Summary of 2021

As we come to the end of the year, we wanted to take the opportunity to look back on what we have worked on in 2021. Despite the ongoing restrictions around COVID-19, we have been able to bring the community together in a number of ways and support a few different projects.

In summary, the key highlights have been:

1.  Blog posts – we have kept our blog updated on a regularly basis. It’s been great to get input on our blog post from other members of the community, particularly:

• All of the people that contributed to Nina’s “Sweating the Small Stuff” series;

• Richard Marshall on “Getting Moving Again” and on “Approaching Solo Parkour Training”

• Kel Glaister from Melbourne in Motion on her time living and training in Scotland.

2.  Balance Marathon 2 – the team took part in the Balance Marathon again this year and contributed ~17km to the overall target of 146.6km. The target was smashed by the global parkour community and ~£2,000 was raised.

3.  Movement Card – we have continued to collaborate with Ukemi and Parkour Earth to progress the Movement Card Project.

We have been working with the Finnish Parkour Association and the New Zealand Parkour Association to finalise and publish the Finland and New Zealand Movement Cards 

We are currently working with Parkour UK to finalise the material for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and with the Australian parkour community to finalise content for Australia.

We also prepared a blogpost for Parkour UK to outline the importance of the Movement Card Project.

4. Parkour UK – we have assisted Parkour UK in preparing their funding directory and guidance on setting up a business.

5. North of Scotland Parkour – we assisted the North of Scotland Parkour community in organising the Elgin Jam and Aberdeen Jam towards the end of the year. We have also assisted in setting up Parkour Expression CIC to bring more funding and opportunities to the North of Scotland Parkour community.

6.  Fundraising – we assisted Access Parkour with fundraising at their Room to Move Open Day. The funds raised will allow local children from disadvantaged background to attend parkour classes and is being run in partnership with Active Schools Edinburgh

7.  Gaelic and Parkour Resource – we have been working on an educational Gaelic and Parkour resource, including a vocabulary list.

Despite it being another challenging year due to COVID-19, we’ve enjoyed collaborating with organisations.

What is 2022 likely to bring?

• More blog posts and content!

• More countries being added to our Movement Card database (get in touch if you are interested).

• More parkour activity in the North of Scotland.

• The Gaelic and Parkour Resource being finalised.

• We’re hoping that more international events will be possible, such as Coach Europe.

As always, if you’d like to get involved and/or think we can collaborate on a project with you, please get in touch.

We hope you all have a great 2022!

North Scotland Parkour - Elgin and Aberdeen Jams

It has been a while since parkour communities have been able to organise larger jams, so we were delighted to support the Elgin Jam and Aberdeen Jam earlier this year.

The Elgin Jam took place in September and brought together parkour practitioners from all over Scotland, including Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It was a great day exploring the parkour spots in Elgin and meeting the local community. It was quickly agreed during the Elgin Jam that an Aberdeen Jam should be organised in October.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for a date to be set for an Aberdeen Jam.

The Aberdeen Jam started off with a free introductory workshop led by Sam Gillespie and Kyle Wilkinson (the hosts of the Elgin Jam) followed by a day of training and exploring the Aberdeen parkour spots. Although it rained for most of the afternoon – it was still a great opportunity for the community to come together, meet new people, and train in different places. It just goes to show that the weather doesn’t ruin a jam!

Historically – most of the parkour events in Scotland have taken place within the central belt, but I have always enjoyed events in the north of Scotland. The Aberdeen Jam in April 2012 and the Highland Gathering in October 2013 have been two of my favourite parkour events, so it’s great to see more activity in the North of Scotland again! We’re excited to see what will happen up north next year now that the community is coming together again.

Are you interested in getting involved or supporting the parkour communities up north?

If so, we’d recommend that you join the following groups:

• Aberdeen Parkour

• North Scotland Parkour Community

There will be more exciting things to come from these communities!

What I Learned: Moving to Scotland

Kel Glaister: What I learned training parkour in Scotland 

Kel is a brilliant parkour practitioner and coach who founded Melbourne in Motion. A few months ago, Kel republished our Spider-Man Parkour blog on the Melbourne in Motion site, which was very cool. Kel offered to write us a blog as an exchanged so we jumped at the chance. If you like what they’ve written, go seek her and Melbourne in Motion out on social media (or in person if you’re in Australia!) and give some love. On Instagram, Kel can be found at @kelglaister and Melbourne in Motion can be found at @melbinmotion

Kel, doing what Kel does best, hanging off of grimy urban infrastructure and smiling.

