Girls Parkour Meet Up #1

For the last several weeks, K and I have been in the process of planning the first ever DC girls parkour meet up.  It finally became a reality this weekend (Saturday 7/20) at Gateway Park in Rossylyn, VA.  It took a surprising amount of work for a small get together, but we made it through the hiccups and were able to put on an awesome event.  There were about a dozen of us which was the perfect size for our first meet up.  Most girls were from the nearby DC/VA area but we had one come all the way from Harpers Ferry!

There were a lot of first-timers so we started with a fun warm up and then went into the basics.  We had several different stations in various parts of the park working on jumping & landing, rolling, don't-fall-in-the-lava, vaults, balance, and cats.  The park is an awesome location because there's so many things you can play on and there's a lot of space to spread out.  You just have to please the park police and help them understand you're not there to reenact a crazy Russian parkour video... I actually had to tell them we weren't planning on jumping off the catwalks or doing anything "extreme, dangerous, or risky".  I do not have a death wish, Ma'am.  We're here to train, play and have fun in a safe and respectful manner.  It took a few conversations, but I think we're almost on the same page...

It was weird being in a "coaching"/leading role instead of training with everyone.  While I wasn't standing still the whole time, it was different for me to be focused on everyone else's skills rather than my own.  It was fun to watch others make progress though, and to get feedback from them.  I loved being able to create such a fun event for everyone.  K and I worked really well together, switching back and forth as we taught the next skill and introduced the next game.  Overall just a really fun and awesome day! And very hot and sweaty... we picked one of the hottest days of the summer.  Oops.

The meet up lasted about two and a half hours, concluding with a stretch in the shade.  I think the girls who came had a great experience.  A couple admitted that it wasn't their thing but they were glad they tried it, while others said they couldn't wait to come back for next month's meet up! Yay!