Unique's Parkour Blog

4 Years... Where to now?

2009-08-02T21:05:00.002-05:00

Happy Parkour Birthday to me!

This is just a small assessment of my Parkour in my third year of training.

I remember the first 2 years of my training very "show off" like. Like many new people I was young and thought your skill was determined by the amount of flips you can do or the highest wall you can jump from... I've realized that in my 3 year I focus on my hand, foot, and body placement. Basically my physical awareness or this may be known by some as "the touch" or "sensitivity" of your movement. Without realizing it I slowly started to draw away from the flips and the flare and focus more on my Parkour. Don't get me wrong flips are extremely awesome and fun but I knew that I wasn't prepared to use Parkour if I needed it. These techniques were not helping me to become prepared to save someones life or my own if Parkour would allow me to do so... Beside I have my whole life to work on my flippies. So yea.

HAHA short post... LOL I'm trying to post every Sunday... Guess I'll get better at adding content as the weeks go by... Maybe I'll do every other week. I don't know we will see next week.

Till net time.

Happy training and I love you.

-Unique

7 Days

2009-07-26T12:24:00.003-05:00

Q: 7 days?!?! Till what?!?!

A: Till Aug 2ND.

Q: HA HA very funny. What happens that day?

A: Aug 2ND is the day I started Parkour! This Aug second marks 4yrs of training...

I'll be posting that day with a assessment of my training and goals for the future but In his post I thought I answer the great question: Why do I do Parkour?

I think about this question a lot and a lot of answers come to my mind, I'll limit this to the most important to me...

First and always first I train for my great grandmother. I remember before she passed she would always play connect four with me... I thought nothing of it then but looking back on it, I remember the laughs and many talks we had. I was little then but I learned a lot from her. The most important being how to keep you kid spirit no matter how old you get. This was a woman in her later 70s playing a game of connect four with me. I often cheated but she always won. HA HA I remember the small trash talking we had in between games. Before I knew it, the whole day had passed and I went to bed excited for the next chance I would get to finally defeat her. Sadly one day I would learned that I wouldn't be playing connect four with my greatest role model for that day and the many days to come.

Of course next comes my Family. I love each of them so much and if something was to happen to them I would want to be in a position to help them.

Next comes my friends which I have found are the greatest friends I could ever ask for. Many of them I would have never met without Parkour. I say that because I would have never talked to Chad if he had not had such a interest in Parkour. Once we became friends I met LOLO, Sandy, Andrea, Dion, Anthony, My Yolieosis, and Traci. BTW if you read this I love you! HA HA and I can't forget Chantell, Chelly, and Adri!

Finally, Self expression. Honestly. When I'm training I can get rid of all the angers and frustrations of my life and channel it into something positive. I enjoy proving to people that the human body is far more capable then we think we it is... I love showing that with dedication an hard work you can push you limits further than you thought.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

Love You, Keep Training!

-Unique

Trainings...

2009-07-21T12:48:00.001-05:00

Well summer has been so amazing so far.. I've finally gotten comfortable with Texas, gotten the greatest group of friends I could ever ask for, and one of the most determined training partners ever... Plus my mental game in Parkour seems to be unstoppable... The way I handle fears is amazing and the focus I bring to all my training sessions is awesome.

But...

I do have a few issues I really want to resolve...
My conditioning could be better... More specifically my climb ups and planche... So far I'm working on my advanced tucked planche trying to make a hold up to 1min... If I push I get to 10 sec before I have to rest... Guess it just takes time. I recently started handstand presses and those are looking good I just rep those 4x3 and I hold the normal tucked planche with my weighted vest... As for my climbups I what more explosiveness with my forearms in the technique. It will eliminate the dip when I transition to the top of the obstacle... Plus it will be MUCH faster and cleaner...

So far these are on my list of issue I am currently trying to work on...

Till next time... Happy Training
-Unique

Necrophaggus

2009-07-07T02:06:00.003-05:00

Just made randomly... After toying with the camera decided I might as well edit and upload it... Didn't get much though battery was pretty low.

This explains the title:
Necrophagist: (Greek for "eater of the dead" is a German death metal band, founded and fronted by guitarist/vocalist Muhammed Suiçmez)

The way my friend first said it was necro-fag-us we laugh everyday about that so I just made it the title...

Song: Runnin' by Pharcyde

Focus, Focus, Focus Unique!

