2008 NEWSLETTER CONTENTS
03 INTRODUCTION
04 NATIONAL NEWS
06 MELBOURNE NEWS
08 SYDNEY NEWS
10 CANBERRA NEWS
11 BRISBANE NEWS
12 ‘NO FAVOURITES’
14 TOP 5 VIDEOS
15 CONTRIBUTORS INTRODUCTION It’s been a long time since the last newsletter from the Australian Parkour Association and since then a lot has happened, so we thought we should put one out at the end of the year to let people know what we’ve been up to.
This newsletter is basically a wrap up of 2008 and contains an article by the APA President Chippa on things at a national level, news at a state level from guys from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, one of the most recent editions to the Parkourpedia, and our top five Aussie videos from 2008 including a couple of not so serious Parkour related videos.
For further details or feedback about anything discussed in this newsletter feel free to contact any of the APA state representatives here, or email [email protected]. If you want to discuss anything drop into the forums, for general information on the Australian Parkour Association visit the website, and for information about Parkor visit the Parkourpedia.
If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter email [email protected] with ‘subscribe’ in the subject field. Alternatively if you want to unsubscribe send an email to the same address with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject field.
Strong and safe training to all.
3 NATIONAL NEWS It has been a while since the last newsletter, a lot has happened since then, that is part of the reason it has taken so long for another newsletter to come out! We had so many things we were concentrating on the newsletter had to take back seat to the more hands-on activities of the association.
These activities have included the training of instructors and development of the class structure. Over the last year the way that we run classes in Sydney and Melbourne has undergone some extensive development; development that allows us to deliver a better class to the people who attend.
Concurrent to this, members of the APA have travelled overseas to train with fellow traceurs in France, the UK, Thailand and other European countries. They return more experienced and with much to share in regards to technique, strength and conditioning and general knowledge about parkour, as many of the people they meet have had experience training with some of the first generation traceurs or they have met those very same first generation traceurs and had the opportunity to train and learn from them.
4 The techniques and information gained from these experiences is disseminated to everyone through classes and when individuals have the opportunity to train with the guys who have been overseas.
Other activities have included APA members travelling to Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to spend time training with the locals in these places, giving them the opportunity to see what we get up to in other states, plus the locals always show a few new things to us as well.
The APA website has been upgraded, as well as the Parkourpedia going through a revamp as well.
The National meet went well by all accounts, they seem to get better each year, which is promising.
The APA also has a new committee which will be working diligently to keep finding new and improved ways to help parkour in Australia grow and develop to be stronger than ever.
2009 looks to see more developments for Parkour in Australia and the APA itself. Despite some of the minor drawbacks it encounters from poor media or poor attitudes and actions on behalf of some who would call themselves traceurs, the APA continues to grow each year and develop in a positive direction.
Matthew ‘Chippa’ Campbell President – Australian Parkour Association
5 MELBOURNE NEWS
2008 has been a very productive and promising year in Victoria for the APA and community in general. The instructor group has grown significantly to around fifteen and classes have evolved positively in almost every aspect over the year with Instructor Training running every week with turnouts of at least ten people and class numbers consistently over the fifty people mark and growing. There has also seen a significant increase in female students at classes which is great to see and has led to the first all girls classes which will commence in the new year and will led by a female instructor. A girl’s scene is starting to develop quite nicely in Melbourne.
Some of the instructors travelled to both Geelong and Ballarat to run free workshops and afterwards train with the locals. In both cases it was great to see these smaller, more isolated communities thriving. It was also a great chance to help them head even further in the right direction and share knowledge. Just training with and getting to know the guys who we don’t often see was great too.
Throughout the year there have also been many visits from some of the Sydney and Canberra instructors to Melbourne. In all cases it has been a really positive learning experience for the visitors, and also the local instructors with much information and knowledge being shared.
6 This year has also seen a great increase in classes being run in schools and youth groups in conjunction with our partners Sports Health Check. Just in the last month or so fourteen classes have been run which is a huge step forward and positive sign for the future. Feedback was extremely positive from all the teachers and organisers, so much so that a further eight week course has been booked in already at the Craigeburn Youth Group for the start of school year in 09.
Some high profile screen events have come up with twenty of the guys having the great opportunity to be involved in the filming of the Hollywood film Knowing which will be released reasonably soon. It was an amazing day with the guys basically being let loose on a city street during a riot. There was also some television work on the local Channel 10 show Rush for many of the Melbourne guys.
Another recent event the local instructors took part in was running a Parkour checkpoint in the Melbourne Rat Race. The weather was absolutely atrocious with heavy rain, wind and hail all day, but everybody had a blast and it was some great endurance training also with some of the guys running the 1km course upwards of ten times in less than two hours. It was a great opportunity to expose and educate people about Parkour with competitors commenting very positively about the experience and being very impressed by what we do.
