Bumps, Bruises & Back Flips.

 

I had planned to go out early Wednesday with David,  so we could train at Highfields after he missed the previous Saturday jam we had there. I wanted to train there again too, still having movements to conquer. The weather all week had been ever changing day by day, which made it next too impossible to predict if it was worth going out until the day of. I had mentioned to Ben about the session and he seemed up for it, Femi too IF he turned up that is! James was a maybe, what with current work commitments… My next challenge was getting up on time, I was currently going to bed any where from 10pm – 2am and not getting up until gone 11am. A far cry from the 6am work days, the holidays were killing my routine.

I decided on Tuesday evening to go ahead with this training session, there was no predicted rain through the day. Femi was now a no for being out, due to a work interview at 6pm and didn’t see the point in travelling afar. I went to bed early to compensate for all the late nights, but struggled to sleep, it felt too warm. I ended up waking up at 5am, then again at 8am and decided to get up not long after. I abused James via PM, asking if the old man had even woke up yet and will he be joining us today?! Telling him to come out regardless, though I doubted he would be out, with it being a midweek session. Likely he wouldn’t be up until we were already out and jumping. Though I did have a small hope to see him later on, just maybe it would happen. I wasn’t holding my breath though…

 

David – Catleap.

 

I got ready for training, feeling tired and now in a rush. I had been too relaxed from being up early and hadn’t gotten ready in due course. The curse of having too much time, thinking I would be fine, then it seemed time had sped up, each time I checked. Tom was out today, a random and unexpected practitioner to add to the cause. The others who were meant to be out were very quiet and not online yet, which usually meant they wouldn’t be out. I arrived in town close to half ten, all accounted for we got the bus to Highfields, which took next to no time at all. It seemed the university was open and that might be a problem if we were jumping around the campus. There were a few people kicking around, early Pokémon hunting it seemed, with one guy dressed as a Pokémon trainer!

It was on to warming up and with that, the bigger jumps. The main catleap in the area (seen above) one I could see, but never seemed to like, it always felt like I might not make it. It was within rage, but I didn’t like the fall down onto the steps if you didn’t commit. David was doing it easily, then Tom did it too! That was it, I had to do it now too. I could now see the jump, but I still felt uneasy about it. As I jumped for it, it was like David and Tom said, closer than you think. Which I equally found out when I stubbed my toe into the wall.

16.01.2016

 

I had an odd nights sleep, well a lack of sleep due to going to bed so late. Yet, amazingly I was awake before 8am. I couldn’t get back to sleep anyway, as the cats kept crawling under the duvet to cuddle and keep warm. If you have a cat, some of them like to do that. Which may seem strange to many, but it’s very soothing as they purr, contented and it soon puts you back to sleep whether you’re tired or not. Due to that exact reason I ended up nodding off again until 11am. I felt really tired and still didn’t get up as I lolled there, awake and then before I knew it was twelve. Perhaps I shouldn’t bother with town and instead spent all my time sleeping the day away instead, after all it wasn’t even sunny like the forecast predicted yesterday. I still wanted to get out and train, a few were confirmed on the event and I got ready quick time and left for town at around 1pm. I bumped into the guys as they were coming down the road from Rock City, a good job too or I would have missed them had I gone any other way to Plaza. They were heading to the new spot (Shakespeare Street) as we called it then and so I followed the masses.

There were quite a few out today: James, Diogo! Pete, Phil, George! Femi, Max, Mat, Aiden and a couple of others too. As we were arriving into the area, we walked past some of the security who then crossed the road, no doubt patrolling and then they went into one of the buildings. So we expected to be moved off pretty quickly as we warmed up. It was quite a cold day again, I was in many layers of tops and my hands were freezing. It felt of late, that I was always training the Shakespeare Street spot, at least the last few times I had been in town to train that is. It wasn’t a bad thing though, as there was plenty to do there (though James may have disagreed, at the time). As well as being cold, I felt tired due to lack of proper sleep. My legs felt tight as I started jumping around, my power just wasn’t there. Phil and the other guys were trying to get James to do a precision from a bench, then box jump afterwards to a wall. It was something which he didn’t like the feel of, but it was most certainly there for him to achieve and well within his capabilities…

 

Ben – Running Precision.

 

It was something he had to get his head around, though would it be something he would achieve before we got moved on?! I was feeling more warmed up after doing various running precisions and felt quite floaty and like I had gained more power in my legs now I was more limber. I joined Mat and Aiden who were doing a running precision into a box jump, I know right Mat training, quite the spectacle! I was quite surprised Mat did it, as I don’t really see him training. It was a nice move and had everyone lined up, trying it as a group. Even James came and gave it a go, though he clipped his foot on trying to clear the first wall and nearly came a cropper. Great to see everyone trying, and nailing the move. Then it was time to get Aiden to do more running precision moves. I go him to go for the running one from the road and over the flower bed which myself and Adam had done previously. He managed that one easily too, which I didn’t expect and was quite shocked. Then Mat saw it and wanted to try it too, oho! Do I feel some sort of competitive edge between them both?!

People were doing there own jumps and movements, Ben and Femi were doing a further running precision and George was giving it a try too, while James was still haunted by committing to that precision, box jump. Coached by Phil, Pete, Diogo and the others who had done it previously. James isn’t rubbish by any means, he could do it standing easily, but adding in the box jump before threw him off. He couldn’t commit to the take off, as it was just a bit further than he would like comfort wise as a box jump, or it was a mental barrier which stopped him. Some of us suffer more with these problems than others, and I guess it’s more frustrating when we can see they can get movements, but that block doesn’t allow them too. Tom called to see where everyone was, as none of us were at Plaza. Much to the trolling of James, telling him we were there, only over the other side of the wall and Tom believing such a thing. It was a chore to try and navigate him to where we were. He did manage to find us in the end, a few of the guys pointed out security was coming and then it was time to move.

