Movement inspiration 12/24/13 Tree Chi
One question I have been asking myself recently is how to address more movement qualities within the practice of parkour; how can we bias our training to addresses weakness within parkour practice.
Parkour is wonderful practice I think but it has limits as far as physical development, at least as it is commonly practiced. It has limited ability to develop strength and mobility adaptions, and speed, stamina, and endurance are often not addressed in training. Many traceurs end up extremely biased to speed, strength, and reactivity with big gaps in their physical capacity in other areas.
Recently I struck on an approach that I found very challenging to my mobility, and a great deal more.
We had a cold snap with temperatures in the 20’s during one of my training sessions. At the beginning of the session I found myself wanting to find a new warm up that was low impact but challenging.
This is what I came up with.
The goal was to traverse through the tree without any dynamic movements always connected and in balance without using my hands and looking for places where this was challenging. I found this created amazing challenges that combined mobility, balance, body positioning, and strength and motor complexity. I have done similar things before but never has the practice and benefits crystallized for me in the same way.
I know climbers do similar drills and I could see right away the vaule. It also reminded me of some of the movement research drills Ido Portal does, forcing you to solve complex problems of balance, mobility and body positioning. I find this type of work is very effective in warming up the body, it creates a strong neurological connection between the feet and the brain, tunes in your balance, and finally I find this type of movement extremely meditative; thus the tree chi title.
My challenge for you is to find a place you can work very fine footwork with slow controlled movement. It does not have to be in trees I warmed up the same way in the gym Sunday on the rock wall and in the scaffolding.