For the Melbourne Fringe Festival this year the APA in conjunction with Trace Elements helped train members of a suburban dance group. It ended in a live demonstration with the Trace Elements guys, but the most positive outcome was that the students really benefited from the training and gained a love for Parkour with some of them returning to regular classes after their commitment to the performance was over.
It’s been a huge year in Victoria and 2009 is sure to be bigger and better.
Sam ‘Sample’ Sinclair. Victorian Representative – Australian Parkour Association.
7 SYDNEY NEWS Sydney has certainly had a shift in 2008 in terms of education, training methods and the community as a whole. In July Rhys James, Shaun Wood and Ista Ho joined the deported Anan Anwar on a trip to be remembered. They returned from Europe fresh, excited, and busting with ideas.
February brought some talented international traceurs together for a commercial performance and also provided an opportunity to trade knowledge and develop strong bonds between the communities. England’s Daniel Ilabaca, America’s Levi Meeuwenberg and Frosti Zernow performed alongside Sydney’s very own Rhys James and Shaun Wood to provide a memorable performance.
Sydney also welcomed Thibaut Granier, a very friendly French traceur who is eager to lend his wisdom and share experience as a member of the French group ‘Shin-Tai’. And on the subject of travelers, Tommer Vardi and Wiseno have both been busy with the former taking a nine month trip to China and the latter, a short trip to Indonesia.
In May Sydney saw one of its very own videos featured on the YouTube front page. ‘Escape’ has racked up an astronomical 363,000 views and truly established Sydney’s place on the parkour world map.
8 A monthly training session exclusive to girls has been implemented by Shi. They provide opportunities for girls to practise together, exchange tips, meet other traceuses, and have fun in a safe, relaxed environment.
Recent changes to the weekly APA classes has seen a greater rate of returning students as well as providing a stronger, more organised class. These classes are always undergoing improvement and refinement to ensure that the time is used to its greatest potential.
The Sydney community is stronger, healthier and broader than it has ever been. If trends continue, we should be seeing a very interesting and productive 2009.
By Sammy Margalit.
9 CANBERRA NEWS Canberra has been a very busy scene in 2008, from the National Gathering, to commercials, interstate travel and charity runs; we’ve certainly seen a lot of progression in the scene.
On October 3rd to 5th, Traceurs from all around Australia (and even two from New Zealand) travelled to Canberra to meet up and train for this years annual National Gathering. But this weekend of training quickly turned into a whole week with the first few traceurs arriving a week early to train with the locals and get to know all the spots. By the end of the week it was already a big gathering of around thirty to fourty people. The weekend came along and we saw this number double to around eighty to ninety people. It was a fantastic week, and I think all who came along had a great time and made some new friends. Throughout 08 a number of traceurs have travelled extensively to Melbourne and Sydney specifically to train in the different scenes, and to gain different training perspectives. Traceurs, Chris ‘ruoF’ Mulcaster and Eliot Duffy also travelled to Melbourne earlier in the year to be a part of the filming for the TV show Rush. Local traceurs were also involved in filming for a new commercial for Canberran tourism which is likely to be aired early in the New Year.
In late October Mike ‘Cimp’ Kiting and Eliot Duffy ran a successful class/demonstration of Parkour and Free Running at the Campbell Primary School fete. It was a great day that saw many young primary school students join in and have a go at jumping, rolling, balancing, and vaulting.
Classes have had a rollercoaster ride throughout 2008 developing into a much more structured class early on in the year and carrying on through November where classes have been stopped to allow more instructors to be trained so that classes may run smoother and more efficiently in the future.
All up, a very productive and diverse 2008. 2009 should see some interesting developments in class structure, and should make for a very interesting year ahead.
By Eliot Duffy.
10 BRISBANE NEWS 2008 has been a very dynamic year for Parkour education in response to the new venue and Brisbane. It was all kicked off by a visit from John ‘Spidermonkey’ it’s great to have a mixed Bourne in early July for a three day seminar. John shared with the attendance of both male and community a wealth of knowledge inspired by his training with female, new and experienced Parkour Generations in the UK. He also shared with us a few of his students. With basic technique own inventions (especially in the strength and conditioning field) covered on Wednesday nights, developed over his five years of training. The three day seminar traceurs can further push their consisted of two indoor gymnasium sessions to polish up some training with a two and a half old techniques and learn a few new ones, and to remind Brisbane hour strength and conditioning of the importance of strength and conditioning. The final day saw session on Sunday afternoons. Brisbane’s traceurs head outdoors to apply their knowledge to Sonny also runs the occasional the real world. Also present and assisting with the seminar were Saturday afternoon training Chippa and Harley who travelled all the way from Melbourne for session. With the imminent launch the event, and Brisbane’s Oz and Ngyagi. of a Thursday night outdoor workshop session and a monthly Since July the education scene in Brisbane has exploded. girls jam in the pipeline, Brisbane Ngyagi’s Wednesday night basics classes have expanded from a looks set for a busy, productive and mere four students to a total enrolment of over twenty. Recently exciting 2009. the class was moved indoors to a fully equipped gymnasium and is now delivered as a term-based course. There has been a great By Antonie ‘Ngyagi’ Machejefski.