I’m currently living in Melbourne, Australia, where I grew up. But I was lucky enough to live, train and coach parkour in Glasgow for several years. I miss it every day and still think of it as home. I know that my ability to travel and live in a new country was a tremendous privilege. Both because I had access to the financial and other resources required, and because there wasn’t a damn pandemic happening at the time. Maybe it’s a bit gauche to be writing a blog right now about how important travel has been to me and my parkour training, but there are ways to get the same effect without running away to the other side of the world.

So, here are a few things I learnt training parkour in Scotland (aside from how to stick a precision in the wet):

It’s all relative

Leaning into a cliche here, but I’ll start a blog post about living in Glasgow with a bit about the rubbish weather. I first moved to Scotland in a pretty harsh winter; and I had never seen ice on a footpath before. Training that winter, I felt like a baby giraffe most of the time, while everyone else seemed to just know what to do. 

Then I had to come back to Melbourne during summer for a visit and to sort out visa stuff. I thought I was dying, it was so hot. (Spoilers - It wasn’t that hot.)

I’d always known intellectually that what I (and others) could and couldn’t do was relative to circumstances. I don’t think I ever truly understood that until somewhere between the 10th and 50th time falling on my arse on an icy path. 

Comparing yourself to others is maybe the easiest way to feel crappy and unmotivated. Training parkour in Scotland helped me to measure myself against me instead. 

Communities are DIY 

I had several, overlapping roles in the Glasgow and Scottish parkour communities. A regular student at classes, an organiser (particularly with the women’s communities), a coach, eventually roles in governance at the national level. 

How’d I get there? Mostly, by hanging around. 

Remember, decisions are made by those that show up. If you want to be involved (and you don’t have to, it’s a lot of work), ask around. Ask how to become a coach, or how to join a committee.If you’re in Scotland, send an email to Parkour Outreach, I’m sure they have loads of advice. Make your own jams or events or projects. Start discussions that interest you. Hang around, be annoying. It worked for me. 

The difference can be different

I’ve been involved with communities and projects focused on women and gender minorities in several cities now. And I recognise now, that when I first came to Scotland, I expected (unconsciously) that those communities would have more in common than they did. An example that comes to mind is groups that focus on marginalised people: some may welcome allies, others might ask them to stay away.

When marginalised people make their communities (formally or informally), they are always intersecting with culture and happenstance in fascinating ways. There’s no one true way to make space for yourself. 

If you’re a visitor or new to a city, be curious about new communities you meet. It’s better to learn new things than to assume everyone should be doing things your way. 

There is no freedom without support. 

Here’s a story. I broke my leg skateboarding in Kelvinbridge park. It was the simplest little mistake, but, oops! Bone snapped. And you know what happened? My friend took me to the hospital, the NHS fixed me right up, and I went on my merry way (on crutches.) Probably with less stress and paperwork than if I had done here in Melbourne; even though I was an immigrant. 

I know this blog has a mostly Scottish audience, so I won’t flex on people without universal healthcare too hard here. I just want to use it as an example of the systems of support and care we all need, as a prerequisite for freedom. 

I’d say one of the main things that draws many of us to parkour is the freedom it offers; no rules, no timetables, no set paths. But that can sometimes slip gears into an individualistic mindset. The truth is, none of us will ever experience the freedom of movement we so love without the care and support of others. Your coaches and instructors. Your training buddies. Your family. And yeah, even society (and health services.) 

So what did I learn from this story? It made me (all the more) aware that some people do not have the support behind them to ever really feel free. What would have happened if I had chosen to study in New York instead of Glasgow? Would that simple broken bone have meant thousands of dollars of debt? I was able to attempt to learn to skate in my thirties in a foreign country, in part, because I knew I had social support around me if things went wrong. But it’s all a lot more quotidian than that. Some folks do not have the privilege of free movement because police and law enforcement do not support their rights in the same way they do mine, a white woman. Some people do not have the emotional safety and support they need to develop risk intelligence and confidence in their bodies. Some people’s physical literacy was not supported growing up. This is a whole blog post by itself, but my point is, if you’re a coach or leader, and someone tells you that something is impossible or scary for them, even if you think it should be easy, maybe consider what supports they are missing to access that freedom. 

And now??

Very few of us are able to travel as much or as often as we’d like. But, there are cheap, free and accessible ways to gain some of the benefits. For one, you don’t have to travel far. Take a train or bus to the next city and you’ll learn something. 

Social media, while admittedly is generally evil, can be a great way to see how other people move, and think about or teach movement. But you have to be intentional to really open up the horizons: Are you following people who don’t look like you? Are you watching videos by, and valuing the movement of, people of different genders, or ages, or disabilities? Are you following parkour leaders and practitioners from all continents? (I’m working on making videos in Antarctica. I’ll race you there :D)   I was so excited to be able to access parkour and movement classes online, during the height of the pandemic, and many still exist as recorded videos. There are discord servers (jump in on Parkour Earth!) to have in-depth discussions and share experiences. 