2009-05-24T22:42:00.003-05:00

Guess you can say this is a response to my last post where I talked about my improvements and current training schedule. What I want to talk about is "what" I do when I train. Lately I've been observing and writting notes about my past training habits. I've noticed a lot of my training has been very physical and hands on. Usually there is no specific training habits such as drilling a certain movement, or just a certain conditioning schedule. I kinda just go with the flow when I can train. Whatever I feel like doing that day or whatever excersice I feel like sweating over. My point is this I noticed I'm a very hands on physical type a person, but I really wanted to know how my mind was doing. I found trouble in my mental state when I train. I couldn't right off tell you what I do to get over fears, or how keep my dedication up. I discovered I could be so much further in my parkour if I could just keep a 100% focus on my training energy. I would then make my training both longer and more productive. After some thought I came up with a crazy idea I think would help me greatly. This idea is to do 500 of a movement of my choice and complete it within 2 weeks. This would both help me with the muscle memory of the technique and the mental focus it would take to complete it. So I have contructed a scheldule to complete 3 movements within 6 weeks 500 times. Heres the list I guess.

-Monkey Precisions
-Running Precisions
-Catleaps

Besides picking the one movements that would prob mess up my shoes baddly I feel they are also areas I need the most help on. Once a week I will post my progress so expect my next post to be on sunday.

Peace-Love-Lighting
-Unique

OMG, OMG, OMG Unique!

2009-04-15T18:05:00.005-05:00

Hey just a blog update since my last post a lot has changed in my life. I've been released of a lot of obligations and burdens both in pk world and my outside life. Now that I have found some free time, training has been brutal. I host weekly training every Tuesday and Thursday and I'm finally starting to see regular members. I've found through teaching I finally realized how much I've progressed even within the last few months. Watching them dripping with sweat through the warm up while I'm going through it like cake amazes me. Think back over how weak I was a few months ago and how strong I've become now both mentally and physically is so awesome for lack of words.

So far I've been rotating around a schedule and this is what I got:
Sunday:
This day is basically a free day to do what I want. Rest,train, or just teach, I go according to how I feel this day. Sometimes I hit training with the Tapp's at there weekly training.
Monday:
I try to keep this day for conditioning and training alone. My conditioning consist of normal calisthenics with my weighted vest A.K.A. BETTY.
Tuesday:
Weekly Training: Just focus on teaching that day. Condition calisthenics without vest for a muscular endurance workout at night.
Wednesday:
Condition with vest along with parkour circuits for endurance.
Thursday:
Weekly Training: Just focus on teaching that day. Condition calisthenics without vest for a muscular endurance workout at night.
Friday:
Training at night alone. May go to open gym.
Saturday:
Condition without vest and train with friends.

Well this is it. I LOVE EVERYONE. Stay EZ.
-Unique
PS: Oh,and Happy New Years guys lol.

Training, Injuries, and Conditioning.

2008-11-03T20:11:00.002-06:00

Well I have been doing what I've said been working a lot more on conditioning my body than training. I have to say I like how this is going the schedule of which I am using is working out nicely.

The only really problems have been that fact that sometimes when I have a training day I still feel sore in my shoulders. So I am going to have to move my conditioning of my upper arms to the day I work my core and flexibility. (Post my schedule when I have more time.)

Now for injuries I have a major problem in my left knee when I land from a jump I feel pain in my knee from 1-10 I would say 5-6 in pain (10 being highest.) I believe this is a symptom of jumpers knee. Though I am not completely sure.

So as a result my training will come to a halt thought my conditioning will not I will take it easy on my left knee.

-TTYL
Unique Mothaf#@ka!

Can't believe I forgot!

2008-10-09T14:13:00.005-05:00

I've just noticed that since Aug 2, 2008 I've being training for 3 years now. Usually I look back and figure out where I should go next, what moves I want to go for, my current state of mind and body, etc. For this year I really want to pursue a more conditioned body. I used to just incorporate more parkour than conditioning but I really want to change that to more like parkour maybe 1-2 times a week and conditioning 4-5 times a week. I also want to start trying more new move and technique as opposed to last year where I focus on the little mistakes in my basics and some flips. This may be pretty hard to do considering that I progress much slower than many people I know, not to say I'm trying to catch up but I feel I could be doing more as far training wise.

-Post more on the subject later
-Unique

Trip to Nebraska

2008-08-11T10:42:00.001-05:00

Recent Training

2008-07-22T22:13:00.002-05:00

Been a while since my last post have a few things to say.

