European Girls Parkour Day 2014

Traveling Ninja: Mulhouse Edition

Day One: Group Shot @ Abandoned House
Photo: Saïmiri Parkour

This weekend, I had the pleasure of joining about 15-20 women from all over France (+ one from Switzerland!) for the third annual European Girls Parkour Day. It was a two-day event hosted by Saïmiri Parkour in Mulhouse, France with all sorts of fun, training, challenges, and delicious flammekeuche (or however you spell it)!

I got there just in time for the afternoon session on Saturday. I was a little nervous because I didn't know a single person there and my French isn't exactly perfect (I'm working on it!) but everyone was super friendly and welcoming and the nerves quickly went away. We started with a group warm up—a little follow-the-leader parkour run & some creative challenges using the scaffolding under an outdoor stage—and then we headed down to an old abandoned stone/brick house (every adventurer's paradise). The house was one of my favorite parts of the day because it was the most challenging for me both physically and mentally.

Day One: climbing around under the stage (Photo: Saïmiri Parkour)

Day One: abandoned House (Photo: Saïmiri Parkour)

The challenge was basically to climb around the entire building. It was difficult but doable, and some parts were definitely easier than others. At the end of the third wall, the grip changed a bit presenting a new challenge for me. Up until this point, it was large enough for all of your fingers, but now the grip was only wide enough for the very tips of your fingers. Slightly difficult. Especially for someone who doesn't work on grip strength very often.

At the corner of the third and fourth wall, I looked down to analyze the one-story drop to the ground. If I fell, I'd be tumbling into the bushes or on a parked car beside them. For some reason, I was completely un-phased by this. Re-directing my attention, I focused on the challenge ahead: the fourth and final wall. There were two areas between the windows that were just barely out of reach for me (see photo below). I almost considered not doing it but I had made it so close to scaling the entire house, I didn't want to give up. Realizing I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the gap if I was still holding on with my left hand, I decided to take a calculated risk. I knew if I failed, I could bail by hitting the pavement and rolling. I slid my left hand to the side of the stone square and pressed my fingertips against it rather than actually wrapping my fingertips around it. Using the force of my fingers pressed against the side, I kept my body close to the wall and slowly inched my way towards the righthand grip. I felt my fingertips against the right grip, released the left, and grabbed onto the new square in front of me. Phew. Breathe out. One more gap like this and I was back where we started. I climbed down and took a deep breath, amazed with myself. Challenge complete. What an incredible feeling!

One of the girls traversing the fourth wall (Photo: Saïmiri Parkour)

I stayed there to watch the other girls and spot in case anyone fell. Some of them took it on fearlessly and some stayed up there to help the others by placing a hand on their backs as they slid across. In the end, everyone who wanted to attempt it was able to with the help of the group. The whole weekend was like this—everyone helping each other and making sure no one was left behind. It was a great atmosphere.

After the house, we headed back to the warm-up spot where we worked on jumps and vaults, then to another spot that was great for wall runs and cool variations of tac to wall runs in the corner. I attempted a wall-run 360 but couldn't quite keep the grip. One of the Saïmiri guys joked, is that really parkour? Okay fine, so it's not very useful. But it was fun!

One more spot and then it was time to eat and rest. We had a delicious Alsatian meal of flammekueche and then we played on the slackline for a bit. We made it to bed around midnight that night... I had to use parkour to get into my bunk bed because the ladder was broken. I did half a wall climb and then slid my body into the bed like a seal. I was truly exhausted.

The next day consisted of more awesome training and traceuse bonding. We hit a few different spots with a delicious BBQ in between in the hills of Soulzmatt.

Day Two: driving in between spots--the scenery was absolutely gorgeous!
(Photo: my super fancy iPhone)

We ended the day with some balance and jumping on a bridge across the river in Mulhouse. We were having lots of fun but eventually it was time to say our goodbyes. Saïmiri gave us souvenir bags with a sandwich and a drink for the trip home which was great. There were lots of these little personal touches throughout the event. It made me feel like I was visiting a family friend, not a group of traceuses I've never met before. It was really nice to be welcomed into the community like that.

Day Two: Group Shot 

Day Two: Group Shot with our "Traceuse de France" T-Shirts :)

One of the things we talked about during the event was, "Why girls parkour?" We had a really great discussion and it was especially interesting for me to listen to the European girls share their opinions when I've had so many similar talks with people in the U.S. about this. In the end, I think the point is that it creates a community within a community. Why have different parkour associations in different cities? Why not just one giant parkour group or everyone do their own thing? Because we want to connect with people. Just like traceurs in Boston or New Orleans want to meet each other and train together, traceuses from all over the world want to connect with other traceuses. We're a minority and it's really cool to meet other people who share such a unique interest.

Day Two: group push-ups over the stairs (I'm the one with the obnoxiously bright sneakers)

Overall, it was a fantastic event. I'm so glad I was able to go. Saïmiri did a great job of organizing everything including food, housing, sweet training spots, and event t-shirts! Even though they're not fluent in English and my French isn't perfect, we were all able to communicate well enough. And to be honest, I don't think you need to speak the same language to train together. Sorry to be cheesy, but movement is truly universal.

Thank you, Saïmiri Parkour for an amazing experience! I can't wait to train with you all again someday.

Jumping & Stair Torture: Training at the Park

Week 74: Training at Parc de Bercy

I'm absolutely loving my training routine here. One of the main parkour spots (as far as I can tell from online stalking) is at Bercy Park which is an easy 20ish minute walk from my apartment. I love the walk too because I get to stroll along the river and across one of the many beautiful bridges to get there. This week, I made it out there three times, including a 2.5 hour session yesterday morning.