I’m currently in a city with more COVID cases per day than ever, and travelling again still seems like a distant impossibility (although I know it’s better in Europe at the moment.). But, while the pandemic has had precious few silver linings, one is that I feel more connected to the global parkour community than ever before.

Movement Card - Get involved!

The Movement Card aims to educate and inform all who have interactions with people in the public domain, and is a collaboration between Parkour Outreach, Ukemi, and Parkour Earth.

The project is picking up momentum and we’ve published cards for Scotland, Finland and New Zealand. We’re now working with Parkour UK to develop the Movement Card project to cover all of the UK jurisdictions as part of their Development Associates Programme.

We wrote a blog post for Parkour UK to cover the common issues faced by parkour practitioners when training in public spaces and what the success of the project would look like. You can read that post here.

In the meantime, Gordon thought it would be helpful to take a moment to reflect on the origins of this project and why it’s important to us.

Origins

Law Degree – 2010-2014

Law has always appealed to me as a mechanism for resolving problems. As an undergraduate law student and a parkour practitioner -  I often thought about how the law applied to my practice of parkour.

One common problem that arose whilst practising parkour in public spaces related to encounters with property owners. We would be told by property owners that it was illegal to be there, that they would be liable if we hurt ourselves, and they would threaten to call the police. This always struck me as odd because the space was open to the public. The reasons given by property owners for us to move on didn’t always seem in line with my undergraduate studies – particularly in delict (tort), property law, and criminal law.

In the final year of my law degree, I pulled all of these points together into my dissertation in law – “A socio-legal analysis of Parkour”. The dissertation looked at whether practising parkour in public spaces was illegal and also why the public may perceive parkour as illegal. If you’re interested in reading the full dissertation – you can download it here

Movement Card – 2014-Present

Around the same time, David Banks was working on a concept called the Movement Card – a pocket sized card that had your legal rights relating to public space on it. I worked with David and a few others to boil down my 10,000 word dissertation into as few words as possible. The result was the first Movement Card.

The first Movement Card was well received by the Scottish parkour community but it didn’t go much further than that at the time. David went on to work on other projects, whilst I went on to coach parkour full-time and then start a career in law.

Fast forward to 2018 and David and I came together again - this time as Ukemi and Parkour Outreach - to bring this project back to life and take it to a global scale with the support of Parkour Earth.  But this project needs the support of the global community in order to take it further.

Why get involved?

The Movement Card started off as a way to address the imbalance of power between property owners and parkour practitioners in Scotland. It empowered practitioners to understand their rights in public spaces and dispelled a lot of the misconceptions held by property owners. It can be really beneficial on a local level to understand the rights within each jurisdiction.

On a global level, it gives us an opportunity to draw comparisons between different jurisdictions on the right to move and the freedom of movement. This can then be used as a basis to advocate greater freedoms for individuals and rebalance the power between property owners and the individuals that use public spaces.

But in order to get to this point – we need more countries to get involved to create a global database.

Will this be an easy task? No.

Is it a worthwhile endeavour? We certainly think so.

If you’re interested in getting your country involved – please get in touch with us and we can help you to take the first steps and guide you through the process.

Spider-Man parkour: with great power comes great responsibility

Spider-Man has got to be the ultimate parkour superhero, right? He’s forever running up walls, leaping and swinging between buildings, seeing his city from angles that no-one else does. He’s maybe closer to the police than a lot of us, but still finds himself in plenty of scuffles with law enforcement and grumpy passersby who don’t appreciate what he’s trying to do. 

And unlike a lot of people with power in the real world, Spidey gets taught early on that his power comes with great responsibility and does his best to use it for good. He works with and for the little guy to make the scales a little more balanced. Spider-Man understands that some people have too much power and others not enough. And he sees time and time again in the villains he fights that power tends to corrupt unless it’s shared. 

I’ve always been interested in, and eventually studied, politics, which is also about power. About who has it and what they do with it. And parkour, for this nerd, has always been political. Not in a did-you-vote-red-or-blue way or a complicated-schisms-and-theories way, or even a they’re-all-the-same-anyway way, but in an everyday way. 

We can use parkour and freerunning to think about who has power in different situations, and to do something about it if we want to.

Examples of Power

An obvious example is a security guard or police officer forcing you off a spot. At that point, they have the power and you don’t. But who gave them that power, and why are they using it to kick you out when you’re just trying to improve your skills or get some good footage? 