11 NO FAVOURITES Almost everybody will favour a certain side of the body in nearly all the techniques involved in Parkour. You will naturally have one foot you prefer to kick with on a wall run, one foot you find more comfortable to jump off for a speed vault, and one side you prefer to do lazy vaults on, this is normal, just as it is normal to prefer to write with a certain hand.
If you seek to obtain freedom of movement, the ability to adapt to your environment without thinking, and efficiency of movement, you can’t favour a side, arm, or leg. For example, if you favour a leg to take off from for a speed vault, it is likely that you will stutter step or make some kind of adjustment to your stride on approach to make sure that your favourite leg is in position to jump from. This will cause you to slightly slow down moving into the vault. While this may seem like a minor thing to some people, it is inefficient and restrictive. Being able to approach that vault without breaking stride and take off from whichever foot comes down in position is the most natural and efficient way of overcoming the obstacle. It may not always be possible to avoid some adjustments even if you can use both sides of the body, but being ambidextrous certainly helps reduce the need to make adjustments.
Another example which is more obvious is when performing a tic tac. Most people will have
12 a foot they prefer to kick off the wall with, but there are situations where you have to do a tic tac and it will be on your weak side. Obviously, this can be a problem, and an obstacle in itself. If you want to reach a high level of skill, you will need to train out your weaknesses on certain sides.
It may not be the most fun to train something you can do comfortably on one side of the body, but struggle to do on the other, and sometimes it can be very frustrating, but it is a vital part of Parkour training. You will probably find there are certain techniques you can do reasonably well on both sides without a lot of attention, but there will be other techniques which will require a lot of work. You may have to slow it right down, walk into it, and really break down the elements involved in the technique just like learning how to do it for the first time. You may even improve your technique on your strong side, or gain a better understanding of the technique by having to re-learn it on your weak side.
There are no real secrets to training techniques on your weak side, if you’ve managed to learn it on one side, you should be able to do it on the other, a lot of it comes down to patience, commitment and focus. Often your weak side is actually physically weaker and can be the cause of favouritsm, so focusing on specifically strengthening your weak side can be helpful in becoming more well rounded in your ability to move. Different variations of quadrupedal movement can help with building overall, balanced strength and can also increase coordination between the limbs and the upper and lower body. Overall body coordination is very important in Parkour, particularly in being able to use both sides of the body equally well and not having favourites.
Ask yourself, can I roll over both shoulders, can I tick tack well with both legs, do I have to have a certain foot forward to do a cat pass, can I move freely without relying on a favourite side? If you answer no, go out, put your head down, and really focus on drilling something on your weak side. It may be frustrating, but the reward of being able to move without favouring a certain side is well worth it and your ability to move will greatly increase.
Article taken from the Parkourpedia. By Sam ‘Sample’ Sinclair.
13 TOP 5 AUSSIE VIDEOS OF 08 Around the World EDITORS CHOICE Some of the guys from Sydney traveled the world, recorded Flippin’ Lolfaces their adventure, and turned it into an amazing video. Watch it on YouTube Watch it on YouTube Free Slider 08 Teaser Trace Elements Autumn 2008 Watch it on YouTube The boys from Trace Elements have produced two beautiful videos showcasing the best Australia has to offer. Watch Part 1 on YouTube Watch Part 2 on YouTube
Escape Featuring three of Sydney’s finest, Escape has become the most well know video to come out of Australia. Watch it on YouTube
NatSoc – Canberra 08 Filmed at this years National Gathering this video captures the spirit of the event and skills of Traceurs from all over the country. Watch it on YouTube
No Tricks A beautiful video of Argie from Melbourne demonstrating that age is no limit. Watch it on YouTube
14 CONTRIBUTORS Editing and production A big thanks to everybody who Eliot Duffy contributed to this newsletter in any way. As with everything to do Editing, production, design and photo editing with the APA it was all done as Sam ‘Sample’ Sinclair – www.sampledesign.com.au volunteer work by passionate and committed people. Writing Matthew ‘Chippa’ Campbell, Sam ‘Sample’ Sinclair, Sammy We’d also like to say a very big Margalit, Eliot Duffy, Antonie ‘Ngyagi’ Machejefski. thank you to everybody involved in the APA who make what we Photography do possible, particularly all the Milton ‘Millz’ Lai – www.mlai.org instructors who week in week Dave Scarlett – http://www.flickr.com/photos/dscarlett out volunteer their time to teach Mike ‘Smo’ Snow – www.flickr.com/photos/smo-go and contribute to the growth of Sam ‘Sample’ Sinclair – www.sampledesign.com.au the community. Steven Goranitis
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