Parkering Around.

David – Portrait.

It was Bank Holiday Monday and even though I had been out over the weekend and was pretty tired, I was contemplating going out again today. It didn’t seem like anyone else was interested in going out from looking on the group the night before and so when I woke up just after 1pm, I fought against my better judgement of not going out all together and decided I would take a slow walk over and train for a few hours and to see if David was already there training as he usually did Sundays. I wasn’t expecting anything special, it was my half hearted attempt at trying to go out and train with what energy I had left, better than staying in doing nothing all day right? I had been out each day since Friday and I was feeling worse for wear to say the least, I read a few mentioned they might be out closer to time I was ready to leave, the likes of Adam and Ben. When I arrived at the park I was stunned to find the Derby guys already there training and had been since before 12pm! There had been no posts confirming or even warning us of their presence, I felt a bit cheated. As if I had known, I would have come over earlier and I’m sure many of the other guys would have come out to train with them too. Rob said it was all very much a spontaneous thing and that they didn’t think many others would have been out training, not that they thought to post it up…

I’ve included some images from previous days training sessions as I didn’t take my camera out today and nor did I expect the Derby guys to be out, so sorry for the lack of images of them. Even with my ankle hurting, recently it has been behaving, maybe due to my operation date lingering it wants to give me a taste of the good life and how it should be in regards after surgery and when it’s full healed? I mean, yes it’s still a ticking time bomb when I go out and jump around as I have a time limit before it starts to hurt and give way, but in the mean time I am able to train on it with simple movements which is a great feeling. I’ve been trying to get fitter this year too and slowly but surely my fitness has been increasing, but not at a level I used to be all those years ago. Like any training session that involves the Derby guys, it always turns homoerotic and today was no different. While Jono was practising some handstands in his shorts Matt was quick to point out his ‘bulge’ while doing them and then the jokes came rolling, not fit to disclosed here though, I’m sure you can imagine the sort though…

Another highlight of the day was when Rob was being intimidated by a small child called Max, who was training around the park. We usually seen him most weekends, and on occasions he would take part, trying to do what we did and copying the workouts we did. He seemed to be more confident with people this weekend and spoke and took part in training, rather than watching from afar. Rob was the one being intimidated though, with a running catleap which he was having problems committing too while Max was doing it and he told Rob how easy it is to do, not helping the situation. Rob joked about being put to shame by a kid, it was funny watching him being bullied. Rob did get the running cat in the end and props to him, I was also surprised by his precision jumps, some which I didn’t expect him to do and he did them easily. I guess all that training down south has been heavily to do with jumping. Max and his sister Saskia were both good at Parkour with Saskia being better at upper body movements like climb ups and muscle ups, more so than most grown men are, which was very inspiring and also intimidating for the rest of the younger and older guys alike. The Nottingham scene has had fleeting female members, but no one who has stuck at it for many years, saying that there isn’t many of the older generation of practitioners still around now either.

Saskia – Portrait.

We moved over the three walls when the park started to get a bit packed, we were trying tic tacs and catleap and then told us there was a move he had been practising and we should try it and with that he set a move for us to try, which was a tic tic 270 cat. It looked damn impressive for the small guy to do and the rest of us stood there astonished before saying we would give it ago. We formed an orderly queue and then tried the movement one after the other, giving it a go, failing and trying again. It was a tricky move to get right and each of us slid down the last wall hitting the floor, inching closer each time to getting the movement down. It quickly became a see who could get it first game and who will be last to get the movement, each encouraging the others to get the move down too. Then later on it got evolved into doing it as a tic tac precision to the wall and some other increased difficulty ones.

It’s great when a place like the Parkour park brings together people of different ages and skill all in one place, training together in harmony, helping each other out. Quite a few parents had stopped to watch as we all took it in turns doing the tic tac 270 cat and cheering when people made it which was refreshing to see. My ankle has been surprisingly good to me and I’ve been training lower body until it gives out on me after few hours later. I even joined in when Sark, Adam and David played horse and part took in what I could do, which made me feel like I was getting somewhere with training again, even if I had to pass on most of the things which were set. I don’t know how or what was being spoke about at the time but somehow Max decided to call Jono ‘milky bits’. I think we were speaking about how tanned some of us was to others, but that phrase kept being said by him and even though it was super funny it was quite worrying with so many kids being around and how it could be taken as a euphemism, at one stage Matt said he can’t say that word any more and it felt more like a father telling his son off.

Just as most had left, and I was packed and ready to set off a guy entered the area with his broad smile, and asked if we the Parkour guys. His name was Jonathan and he explained his trip around Nottingham on public transport to try and find the location of the park and that is the reason he was so late to arrive as he had been on all and every bus (which aren’t regular on a Sunday) and been given misdirections and so had been back and forth and all over. Even though I was very tired, I decided it would be rude to leave and decided to stay with him for a bit to train so he could sample the area and not feel on his own. He had some great upper body strength when doing muscle ups and lache cats, he even lifted up into a handstand on the highest wall! It was cool to speak to a fellow practitioners from a different city and get to talk about his views on training and the communities and so forth. My day was nearly over, I wish I had taken my camera out with me today like I was going to, but decided not too and pack light. Big mistake, but next time I will keep it with me just in case something like today happens with surprise guests, so I can take images and document the day.