Recently I been in Nebraska feels good to training in a new place... Just to mix things up. Anyway I get back Thursday and I'm currently editing the video from my adventures. I'll post that up when I'm done. Rather than that I've just been conditioning like crazy. Currently stopped using the gym and have switch to a weighted vest I purchased. I feel it allows me to workout the muscles I use in my trainings better than a workout gym. I'm just starting to see big changes in my strength and endurance if you guys disagree in my conditioning approach. shot a comment at me. The only new move I've been working on is standing gainers still working the confidence to try outdoors.

That's it for now.
-Peace

Back in action.

2008-06-26T23:34:00.004-05:00

Finally started training again after badly bruising my collarbone. I discovered that I have lost a lot of strength and currently putting my training on hold till I reach the level of conditioning that I once had.

-So still taking my conditioning slow until I reach where I left off.

Next:
I'm planning my trip to Nebraska for July 1st. The parkour community there is growing slow but still growing. Hopefully I can show them some things and they can do the same.

It for now.
PEACE LOVE
-unique

DFW Training Vid

2008-06-07T14:09:00.000-05:00

Just a little video.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8cJ026YwDlI

Ouch!

2008-06-07T14:08:00.001-05:00

The other day I was training with a friend the day was almost over so as his ride was picking him up I decided to train my gainers. Was not any problem with I was landing them pretty well so I so I wanted to take it to another level. I had been eye balling this drop not that big maybe 3feet. I walked up to it a little nervous so I decided to do it on a smaller drop I found I'm guessing 9/11 inches. I landed perfectly so I moved up to 1 1/2 feet. It took maybe 3min to work up the courage. When I ran up to it I slipped still trying my best to stay calm held my tuck thinking I can manage to land on my knees and hands, but I ended up landing on my left collarbone leave a very bad bruise. Hurts so much guessing ill won't be training for a few weeks to a month. I have full use of it but in certain positions I feel very bad pain. It was hard to sleep the first night but I'm slowly getting better. Guess I'm just letting you guys know and warning you at the same time train and check your foot placement and all the time now matter how well you do the technique or how safe you think you are.

Knee Problems ( OMG WHAT NOW )

2008-05-13T19:20:00.000-05:00

Seems no matter how hard I try can not get my knee in order. Been conditioning them like crazy but I always seem to have a pain ( scale from 1-10 it would be 3 10 being the most pain full ). Occurs on the side of my left knee and the lower part of the knee cap on my right. I believe I may have a small case of runners knee on my right. Though I'm not sure about my left. Anyway trying to bring them back to good health. Slowing down on my leg conditioning and instead doing rail balance drills and squats to keep them under control.

Traceur By Day, Ninja By Night.

2008-05-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

Few days ago decided to train at night. I was doing the usually vaults, wall runs, etc. I came back in to look at the computer. See I was thinking about my training and realized that I never trained barefooted though there are a lot of plus sides to doing so. After watching you tube videos and reading articles. I finally decided to try, at 10:30 at night.

When I first tried a few vaults they seem to be really easy and so I didn't focus on them to much. Instead I tried some rail balancing drills. I soon realized that it was hard with no shoes than I expected. Before I knew it a rail that only took me a couple of minutes to walk back and forth was now taking a hour of hard work and sweat ( Yes, Sweating ). Eventually I started think of what I was doing wrong. After many times of in completion I realize that I was leaning to much on the right side of my heel on my right foot. This was something I could have never discover if it wasn't for the sensitivity of my barefoot. Though it still took a while of changing something I have been doing for two years. I finally achieved walking back and forth on a long rail ( maybe 15 feet, long it's pretty long. ) 4 times without falling once. I was so hyped. And ready to move on to my next challenge.

So I looked around trying to find out what I should do next. I was passing by a wall at that time not that large maybe 7-8 feet up. I thought I should give this a go. As I was doing this a few times I found out how pain full it was. I was stunned on why it was hurting so much. So I changed my technique and tried not to put my foot on the wall so hard. The pain stopped but I was getting over the wall much slower than usually. I finally decide to give it another go like I normally did.... No pain. I did it again... No pain. I was shock that I was not feeling pain and I was not trying to change my technique. So I tried again... Pain I suddenly realized that I was springing up the wall on the toes of my foot. Not the Ball. When I used the ball of my foot I felt no pain and sprung up it a lot more efficient. I found that the constant toe sprain I constantly got was from improper form. And I quickly caught on to the new technique. Again I never would have known this without barefooted training.

