Today I met up with the guys at a place with two high walls, our aim was to cat leap, cat 180 back then climb up and vault over. My friend and I had recently learned new technique for 180 cat leaps. To pull up with your arms and push of with your second foot as high as you can get it. This is a really efficient way of gaining maximum air time, and therefore distance in your 180 cats. We were there for about an hour practising them, as well as conditioning get ups.

Then we went to the church we were at a few days ago I think I mentioned it in the last blog post. There we did more conditioning of cat leaps, get ups and 180 cats for about two or three hours. I managed to do a 180 cat up from a window ledge to the top of a roof. I am beginning to think we do too much cats and 180 cats.

After that we went to a dense area underground to practise real parkour – fluid movement. This took us about an hour until our hands were really messed up, the walls there were really rough. We found so many combinations of movements, and just by changing one way of conquering a obstacle, it challenges your muscles, eyes and mind in a different way.

The last thing we did was cat pass precisions, on a set of steps so we could aim further and higher as we improved. We also practised silent jumping from the steps onto the wall. Bending your knees as much as you can as soon as you land. Silent jumping is also a way of practising cushioning impact.

So a basic recap...

• Three hours of cat grabs and get ups
• One hour of fluid movement training
• One hour of cat pass precisions and low impact jumping

I haven't been properly parkouring for a while now. My goal for today was to get back into the routine of conditioning through movement. I now am really getting the hang of practising real parkour instead of the old morphed way I used to train.

I met up with the guys at a local school, where they have a fantastic wooden spiral, which is perfect for practising precisions and catleaps. First we stretched for about 2 minuets then we went on a simple balance mission from one end of the spiral to the top and back again.

Once we had finished our warm up I decided I wanted to work on my get ups, I have never really had my technique good enough, and I have been meaning to work on them for ages. For about 20 mins I was cat leaping from one level of the spiral to another, and climbing up. The cat leap was really hard because the wood was damp and wood at its best is not grippy. I had to put almost all the weight on my arms and that was tiring. With each cat leap, I would wait in the cat leap position, think about the technique of the climb up the climb up. I felt this really helped me concentrate on each individual key point.

The key stages used to help my climb up were, kicking away from the wall, and pulling up. Tensing my back and legs. Use the time when you are in the air from the kick to jump your hands to chest level, then push up and straighten your arms (this really tires your triceps) . Then it is easy to vault over or get your feet up. I kept doing this over and over again, and until it made my triceps really ache. By the time I finished even though my arms were tired I felt the get ups were getting easier because my technique had improved so much.

I knew I needed to rest my arms, so I felt now would be a perfect time to practise my precisions. It is not until recently that I have discovered the correct technique for precisions – landing on the balls of your feet instead of the middle. When you land on the balls of your feet it is easier to balance and control the energy you put into the jump. Also it is key to bend your knees when you land because it brings your centre of gravity lower and it is easier to balance, not to mention it absorbs impact.

The grounds keeper then came and kicked us off. We didn't fight or argue because we understand their worry. They feel that if we injure ourselves on their property we can sue them, and that it is likely we will injure ourselves. And not to mention it is private property, and we shouldn't be there to begin with.

We then started walking to a church in the middle of town. On the way we stopped of at a child's playground where there were two high walls, a low one and a window sill which were perfect for cat to 180 cats. We session there for about half an hour and managed to see whole routes through these walls, one of them being. Taking of the low wall cat leaping onto the window sill 180 cating up onto the higher one's climbing up dropping down and cat leaping onto the other climbing back up and precisioning back onto the smaller wall. That took me about ten seconds before I got tired.

Once we had reached the church we practised pop climb ups on a wall with an overhanging ledge that was at least 3 metres high. I found it really fun because my technique had improved so much. We timed each other and the best was 2.3 seconds by me!

This made me think about how we differ from people who do not practise parkour, if they needed to get on the other side of that wall, people who don't practise parkour would look for another way round. Us traceurs can null the obstacle within a matter of seconds.

When we were finished there we went to a fantastic spot in an underground carpark. I practsied precise fluid movement intensly for the whole time we were there. And felt very please with myself, because the chain of movement I sort of day dream about at the beggining I did towards the end. Performing fluid movement is so fun and im going to do more of it, because really - that is parkour!

Hope you enjoyed the first entry of the parkour blog of training. More parkour blog entrys to come soon. :)

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