Dec/090
How to Learn Parkour
Merry Christmas!
Regardless of whether you celebrate this holiday or any other this time of year, I’m in the spirit of giving.
I mentioned this before and now its ready. Grab my new interview with Mark Toorock of American Parkour
In just over an hour we covered tons of information from the beginnings of parkour on to how to learn parkour. Here’s a few of the things you’ll discover when you listen:
- The difference between doing Parkour and training Parkour.
- What your fitness level should be before you get started in Parkour. The answer may surprise you…
- Tips on keeping the knees, ankles and other joints healthy so you can train a long time while avoiding crippling injuries.
- What a typical Parkour training session should look like.
- How to find other Parkour practitioners (aka Traceurs) that you can train with.
- Tips on finding places to train (including the legal aspects of doing so).
- The fundamentals you MUST focus on and why neglecting to do so will mean slower progress.
- And much more…
We do talk about the Parkour Tutorial DVD, available here, but besides that its all great content on how to get started learning and training in parkour.
Right click here to download the file
Good Luck and Good Free Running,
Logan Christopher
P.S. This interview probably won’t be up here forever so grab it now while you can.
Jun/090
Damien Walters
Meet Damien Walters, one of the very best acrobats in the world. Combining tricking, parkour, trampolining, free running, and all manner of acrobatics along with a big dose of creativity.
This guy knows how to practice and get good.
If you want to get started tumbling like Damien can you got lots of practice ahead of you. But let me recommend something to set you in the right direction – Tumbling Illustrated and the Parkour Tutorial DVD.
Jun/090
Most Flexible Ross Sisters
This is footage from the movie “Broadway Rhythm” (1944). The Ross sisters, Aggie, Maggie and Elmira, sing and move in ways that’ll make your average contortionist blush.
Just watch past the minute mark to see the moves begin. And my favorite is at the 2:50 mark. That has to be the most impressive back bend ever.
Good Luck and Good Acrobatics,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Thanks to Mike for pointing me to this video!
May/090
What Trampoline should I use?
With the release of the Trampoline Handbook I’ve received a few questions on what type and size of trampoline I recommend.
To do the tricks in the book you’ll need to be able fully layout on the trampoline. For this reason I recommend a trampoline that is at least 10 feet wide. And the bigger the better. Just gives you more room to do the tricks safely.
As to shape the standard round trampoline works fine, but the square or rectangular versions are great too.
As far as brands or where you get them a simple search on google for ‘trampolines’ will find you many places selling them. Or most likely you can buy them locally in your area.
And once you have it set up the real fun begins. See the Trampoline Handbook to find out how you can get started in tons of beginner and intermediate trampolining tricks.
Good Luck and Good Trampolining,
Logan Christopher
Apr/090
The Trampoline Handbook Available Now
The new Trampoline Handbook is available now. You can skip right ahead and get it now.
Or read below to get the back story…
—–
I’m human. And because of that I make mistakes. But I like to think I quickly learn and fix them. However sometimes that’s not the case and it takes years to realize your fault.
As you may know a while back I attended an adult gymnastics class. Having no prior tumbling skills it was certainly a challenge.
But even from the time I was young I wanted to be able to do a backflip among many other tumbling skills. So I went and I slowly got better.
They had a giant trampoline as well as the tumble-track, basically a lane of trampoline leading into large pads.
Unfortunately I hardly ever used these tools.
You see, I had this idea in my mind that I wanted to only be able to do skills without the assistance of anything. I wanted to jump rather than be launched into the air by a trampoline.
And this was my big mistake!
I didn’t realize that using a trampoline I could better learn to control my body in the air. And that definitely translates to doing moves on the ground or anywhere else.
When you’re in the air you can work on flipping, twisting and many other skills. It really doesn’t matter how you got up there. Just what you do when you’re there.
But the trampoline allows you do to it easily without wasting energy. And that means more practice (not too mention safer too).
Now I’ve learned from my mistake.
I discovered this book that takes you step-by-step through the most basic moves all the way to much more advanced tricks.
So that you don’t make the same mistake I did, I’ve made it available once again.
I know not everyone has access to a trampoline, but if you do I urge you to get this book. And if you haven’t used a trampoline in a while you don’t know what you’re missing.
You’ll be able to use it to build up your skills to improve your tumbling whether you do gymnastics, Parkour, tricking or anything else.
Plus it’ll be even more fun then just a little random bouncing. So go check it out.
Sincerely,
Logan Christopher
P.S. You can read more about it at The Trampoline Handbook including a list of the 50 stunts you’ll learn and when you act now you’ll get $5 off.
Feb/090
Videotape Your Handstands and Acrobatics
“Whoa, that’s what I’m doing? No wonder I‘m not pulling it off”
It wasn’t the first time I said that phrase and it wouldn’t be the last.
Back in gymnastics I liked to bring in a digital camera to take video of myself performing moves. I’d leap upwards to do a back flip and land it real low.
After seeing the film I knew my takeoff was too far back and not straight up where it needed to be. Even though I THOUGHT I was jumping straight up.
Especially when you are starting out it can be difficult to tell what you are doing. You are concentrated on just completing a move without hurting yourself that you can’t tell exactly where you are in space.
But when you watch yourself from the outside you can see it with ease. You can see the little details of what you’re doing. And this makes it easy to correct most of the time.
I’ve used it a lot for acrobatic moves but it’s equally helpful for hand balancing.
Even just a picture can help. Because you can compare your position to a picture of someone who is much better and find out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong.
Most of the time what you think you’re doing is not what is actually happening. And that can be the difference between pulling off a move and failing miserably.
Even if you don’t personally own a camera, you probably know someone who does. If you want to get better and do it faster using a camera is a must-use tool.
The tip for today is to start recording yourself.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you need a video to compare your handstand to, not to mention a step-by-step plan to get there, check out the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide.
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