What it feels like to be free.

Well on Friday practice was fun because we got two of my friends to come and practice with us. Well they invited us to be honest. We were up and out in a minute. After sitting in my classrooms for a week I needed a break. A chance to run again. A chance to feel the flow. So we taught them a lot then went back home. Will spent the night and that morning we went out. Practice seemed like it would stink. We started off not talking. Will went unto a little bridge in the woods and streched while I got on the playground and stretched. My mind was at peace. The breeze was cool, and soothing. After stretching all the muscles we could have we set out slowly practicing hard moves we normally don't do.I would do something and take a minute break then try again. My moves came smoothly and easily. I would breathe in and out slowly and calm myself. There were no words needed. It was understood what we were doing. We were feeling what it was like to free your mind. Later we stopped because we felt accomplished. We found some sprinklers and cooled off. Most refreshing thing ever. We walked back with our shirts and shoes off enjoying nature's beauty. It was glorious. It was so relaxing and opened my eyes to this world we have. The world of freedom. The freedom of nature. I wish everyday was like this so I could always escape the problems and stresses of this world. Today I will settle for that practice.

Parkour Shoes

Well the day finally came where I needed new shoes and my parents let me get parkour shoes from five ten. I did my homework on them and found out they are the best on the market. If you ask why I needed them it's because I'm tired of this....

A Tragic Loss.

My day started out well, I went to school, had good classes, talked to all my friends, and to close it off practicing flips at a gym. Then I got in the car to leave. I checked my messages. (taking Kyle's idea click here and listen while you read) I had about a two minute message about my cousin Mike's resignation. It is a tragic loss. My best partner and my inspiration crushed because his father was so worried about him he thought he would die doing parkour. They don't understand we don't do it for the stunts or the fame. Just the mindset. The mental accomplishes. If only he could stay and not have to leave this beautiful world that we so cherished. We hadn't had a great relationship till we started parkour. We had hour long conversations on the phone about what we wish to accomplish and what we already had accomplished. Now my phone remains silent. I only have one real partner right now, Will, and I know we can make it through this tough time but it'll be hard. Kyle and I still may go but it won't be the same. Maybe Mike can film for us or something. We will let him edit the movies so he can still have some connection with it. It's like being a Jedi. Even when you leave you are still one with the force. Mike still has the mindset and I know it. You can never truly lose the parkour mindset when you stop. We don't do it for the moves. It's only for the mindset. Mike has broken so many boundaries since he had started but those things he has overcome will never leave him. I also feel bad for Kyle because Mike was his partner for the longest time. They did so much together. If you watch their videos and see them now you'd be pretty amazed they have improved so much mentally and physically. I don't wish to tell Mike good bye from this Parkour world so I won't. It is just understood. "No room for goodbyes in Sparta. No room for weakness." This is the end of Mike's parkour days and we are sorry it had to be this way. We will still get together. It won't be the same. Or will it? Who knows. I'd rather his problem be solved than ours. The parkour world has many obstacles and Mike found an obstacle he can never overcome. No way around it. No way over or under it. He will have to take the sidewalk today. I'm sorry Michael David. May you never forget the times we shared together when we weren't just cousins, we were traceurs. A long time ago I was going to make a movie about a traceur who was on the run, he was solo. That is me today. I am a traceur without his wingman. I haven't missed a day of parkour since Michael David was here about two weeks ago. But today I will not go out and practice, today I will rest, today I will remember.
-Austin

Update on Training

Well training hasn't stopped at all. It's been go, go, go all week long. Front flips, back flips, green flips, blue flips. Sorry had a dr. suess moment. Anywho, it seems practice has gone on a little to long. Got some new injuries for you to here about. First I was doing stuff on bars and I jumped over something and when I grabbed the bar two of my calluses ripped off and it stung like crazy. Then I continued to practice that night. I got front flips down to a science. But I did so many of them and so many jumps I now have shin splints. Dag yo. Anyways with school starting it should heal pretty quickly. I'm going to have to stay off my feet as much as possible till Friday so I can practice back flips. They are so fun especially when I get them on flat ground. We've gotten three times better. Me meaning Me and Will. We actually created a new team and a blog, irmoparkour.blogspot.com . Check it out. Here's a video from our training.

Good or Bad Day?

I can't quite figure it out. My day started out bad. No one could go do parkour with me and I was stuck at home. I practiced front flips only to land on my butt and side. It hurt so badly. I was crushed. Later I went to my friends house to do a backflip. To everyones surprise I spent two hours debating and didn't accomplish it. I just couldn't do it. Yeah it seemed the day had gone wrong. Well about six o clock I called my friend and asked if he wanted to practice. Well we didn't have much time but we went anyways. He did more back flips and I debated again. Only to fail. So we headed to a playground at a school to do some boring but good practice. On our way we found a perfect little front flip spot. I tried and tried again to land it well and to my surprise I got better and better. Finally I started landing on my feet but still close to the ground till I got it right. Then he tried and made it. So we kept walking. I tried it again on this big thing of grass and all I can say is my knees need a day off. Ow. So we went to the playground and did our practice and left. Found some kong spots and a way to get on the roof. Which we will not be doing because it's quite inhabited. So I'd say now my day went bad and good. Here's the summary.

