Andy Keller & Austin Weiss | Woodland Warrior Training →

Published May 20, 2020  ·  All posts on May 20

On Castbox.fm — Andy Keller & Austin Weiss | Woodland Warrior Training

How can physical play and immersive storytelling be used to engage participants in movement and teamwork in natural environments?

Movement through the forest becomes part of the lesson, with wet logs, roots, and pinecones reshaping familiar skills.

I think the point is, oftentimes people are afraid to put effort towards something if they don’t have a reason— if they don’t have the motivation to work hard. A story can create that motivation.

~ Andy Keller (9:48)

The conversation explores the immersive play and physical activity sessions held during the Parkour leadership and education retreat. A notable focus is on the integration of fantasy storytelling with movement, allowing participants to roleplay in woodland environments. This engagement highlights how physical skills adapt when transitioning from urban to forest settings, such as dealing with unstable ground and environmental obstacles.

A major theme discussed is the adaptability required by coaches when managing participant energy levels and responding to the dynamic needs of the group. The importance of familiar narratives and storytelling to create motivation and encourage deeper involvement is emphasized, illustrating how blending imagination with physical challenges enhances engagement.

Takeaways

Storytelling in Coaching — Using familiar narratives can motivate participants to engage more deeply in physical activities.

Adaptability — Coaches must adjust the intensity of sessions based on participant energy levels to maintain engagement.

Environmental Awareness — Moving through natural environments presents different challenges compared to urban settings, reinforcing diverse movement skills.

Role Reversal — Allowing participants to experience both sides of a game or challenge enhances understanding and empathy.

Physical Collaboration — Tasks requiring teamwork, such as fort-building, highlight the importance of group effort in problem-solving scenarios.

Resources

Andy Keller Parkour — Andy Keller’s personal website, providing contact information and event details.

Austin Weiss @aweiss2fr

Art of Retreat — The primary website for information on the Art of Retreat events.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Influence →

Published May 20, 2020  ·  All posts on May 20

Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil—the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be.

~ William George Jordan

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Dive deep →

Published May 19, 2020  ·  All posts on May 19

The information universe tempts you with mildly pleasant but ultimately numbing diversions. The only way to stay fully alive is to dive down to your obsessions six fathoms deep. Down there it’s possible to make progress toward fulfilling your terrifying longing, which is the experience that produces the joy.

~ David Brooks from, The Art of Focus

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I’m not sure I’d call the longing I seek, “terrifying.” But “longing” certainly fits. This idea of finding something that pulls you so strongly as a way to brush away attempted distraction fits closely with the old platitude to, “have a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside you.”

I used to think of my attention as a flashlight; as a thing I needed to narrow by focusing—narrow to illuminate a smaller area with increased brightness. I’ve always found, though I spent years in denial—you know that river in Africa?—that the more I tried to force my attention onto things, the more I felt anxious and uncomfortable. Somewhere around episodes 8, 9 or 10 of John Vervaeke’s Awakening from the Meaning Crisis there’s a discussion of what exactly is your attention. Hint: It’s not like a flashlight that you can intentionally point, and then having pointed it your mind will focus on that target.

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Sharpening the mower →

Published May 18, 2020  ·  All posts on May 18

As I write, I’m listening to my neighbor who is gas-powered-rotary-mowing the rocks in his yard…

This is a frequent topic on my blog: I have an old-school style, reel mower. It’s a modern mower; light, and maintainable. It has no motor; you push it and the blades spin. (Thus it comes with an unlimited, free gym membership and exercise program.) It really matters that it be kept sharp and correctly adjusted. A reel mower is basically 6, precisely adjustd, helical scissors. If you hit even a single twig or piece of mulch, it matters.

Yesterday I spent an hour sharpening and adjusting the mower. This is also a manual process where I have to take apart the wheel-drive-setup, and put the mower body in a little stand, (which I built years ago.) Then, using a manual hand-crank arm, and lapping compound—think: grey peanut butter with stuff that cuts steel in it—I can adjust and sharpen the mower. Anyway. I spent an hour on it.

Then I went back out into the lawn like a hero… only to discover I had done it wrong and really messed it up. Now it cuts way worse— Actually, now it mostly doesn’t cut, is impossible to push, and I need to redo all my adjusting and sharpening.

So yesterday, precious little lawn go mowed. But holy shit did I get a workout!

Sometimes my posts are metaphors for life about “sharpening the saw.” Not today. No, yesterday I simply messed up the mower and busted my ass to no avail.

Nope. Definitely no life lesson here. Nothing to see here. Move along.

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The process of reflection →

Published May 17, 2020  ·  All posts on May 17  ·  , ,

Much of the power of the Movers Mindset podcast’s signature question, “three words to describe your practice?” comes from thinking about one’s personal understanding of the word practice. In the podcast episodes, sometimes the guest’s discussion of that understanding is a profound part of their interview. Sometimes their surgical statement of three words is its sublime culmination.

In 2019, we posed the three-words question of the project itself. This turned out to be a surprisingly fruitful exercise. We came up with three words to describe our practice, and I subsequently adopted them as the three words to describe my practice:

Discovery. Reflection. Efficacy.

If those three words describe my practice—the journey of my whole life—then what is the purpose of this web site? Why go through all this work? It’s taken me 9 years and the previous 2,499 posts to understand:

It’s a vehicle for my process of reflection.

I used to think I wrote because there was something I wanted to say. Then I thought, “I will continue to write because I have not yet said what I wanted to say”; but I know now I continue to write because I have not yet heard what I have been listening to.

