US Parkour Association (part 3 of 4): Funding model, membership voices, and next steps →

Published December 11, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 11  ·  

US Parkour Association (part 3 of 4): Funding model, membership voices, and next steps

What are the challenges, structures, and opportunities involved in building and maintaining a transparent, community-driven national governing body for Parkour?

Membership dues directly support a transparent, nonprofit structure designed to empower the Parkour community.

This conversation goes into the structure, purpose, and vision of the United States Parkour Association (USPK), a nonprofit organization aiming to unify and support the Parkour community. It discusses the unique governance model involving committees and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), emphasizing the grassroots nature of SIGs as member-driven initiatives addressing both internal and community-specific challenges. Transparency is a cornerstone of USPK’s operations, with open financial reporting and an inclusive process for member contributions to decision-making.

The discussion also touches on the challenges of convincing individual practitioners and skeptics to join the organization, highlighting the importance of proactive involvement to ensure Parkour remains community-led. Broader topics include potential external threats, such as legislative actions by industries like CrossFit and Coca-Cola, and the role of public perception in shaping Parkour’s future. The conversation underscores the urgency of building a robust membership base to drive the organization’s efforts and sustain its mission.

(more…)

Before dawn →

Published December 10, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 10  ·  

I’m not sure if it’s the silence, or the darkness. Maybe it’s the fact that pre-dawn there are two kinds of people, those who are sleeping and those who are up attacking their day and I prefer to be the later. (Although, it’s a physical fight with my body every morning.)

There’s a time and place for most everything. Writing, for example, seems best done in the early morning. Vacationing seems best done at the end of summer. Hard labor seems best done in one’s 20s.

I wonder when is the best time for introspection?

ɕ

What do you do for fun? →

Published December 9, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 9

It’s the holiday party season! (At least, on my continent it is.) From late November into January, it’s a pleasant parade of parties and fetes.

“What do you do [for work]?”

omfg could we please stop asking each other this question. My stock reply is, “as little as possible.”

Instead, could we start asking each other questions which actually start the process of getting to know each other? …questions whose answers would actually help us remember each other? …questions which elicit some story or some passion or something other than, “I file TPS reports.”

Let’s start asking:

What do you do for fun?

What’s something you’re passionate about?

What’s something new or exciting in your life?

What are you most proud of from the past year?

…and if you want to really get to know people:

What’s something that’s currently challenging you?

ɕ

§24 – Recovery Days →

Published December 8, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 8

This entry is part 36 of 37 in the series Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. Thibault

In certain circles it is said, “what was once your workout will become your warmup.” In my journey of rediscovering activity and play, there was a long period—20 years now, perhaps—where I was able to focus primarily on growth, forward motion, and transformative change. This made for a very long period where my workouts did gradually became my warmups. Certainly I’ve always had rest days; nearly 10 years ago, when I started parkour, it was all I could manage just to recover over the course of the entire week before heading back to the next hard training session. Rest and recovery were always in the mix, simply because I began my journey of transformative work in my 30s.

I’ve found it increasingly challenging to remember the importance of recovery now that I’m no longer shoving the needle of progress ahead day by day. Truth be told, I’m squarely on the mid-life plateau and it is time to take life more freely. Sure, the days of working every day for seven years on the house, climbing mountains, jumping on stuff, and doing things which cause police officers to say, “…and you sir, how old are you? You should know better!” are not over. (As far as I can tell.) But these are also, certainly, the days where spending a couple hours, every day, sitting still reading and writing is truly blissful.

ɕ

Artificial constraints →

Published December 7, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 7  ·  ,

A lot of my thinking, and sometimes even my problem solving, revolves around juxtaposition. What would the inverse of the current this be? Can I gain useful perspective from the other position? Big/small, loud/quiet, perfuse/sparse, etc.; there are many obvious qualities that create striking changes in perspective. However, I find particularly rewarding juxtapositions in unusual dimensions, and there’s one dimension in particular that pays off more than all others: Time.

Have a problem? …how would I solve it if I had 100 years? …what would have to be the case if I were going to solve it in 5 minutes?

It’s become common to talk about “minimum viable product” in the entrepreneurial space, and that’s a form of time constraint. (But it’s a useful idea because it also includes other constraints such as resources and people.)

