Scree

noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.

How these posts are organized

Published September 13, 2015 · All posts on Sep 13

This entry is part 3 of 37 in the series Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. Thibault

I’m not going to quote/include any of Thibault’s book. Pull-quoting is time consuming to do well, and by the time I’m done, I’d have way more of his book “excerpted” here than I’d feel comfortable with. That means, if you really want to follow along, you simply must get a copy of the book yourself and read the original material. It’s easy, and you can thank me later.

As I begin each subsequent section in Thibault’s book, there will be a post titled to match the section. This way you can skim the listing of post titles and see the sections corresponding to the book. These “new section” posts have titles starting with the section character (§).

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Parkour & Art du Déplacement

Published September 13, 2015 · All posts on Sep 13

This entry is part 2 of 37 in the series Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. Thibault

https://www.librarything.com/work/17885382

On September 4th, Vincent Thibault’s latest book, Parkour & Art du Déplacement: Lessons in Practical Wisdom came out on Kindle. (A print version is eminent.)

I was in Québec at the time, and it felt like an early birthday present. I took most of the day off to sit in a beautiful park, on a spectacular day. I devoured the entire book in one sitting. With every page, I became more convinced that I was going to be spending a lot of quality time with this book.

This book brings a fresh approach to understanding and exploring Parkour/Art du Déplacement/Free Running. No pictures, no explanations of techniques. Instead, it provides 90 distinct thoughts and ideas giving you the option of exploring your Parkour/ADD in your own way. You can read the entire book, or dive into one particular idea at a time. If you read it overall as one piece it will give you a great introduction to the Spirit and Philosophy of Parkour/ADD; If you want to “dive deep”, you can pick each of the ideas apart separately and explore them through your own thinking, exploration and communications with others.

The book includes both English and French written by the author — this is an exceptional feature of the book. Rather than being translated, Thibault is able to convey the ideas naturally in both languages. Native speakers of English or French will benefit equally.

Finally, this is the first book (that I’m aware of) which literally bridges the two most important languages encountered in the context of Parkour/ADD. If you are working on one of them as a second language, you can flip between the two language versions of the material and be assured you are getting a nuanced, and accurate, translation of the concepts.

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Not something I’ve tried before

Published September 13, 2015 · All posts on Sep 13

This entry is part 1 of 37 in the series Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. Thibault

If this goes as planned, this series will be a very long sequence of posts that chronicle my diving into a particular book. The book contains 90 short sections; It’s a large, open-ended collection of ideas and vignettes on Parkour.

My plan is to study one section each week by reading it on a Sunday — Sunday mornings are when I most often have down time for reading and reflection. Then over the course of the following week, I’ll trying to keep the “idea” topmost in my “parkour thoughts”; Talk to others about it, read other related materials from my personal library, think about it in terms of physically moving, etc. Along the way during the week, I’ll try to write small (likely very small!) bits covering my explorations.

It will be interesting to see how far I get.

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Indescribable

Published September 13, 2015 · All posts on Sep 13

This entry is part 31 of 72 in the series My Journey

I spent Saturday in Philadelphia training with a relatively small group of people.

Honestly, I was pretty beaten up, broken down, and tired before we even started. Brutally honestly, I need a break; I have simply been doing way too much for way too many weeks in a row for these old bones. So right out of the gate on Saturday, I could tell I was going to be dragging my a** all day.

And then the entire day unfolded in so many ways I could never have imagined.

I’d have to write a small book to tell all the stories; The people, the names, beautiful smiles, sketchy Philadelphia parks, smiling strangers, wall runs, jumps, cats-to-climb-ups, people who have grown and changed so TREMENDOUSLY since I’ve last seen them, old friends, new friends, people with broken hearts who are an inspiration in the way they continue to crush challenges, people ahead of me laughing and playing and urging me on by simply “being”, people behind me yelping approval that I can’t comprehend, and dinner and milkshakes and conversations and shared thoughts with people I expect I will never forget.

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The hardest part?