A Warm Winter.

 

Ben – Running Precision.

 

I had planned to be out this weekend, as it had been months since I was last out [1] and the weather was set to be sunny for a change this weekend. It was looking promising and as if nothing could go wrong, well that was until Friday arrived when that lovely predicted sun changed to rain all day. Typically it always seemed to be rain on a Saturday, why was the weather not giving us a break for our weekly community jam? I wanted to train, as I’m sure many others did too. James wasn’t going to be out this weekend as he was busy watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the cinema. This was one reason I was expecting the weather to be good, as it was Sod’s Law (Murphy’s Law) that he wasn’t to be out and then miss a glorious day of training, being envious in the process. A similar thing happened when he wasn’t out one weekend [2] and then the Derby guys had come over and we adventured to the Victoria Embankment area to train for the day with many photos.

I ended up going to bed at around four o’clock binging on various TV show as I expected the day to now be rainy due to forecast, so what would be the point in going early to bed to awake to that rubbish outcome. After all, Sunday was looking the better day and I could train then instead, with no worry of rain ruining the day. I woke up at quarter to twelve to Adam having sent me various messages asking if I was awake yet and still up for training. I said yes I would be up for training, though he had expected me to say no. The floor outside was damp, wet in places and it looked overcast like it might rain again. But even with this, I said I would go out and he offered me a lift into town on his way, though I had around an hour to get ready and head out to meet him. I had to rush around to get ready, I didn’t expect to be out for long so it was easier to get ready than normal and I packed very little for the day ahead.

 

Shakespeare Street.

 

We ended up walking from the forest up to the new spot (seen above) as we called it, on Shakespeare Street near the Trent University. An area I had yet to sample, but some of the community had trained there before, as it had been built in the summer. The floor was still very wet and it seemed like it was going to be one of those days. As we arrived at the spot, I could see Holbrook and Parrish already jumping around. I guess we weren’t the only ones wanting to be out as it wasn’t raining, it didn’t go unnoticed that Holbrook had a black eye either, ouch. A funny story from when he was out at a gig. It felt good to be out, at a new spot getting ready for the day ahead. I felt energized, I wanted to get as much as possible done there before we no doubt got moved off. From what people had told me from training there a while back the security was on top of people using the area, with it still being newly created and so our time may have been limited.

A woman walked through the area as we were trained and said ‘don’t injure yourself before Christmas!’ To which Parrish told her his present was life insurance. Frankie had text when I checked my phone and that he was at Plaza and no one had arrived yet and that he was going to go home. It would seem no on was out yet then, I expected people to still be there and was planning to visit Plaza after I had trained at this spot for a bit. I rang and told Frankie where we were, and directed him the best I could to where it was located. Out of no where just like John Cena, Jack arrived along with Noah, Jp and Mat.

Wet and Humid.

 

James – Portrait.

 

It wasn’t predicted to rain this weekend, but like any weekend prediction it seemed to be wrong. It absolutely hammered it down with that summer monsoon type rain from eight in the morning, so much so that it even woke me up. I decided to go back and sleep and not bother to go out to train, I woke back up just before twelve. It seems to be my usual routine of late, annoying as I would struggle to make it out of my bed before a training session. The outside world was wet through, it kept raining, most annoyingly. It seemed from the event very few were out, not that I blamed them with the current weather. I decided to leave it too, I didn’t want to go out when the weather was this bad. I was already in a mood, but James remained positive about the day, saying it wouldn’t be that bad or will clear and dry up given time. Adam wanted to train too and said he would give me a lift to town, trying to tempt me to go with him…

I agreed, I would go if it was sunny by the time he was ready to leave. As I got ready the weather had picked up and started to look good and so I confirmed that I would join Adam on the town venture. Only for it to throw it down again as I was about to leave my house. I packed my raincoat and a jumper and felt increasingly less motivated to train. I walked over the field to the Parkour Park to meet Adam, passing the cadets event that was going on at the time, not seeing Radford any where as he said he would be at the event. We arrived in town and made our way to Plaza for two to find only Pete, Will, Holbrook and some other guy training there. I didn’t know why I had come out, I was already bored of being there due to the weather on our way to town. I was feeling tired and so spent most of my time talking and slowly warming up.

 

Mat – Precision.

 

While training some kong precisions I tried to get James, Pete and Adam to add a striding or running over the small blue railing before going into the kong precision. Pete didn’t like it at first but soon got used to it and Adam was giving it a go too. This had added great difficulty to James, who got confused, losing all his foot placements  once running at the railing to be able to do the kong precision. We had to further break it down for Jallen, saying just stand on the railing first before going for the whole run. While James did it standing before the railing, trying to get used to the skip part which he normally does. Anything other, threw him out of sync and wasn’t as easy as others found it. The hardest part after the rail, was running and making sure not to hit the slanted part of the flooring. I really needed to film today for a new RAW video and got the idea of some movements when I saw Pete, James and Adam were doing running precisions off a wall which was broken and across the road gap. It was a start to my day of filming short clips.

I captured some nice angles for my new RAW and watched as the others did the running jump. Holbrook and Mat did a bigger standing precision jump from the blue railing (as seen above) to the pavement. The running jump had, like many movements bewildered James in the beginning. Running from the curb rather than the wall was proving mentally difficult to commit to the landing, landing short and pulling pout at the last second even though he easily had the height. He went through the stepping, running and jumping off different legs even trying to do it as a box jump to help stick out the legs towards the pavement. He did get it in the end though and it was another movement to be worked on in the future. It was a fun movement, even if on an occasion I landed slightly short, giving myself an ankle breaker.