Peace in the middle east!!! LOL

-Unique

Dallas Training Photos

2008-05-07T18:54:00.000-05:00

Training in Downtown Dallas took some pics here they are.... Atleast mine anyway LOL.

Dallas Morning News Parkour Article

2008-05-07T18:46:00.000-05:00

Recenly did a article for the Dallas Morning News:

Video Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/local_state/index.html?nvid=238969&shu=1

Article:

Jonathan Tapp sprints toward the 10-foot stone wall as if he'll run right through it.
At the last possible moment, he hits the brick with his foot and springs to the top. Grabbing the ledge with his hands, he pulls himself up and over to the other side.

Gone in a blink.

Mr. Tapp is summoning his inner Spider-Man, spinning, climbing, leaping and bouncing off urban architecture like it's his personal playground. It's called freerunning, an art form that combines the athleticism of gymnastics, the mental discipline of martial arts and the daredevilry of a stuntman.

Think Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum, or the opening scene of Casino Royale.
Freerunning evolved from a less-flashy European form called parkour.
Whereas parkour is meant for the actor, or traceur, to move from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible using physical skill and cunning, freerunning involves the same fluid efforts but with flips, twists and spins.

This is a sport without bounds. It attracts those who want the freedom to roam.

"I played basketball and all those other sports. There's nothing difficult about a ball and a hoop," said D'Ondrai Jones, a 16-year-old from Duncanville. "In freerunning, you're constantly pushed to your limits. That's what makes it fun."

After just a few minutes out on the streets of downtown Dallas, Mr. Tapp and a dozen of his freerunning friends attract curious onlookers. Passers-by slow their cars to catch a glimpse.
Darren Lucas crosses the street to check them out.

"When I was growing up, we called that goofing off. I guess they have a name for it now," Mr. Lucas says.

He watches Mr. Tapp stand on a handrail, then leap onto another about five feet away.
Mr. Lucas stands amazed, his mouth agape.

"Dang," says Mr. Lucas, eyeing the distance. "My son is in the car sleeping. I'm glad he's not seeing this."

Mr. Lucas thinks freerunning is dangerous. And to the untrained, it can be.
Many novices spend months training in gymnasiums and studying videos.

"You do small jumps; you build up your muscles," said Mr. Tapp, 19, of Addison. "Once you build up and get confident, then you move on to bigger things."

Traceurs say it's no different than climbing trees or doing back flips off the front porch railing as a kid.

"A lot of people who fall in love with it have been doing it since they were kids," said Myke Gardetto, a 19-year-old from Fort Worth.

When people stop to watch, their first question is usually, "What are they doing?" The next question is, "Do they get in trouble?"

Something about jumping on downtown buildings doesn't seem legal.
At the back of the Bank of America building, a waist-high gate is locked, blocking a stairway that leads down.

Ruger Carstens chuckles. He's been scaling 10-foot walls all day. The gate isn't much of a deterrent. Hurdling it could open up a new playground. But unlike skateboarders who sometimes flock to their culture for rebellion, these freerunners move on.

"Skateboarders would just go in there. We have to keep ourselves respectable," said Mr. Carstens, an 18-year-old from Greenville.

"We don't try to damage any of the things we're working on," Mr. Tapp added. "We want to flow with our environment, not crash against it."

But not everyone knows that.

At the First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, the traceurs praise the church's masonry exterior and yards of handrails.

Then a security guard rounds the corner. There's a wedding inside, he tells the bunch. It's not the time to be bouncing off the church walls.

"Next time we have to come back when there's not a wedding," D'Ondrai said.
The traceurs apologize and walk away to find their next challenge in this downtown playground.

2008 Video

2008-05-07T18:44:00.000-05:00

It's funny how you make a video and as soon as you release it. You gain a really big progression boost and you actually way better than the video. Well that's what happened here.

It's On Like Donkey Kong (About Me)

2008-05-07T18:21:00.000-05:00

My real name is D'Ondrai Jones but I go by the Handle "Unique" in most forums. I've been training the wonderful art of Parkour and Free-running for two years. It has gotten me intune with my body and has allowed me to me many cool people from all over the U.S. (United States). Hopefully you'll visit here often and find some of the infomation I post helpfull in some way.

-Peace