Published September 6, 2015 · All posts on Sep 6

…is saying goodbye after the final dinner to head back to pack. So many new friends! But I know I’ll see them again. Can’t wait to get home!

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Photo gallery for this series

This post presents a gallery of ALL images in this series. You can click on any to enlarge; you can even click on the first, sit back, and it’ll run them all as a slide show. The gallery is dynamic so it will automatically grow…

Photo gallery for this series

Published August 9, 2015 · All posts on Aug 9

This post presents a gallery of ALL images in this series. You can click on any to enlarge; you can even click on the first, sit back, and it'll run them all as a slide show. The gallery is dynamic so it will automatically grow as I add more posts to this series.

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Good coaches

Published August 5, 2015 · All posts on Aug 5

In contrast, a transformational coach realizes the power of the coaching platform to inspire, motivate, and produce positive change in his or her followers. He or she is acutely mindful of the moral, social, emotional, and psychological needs of young people. Transformational coaches offer individual support and encouragement to each player and have a clear vision for the desired impact on their players’ lives. And not surprisingly, a transformational coach, even in organized athletics, allows and encourages young people to simply play.

~ Joe Ehrmann from, InSideOut Coaching

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Shut up and train: Self-directed advice

Published August 3, 2015 · All posts on Aug 3

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue – to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

~ Socrates

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I think that “shutting up” has been the most difficult aspect of my Parkour journey.

In my youngling days — let’s define that as sub-30-years-old — I was always the clown: obnoxious; rude, crude and ill-mannered; smart ass. When you have a big ego and low self-esteem, you seek attention to try to make those ends meet. That’s probably a good benchmark definition of dysfunctional. Worse, I had no idea such was the case. Over the next ten years, (or so,) I started to realize that such behavior was dysfunctional and pathetic. That decade was finally followed by my beginning to try to change about 40 years of ingrained behavior.

It was at this point — just as I was trying to change the course of a very large ship with a very small rudder — that I started Parkour. At the time, I simply jumped into Parkour being my usual self. But two pushups into my first class I was stripped of my delusions of grandeur. Two minutes in, and I figured out that I was an out-of-shape pile of bacon. After two hours of trying to do something, anything, and failing and sweating and flailing and sweating more… Well, shit got real.

That first class was followed by a solid year of me having an argument with myself, in real-time, at every class. Every time I’d exhibit some variation of my dysfunctional behavior I’d mentally berate myself; Shut up. Train. After each class, I’d think back on all the cringe-worthy moments and think: Next time, shut up more. Train more.

Somewhere around two years in, my ship’s course had shifted far enough that the dysfunctional behavior was noticeably tailing off. Certainly, the behaviors I disliked were still frequent enough to bother me, but they WERE tailing off.

Now, three years in and going stronger than ever, I’ve made a lot of progress in terms of fixing myself mentally and physically. I can now say, with an air of experience: Everything has changed. And nothing has changed.

Shut up more. Train more.

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Metabolic advantage

Published July 21, 2015 · All posts on Jul 21

The idea that a particular diet might have weight loss benefits that cannot be predicted utterly by the calories contained in that diet is often referred to as ‘metabolic advantage’. I’ve found it to be a vexed topic, with commentators on it belonging to one of two camps. On the one hand we have those that believe ‘a calorie is a calorie’, and that the form that calories come in have not bearing on their impact on weight. On the other hand, we have those who maintain that the form calories come in can influence body weight in a way that is independent of the number of those calories, or who are least open to the idea that his can be true. Just to be clear, I am in the latter camp.

~ John Briffa from, «http://www.drbriffa.com/2009/10/19/is-there-such-as-thing-as-a-metabolic-advantage/»

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What is “intermittent fasting”?

Published July 15, 2015 · All posts on Jul 15

Quelling insulin will help protect against these conditions, and will facilitate fat loss too. One way to quell insulin levels is to eat a diet largely devoid of the foods that cause surges in blood sugar such as those [of] added sugar as well as starchy ‘staples’ like bread, potatoes, rice pasta and breakfast cereals. Another way, though, to moderate insulin levels is to extend the time between eating. This, in essence, is what intermittent fasting is about.

