Perception of your surroundings

I've been reading entries posted by a Traceur named Blane, whith which I have learned many things. thants to him I've avoided many injuries, done things I couldn't think I could do, and learned how to master my fears. Blane has talked wisely about many aspects in Parkour and led me to discovering what is a very important key fact in the practice and use of Parkour.



That key fact is the perception of your surroundings. When you are training you usually train in the same places, places that you already know. And if you train in a new place you first take a couple of minutes to view the obstacles and make your route. That way it's confortable, and you train your body and your mind. However, there is a Third aspect in which you have to train, and it is also in your mind. You must train your senses, your reflexes, your sub-conscious mind.



Why?

Simple. when you train it is not necessary, but when you are in a real- life moment, being chased and trying to escape, you can't suddenly stop and tell the chaser "Wait, give me a couple of minutes to see my surroundings and think up an escape route." You must be mentally able to quickly evaluate your surroundings, make a choice and go for it, improvise. You must train yourself to be able to do that in a flash, make it practically a reflex. As soon as you enter a new surrounding you must be aware of all the obstacles and how to overcome them.



For a long time I have thought of ways of training that part of your mind, but I have failed to come up with a way. Every way that I thought of had a pint where you can't use it any more because you've learned your surroundings. This morning, however, I was checking out this profile: Myspace.com/pkusa, and I saw a video of two Traceurs playing Tag. the first thing that I thought up was..."Yeah right, that video is COMPLETELY acted out. If most parts of the video were NOT planned beforehand, then those two guys can get away from anything."



Then it hit me. It was so simple. In a game of Tag a person HAS to improvise...Always.This was the way to train your improvisation skills. But not a normal game of tag. You must create a scenario that would happen if it was real life and play it. Sometimes it will be all chasing on person, sometimes two, sometimes more chasers, sometimes more runners. Do it with different amounts of people. Do it in different Places. Soon your improvisation skills will be maximized. This is also a really good training for quick movement.

Ed


sum it up in points:

- speed of body is nothing without speed of mind

-in order to increase your improvisation abilities you must create a scenario in which improvising is a MUST-DO.

- Tag is a really fun game if played by Traceurs.

Creation

Flexo brothers is a Parkour and Freerunning crew created by a few of us in Caracas, Venezuela. None of us are more than 17 years old. Our purpose in this website is to meet other Traceurs and Freerunners and interact with the Parkour community all over the world. We are right now focusing on out training and we will not publish any videos yet, since a few of our members are still quite new to Free Running. But we will publish our more experienced member, Ed's different views of parkour and training, and hope that some Traceurs might read it and correct us if we are wrong.