March 8th 2009:
The Inevitable Introductory Post
After resisting the urge to start a blog about my parkour for a long time, I have now become convinced that I have something to offer in this type of forum. That alone isn't enough for me to want to take this step. I have weighed the pros and cons and decided it is time well enough spent.
The disadvantages are fairly clear:
This will take time - I am already very pressed for time in my life.
This will be a long term commitment - to continue to update and add thoughts and ideas.
I am opening myself up to further public introspection of my parkour - as much as I'm happy to do what I do and I am confident in my understanding of parkour, there is the fear of accidentally misrepresenting parkour or someone assuming I speak for a particular parkour community.
But the advantages tip the balance enough:
I now have some experience, though still very limited, that I can share to aid others in their personal parkour and community development.
As a fairly analytical person who is pretty good at interacting with people (I think so anyway), I can offer advice in a clear and relatively easy to understand form.
I am not a typical body type for parkour (think front row forward in Rugby) so I can offer support to a unique group of people.
I am one of only a few older people (I'm 28) in the NZ parkour community.
I try to travel around and train with different groups in NZ to actually meet the real people which gives me a good idea of what's actually going on.
What is my involvement in New Zealand parkour?
I started training around December 2006
I've contributed various articles and summaries of useful information that I've discovered during my progress in parkour
I'm a moderator on the www.nzparkour.com forum
I've run introductory sessions for groups of beginners who are out to give parkour a go (some groups of 25+)
I've run regular trainings for high school groups and others for over a year now
I helped to organise a 3 day (unofficial) national parkour gathering
Expect to see on this blog:
A rough outline of my training methods
Articles I've put together about training
My personal progress (goals, etc)
My thoughts and reflections about the NZ parkour community
Parkour events coming up
and more...
I hope this will be a source of useful information and an inspiring read for many. Please subscribe and provide me with feedback as it develops.
Sam