My Parkour highlights of 2008

Below are some of my Parkour highlights that was 2008.


JANUARY
Back to training from having a couple of days rest...


Started off the year with two of my closest training Partners Chris Grant and BJ Lang.

I also began to concentrate more on my diet, by eating little to no processed food, and began to cook more types of healthy dishes from scratch. So Parkour was making me a better cook.

I also made one of my accomplishments, the upwards precision at the top of the stairs at the Adam Smith, Glasgow University.

January also seen the start of Parkour and Conditioning with my Fiancee. :)

FEBRUARY


Finished filming my video, before heading off to Berlin, Germany for a few days.

Glasgow Parkour celebrates it's 3rd birthday.

For February I trained technique training intensely, which seen my jump increase by a whole foot. :)

MARCH
Glasgow Parkour Coaching first Adult workshop begins.

Three day training session with Parkour Generation's Dan Edwards and Forrest in London with my fellow Glasgow Traceur Chris Grant.

APRIL

Glasgow Parkour Coaching Scotland Wide Workshop 05-April-08
Uploaded by TraceurZeno

Glasgow Parkour holds it's first "Scotland wide Parkour workshop".

Establish training with new comer Omercan.



MAY
Conqueored the Big Scary Level Cat at Wellington Church.

I Also decided to eat more and incorporate at little more fatty food into my diet as my diet was so clean, I felt I was running out of energy pretty quick.

The 4 day trip to Evry, Paris for the opening of Yamakasi/Majestic Force Art Du Displacement Accademy.

Lisses Trip from where I badly sprained my ankle just 4 hours of arriving there, but ended the trip on literally a high after making it to the top of the Dame Du Lac, despite barely being able to walk.


From the footage I filmed leading up to my injury i posted my video "The awakening"

In the month of May, I turned 30 years old.

Lots of Ice days to reduce the swelling of my ankle...


JUNE
Recovery begins on my badly sprained ankle.
So i concentrated first on protection of my ankle, by wearing an ankle brace, which I ordered off ebay.

My training had to be adapted... And when i was not doing upperbody conditioning I would work on getting my injured foot's range of motion back, by sitting of the ground and writing the imaginary alphabet several times a day with my big toe, focusing the range of movement from my foot only and not moving my leg.

After about two weeks of working on my injured foot's range of movement, I began lowerbody conditioning to focus on strengthening my legs and weak ankle


JULY
Training light jump techniques with my healing ankle.

The initial pilot of Glasgow Parkour Coaching youth accademy begins with a few outdoor workshops in the Southside of Glasgow.

I attended the big Parkour Jam at Erskine, which was great fun despite recovering from my Ankle injury.



AUGUST
Despite my ankle not being 100%

I still managed to finish off filming a joint Parkour video, with BJ Lang


SEPTEMBER
UPG come to Glasgow for the Merchant city festival, from where Glasgow was entertained in a fantastic display of Parkour and dance from the guys and gals of Urban PlayGround, of which former Yamakasi member Malik skills where on show.
Zeno and Malik Diouf

OCTOBER
I spend October trying to get my fitness, strength and mind level back to where it was before my ankle injury.

NOVEMBER

Barefoot training begins with weekly barefoot distance jogs. (the video is of low quality because of initial file size, but gives you an idea where I jogged to.

The idea of barefoot jogging, especially in the cold rain was to toughening my mind as well as my feet, to sharpen my concentration and push through former comfort zones, so when I had my shoes on and doing Parkour, things would seem easier, and so my level began to rise again.

November also seen the coaches from Parkour Generations, visit Glasgow in part premotion of EA Games "Mirror's edge"

Johann, Zeno, Thomas, Chris & Stephane

There was a great turn out from our community and a fun workshop was enjoyed by all at Bellahoustoun Sports Centre


DECEMBER

Glasgow Parkour and Edinburgh Parkour attending Rendezvous 3.

December saw the great gathering in London, for Parkour Generations "Rendezvous 3" two day event. And despite the rain the spirit of everyone was excellent. It was good to travel down to London with several guys and gals from Glasgow and Edinburgh Parkour.

Blane & Zeno

The closing of December saw the end of year Christmas Parkour Jam.

Below are three videos filmed and edited by Ian Lyon, Nina and the other by myself.


Ian's edit

GPK Jam 27-12-08
Uploaded by TraceurZeno

Nina's Edit

Zeno [Glasgow Parkour] Uni Run

I would normally show control by stoping when landing my precisions, like in my older videos, however I wanted to show continious movement in this clip.




Thanks for taking the time to watch.

Zeno

Zeno & BJ Lang [Glasgow Parkour]

Just a wee vid of us two.



High Quality version available on my youtube page

Thank you for taking the time to view.

Zeno

Erskine Jam July 2008

Footage from the Erskine Jam July 2008.





Cheers

Zeno

Zeno "The Awakening"

I have been working on pushing my fears and mental barriers these past few months. And so this video is more about me dealing with these mental barriers, rather than being slick with many varied moves. With a growing sense of confidence, I feel my Parkour vision beginning to open up more and my passion and spirit deepen further.



Thank you for taking the time to view.

Zeno

Dame Du Lac

A nice chilled out day at the Dame Du Lac with my fellow Traceurs and Traceues, and a nice way to finish up my 4 day trip in Lisses.

