Just a quick video of a run put together during my parkour training session at High Falls today. Nothing special, but it was our first day of real Spring weather so I wanted to put something out there!
Movement 3/11 from Charles Moreland on Vimeo.
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Test post from my new posterous account. Hopefully this will double the amount of content coming into my site and make my new droid all the more functional.
This post is a continuation from Part I.
Fear is a huge player in the discipline of parkour; There are dangers and risks, and everyone has the natural tendency to avoid physical harm. In the last section, I announced that I have always felt afraid doing the things I do and I outlined several strategies I use to mitigate the effect of that fear. Part II is not an outline of a problem, nor is it a guide as to how never to feel afraid. Instead, I want to pose a few questions and point out a couple factors that occur in American society that I feel have a great deal of influence in the psyche of our generation.
The biggest question I’m going to ask is, Why? I can no longer sit back and be content with the way society decides to manage itself or behave. Specifically for this topic, why is physical harm so intensely demonized at a young age?
The root of the problem is difficult to understand for some, mainly because there is no right or wrong answer; just choices and the effect of those choices. To develop this further, I give myself as an example:
I am by no means a scarless child. I’ve had my bumps and bruises, tears, rips, cuts, and scrapes. I’ve never broken a bone to this day. The most definitive thing I remember about my escapades as a child was, “don’t do that because ________.” With every caution, came a consequence. Time after time, year after year, I have become conditioned to address what consequences derive from my actions. I am not a psychologist, and I do not demonize my parents for raising me this way. I am who I am. But one thing I cannot get my head across is what life would be like if I never stressed about that next moment. What if, instead of constantly analyzing the future, I simply adapted and responded to events that occur in the present? What kind of psychological changes occur in a child who is raised with an approach of, “Try it. Explore! See what happens for yourself.”
Humans are wonderful creatures and we most certainly have advanced brains that allow us to do some very amazing things. However, to my knowledge, humans still do not possess the capability to peer into the future and know what outcomes will arise. The illusion is definitely there. I can take in all the senses around me and say with a feeling of certainty that in an hour I will no longer be in this coffee shop, because I have another appointment. But just because this is the most probable solution, does not discount other probable outcomes. What if my client cancels? What if the person next to me drops dead?
Throughout all my childhood, whenever a potentially physically threatening situation presented itself, I was told by an authority NOT to do something because this specific thing will happen to me. But who is to judge what will happen in the future? “Don’t touch that hot stove! It will burn your hand!” Anyone can agree with this statement. The stove is obviously hot and touching it will obviously burn the child’s hand. What I want to ask is: what happens if you instead say, “Try it. See what happens.” You’ve done something very remarkable there. You’ve changed that child’s pattern of thinking and exploring. They will surely burn their hand, but in the grand scheme of things, a burn is a burn. There is no authority dictating probable outcomes to that child, rather, they learn for themselves the power of certain physical and natural laws; the only true authority.
It is necessary to prove to a child that they are the masters of their own decisions for them to act that way later in life. Heinlein once wrote (through the words of Lazarus Long), “I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” Morally and physically, I am responsible for my own actions. But with my background and the mental conditioning I have, how can I possibly be expected to attack the future with a free mind? Am I truly a free thinker/mover? Or am I only as free as my calculations allow me to be?
If my shoes have a high coefficient of friction with the rail, the distance is within my abilities, and the rail is sturdy and strong, I can safely assume that I will make the precision successfully. But what is the difference between an assumption and a prediction? In my opinion, too many people believe that the world is predictable until it proves unpredictable. But after the world proves itself unpredictable, no one comes to the conclusion that perhaps, maybe, the world is simply inherently unpredictable. Everyone continues to believe that they can predict outcomes based on limited data.
I have come to the realization that I have spent way too much of my life worrying about situations and outcomes that I can’t possibly know the answers to, especially when it comes to parkour. My past mentality has surely helped me progress as effectively and safely as possible. It has also helped me take on and accomplish new tasks slowly, something I strive to promote in all beginners. But the time needs to come where I mature and finally accept that I have certain abilities, gifts, talents, and limitations and that these do not mean I need to worry constantly about what will happen in the future. I have all the tools I need to properly adapt to whatever physical situation presents itself, whether predicted or not. That is true self-confidence. The ability to say nothing is set in stone and I know that I cannot predict what is going to happen next, but instead of waiting, pondering, and worrying about how I will respond to a potentially bad situation, I will simply continue doing what I do best: adapt.
I want to end by saying that recently I’ve become extremely intrigued in watching experienced practitioners bail. I feel that in these few precious moments, true pakour is demonstrated. There is no time for calculation. No time for worry or anxiety. There is simply reaction in its pure form. Imagine what it would feel like to be in that state of mind every minute; to have complete acceptance of the natural/physical laws that guide us, and although we don’t know what’s going to happen next, confide in our training and our personal abilities to guide us and keep us safe.
