being boring when there aren't many good places to train in Oxford.

It also forces you to be technically better. In the dry, you might be able to get away with a poorly angled landing with the grip on your feet, but when it's wet you can't. It's a good way to improve the precision of your movements, and there's also the added mental challenge to go with it. In addition to this, I felt a bit smug about the fact that we were still going when other sports had given up - surely that shows we're better?

Anyway, sessions will continue to be twice-weekly this term. There was talk at yesterday's session of maybe having extra sessions now and then, including possibly a trip a London class (only 1 hour's drive and definitely worth it), an early-morning conditioning session, and a potential social.

Sessions also now cost £2 each, up from £1. This is so that we can start looking a bit more long-term and have a bit of funding to play with, as well as paying off the cost of the website. It could be used for buying a bit of equipment or paying for a coach from london to come and run a session for us. But I'll make it accountable: we currently have £44, and at some point I'll try to sort something out so that we have an actual 'membership' (though it won't exclude anyone, it will mean we have a core of people who are regular) and some elected positions (president, etc). This is all stuff I've said before and I'm repeating it, whoops.

I'm also going on a little publicity drive (email notices and asking Cherwell/OxStu if they want to write about us), so feel free to share the website on your facebook or invite friends individually. Though we haven't got too much space to grow (it starts getting difficult if more than 8 turn up to each session), there's still ample space for more people.

Train safe/see you soon,
Alex

New Term and Training

Yesterday I went to Winterval, which is a day of parkour training and coaching with the ParkourGenerations group in London - there was six hours of exercise with only a lunch break in the middle and today almost every part of my body is aching (including the underside of my mouth, which is odd) held at an outdoor parkour training structure.

I'm back in Oxford this Wednesday so I'll start organising training sessions for the following week at some point. I've had a few people get in touch with me over the holidays saying that they do parkour but aren't interested in coming to coached sessions. I've also realised that having entirely structured sessions means that you only practice things which I tell you to practice, so you don't get to do your own thing as much.

When I started the group I wasn't intending it to be me coaching sessions all the time, I was more expecting to find a couple of people (including some experienced people) to train with (instead of people for me to train). But as it happened, there were beginners wanting to learn, so that's what I did. Maybe I've got slightly too caught up in this and was focusing too much, if not entirely, on this type of training.

I have always been running things based on what people want though - if people want something different that's fine with me, I'm only doing anything based on what other people want. So it's up to you!

Instead of structured sessions where I'm telling you what to do all the time, we could instead do more open sessions (maybe where I run a warm-up but then you're free to do whatever you want, but we stay as a group in a location) or have a 'jam' format (jams are just unstructured where everybody trains however they want). In the more structured sessions I'll also be varying it more so that there are 'open' parts to it where you do you own thing.

There is a caveat though: less structure means more individual responsibility, and for beginners it's often hard to know what to do given less experience and less understanding of the discipline. Lots of people start off thinking it's all about doing more difficult, bigger or stylistic moves and with more open sessions people may end up training in a way which will mean that is more dangerous or progresses and improves more slowly. It's much more important to get really good at the basics before trying to push yourself and equally as important to make sure your body is strong enough too. I've been reading "The Parkour and Freerunning Handbook" by Dan Edwardes (PKGen founder, he was one of the first Brits to start parkour so has loads of experience) and he stresses this, pointing out that tendons and ligaments strengthen a lot more slowly than muscles and pushing yourself too quickly too soon makes you much more likely to get injured in the following months and years. There's also a blog put up by one of the PKGen team (http://www.parkourgenerations.com/blog/ad-infinitum - give it a read!) talking about the importance of stressing the basics and he's observed a lack of understanding by a lot of the parkour community.

Anyway: next term, hopefully more variety in sessions, training with some more experienced people, and also more conditioning! See you in a week or so =)