Bank Holiday Bliss.

Zade (Me) – 180 Precision.

 

It was Bank Holiday Monday and with that, it was time for training! The day(s) before were pouring it down with rain, but today was glorious sunshine and that is weather we need to take advantage of for training! Seeing as James didn’t train Saturday due to being away on a cinema trip, I had been trying to tempt him to come out to the park today for his weekly dose of Parkour. He didn’t seem up for it at first, but soon changed his mind when it was good weather and was game for it, amazingly! I really didn’t expect that, as usually he only does Saturdays for training with no exceptions. I arrived at the park at the earlier time of one o’clock, to find that David and Adam had just arrived too. Sadly there were masses of kids at the park, that along with parents and kids sat on the walls and rails like it was seating furniture! It seemed like it was going to be one of those days… So much for me feeling excited to jump, the motivation was fading away due to not having full access to the area and the kidfest.

CeeJay arrived on his own, usually he is with Luke but today he was on his own, though only out for a little while before he had a call and had to leave as quickly as he had arrived. Before he went he was doing some crazy running precisions and a diving diagonal kong from the stumps. He was even doing some strange diving kong into a kong precision! What was he on, for such a small guy he has some crazy power in his legs. Kezza rode into the park, what the hell?! I thought he was ‘too busy’ to be out training today! He said he had blew off his plans now due to how many people were expected to be out training today and instead wanted to join us guys. Fair enough, though I bet the real reason is he couldn’t be bothered. Later Mat arrived via car along with Megan who had come out to try Parkour too and was very shy around the rest of us. It was quite cool to have a girl training this afternoon, and she wasn’t just attempting small movements either.

 

Zulu – Portrait.

 

Jallen had arrived, I was still a bit doubtful he would be out, even though he had said he would be. I don’t know why, I just expected him not to, but it was good to see him arrive. The Adam and James friendly competition was set to start again and I must say it was quite fun to watch. Adam eager to show James what he can do and then get James to try it, if not than banter would ensue about how he was better than him. Intentional or not with the banter it seemed to help Adam progress and also sparked some conversations about their training methods and how they are different in that respect and go about training and goals. Glory hunter verses the in it for the long haul, but if you wanted to know more it would be best to let them explain in person. Phil had arrived and was determined to help James progress with moves, so he was coaching him to do things which were out of his comfort zone while the rest of us jumped around.

It was nice to have Zulu out at the park today too, a regular fitness guy who used the park for his workouts. I met him when I was injured and regularly working out at the park, along with David and Steve. It’s amazing how many people use the park for fitness, and all at different times, so you meet new and interesting people no matter the time you visit. I even got a few new workout ideas from Zulu, from his own routines such as the one handed press up to rolling on the elbow then back into press up position. Steve arrived, late as ever and it was good to finally introduce him to more of the Parkour guys.

Easter Emptiness.

 

Ben’s Trainers.

 

For the second week in a row I was out training with the Npk community at the weekend training session. The weather Friday night was terrible, cold and heavy rain with a strong wind too and I did wonder if that would transpire into Saturday. I was surprised to even be out though, after sleeping in Friday until half past two in the afternoon. The day before that I was up at seven in the morning and so my sleeping pattern is pretty messed up currently. I didn’t go to bed until two or three and was still laying awake well into the four and five o’clock hours. I guess being excited to train again had me too restless to sleep, the thought of new photo opportunities and a good training vibe didn’t help matters. I did wake up around ten, but then lolled around in bed until nearly twelve, making everything a rush. Adam was out this weekend and wanted everyone to train even if weather was bad, though it didn’t seem like many were going out now due to last nights weather putting them off, God dammit!

I was running late anyway and so was Kezza and a few others who said on the event not to move from Plaza until they got there. I didn’t expect many to be out, or the ones who did to be very few. I arrived at Plaza at around quarter to two, to find that no one was out?! All bar a mysterious guy lurking near one set of the walls, pacing back and forth checking his phone. Then there was Adam sat with Aiden on the other kong precision walls. I said to Adam that I instantly felt demotivated for training and might just go home as I hate sparse turn outs… The lurker looked familiar, a possible practitioner? After a while the same vape monster came over to us and asked me if I remembered him… Holy shit! It was Rob, Mr Bozik! I hadn’t seen or trained with him since 2009 [1] back when he had come to Nottingham with his friend Michal and Pike. Rob really hadn’t changed that much, he said he was waiting for the SM guys to arrive, who should have already been here by now…

 

Kezza – Portrait.