~ John Briffa from, «http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/03/01/my-times-piece-on-intermittent-fasting/»

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The calorie principle

Published July 9, 2015 · All posts on Jul 9

There are a number of potential mechanisms that explain why nuts may not be fattening which were explored in a recent review that appeared in the Journal of Nutrition recently. I’ve summarised them (along with one mechanism that is not discussed but I think is important) below:

Studies show that nuts tend to be effective at satisfying the appetite, which can mean that individuals just end up eating less of other foods. The percentage of calories that come from nuts that are compensated for by eating less of other foods varies from study to study, but comes in at around 70 per cent.

~ John Briffa from, «http://www.drbriffa.com/2008/10/06/why-the-evidence-on-nuts-and-weight-makes-a-mockery-of-the-calorie-principle/»

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Stop hacking your life

Published July 7, 2015 · All posts on Jul 7

Many people have had success using these life optimization tools and tricks, and they’re not necessarily a bad thing. Their effect all depends on which of two relationships someone has with hacking:

…

Hacking approach can be beneficial; every man should have a little MacGyver in him and keep some duct-tape solutions in his back pocket. And if there’s a better way to cut an onion, by all means, go for it.

But hacking approach invariably leads to a life that’s less optimal, not more. The damage results not so much from the actual hacking practices themselves, but from the mindset their pursuit and adoption begets.

~ Brett McKay from, The Pitfalls of Life Hacking Culture | The Art of Manliness

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Trying not to try

Published July 6, 2015 · All posts on Jul 6

My guess is that we have all experienced this combination of effortlessness and effectiveness at some point in our lives. While we are completely absorbed in chopping and sautéing, a complex dinner simply assembles itself before our eyes. Fully relaxed, we breeze through an important job interview without even noticing how well it’s going. Our own experiences of the pleasure and power of spontaneity explain why these early Chinese stories are so appealing and also suggest that these thinkers were on to something important. Combining Chinese insights and modern science, we are now in a position to understand how such states can actually come about.

~ Edward Slingerland from, Trying Not to Try – Nautilus

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Restricting your eating times

Published July 4, 2015 · All posts on Jul 4

The reasons for these health benefits relate to the fact that the human body appears to be designed to thrive in a cycle of “feast and famine.” By imitating the ancestral conditions of cyclical nourishment, your body enters into a state of optimal functioning. Three major mechanisms by which fasting benefits your health include:

Increased insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial energy efficiency. […] Reduced oxidative stress. […] Increased capacity to resist stress, disease and aging.

~ Jeff Roberts from, «https://insights.collective-evolution.com/2015/02/05/why-restricting-your-eating-time-period-to-8-hours-will-transform-your-health-fitness/»

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Muscle loss during short-term fasting

Published July 3, 2015 · All posts on Jul 3

When the body is running short on glycogen, it becomes increasingly reliant on fat as a source of energy, sparing muscle tissue. That is, it burns fat, often in the form of ketone bodies, which are byproducts of fat metabolism. This state is known as ketosis. There is evidence that ketosis is a more efficient state from a metabolic perspective (Taubes, 2007, provides a good summary), which may be why many people feel an increase in energy when they fast.

~ Ned Kock from, Muscle loss during short-term fasting

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Exercise is the least important part of the equation

Published July 2, 2015 · All posts on Jul 2

I looked at him and smiled and said, “Okay, then don’t exercise. Let’s deal with that a few months from now.” He replied with a face that looked something like this, and asked how I could possibly not recommend he start exercising if he wanted to lose weight.

My reply was simple: “I’m not interested in getting you to lose the most weight as quickly as possible. I’m interested in helping you get healthier, permanently.”

~ Steve Kamb from, Why Exercise is the Least Important Part of the Equation | Nerd Fitness

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