~ Mary Rueflé from, Madness, Rack, and Honey

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Not spinning out of control →

Published May 16, 2020  ·  All posts on May 16  ·  

Because, like you, like seemingly everybody, I have also felt as though the world is spinning out of control and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m exhausted from all the stories of shootings and attacks and bombs and the constant stream of awful stuff that is happening out there. I, too, feel desensitized and dejected from the seemingly constant carnage raging across the planet.

~ Mark Manson from, The Paradox of Progress

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There was a period of time when I felt that the world was spinning out of control. It is not.

Over a couple decades, as I spent less time on dysfunctional social networks, less time on instant gratification, less time on consuming mindless media, less time on bite-sized tripe posing as information, less time on pre-digested opinions… Well, over a couple decades I’ve come to realize that humanity is awesome. Sure, we progress in fits and starts, with setbacks small and large scattered about. But progress we do none the less!

If you see an issue that you think needs addressing, then please do set about affecting change. But do so sans hysteria, sans hyperbole, sans click-baity mindless louder-just-to-get-attention fluff.

The way you make the whole world better is to make one piece of it better; Then repeat.

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Fear is a friend →

Published May 15, 2020  ·  All posts on May 15  ·  

You must understand fear so you can manipulate it. Fear is like fire. You can make it work for you: It can warm you in winter, cook your food when you’re hungry, give you light when you’re in the dark, and produce energy. Let it go out of control and it can hurt you, even kill you… Fear is a friend of exceptional people.

~ Cus D’Amato

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Focus on what you do best →

Published May 14, 2020  ·  All posts on May 14

My suggestion? Let more qualified people or tools tackle the “stuff” that forces you to slow down, lose productivity, and create something less than what your clients deserve. Sure, it’s scary to think about how much it will cost to outsource … anything else that isn’t in your wheelhouse. But think about how much momentum and overall quality of work you lose whenever you let that fear take over. I say: focus on what you do best, outsource the rest, and be happily surprised when you see how much your business soars as a result.

~ Suzanne Scacca from, Focus on What You Do Best and Outsource the Rest

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This is just an awesome point. The article is set in the context of freelancers who build web sites. Strip off the context, and it’s still perfectly true.

But also, I’ve been searching for an excuse to link to A List Apart. It’s not at all obvious from their web site, but they’ve been doing what they do since 1998. It started as a mailing list that was being separated off from I-forget-what… it was to be a “a list apart.” Then they unassumingly began leading discussion and pioneering best-practices for 20+ years.

Also, they have a nice web site chock full of great reading and resources. If you think you have an interesting or challenging problem related to a web site—A List Apart probably covered that 10 years ago.

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Stephen Leung | Growth Hacking your Parkour Business →

Published May 13, 2020  ·  All posts on May 13

On Castbox.fm — Stephen Leung | Growth Hacking your Parkour Business

How can growth hacking techniques help small Parkour businesses compete and succeed in a market dominated by larger competitors?

The key to building a successful Parkour business lies in understanding and addressing the real needs of the community through product-market fit.

[I]f you want to build a business, you want to build a brand. It’s a little meta— but it’s having a clear understanding of your product-market fit. And I spent the beginning of the session there, even teed it up… that some of you may not want to hear this. It’s a really big thing, going back to the tech startup world.

~ Stephen Leung (4:38)

The conversation explores how growth hacking techniques from the tech industry can be applied to small Parkour businesses. A core focus is the importance of identifying product-market fit, emphasizing that no amount of marketing or tactics will succeed without a real understanding of what the market needs. The discussion highlights that Parkour businesses may need to rethink their identity, realizing they are not simply competing within their own community but addressing broader lifestyle needs.

Another topic discussed is the idea of “jobs to be done,” suggesting that businesses succeed by identifying the fundamental problems customers are trying to solve. Parkour businesses could benefit by addressing tangential needs like community building, after-school care, or personal growth, rather than solely promoting physical training. Collaboration among Parkour businesses, rather than competition, is emphasized as a key driver for collective growth.

Takeaways

Growth hacking — Small businesses can leverage creative tactics to compete with larger companies.

Product-market fit — A Parkour business must align with real market needs to grow sustainably.

Jobs to be done — Understanding the broader needs customers seek to fulfill is critical to success.

Community focus — Parkour businesses can benefit by emphasizing the community aspect rather than just physical training.

Collaborative competition — Growth should focus on lifting the entire community rather than outcompeting peers.

Market adaptation — Parkour businesses must adapt to serve evolving market needs rather than clinging to narrow identities.

Resources

Art of Retreat

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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Unrestrained moderation →

Published May 13, 2020  ·  All posts on May 13  ·  

I’m finding myself draw to this phrase. It’s clearly messing with me; At first brush it might seem to be an oxymoron. However it depends on which definition of “moderation” I choose. If moderation is something I have—say, I am moderate in my opinions—then that moderation simply is. That moderation is neither short nor tall, slow nor fast, and neither restrained nor unrestrained.

But if moderation is thought of as an action—something I am doing continuously, like running or living or talking—then it can clearly be done to different degrees. My running can be slow or fast. (Technically, my running is uniformly slow, but bear with me for this simile.) My living can be conservative or outlandish. And so my moderation can be restrained or unrestrained. Currently, my moderation dial is turned to about, 2; Picture me knocking on the control panel asking, “Hello? Is this on?” I need to twist that moderation up to 11.

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Update Oct 2020: See also, Festina Lente.