Weekly Progress Report: 2010-10-19
Hey look at this dubstep video! I went to see Skrillex last friday, it was pretty frickin’ sick.
Yes, this should have come out 2 days ago at the latest; I know you were salivating to get your weekly update. I had a lot of schoolwork that was quite the priority. Now that I’m a tiny bit more on top of things (not as much as I’d like, mind you), here’s your fix.
Challenge #6: The Straddle Press to Handstand
The Elbow Planche is coming along, one small improvement after the other.
I’ve also been practicing my kick-ups, and they’re definitely getting more precise and refined. Buuut I’m not a pro just yet.
Dragonboat: Of Lessons and Evolution
Last week, I wrote a post on Dragonboat, talking about my latest season and what I love about the sport.
This post follows it up. Over the span of time (3 years) I’ve been paddling, I learned many things. Also, some things I would see change or evolve.
Before that, Candy Eye! I highly recommend that you watch this through the end. (Those of you who know the sport may have already seen it… but you’ll watch it through anyway. I know I have!)
Awesome eh? OK, Now let’s get to business.
Lessons and Discoveries
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-10-10
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to Handstand
So like I mentioned last time, since I’ve succeeded on my Tiger Bend goal, I’m now moving forward to practicing my kick-ups.
When I get my Elbow Planche down, I will practice freestanding handstands. As it happens, I’m pretty sure that by then, it’ll turn out to be fairly easy. All hail progressions! But let’s not claim victory before it happens. Not mentioning that after that’s there will still be quite a bit of work to do.
Challenge #8: Iron Cross
Dragonboat: Win as a team, Lose as a team
Let’s kick this off with some candy eye. My team, Phoenix, is Boat #3. This is the 200m Final, Division B (A being the highest-ranked), for Quebec Cup, the Provincial Championship and last competition of the season.
Most of you know I’ve been partaking in the sport with my University’s team for a while. If you don’t, you might want to read this article I wrote a while ago, as a Guest Post on Adam’s site. At that time, I was still a young fool and speaking proudly of feeling trashed. The challenges mentioned remain, though, I just have a different approach to them now. More on that later.
This season has been great. Despite many challenges, despite the fact that we lost a third of our recruits and experienced crew members during the winter season (one of the difficulties of being a University team), and despite a couple of set-backs, we have performed very well. As a team, we have learned a lot, too.
This year, I’ve also had the chance to lead the team as Captain. It was an honor, and also a great deal of learning.
In any case, I’ve been in this sport for 3 years now. I shall share some thoughts with you.
What I Love
Above all: the Team. Of all the team sports I have tried in my life (I have tried quite a good number of them), I have never seen any other for which teamwork, and the team’s spirit, are as important as they are in Dragonboat.
If you don’t work together, you lose.
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-10-02
Progress! ’cause we like it.
Challenge #6: Straddle Press to Handstand
I have progressed in my Elbow Planche position. I am able to get it straighter, although it’s still wobbly and I can’t hold it for very long yet. Getting way closer to how I want it to look, though.
Gym Movement pioneer Frankie Faires gave me a tip about a week ago, which I’ve started trying out in the last couple of days. He hinted (and reminded me) that usually, the human body tends to respond better to movements than static positions. The problem with gymnastics holds is that they’re just that; holds. It is not to say that it’s true for everyone; testing needs to be made.
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-09-21
Making progress on the challenges has proven to be ah… challenge, in the last few weeks, as school has begun again and I needed to adjust to my new schedule, fitting in work, and yadda yadda. Moreover, the Dragonboat season was ending and much work and practice was done for the last competition, which occurred in the past weekend. Not one to completely fall for such petty changes, I have still have some progress to show and new elements I’ve been working on. As I mentioned in a previous post, I find that keeping my focus on no more than two or three challenges at one time will prove the most efficient to handle.
Challenge #6: The Straddle Press to Handstand
Training Videos Medley: Gymnastics, Parkour, Calisthenics
I came upon a couple of videos recently which I would like to share with you. They present three different styles of bodyweight ability training. This goes in line with my earlier posts about giving more focus on bodyweight movements and also Parkour.
Ready to get inspired?
Gymnastics
So it’s not exactly what you would expect to see from a gymnastics video. However they’re still gymnastics-related movements, and what I like most is seeing the guy try, fail sometimes, try again and progress through his movements. It gives an idea on how his training sessions look and I like how he’s not scared of making a fool of himself. Now of course, many of his movements are definitely impressive, awesome, and stuff I want to be able to do someday. Definitely related to longer-term goals, say, post-challenge-#6.
Parkour
Parkour Generations is a group part of what we might call the “original traceurs”, from France. I like this video a lot because it gives a nice glimpse of how their training sessions look like. The analyses, tries, fails, perfecting, and also some of the fooling around.
Calisthenics
Calisthenics is, in my opinion, a very interesting training style. Not unlike Parkour, it uses urban facilities publicly available in order to train. It’s more focused on public park modules and less varied in that fashion. But a lot of what they do could be directly transferred and used on Parkour movements, and it’s amazing how creative they can get using mostly bars.
You know what’s even more amazing?
Most of everything they do actually look easy for them. I love that. As I progress through learning movements and training them, I want them to be and look as easy as possible.
Don’t you?
Weekly Progress Report – 2011-09-08
What’s up! Here’s what:
Challenge #6: The Straddle Press to Handstand
More progress on the Tiger Bend and Elbow Planche!
Parkour Training Progress – Summer 2011
We’re not quite at the end of the summer yet, but it’s still approaching pretty fast.
In June I mentioned I wanted to work more on bodyweight movements over the summer. What I also wanted is to get back into Parkour training. As you may guess, both are quite tied together. I had started Parkour a few years ago for a couple of months, but had stopped because I wanted to focus more on my Martial Arts training at the time. This year I felt a need to go at it again.
If you don’t know what Parkour is, this video should give you a glimpse of an idea.
So, what have I been working on? What did I want to get better at? Here’s a summary:
- Balancing my body
- Pressing my body
- Pulling my body
- Jumping
Weekly Progress Report: 2011-08-27
They’re back!
So this week I’ve been mostly focusing on my training, and I’ve only remembered to bring my camera yesterday. Thus, here for your eyes is my latest progression on…
Challenge #6: The Straddle Press to Handstand
I feel I’m getting very close to start working on the actual handstand balance now. Last Thursday, I made a new maximum hold PR on the Tiger Bend, with 53 seconds! That’s getting very close to the 60 seconds goal set for the progressions.
I’m noticing that my upper arms could be a wee bit straighter up, I think, to get a better looking position. I’ll see if I can get it, but if my body