(The Movement Card project that we’ve developed with Ukemi and Parkour Earth is a practical tool to try and help rebalance the power of parkour practitioners in those situations. You can check it out at the following link: https://www.mvmnt-card.com/)

A less obvious example is the power we can have as practitioners. Especially in a group. Even without meaning to, our attitudes and actions can have a range of impacts on the people and places around us. We touched on the difference between democratising spots and appropriating spots in our Litter Pick blog, and we have that choice every time we go out to train.

We can introduce new people to parkour, or scare passersby away. We can create welcoming spaces, or make our spaces exclusive. We can bring different people together for new experiences, or reinforce segregation. 

Democratising Spaces

If we want to follow Spider-Man’s example and use our powers for good, we can start by asking ourselves some questions.

Where are the best spots for training in your community? Are they places you would spend a lot of time in if it wasn’t for training? Do you know much about the other people who use the space, and what they do there? Is it easy or hard for you to get to your favourite training spots? What was the space designed for originally? 

Understanding how other people use spaces and how those spaces came to be can help us democratise those spaces, rather than appropriate them. 

For example, lots of big parkour spots in Scotland are in or near university campuses. For lots of people, especially if no-one in your family has been before, universities can seem quite distant, or even intimidating. Not “for” you, or for people who look or sound “like you”. Now, imagine how much less intimidating university would seem if you already knew the campus inside and out from training.  You know all the secret spots and shortcuts. You know when campus is busy and when it’s quiet. You know how to talk and share space with security, students and lecturers to keep training without getting kicked off.  

The Edinburgh Parkour community have used Bristo Square at the University of Edinburgh as the main meeting point for their Saturday jams for over a decade!

You already feel like you have a right to be there, because you’ve exercised that right. You, and the people you trained with, have helped to democratise those spaces. You’ve changed your own perceptions, but you’ve also changed the perceptions of the people you’ve interacted with. They’ll have a better idea of what parkour is. They won’t be as quick to judge someone “like you” or anyone training. 

And if a university campus doesn’t sound intimidating to you, then maybe you were someone who was warned growing up that certain areas of your town were “dodgy”. Maybe you heard rumours about gangs and drugs, and thought that certain streets or estates weren’t for people “like you”. But it turns out one of the sickest spots you know is in one of those areas, and so you learn to share that space and share parkour with people who you might never have met otherwise. You’ve used your power, not to wreck someone else’s home or neighbourhood, or to start an argument, but to show appreciation and possibilities in a place that too often feels ignored or neglected. 

Parkour vision gives us the thrill of seeing endless opportunities for movement and play where other people just see a jumble of walls and railings. It gives us a sense of ownership over spaces that other people might feel uncomfortable in, or just rush through without paying much attention. It opens our eyes, sometimes literally, to our immediate environment and the wider world beyond. It’s an awesome power and it comes with responsibility, but sometimes it can change lives for the better.

Friendly neighbourhood Spideys unite!

Balance Marathon #2

On Mental Health Week (10-16 May 2021), Ukemi Project got the global parkour community to come together to balance to equivalent of the Nullarbor Straight – one of the longest straight roads in the world that stretches 146.6km (91 miles).  The aim of the challenge was to raise awareness of mental health and to raise funds for two mental health charities – Free Your Instinct and Parkour Visions. You can find out more about Ukemi and their other work at the following link: https://ukemi.ninja

Needless to say – the 146.6km had been absolutely smashed by the global parkour community. The total distance is currently at 228km and there are more distances still to be submitted!

You can donate via the Ukemi GoFundMe page: https://gofund.me/4a472e47

Our contribution

Last year, in the first Ukemi Project Balance Marathon, 28 people from across the world walked on a rail to contribute towards an overall goal of 26.2 miles. Gordon and Daniel took part in this challenge and you can read more about their experiences in these blog posts: Gordon blog Daniel blog.

Parkour Outreach were delighted to be one of the event partners to support the event this year. Overall, the team managed to accumulate just under 17.5km towards the overall goal (with the assistance of Richard Sue!).

Here are some thoughts from the team:

Nina: As someone who’s not been training much through a combo of injury, lockdown and fluctuating mental health, it was the most parkour training I’d done in a couple months and I loved it. I always find something satisfying and restorative about balance related challenges and this was a good reminder of that. Although I was surprised how much I would get distracted just by people walking by! I don’t think that would’ve bothered me before but we’ve probably all got a bit more wary and hyperconscious of other people in your space.