 

Others started to arrive slowly but surely, Mat, Kezza, Ben, Luke, CJay and Holbrook and a good amount of the community started to form. Everyone was warming up, kong precisions, diving kongs, general flow and even flips. There was quite a diversity of movement skills between us all today. CJay was on top form with his own training and it didn’t seem like anything was too much hassle for him to do with his good jumping power. He was doing some crazy double kong, then was trying to double kong handspring out of the move… Holbrook was practising a small run involving the railings. While I was trying to get out of my unmotivated mood I was in. Some newer movements I hadn’t seen anyone do, was a diagonal kong precision from the small blue railing to a wall. It might be small, but very awkward and thought it would be a good movement for people to consider. Much like the running precision from the first wall, up and over to land on the same blue railing. Some terrible looking and feeling movements but the guys were getting them done. I took a few photos, but at the same time I wanted to move and train rather than be stuck behind the lense.

We moved up to the now lesser trained area of Houses, the buildings are always open at the weekend now and so that means there are constantly cars parked in the way of where we train. Instead the guys trained near the kong precision and foliage part of the area, Kezza drilled the kong precision while Rob ran behind filming him. I quite enjoyed the shots I got of him doing the k2p. Once the cars had moved, even though it was wet and slippery due to the rain we practised a few tic tac cats. I trolled Kezza who wasn’t sure he could even do the tic tac cat now, I walked over to the wall slowly, saying I would do it no problem and then pushed off the wall and did it with no real speed or run up. He didn’t expect me to do that and was laughing, slightly amazed I had. I then did the 180 cat from hanging onto the wall with my finger tips, which was another old school movement which many still can’t do today. Each time people try, they expect some magical deeper groove in the wall which makes it easier to hang on, or some sort of trickery. It’s all to do with finger strength and forearm strength though, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Kezza – Running Precision.

 

CJay and Ben were looking at an ugly running downwards precision, it was diagonal and over the foliage. It was plain terrible, but it looked fantastic as a photo and so I set up my camera up while the guys kept preparing for the jump. You had to run blind and could only guess where the wall was, seeing the landing once you were in the air, no wonder it took them ages before they nailed it. I captured CJay and kezza doing the jump, but then it seemed like our time was up as a security guard had come around to move us on. He was friendly enough, asking what we were doing and watched us do a few movements before leaving us.

Jump, Swing, Flip.

 

CJay – Running Precision.

 

Today there were meant to be loads of people out training, at least judging from the amount of replies on the Parkour park group [1] yesterday. Yet, when I arrived at the park I found only David there, jumping and swinging amongst the bars on his lonesome, no one else had arrived as of yet. Sonny had seen my messages, but hadn’t replied back and so I took that as he wasn’t out today. He would usually be at the park on time waiting in his car if he was out. People who say they are out, then on the day aren’t will either post up to let every on know or just ignore all messages to them. Kezza was being a little bitch and not training today due to an update on GTA and he wanted to play that all day, because that is productive… It made no sense, as it was a lovely day, weather wise and normally that draws people out to train. How on earth did it have the opposite effect? Adam arrived later on, though he was feeling quite demotivated and not in the mood once he had arrived, which was unusual as normally he is ready to train and hyped before even arriving.

My calves still hurt today, moving around was painful and in retrospect I shouldn’t train Parkour the day after working them out. I mean, I do need them for jumping around and it makes doing leg based training a pain. It seemed like it might be one of those days, a quick hour or two of training then head home. Luckily after warming up it wasn’t long before CJay and Luke arrived. I’ve never really trained with them much or at all, even though they have been out at the community weekend sessions in town. I know they used to mainly trick or train in their own friendship circles years ago. Although they are out more regular with the main community from what I have seen while being out too. I may sound a tad harsh but they have always seemed like loud, chavy kids from first impressions. Once you get to know them though, that is far from the truth. Well maybe, not for Luke… Who shouts random things like an hyperactive ADHD kid. It was nice to see them both come to the Parkour park regular and getting to know them better through training.

 

Luke – Lache Gainer.