This past gymnastics session, I decided to meditate on all the worries, fears, and anxieties I have with tumbling, manipulate them into a ball, and cast them away. I am aware of my limitations, my strengths and weaknesses, and through this knowledge I can act accordingly. Last Sunday I did my first roundoff backhandspring, roundoff back tuck, four backhandsprings in a row, and a side sumi. I had never attempted any of them before simply because I was always afraid of what might happen.
I’m not calculating anymore. I’m done being a slave to my own imagination.
Mobile upload coming your way! This right here is my “office” located in the RIT fitness center. I spend quite a good deal of my time here, watching the lemmings race their time and calories away on cardio equipment that could pay for a semester of my college tuition!
This is a test of WPtogo, a mobile wordpress app for the droid. If this works I’m going to be extremely happy!
In the short few hours I’ve been in “fast paced society” (i.e. the airport), I’ve come to realize how secluded I have become from modern society apart from the internet. I live in cheap housing, frequent local independent coffee shops and buy fair trade coffee, buy all my food from farmer’s markets, and use a bike (or rollerblades now that my bike was stolen) whenever possible. The airport is definitely an alien place for me.
Luckily, while satisfying my hunger on some horribly overpriced corn and soybean based food products, I stumbled upon a copy of Mother Jone’s magazine. The article on page 16, Children of the Corn, by Melinda Wenner and the accompanying graph “Sweet & Low” by Nikki Gloudeman have enlightened me to point something out to all my readers: the big picture.
For years we’ve seen and read about the fight between HFCS and Sugar. Google HFCS and you are sure to come about as many articles supporting its innocence as there are those labeling it the anti-christ. Americans love any good drama, and it is not hard to see why any article on HFCS instantly generates curiosity.
In the short outline “Sweet & Low,” Nikki highlights significant dates regarding the battle between sugar and HFCS and their occurrence in our diets ranging from 1957 to present day. I want to focus on two key dates her outline points out:
1975 – Average American annual consumption : 70 lbs. Of sugar, 4 lbs. of HFCS
2009 – Average American annual consumption: 39lbs. Of sugar, 45 lbs. of HFCS
Debate about HFCS and its applicability to America’s health has raged on for well over a decade. But what really has happened? I hope every one of you who read this article, or read the article in Mother Jones, instantly makes the connection and sees the bigger picture. In 1975, American’s consumed 74 lbs of insulin pumping sugar or sugar-like substance annually. In 2009, American’s consumed 84 lbs annually. Thirty-four years! Thirty-four years of debacle and no one has learned anything!
HFCS is NOT the problem! In essence, it has done a marvelous job at keeping us from realizing that any annual consumption of any kind of sugar near these levels is horrible to your health.
It’s time to wake up and start ignoring the soap opera surrounding sugar and HFCS. It’s time to start paying attention to what really matters in the diet, and that sugar should never become the staple it has in our modern society. Read through the lines and become enlightened to the bigger picture.
Sleep – 6 hours (watched kung fu panda…totally worth the sleep loss)
Warm up -
25 air squats (10 slow)
20 push ups
10 burpees
~15 vaults over a steeple chase barrier
Workout -
30 sec handstand completely straight/tight x2
15 sec straddle handstand x3
Straight handstand to tuck handstand x10
OAHS 5 finger assist 3×10sec both arms
Handstand walk 5×10ft
Handstand flutter kicksx30 (focused on stable core)
Straddle-L ME x10
Sitting pike ME x10
Sitting straddle ME x10
Wall walks x10 (sucked hardcore)
EL 3×30sec
OAEL practice 10 minutes both arms (mostly straddle assist with other arm)
1 hour intense passive stretching
Warm up-
2×30sec Upper support hold
2×5 pull ups
2×5 dips
Workout -
10 minutes shoulder stand practice
3 Rounds of:
10 sec Adv tuck BL + 5 Bulgarian rows
10 sec tuck planche + 5 Bulgarian push ups
10 sec Adv tuck FL + 10 sec L-sit
Cooldown -
30 minutes of slacklining
My final back lever felt much stronger than the previous two, I’m not sure exactly what I changed to accomplish that. Bulgarian push ups are not getting any easier and I love it. My shoulder stand work has improved significantly since the last time. I think my longest hold today was around 5-7 seconds which is huge improvement over my 1-2 seconds just a couple days ago. Shoulder stand work will continue until I can effectively hold one for about 20-30 seconds, then I will transition into Ring handstands.placebo sleeping with ghosts
The new site is about 98% done. Obviously there are a few kinks that need to be addressed, and if you are an Internet Explorer user (God forbid why? Google chrome?) you’ll notice some horrific faults in the code. For everyone else you should be fine.
I hope you enjoy the design and hopefully my design professors will be pleased. Again, I will be adding more content in the next couple weeks so the site will be undergoing numerous slight changes. Check in often.
Posting will continue as normal.
-Charles