The famous Getting Things Done system has many critical components. One in particular is paying attention to the next action for any given project. (And in GTD everything you do in your entire life is a ‘project’.) This too is a form of time constraint; it’s not, “I’ll move this project forward at some point in time,” (the perspective of unlimited time,) rather it’s, “if I was going to move this project forward in the next minute…”

Where in your life might a shift to expectation of greater or lesser time yield a huge benefit?

ɕ

Creating an administrative day →

Published December 6, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 6

Once I reached a point where most of the administrative and maintenance things were under control, I found that I had a steady stream of small things to do every day. Certainly, having things organized saves time, but things still need to be done—I can’t organize and optimize everything to zero-time required. The next step was to grab a trick from time-blocking: Set aside a chunk of time to focus on those administrative and maintenance tasks in one long go.

I’m not going to bother you with which day of the week I picked. The point is simply that I have a day—the entire day—set aside to do all the things that must be done. Laundry, occasionally changing the house air filters, stacking firewood, scheduled appointments (if I can get them on that day), banking and bookkeeping, special errands and shopping trips for home repair items, and on and on. The point is that I’ve moved all the things which feel like they aren’t directly related to my goals and aspirations—although obviously they are directly related, they just don’t feel related—to one place; one big block of time; the admin day.

ɕ

Goals versus aspirations →

Published December 5, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 5  ·  ,

A distinction I’ve been making in recent years:

A goal is something specific. It will be clear when the goal is achieved. For me, goals should always be the classic specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time dependent, sort of SMART goals.

An aspiration is something directional. It will be clear when progress is made in the direction dictated by the aspiration.

The more goals I set, the worse my life becomes. I set great goals… big challenging, self-stretching goals. They pile on like dead weight and drag me down. Lose 10 pounds. Read an hour a day. …and so on.

Aspirations, being open-ended, don’t feel so daunting. Provided the aspirations lead to actual action, then I don’t need to worry about tomorrow. I can simply do the things—today, now—which are guided by my aspirations. Be someone who moves. Be exposed to lots of fresh ideas. Be someone who helps others. Be someone who creates value. Be someone whose mind works well.

What aspirations do you have?

ɕ

Where you put your mind →

Published December 4, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 4  ·  

There’s a hard-won lesson I learned about getting things off of my mind. If my mind is stuck on something I need to deal with that immediately. Sometimes I still make the mistake of just doing the whatever, to resolve the thing on my mind. But that’s my artificial urgency problem kicking in, and I continue working to avoid that. No, by ’deal with’ I mean simply: Figure out what it is that is making that thing stick in my mind, do the thinking required to figure out the next action, and capture it somewhere not in my mind.

What’s on your mind right now that you could write down/capture outside of your head which would then free your mind for having ideas, rather than using it to try to store ideas?

ɕ

Brandee Laird: Creating experiences, usefulness, and poetry →

Published December 4, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 4  ·  

Brandee Laird: Creating experiences, usefulness, and poetry

How can one integrate personal growth, creativity, and leadership to inspire and connect with others?

Brandee Laird discusses many things, including the recent Art of Retreat, being an introvert, and card manipulation. She shares her coaching philosophy, influences, and creating experiences, and reflects on the role of usefulness in her practice. Brandee explains how she handles dark moods, strives to expand her skill sets, and even recites some of her own poetry.

[T]hey end up feeling connected to me by the way I’m doing it and the way I’m presenting myself. But really, it’s whatever tactics and techniques, whatever tools I’m giving them. Whether it’s a game, mess with a partner, or we’re all doing something together, it’s really designed to give them a sense of not being alone in the endeavor. Because parkour is something that we definitely do alone. But we do it alone, together.

~ Brandee Laird

Brandee Laird explores her multifaceted approach to personal growth, movement, and coaching. She discusses how she crafts unique experiences for her students to foster connection and engagement, emphasizing the balance between challenge and joy in her teaching philosophy. Through her reflections on the Art of Retreat, she shares how creating environments for personal and communal elevation has inspired her practice. Additionally, she explains her methods of navigating introversion and dark moods, offering insights into building resilience through creative outlets like poetry and physical movement.

The conversation also dips into the philosophy behind her work, such as redefining parkour as an obstacle-based discipline and expanding its scope to emphasize utility and community impact. She highlights how integrating compassion, creativity, and leadership can elevate both individuals and groups. Her personal anecdotes, such as teaching meditation and ninja skills at a summer camp, reveal her commitment to cultivating meaningful experiences that inspire transformation in others.

(more…)

Golden Gate National Recreation Area →

Published December 3, 2019  ·  All posts on Dec 3