Ramping up the Basics
Location: Club Gymnastica
Injuries: rugs burns, rug burns, RUG BURNS!
Faceplant: none! :D
Vault Score: my Kongs were a little wonky, Dashes were okay until I started thinking and Bar Vaults were fun because you had something to hold on to XD
Resulting Muscle Pain: surprisingly not as bad as the previous weeks...
The Verdict: apparently, if you think too much, you get this seriously inhibiting mind-f*** that prevents you from doing a move successfully. But if you dont think at all, you get an accident. Whut? 0_o
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Second gym session - by far the most rigorous one we had, but also a lot of fun since we moved from the basics and onto some of the more intermediate (Well, intermediate for us noobs. From what I can see they were still easy as pie and practically yawn-inducing for the seasoned traceurs) vaults.
Before that were the usual warm-ups and conditioning exercises (also amped up a bit - a walking handstand??). Then we moved to the 'big boys' of vaulting.
The Kong - presumably named after the big monkey, this involves taking a monkey-like leap over a vaulting horse. The vault is difficult due to the fact that you have to go at the vault hands first and then swing over to the other side - not as easy as it sounds. The key here is to 'leap like a cat', lift your hips as high as you can and tuck; otherwise, you can end up hugging that vault in a somewhat over-enthusiastic way. And trust me, you'll look stupid doing that...I should know XD XD
Because of it's long reach though, the Kong is perfect for going over broad areas like a table, a 3-foot think low wall, a tree trunk and a huge rock.
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| A general view of what the Kong looks like |
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| Kong progression: you start with this... |
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| ...and then to this. Then you either land on your feet on the ground, scrape your lower back on that table edge there, do a marvelous faceplant on the ground or smack your entire body anywhere between the table and soil (or a little of both), depending on how careless or inexperienced you are :) |
The Dash - a sort-of opposite of the Kong, you need to launch yourself feet-first, then use your hands to push your body those extra feet forward. It's kinda like doing a hurdle, except you use your hands as well.
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| The Dash |
Precisions - simply put, you jump from one place and land on a ledge, making sure you dont fall over. Sounds easy, unless you start worrying about doing the jump wrong and bashing your toes on the ledge; then you wouldnt be able to do it right. Like I said - DONT THINK TOO MUCH! JUST DO IT!
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| You start from one elevated area, and jump, like so... |
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| ..tuck those legs up and go airbone... |
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| ...and land. |
Kong with Precision - or something like that. Basically the combination of a Kong and landing with precision. It's scary because this time the 'ledge' is another (albeit lower, but only slightly) vault. You could maim your face a hundred different ways if you do this wrong, which was why they didnt make us do the 'official' move. Instead they had us do the Kong on a thinner vaulting horse and land on a chalk x-mark on the floor.
*I dont have pictures for this one, but I have a video of the Kong with Precision (and its variations) here done my none other than our very own trainers
Underbar - the easiest vault(?) in the entire line-up, because it was just a Dash where, instead of planting your hands on the vault, you use them to grab a bar overhead and swing yourself through. I had fun on that one, even if I kept hitting the vault with my back, which wasn't supposed to happen.
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| The Underbar - just swing through... |
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| ..and swing your legs out to land on the other side. Remember about me hitting my back on the padded vault in the gym? Good - now imagine that happening here *points up*. Ouch >_< |
Reverse Vault - another 'fancy' vault, also really tricky. This is executed by planting one hand on the vault, hoisting yourself up and spinning sideways to the other side. The first few times we did it, we kept hitting the vault or tumbling to the mat on the other side, really clumsy 0_o
This one requires a lot of leg power to propel yourself into that spin.
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| Reverse Vault - you start with something like this... |
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| ...and then this. Then, as always, you land on your feet on the other side. Without hitting anything... |
A total of 6 vaults were done, and I managed to do only a few decent ones for this session...more practice is needed.
I've also begun to worry about the impending practical application of these moves. Sure, it was easy to the vaults when you're surrounded by cushions and mats, and even the vaulting horses were padded - but what happens when we move on to an urban setting? Actual railings, low walls, trees trunks, boulders...I've seen how we all just tumble, almost in a carefree manner, to the other side of the vaulting horses, sometimes landing smack on the horse itself and bashing any body part that you forgot to tuck in. I realized that if that happens, we wouldn't be laughing sheepishly like we did in the gym. More like howling in agony and/or staring at whichever bone was poking out (okay, morbid, but that can happen).
I really hope it doesnt come to that; we'll see.
Next week will be a review of everything we've learned so far, plus a 'surprise'. I'm not sure if it's a good type of surprise or a bad one. The mere act of saying 'surprise' in a parkour session can be pretty ominous O.o
On a final note: I just learned that one of the traceurs, Jason, who can do backflips like he can walk, had also been so cautious and afraid before that it took him 6 months to do a good Kong. That made me feel better because I suddenly remembered that this thing really takes time, and maybe there's hope for me yet :)
*we didnt have pictures from the actual gym session so I just grabbed some samples from here: Philippine Free Runners Multiply Site
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