Daniel: Let’s be honest, walking 5 kilometres in general is often tough enough let alone the absolute challenge that is walking 5 kilometres while balanced on a railing. Despite this, the experience proved to be enjoyable and realistic while also providing a sense of community that isn’t always common with charity events. The chosen activity was perfectly symbolic of the struggle that some folk cope with in regards to their mental health and I can’t wait for next year’s marathon.

Gordon: Completing 5km of rail balancing was physically exhausting and mentally draining. The mental battle was the toughest part – I went through sporadic bursts of frustration and doubt sporadically between moments of calm. Eventually, I managed to stay focused and calm. Instead of focusing on the end goal of 5km, I focused taking one step at a time, and keeping my breathing consistent. I’m also incredibly grateful that Danny and Richard were walking 5km alongside me – it made a big difference!  

What’s next?

It’s been amazing to see the global parkour community rising up to the challenge and raising awareness for mental health. The original target has been smashed and the event  has come a long way since the 26 miles last year! What will Balance Marathon #3 bring? Either way. We’re looking forward to it!

If you’re thinking of organising a similar event – we’d love to hear from you and support where we can.  

Approaching Solo Parkour Training

Community is such an important aspect of Parkour, so why on earth would you opt to train on your own?

Personally I have found it very helpful in quite a number of ways. The first is when I am getting back into movement after an enforced break, as I’ve written about in another post. However that’s not the only time. For many years before the pandemic stopped classes and jams I’d been travelling extensively for work, preventing me from training regularly. 

Business travel sounds glamorous, but it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of early mornings, long days in enclosed offices, late restaurant dinners, sleep in a nice hotel, repeat. No fresh air and an ever growing waistline. It becomes unhealthy no matter how luxurious it all is. And boring and lonely if you are not travelling with colleagues. 

Finding even small challenges around the office or hotel meant that I could channel some basic movements. I’ve jumped around hotel car parks, walked along office fences and vaulted over walls on beaches with pacific waves crashing in the background. The best was discovering a fitness trail a short trot away from a hotel where I drilled skin-the-cats and spinning on bars until I was completely comfortable with them. Because I was there on my own I was able to take as long and as many attempts as I needed without holding others back. 

And that’s important for me. It takes me a long time to learn physical sequences and I worry that it will annoy others. I’m sure I’m wrong, but it’s still a concern. Being naturally distracted it is helpful for me to have the ability to just do the same move over and over and over again until it sinks into muscle memory. The freedom to be boring. The freedom from being considerate of others, no matter how much I realise that they would be supportive and forgiving. Removing that concern helps me focus on the minutiae of the move, something which is neither natural nor easy for me. 

There are disadvantages of course, beyond the lack of the companionship that makes training with others so valuable. The most obvious is the lack of supervision - there is no one there to help improve technique. That’s why solo training works best at drilling something that you sort of know but need to perfect. It also helps to video yourself and review the video to see how well you are doing. You can share it with friends for feedback or compare it with YouTube videos. I used this approach to improve - I won’t say perfect - my Parkour rolls during lockdown. While I was initially happy to just land and roll without hurting myself I knew that the rolls were terrible and blind repetition was not helping. Recording my ignominious squintness enabled me to correct it. Mainly. Still progress to be made, but that’s the joy of Parkour.

Always have a small tripod and an adapter for a phone with you. That way you can set up a clear steady shot capturing the required field of view. I found watching myself after a couple of attempts really helped tune my movement. There are also automatic tracking devices but I found that they aren’t yet fast enough to track runs and jumps although they can help with slower moves. Nothing’s as good as a patient person holding the camera, but that’s not always possible.

A hazard is the potential for injury without anybody to help. For this reason I am always careful to set myself a realistic target and stick to it. It is satisfying to meet the target, but by pacing the activity it minimises the risk of injury. It really is not a great idea to train on your own in a place where you might fall badly and not be discovered. 

Another risk is simply doing too much. It’s natural to stop and chat, to compare moves, to watch the others when there are others to watch. When training on your own you need to pace yourself, remember to breathe, take drinks, and rest. It is all too easy to get stuck in a loop trying to achieve something and get worse instead of better. A short break and it becomes easier again.

I have three other rules that I always follow. The first is forcing myself to do a complete warm up, as reinforced by the Sweat the Small Stuff interviews. The second is to carry a first aid kit, something which I’ve done since a literally bloody shinjury. The third is I try and find private places away from others. I don’t like the idea of disturbing residents and I find myself all too willing to argue futilely with security people, but the real motivator is to not have people asking what I’m doing or the inevitable shouts of “hardcore Parkour.” That even happened repeatedly when I was drilling wall runs on a beach on holiday! 