Tomorrow.

Today I wasn't able to get around to doing my back flip cause I had stuff to do. I went to my friends trampoline but there was a net which made it impossible to flip off of. So tomorrow I'm going to a gym to do it so I won't kill myself. I also will get my front flip down. I can pretty much do that now. I hurt my legs practicing it unfortunately when I was practicing them out in my yard. I ran out of energy and landed on my leg sideways. I stopped for now but I'll do it tomorrow night if I get the chance. I must do a back flip though. In order to make my movies look better and become a better traceur this is a must. I will grow slowly but until I do this I must put everything on hold so I can accomplish this goal. It may take a week or a month but I will get it. I am determined to. It is my only goal for now.

Speaking to soon.

This would happen to me. That is my luck. My last blog was about how I conquered my mind and I had no limits. I had no limits. But I figured out what I can't endure. (Had to add batman stuff in this whole thing) My friend (Will) and I went to a school today to practice. It was rainy and wet but we dried stuff off. I did some cool tricks on bars and got really good at it. This is my friend who got the back flip down. Now get this I got him to do it off a trashcan. He did it three times. I knew I had to do it. I got up on the trashcan, the first time not feeling it so I got off. So a minute later I hopped back up. The hop sent the message to my brain to flip. But I didn't flip. So I repeated the motion a few times. Nothing. I never did it. I finally figured out that my mind still has a fear of back flips. Not flips, just back flips. In fact in saying this I nearly landed a running front flip in the wrestling room. It's a start. I'm doing better at that. Tomorrow we are going to his trampoline and trying the back flip. I have to do it. So hopefully tomorrow there will be a video up with me doing a back flip tomorrow. So right now you will have to settle for this. I warn you this video will make you mad if you can't back flip. It simply gives me motivation.

Mindset

Currently my mind is clear. I see it clearly now. Every move, every drop, every jump, everything. I watch my last video repeatedly and see what I need to improve on. I go out and do it. Whenever I'm about to give up on a move, I stop back up and execute it. The move becomes natural and I never think about it. No more pacing before trying. It only leads to failure. Crash and Burn. It's amazing how much better I am when I study and get the mindset back. No more "I can't do this! That's impossible!" I attempt and succeed, and if I do not succeed then I do it again. Maybe I'm not strong enough to do a move, well then I find a strategic way to do it. If I can't figure out how to do it like everyone else, I invent my own way. Parkour is not about everyone else, it's about yourself. You create your own style. If I follow what everyone else does then I look like everyone else. I want to stand out from the crowd and make my own parkour style. I know I can do it, anyone can. You find moves you can do and build on those moves. Do a little of everything but get good at one certain type of moves whether spins, flips, jumps, vaults, whatever. Get good at it and be yourself. Let the traceur within free.

There and Back

Well we went downtown again Saturday and were a little less motivated. We were tired and were messing up like most of our moves. Of course everything cool we found I would get nervous because of our encounter with the cops. So we'd do something and leave quickly. I never did anything risky so I couldn't get any good footage. The day over all went badly but we managed to scrounge up some footage of ourselves practicing random stuff. Also before you watch this video we were practicing and were not executing our moves very well. Plus it isn't meant to be fast pace or smooth. It's practice. If we were filming a real movie I think we would've tried a little bit harder. I will probably start working on our first real video that is fast paced and our moves are smoother and more fluent in winter. I thought you would like to watch a practice video though because I mean seriously who wants to read all day? Not me. I want to see the people in action. So here ya go!

The Traceurs Strike Back

Well today went extremely well. Me, Mike, and Kyle went back downtown for practice. Unfortunately Kyle didn't get any practice, mainly because he is on a cane. Well it went well for Me and Mike. Maybe Kyle got mentally better, possibly worse because he is probably going to hurt himself now because he is so ready to get off his feet again. So we started off by parking at Chick-fil-a and we got change to fill the parking meter. Turns out the meter had 1:13 minutes still on it. So we walked off. Of course a homeless guy asked for the leftover change. Denied. Anyways we meet Kyle as he walked down the Capital building's steps. It felt weird to once again be together since the last time I saw Kyle we were surrounded by campus cops. So we walked on down to a few small spots and did some little tricks to get back the old mindset. It seemed distant but it came to me. We walked to the public library and practiced cat leaps and cranes in this little alley beside the library. It was wonderful. Then I spotted a worker within the library that walked by so we left. We took no chances of being caught. We wandered to Finley park where we practiced everything. As we practiced wall runs a homeless man walked by and said "police". So as we were about to bail the guy goes "You owe me a dollar". Joking of course. We got into deep conversation with the man and he seemed really smart till he started telling all these dumb stories so after about thirty minutes we left. Attempted kong vaults on a table and weren't successful at all. As we went back to the car I tried a wall spin on a pillar and landed it in front of a lot of people. Mike did it after and also landed it. I don't normally like showing off but I felt like a street performer and the people enjoyed it. We did that then left. Good time. Good Day. It truly lit the spark within me once again.