I try to go pretty early in the morning 1) to avoid the heat and 2) to avoid the people. Although, as far as I can tell parkour is pretty normal here. In DC, people always stopped to stare or ask me what on earth I was doing. Or my favorite, please don't hurt yourself! Thanks, dear stranger. Here they yell Bon Courage! as they walk by and if people stop to watch or glance over as they walk by, it's more like they're watching a street artist doing what they love, not because they think I'm crazy.

Anyways, I had an awesome training session yesterday morning. I started with a little stair torture at one of the entrances to the park. There's one set of stairs there that has three flights with little platforms in between. So I went right grapevine, left grapevine, forwards on the way up and then backwards, right, left, on the way back down. After a few rounds of stair runs, I was feeling ready for my next challenge. Forwards QM down three flights (not terrible) and backwards QM up three flights of stairs (yes, terrible).

Feeling tired but warm, I headed over to the basketball court to work on balance along the fence and some vaults back and forth. I saw some older guys doing pull ups in a little corner of the court that I totally would have missed myself but now I have somewhere to work muscle-ups! Yay!

Next, I headed over to the parkour/skate park corner of the park. I worked on dive kongs for about 30 minutes on a concrete ping pong table. I couldn't quite get the distance--I kept tapping one foot at the end) so I'm putting that on my goal list. I felt my energy declining after this so I threw in a few balance squats, precision jumps in the fountain, and plank holds on the rails, and then I called it quits for the day.

I threw together a little video of my first few training sessions here in Paris... Nothing crazy, just my workout challenges & lots of jumping. I'm not that person with an expensive camera, hours of magical editing time/skills, and a long list of flips to show the world with dubstep in the background BUT I do want my non-parkour friends & family back home to see what I'm up to so... here you go! :)

Starting a New Routine

I'm finally starting to feel like I could live here. Not that I have a choice... I've already sort of committed but it's nice to know that feeling is there. I've had a few awesome early morning training sessions now and I'm really enjoying it here. The sun rises around 6am and even though I fight with my snooze button every time, my body usually wins when I feel how restless I am and how desperately I need to train to be my happy self. This morning was no different.

It was a perfect day. Sunny, warm, barely a cloud in the sky. I ran down to the quay to play. Across the street from my usual jumping spot there's a huge set of stairs perfect for torturing oneself via exercise. I did a couple of rounds of stair runs (forwards, backwards, grapevine left and right) and then decided I was done with cardio for the day. I'm such a baby when it comes to cardio. I'm working on it.

Next, I ran over the bridge and forgot I was there to workout as I gazed out at the colors of the early morning sun playing on the water. I turned around and saw some metal beams connecting the two foot bridges over the water. They were just begging to be climbed on, but there were too many people around at that point for me to quite pull it off, and I'm still trying to navigate what I'm allowed to play on in Paris without getting arrested. At least in the U.S. I could talk my way out of the crazy things I was doing when I trained. My French isn't quite good enough to argue with policemen so I'm trying to play it safe.

Sadly, I walked away from my metal bridge beams and jogged down to some steps to work on precisions and broad/box jumps. I did a little grip work on a nearby wall too. I would love to see the faces of the people walking by as I just hung there facing the wall doing absolutely nothing (my fingers were doing all the work). Maybe they thought I was meditating.

Tired from my cliffhanger practice, I ran along a little wall back to my original spot. Thanks to Bastille Day, this spot now looked like the aftermath of a pirate's party. It's like people just ran around smashing bottles on each other's heads while chain-smoking. I've never seen so much broken glass. It made for quite the obstacle course though... talk about motivation to stick your landing.

I did some cool 180 jumps and mostly focused on conditioning that didn't require me to move too much in the pirate's cove. I also did some cool strides/jumps on these nearby nautical stumps (I have no idea what these are actually called or used for). I was having way too much fun playing this morning and I almost forgot I had to leave for class (I intentionally ignored the clock on my phone). Realizing how late I was, I ran home and threw on some jeans and a tshirt and headed to class. Hopefully I'll get a longer training session soon but I'm loving these early morning workouts by the river. It's the best way to start your day.

Traveling Ninja: First Week in France

As some of you know, I recently moved to France for six months. Conveniently and by pure coincidence... I chose to study abroad in the birthplace of parkour. I haven't done nearly enough exploring since I got here but then again, I have six months so I'm not too worried about it.

I spent last weekend in Provence with my family which meant an opportunity for natural training! We went for a run through the forest and came across an old abandoned house by the river. My cousins went to jump in the river and sit by the rocks but my first instinct (thank you, parkour goggles) was to explore the house and see what I could climb on.

I stayed close to the ground for my cousin's sake. They're not used to being around ninjas and I didn't want them to worry too much. But I got enough exploring in jumping around inside and climbing over a few old walls. After a little while I joined my cousins on the rocks and worked on some jumping and climbing. No, I can't just sit on the rocks and enjoy the sun.

Later in the week, I was getting restless in the city and decided to get up early one morning to explore a spot by the river.

My new playground :)

The spot was perfect, especially in the morning because there was almost no one around. It was beautiful by the river and there are tons of things to jump around on. I only had about 30 minutes to play because I had to go to class but hopefully I'll make it back ASAP to do some more exploring. I also know there's a huge park across the river from me that is great for training but I haven't made it out there yet. Hopefully soon. So many things to explore!