While I am really looking forward to getting back to classes and continuing my one-to-one training sessions I know that I will still take time for solo training going forward. Classes will show me what I need to do, but the solo time will allow me to work it until it flows. Best of both worlds.

How do you feel about solo training? Like it? Hate it? Any tips? Let us know!

Getting Moving Again

Restarting Parkour after a break

I was going to write this anyway, but the First Minister’s announcements earlier this week allowing outdoor classes to proceed in Scotland makes restarting Parkour practice immediately relevant. It’s also worth noting that I am not a trained coach, but this is what I have found works when getting moving again.

There are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to keep training Parkour. Injury is the most obvious, but heavy work schedules, academic deadlines, travel, mental health challenges and even really bad weather are all good reasons. Obviously the pandemic is also a valid reason for not being out jumping. Whatever the reason, there will be periods in everyone’s lives when it’s not possible to get out and move. 

I think we all get into a rhythm of training and keeping in that groove is much easier than starting it. I’m not talking about overcoming the nervousness of joining a first class; that’s a topic for another post. My own pattern had grown over the last four years from one class to several a week, frequently interrupted by business travel. Alas it is just as easy to adopt a pattern of collapsing in front of endless YouTube videos and batch eating chocolate.

So how do we break back to active relaxation from sedentary? 

You are likely to need some mental trigger, but the key is hearing that trigger. Whether you listen to your body or your partner, it’s likely that there are changes for the worse from before the break. This awareness will grow to the point where its deafening roar will drown out the siren song of sloth. That’s the trigger point where it becomes easier to get started than to ignore the need. 

Having been through this process several times, I know how I do it. I start by running. I’m not a good runner and don’t enjoy it. I also get easily distracted and find I’ve stopped to look at something more interesting than pounding along. However not only is it an excellent gauge of your base fitness, it requires nothing more than putting on trainers and going out the door. A gentle jog to get moving doesn’t even really need a warm up, although you should definitely do one. I like to get my creaking old knees and ankles warm before engaging in what is always a jog-walk. But the strange thing is that despite any physical pain, it feels good. I like to set small targets for myself such as “run to the end of road” and I occasionally shout “all the way in” at myself, a phrase I learnt from my first personal trainer. 

It may be easier to run with others, I don’t know as I’ve not tried it. Those first couple of short runs of getting moving again are slow and my frequent stops would be disruptive for others while a constant cadence would probably be damaging. I find it easier to encourage myself by thinking that I have started on the journey back to fitness. I also find running more of a challenge against which to push. I’ve never felt the need to push when cycling, for example, but everyone will have a different hill to climb. Perhaps literally.

Once I figure I can actually run on and off for a meagre couple of kms I start bringing in some jumping and vaults. Small jumps as both my muscles and nerves have grown slack, but small jumps lead to longer ones and more confidence. Same with walls. Whatever level you were at, take a step back and do the easy stuff first. It will make you feel good both mentally and physically. I drill the basics on my own until they sink into muscle memory. I like doing this on my own at first as I’m free to do as many simple things in the same place as I need without limiting other people’s training.

A few weeks into the first lockdown I emerged from the house to the deserted world outside after working continuously at my desk. I adopted the above plan and was one of the first people back out training. I am fortunate to live beside a number of lovely places to train which were at the time devoid of others. After a few weeks and as restrictions eased I was comfortable enough with my own level to train with another person. And when finally classes came back on, I was ready.

At the beginning of 2020 I was looking at what I might be able to achieve, Parkour wise, in the year. I was thinking about four targets: plausible, straight Parkour rolls from higher jumps, higher wall runs, longer jumps and the big one was definitely cracking kongs. With my restart time I’ve already managed two of those: relatively straight rolls and slow but effective wall climbs above my height. Jump distance has, however shrunk and that’s definitely a target along with weight loss to achieve it. And yes, I’m hoping again that I might manage authentic kongs this year. How neither of these goals would be achievable if I had not been already out drilling the basics. 

We’d love to know how you get moving again after a break, for whatever reason.

Sweating the Small Stuff pt. 5: Duncan

That’s it! This is the last installment of our Sweating the Small Stuff series. The weather’s brightening up here in Scotland, the days are getting longer, and there are signs we might be able to train in groups again by early summer. Hopefully, all the different answers here will be food for thought, whatever might be ahead. 

If you’re wondering how this all started, you can read the first Sweating the Small Stuff blog at the following link: https://www.parkouroutreach.com/new-blog/sweating-the-small-stuff-pt1

Last, but very much not least, we have the mighty Duncan answering questions. He says “I started parkour late in life and discovered how much I couldn't move despite being fit. At the age of 51 I became an assistant coach and spent time trying to develop the scene in Aberdeen, exploring the city and learning a holistic approach to my health. Can't beat a chilled balance session and doing "weird stuff" in the name of training.”