Thomas, Zeno, Kazuma, Chris

Zeno & Dan Edwardes

James, Alex, Dan Edwardes, Chris Grant, Zeno & Andy

Despite picking up a bad ankle injury on the 16th May, I was determined to end my trip to Lisses and Evry on a high, so I climbed to the top of the Dame du Lac with the help of Thomas Couetdic and the encouragement from my fellow Glasgow Traceur Chris Grant who also made it to the top too.

Zeno

Trip to Lisses (May16th)

Training at Lisses with my fellow Glasgow Parkour Traceur Chris Grant and Camera man Ben.

Scotland wide PK workshop day

Here are some of the highlights that I managed to shoot with my camera of the "Scotland wide PK workshop day" which was held April 5th 2008 in Glasgow, UK. This was a positive gathering of like minded humans who came together to learn and push their Parkour abilities, regardless of gender, race or experience.

I would like to thank all of the Traceurs and Traceuses who attended. I hope they either learned new ideas, improved on their technique at the beginner workstations. And to the experienced ones, I hope you discovered new weaknesses that need to be addressed.

I would also like to thank the rest of the coaches, who put in the free time to organise and teach.

Below is a peice of rough footage filmed by Ryan Montieth and myself. The professional filmed version will be completed by our qualified camera man Ben, and will be online in the near future.

Glasgow Parkour Coaching Scotland Wide Workshop 05-April-08
by TraceurZeno

Overcoming my weakness...

Four months has passed since making my decision to drop conditioning sessions and focus exclusively on my technique training. I have also included working on my mental factor within my technique training.

In the past few months I have been training, I have been working off my written list of techniques, which consisted of techniques, obstacles and mental barriers that I seen as weaknesses within my Parkour. I knew deep down I could or should be capable of executing particular challenging moves, but put them off. It was very important to complete as much of that list as possible with it's tasks and reps.

I said in my previous blog entries, that “Rendezvous 2” was a turning point for me. I had the strength but I knew I had to improve on the following from that Special night:
* Up my technique level
* Up my ability level
* Increase my confidence
* Increase my endurance
* Lose muscle mass (de-bulk) and become lighter and become more athletic.


Up my technique level
When watching video clips of myself, I look for flaws in my technique or listen to constructive criticism from my fellow Traceurs. As an example when I did precisions I often did not lift my knees up high enough, or when I did wall climbs I relied on brut strength over fluid technique with strength. So on my list along with many other flawed techniques I drilled my weaknesses until they improved.

Up my ability level
For a few months leading up to “Rendezvous 2” I felt my ability had stagnated and it was getting me down which affected my confidence as well as mood, and “Rendezvous 2” was the icing on the cake. So I decided enough is enough, and ask why I am not improving... I realised I was only drilling moves, obstacles or single techniques that where in my comfort zone. The decision I had taken was to include on my “Written List” was jumps, moves, obstacles that where on my limit and feared, but knew if I stuck to my gut feeling I could do.

Increase my confidence
I always knew that with better technique and ability my confidence would grow. I drilled the jumps, moves and obstacles that I feared but knew deep down I could do in my mind. I had to push my mental fear barriers sensibly and drill these jumps moves and obstacles until they become a natural reflex to me. The higher my confidence the more I will challenge myself but with becoming complacent when moving or becoming arrogant.

Increase my endurance
Yes on my “written list” was a decent sized challenges that where executed without rest. One such weakness for me was cat-walking on rails, so on my list was to 10 reps of a large rail, as well as dealing with upward and downward gradients to really sharpen up my technique as well as endurance.

Lose muscle mass (de-bulk) and become leaner, lighter and more athletic
In the past I spent so much time conditioning I was becoming heavy in muscle and the hypertrophy of my body frame hindered my movement. I had good strength but my techniques had to match my strength potential. Now due to doing very little to no conditioning recently I have become less bukly in muscle, more leaner, and much lighter on my feet. My power and technique has increased dramatically. Although my strength has decreased a little, my strength is perfect for Parkour at this present time. I will however introduce some conditioning sessions in the near future, to keep my strength topped up and more importantly to prevent future injuries. I am really grateful that I did a hell of a lot of conditioning for the first year and half of my Parkour training, as it has benefited me physically, mentally and kept injuries at bay.

I still feel it is important to keep a balance of conditioning and technique training to be a strong and capable Traceur. Over the past 4 months my technique has improved as they have become cleaner, natural and powerful. My ability has progressed dramatically, such as my jump distance going up by 1 foot. My endurance has increased but can be worked on a lot more. My confidence is an area that has increased more than I planned and grateful for. Lastly I have become more athletic, powerful and lighter, due to not doing more conditioning than technique training.

I look forward to the next 4 months with great optimism. I will optimise and adapt my written list accordingly on a fortnight basis to ensure steady progress, and that I challenge my fears and weaknesses.

The point of posting this is not to tell you to drop conditioning. It is to say... Write out your personal weaknesses and go and work on them until they become a strong point!

Zeno

Borne Magazine Article

The Glasgow Parkour coaches recently took part in an article for Borne Magazine which has been published this month.

I feel it was a truthful and positive artcle, in which the writer Iain Nevill wrote an honest and refreshing article, that covered our Parkour training, spirit and beliefs.

Zeno

Traceur Zeno [Glasgow Parkour] Feb2008

Just an update of the progress in the last six months.



Thanks for taking the time to view

Zeno