 

The park is quite far from where they lived and so it was a bit of a trek for them to get there in the first instance. Though, at least they make it to the park to train, unlike many other practitioners who live close or have still not been. I mean it was built back in 2013 and still many a practitioners haven’t even see it in person let alone jumped around on it. As always with each session there was much banter, gayness and mucking around and you’ll see in a couple of the photos. CJay had some massive hops, for being such a small guy as you’ll see in the photos of his massive running precisions. It’s cool to get shots of him, as his small stature makes the gaps look even bigger compared to if taller people did them. Both him and Luke are good at tricking too and no doubt that is down to the hops. Not to sound harsh but you wouldn’t expect tricks from Luke, to flip at all as he doesn’t look like he could and yet he can and really well.

As we were training Kezza randomly turned up, what the hell?! I didn’t think he was out today due to him wanting to spend all day on a stupid computer game. He said that is what he wanted us all to think, though he was tempted to stay in he had decided to resist and come out training first. I think he knew he would get bitched at for choosing a computer game over training and being out with friends, though it didn’t stop Adam from already trolling Kezza before he was out and sending him photos of what a good day he is missing.

Chezzing Hell!

 

Chez – Portrait.

 

It was a Tuesday afternoon and a big group interest had managed to form for coming out training today. Not bad to say it was originally just going to be Adam and myself out, before the masses were interested in joining too. I woke up late, not feeling like going out due to it feeling cold and it looked like it was about to chuck it down with rain too. There were so many posts on the thread about training today, it seemed that Ash, Sark, Adam, David, Cjay and Kezza were all out for training. This alone, got me excited to train and so I aimed to be out from half past one while others were aiming for one o’clock. I made my way across to find that most had already arrived, training away on the park. Sark and Adam were doing speed rounds, which involved getting around the park as fast as possible, being timed and making sure not to touch the ground while making your way around from start to finish. A fun game and very exhausting when done multiple times. A few others arrived like Ash and CJay later followed by Kezza and lastly David, who arrived later in the day once he had finished work.

It was such a cold day, I do hate these cooler days of training as it’s hard to stay warm and you end up cooling down quite easily, while the muscles ache from all the hunching and shivering from the cold. Doing a few of those speed rounds sure did warm you up though and then we did a few muscle ups, to keep practising them to get them better. My legs were feeling quite sore and tired from last nights leg workout. It was quite funny, as everyone seemed to be tired in some way or another, yet here we were, out training not caring if we were drained or not and making the most of being out. This is what real training is all about, while others hibernate through winter and spring, some of us train all year round in all conditions. I spotted a random guy walking down the street smiling to himself as he looked over towards the park, I thought I might know him, from his swagger, but thought nothing of it. Then he started to walk through the car park and down to the park, grinning and I thought to myself is that Chez?! It couldn’t be, he doesn’t even live around here and hasn’t been active since [1] 2006 if my memory serves me correctly?

 

Group Photo.

 

Holy shit! Low and behold, it was bloody Chez! As if he was out training, at the park of all places too! Mental, though he hadn’t changed one bit since the last time I had seen him all those years ago. Even if he admitted to us that he felt very unfit now, and since he lives close by he has been making a few trips over to the park as and when he can to keep fitness up. No real set times, due to his working patterns, but had come along to check out the park and do a bit of fitness work when he could. Training had turned into a general catch up with Chez, reminiscing about old times [2] [3]. David was equally shocked when he arrived to see Chez at the park! The highlight of the day by far was when four of us did the running catleap off the small stumps, all in a line, together, at the same time. We all just managed to fit onto the wall, all fighting for space while airborne, poor Cjay went flying around the corner of the wall on a few attempts. It looked cool and will no doubt be featured in one of the future Npghey video series. I got a group photo, which I’m started to try and get each time I’m out training in town or when lots of people are out. Chez wasn’t out for long and as quickly as he arrived, he was leaving and off on his merry way. I said to him it was nice to see him again, even if he didn’t do anything training wise, just like the old days.

So this year we have had quite a few blast from the pasts re-emerge to the scene, who else will we be seeing next?! The challenge of the day was some stupid sideways catleap, I have no idea how or why we wanted to do it though, as it was horrible and that of a toe breaker! I hurt my big toe from trying them multiple times, the other problem was the angle which caused you to slide down the wall and find it hard to keep hold of the catleap position. Someone else hurt their hip from doing the jump too, Once David got it then it was up to the rest of us to nailed it too. There were some attempts at a tic tac precision off the stump to wall and back to a stump, another infuriating movement and yet we kept finding these type of movements to practise. Time was getting on and it seemed that the schools had finished, with the younger kids swarming the park, even Mat and Aiden had arrived too cycling over the field. The park was loitered with people and I was about to head off myself and so left the rest of the guys to train into the night…