Duncan Munro

Duncan’s sitting on a rock in the middle of some woods with bright green ferns all around. He’s smiling, has dark hair and a short beard. Duncan’s wearing some dark shorts but the rest of his clothes are bright cheerful colours - a blue t-shirt, red socks, and shoes with a bright yellow design.

I love Duncan’s short and sweet answers, he’s truly a master of the small stuff. In the space of a few words he sparked off loads of ideas that I now want to bring into my training. I definitely need to get my hands on some chalk that isn’t just for grip!

[INTERVIEW STARTS]

What’s the small thing you always do while out training, or should always do but forget?

Duncan: Warmup and start gentle. The mind needs to warm up too. 

What small thing do you always make sure you have with you?

Duncan: Chalk - gives an option to play games in the environment 

What small thing do you know will always affect your training?

Duncan: Attitude...always set out with an open mind and positive attitude. 

What small thing do you focus on or try to remember when you hit training plateaus?

Duncan: Progress is rarely a straight line. There are setbacks and plateaus - it’s all part of the journey. Find a different task to focus on for a while then revisit the activity that plateaued. It might now be possible to progress. 

What small thing has helped you cope with injury in the past (or now)?

Duncan: If the cause of the injury is not immediately obvious try to find the cause rather than just treating the symptoms.

What small thing has helped you cope with the pandemic in the past year?

Duncan: Knowing that humans are very resilient and can overcome challenges. We will get through this.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Thank you to Duncan, Maebh, Seb, Evie, Jem, Emily and Scott for taking part, and thanks to everyone reading too. Train safe, have fun, look after each other. We hope to see you all soon!

Sweating the Small Stuff pt. 4: Maebh and Seb

One of the great things about parkour is how it can give us something in common with people we might normally never get to know. We still have a lot of work to do when it comes to making parkour as inclusive as it could be, but I’m sure we can all think of someone who we’d have never crossed paths with, if it wasn’t for parkour. This instalment is an Edinburgh special, and even though we all live in the same small city, I have a sneaking suspicion that if it wasn’t for parkour, we would never have met these interviewees, and they would never have met each other.

The first Sweating the Small Stuff blog can be found here, if you’re wondering what all this is about: https://www.parkouroutreach.com/new-blog/sweating-the-small-stuff-pt1

This week, we’re lucky enough to have Maebh and Seb answering our questions. Maebh had her first parkour class about 2.5 years ago following in her kids’ footsteps. She told us: “I loved how playful and included I felt in the class. I went from one class a week to nine classes a week! Parkour has helped me work through a lot of emotional and physical issues. An abusive partner eroded my belief in my mind, body, and judgement so trusting myself to make good decisions and others to see my value has been difficult. Parkour practice and the open encouraging community has been incredible for building back my confidence in myself and others.

Maebh

In this photo, Maebh is in her natural habitat, smiling and climbing a tree. Maebh is surrounded by leaves, perched on a branch and is wearing dark joggers, a bright red top and and a bright orange headband. This photo comes courtesy of Access Parkour and @Garvey_PK

Before parkour I had physical complications after giving birth to my kids, and I have hypermobility syndrome. My doctor said I could not do sports anymore. Not even running for the bus was allowed. The pain got worse and my movement became more restricted as a consequence of inactivity. So when I first tried parkour I was nervous of doing myself a mischief. It may seem counter-intuitive but I now have far less pain than I had before parkour. With amazing coaching I have learned about physical longevity, strengthening the muscles around my joints to help support and stabilise them better, and how to avoid injury. I feel like I have learned so much about my own mind and body through parkour practice.”

Seb koci

An action shot of Seb in the air, preparing to land a tricky precision jump to a rail. Seb is in front of a red sandstone building, with one leg reaching out towards the landing. He’s wearing light trousers and dark top.

Seb likes big jumps and boogying. He’s travelled the world with Brewman but for some reason decided to move to a cold grey corner of Scotland. You can check out his big jumps in cold and warm climates on instagram @seb.brewman

Shout out to Access Parkour in Edinburgh for bringing Seb to Scotland and Maebh to parkour so we could get to meet them both :)

[INTERVIEW STARTS]

What’s the small thing you always do while out training, or should always do but forget?

Maebh: Joint mobility warm-up which I do usually always remember, even if training on my own. But this should be bookended with a stretch cool down which I rarely do out with a class environment. As when jamming or solo training I usually do one last try / challenged and then go for coffee or food etc… Having a light cooldown stretch is such a good time for me to do a body audit after training. Especially as I have Hypermobility, I can injure joints quite easily by going beyond useful range without it hurting me AT THE TIME. It is later on or another day I feel the pain. A gentle stretch cooldown not only helps mentally and physically wind down from the adrenaline of training. It also gives me a quiet check in with my joints to see if an ankle or shoulder has tightened of gotten clicky with the training I've done, so I can take care measures before it becomes painful.

Seb: A bonus rep! Once I bang out a new jump, I like to try and do one more for luck. It helps refine the tech and make the challenge feel complete. Although due to complacency or laziness it doesn’t always happen. Movement-wise, I always try to build in some pistol squats to make sure my knees are feeling good before taking any impact.

What small thing do you always make sure you have with you?

Maebh: Tissues, outdoor training makes my nose run, so even before the pandemic I ensured I had tissues for me and others; Lip balm and water for hydration comfort; Antibacterial gel or wipes for basic wound cleaning / if you end up with your hands on a gross surface and now pandemic reasons; and Phone in case you want to record any of your training is the bare minimum. If I'm training with my kids I also have to have snacks, phone chargers and payment card to cover any other eventuality.

Seb: For training, a speaker. Music brings a lot of energy to a session but I hate training with headphones. It’s good to have music on in the background with friends. So long as you’re not being an obnoxious nitty about it 😉

What small thing do you know will always affect your training?

Maebh: Mood, emotional state and other things going on in my life always affect my training for good or bad. It is not something I try and deny or avoid but it is important to be aware of just how big an emotional baggage you have on your back when out training. As it can be like a virtual weight or obstacle for you to work on. Or if you are mega happy as you are out training with friends, judging yourself by their progress, you could push yourself too far to keep up or level up. Personally I know I am more likely to hold myself back when training than push too hard because of how emotional pressures affect my confidence.

Seb: Who I’m with can affect me, especially in changing what I’m interested in training on any one day. With some people, it’ll be more playful, but with others it’s more challenge-based. On my own I tend to do more drill or challenge based training.

What small thing do you focus on or try to remember when you hit training plateaus?

Maebh: I remind myself how far I have come with my physical strength, movement, and confidence. If I can stretch for movement it is likely that comes from natural ability or my Hypermobilty condition. If I can do a strength, power or control movement then it is hard fought and hard won and I remind myself of those achievements. It may not be impressive along side someone else's movement but compared to where I was a few years ago my progress has been huge. I regularly reflect on what I can do now that seemed impossible before, so that encourages me to work towards more movement progress.

Seb: Switching things up helps a lot. I try and find enjoyment in a different type of skill, it doesn’t have to even be training. Sometimes you’ve just got to shift your energy onto something else and then come back. And don’t be too hard on yourself! Flips were a big focus for me last time I felt I was plateauing.

What small thing has helped you cope with injury in the past (or now)?

Maebh: Focusing on what movement you are able to do with your injury, not just pining for what you can't do. Because I have hypermobility I can get joint injuries quite frequently and without even a dramatic fall etc… When I first started handstand practice for example I threw one of my hips out of place just kicking up to handstand. So for six months or so I could only kick up with my good leg. But I worked on strengthening the muscles around the joint on my bad leg so that I can now kick up equally on both sides. Even when you are injured, do still go out to training with friends even if you are only there for the social side of training, as that is important too. There are still non-impact challenges that you may still be able to take part in like balance, handbalance, bridging challenges or just encouraging your pals as they train.

Seb: I guess, similar to the last question. Try to find something else to put your energy into, and hopefully if it’s an injury there are other things you can do that aren’t too debilitating. Find some satisfaction in something else, you know? I’ve started to really enjoy rail strides recently because my elbow’s bust at the moment.

What small thing has helped you cope with the pandemic in the past year?

Maebh: Balance is my go to skill when solo training which has been more common during the pandemic. It helps with my confidence, focus, control and strength building. Its also something I can work on in doors at home. Handstands, single foot conditioning exercises and crawling and plank variations are all possible at home. I know that balance together with strength and conditioning training is my investment for future control, strength and power gains when we get back to 'normal' training.

Seb: Lockdown to start with was hard, I couldn’t find the want to really go out and challenge myself. I didn’t feel like getting too send-y or taking big risks but working on floor flow was good and really helped me when I started doing more flips with it. Recently, I’ve gotten quite into kendama. Has a similar focus and satisfaction to training and scratches the itch that you get from scrolling insta but it’s a nicer way to get some endorphins.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Come back next week for the final Sweating the Small Stuff blog. We hope you’ve got as much out of reading this wee series as we did putting it all together, and look forward to learning and sharing together again in person one day soon.