BOYCOTTING SAMELAMEOLD SUNDAY SPOTS!

[Ryan Fulmer]

We go to the same 4-5 spots every month.  Yeah its better than GWHS EVERY SUNDAY but it doesnt do much for making me want to commit to rushing to the training before having to rush over to work for 5 hours.

My new suggestion is NO GOING TO THE SAME PLACE WITHIN AN 8 WEEK PERIOD.

yeah we say its because "these" spots are "SUPER BEGINNER FRIENDLY".  pretty much anywhere in SF is beginner friendly.

WE dont have the same issues with the public that we used and havent been kicked outta anywhere in a long time (even SLOAT, Thanks MTV/WFPF)

SO what is the deal?  Yeah the more experienced traceurs get to memorize a spot and look all professional but thats not the point behind our movement.

USF, SFSTATE, ART INSTITUTE, UNION SQUARE, Divisadero/JAPTOWN, Ferrybuilding, Embarcadero, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SOMASOMASOMASOMASOMASOMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,  DALY City, ANY BART OR MUNI STATION.  There are limitless amounts of spots that can be used for what we need.  So please Somebody explain to me why we have gotten sooo lame and lazy with these sunday spot selections.

Here is the Plan:  1 Nominate a spot (pictures if nobodys heard of it).

2 Boycott lame played spots.

3 Go to the new cool Nominated spots.

and Guys none of this "What is we get kicked??!!" TALK.  we are traceurs, we move to the next place a block away.  WE live in SFCITY a new spot is ALWAYS a block away.   AND lastly most people going to these sunday sessions have a car or transportation,  if it ever got super bad we can all hop in eachothers cars and go back to a super lame played out old spot.

WE arent having those 20+ traceur sessions anymore and even then that was a crappy way to train beginners.  

SMALL SPOTS+MORE MOVEMENT=  Back to Sunday Training AWESOMENESS

[Ryan Fulmer]

Yeah i hate West Sunset and Crissy Field.

Alot.

[Bay Area Parkour]

The Sunday basic (basic!) training, which is geared to brand-new (brand new!) beginners (beginners!) in the first place, has been hosted at the Lower Presidio location last on December 13, 2009.

The rotation suggested is already in place at about 8 weeks cycles.
The winter months allow less flexibility, because out-of-town and nature-spots are less available due to weather unpredictability.

Sunday sessions have NEVER -in BApk's time- been about exploring, but about consistent availability of reasonable terrain for basic training. Newcomers and beginners shouldn't sit around in cars, or walk around looking for spots, but get some repetitive, predictable coaching.

Exploration has been always done on other days (often Fridays) by smaller groups of more experienced practitioners (who lately have not been doing that, because other commitments probably...).

Lower Presido is the refuge spot for bad-weather, because it offers some coverage, at least to meet and warm-up. Weather forecast can be easily checked out at various sites as www.weather.com.

West Sunset is considered an "awesome spot" by many advanced practitioners, admittedly from the East Bay (thus not too familiar with it), but for the others what stated above applies. Last Sunday more than 20 peeps showed (among them 4/5 absolute beginners and 1 kid).
With the good season ahead, people and spots are going to be more available.

Returning to the same spots for advanced practitioners constitutes a similar opportunity offered by gym training: focusing on more technical, or more physical skill in a relatively controlled environment, using the same, known obstacles; hence Sundays basics are not for beginners only.

And "4-5 spots every month" beats the hell out of going to the same gym all the time, no?
;)

[Ryan Fulmer]

I still dont understand why all these beginners cant get this "repetitive and predictable" coaching in new locations.

The purpose is to teach and learn. I dont see that mission as being spot specific. Whether in the same (BEST??MOST AWESOME??) gym or the same old outdoor spots. Atleast a gym can be altered and rearranged to incorporate new lines/obstacles/techniques.

Adaptation to any and all environments. Not just the white vault wall at GWHS or the one or two rail sets at West Sunset. We should be able to teach beginners (Even the BrandNewbies) with a minimal set of obstacles. I can teach my whole intro to parkour class through Jumping and basic QM on flat ground. But please dont nominate spots that are entirely flat ground.

I still say we make a thread for sunday spot nominations based on guidelines above. Teach them anywhere.

[marisa]

So... in other words, keep going to the same 8-9 spots and Aero will be happy. :D

[SafeNSure]

Testing out new spots and nominating them for the Sundays is a good idea.
Most spots we hit on Sundays came out of the spot thread, which unfortunately hasn't been updated as much as it used to (we are missing a duperhero!).
As far as I know San Rafael is the latest idea, and we wanted to check it out together with the HS where KingTheKing trains, but weather has been too unpredictable to venture out of town lately. We will for sure go with Spring coming.

But I would throw a few thoughts on the table:
- In the last 4 months the Sunday basic has been at Capuchino, UCBerkely, ChristopherPG, CCSF, Lower Presidio, GWHS, LowellHS, Bunkers, LaneyUniversity, USF, MountainLake/Sutro and West Sunset: 12 different spots for 18 weekends.

- for beginners every spot is new, and the advantage of knowing it, is mainly for those coaching: knowing the terrain well allows to challenge the new trainee according to his/her skill-set, physical abilities and size/gender, IMO; since one cannot move the obstacles around as in the gym, at least knowing where they are makes it easier.

- I've seen people doing boxjumps and rolls in the same spot, but other than that, all the spots above offer a multitude of options, and I've seen them used when coaching.

- it seems to me that there are height differences in all those spots (even, and especially at WestSunset), maybe with the exception of MountainLake; problem could be that people don't use them...

- it's often the more experienced practitioners that get kind of fixated on "a certain railset", "a certain wood-box", or -worse, IMO- "a certain flip" etc., people don't run enough and don't do much improvising, that's true... in any spot.

Having said that, I agree that it would good to have even more choice of experimented spot as the one above for the Sundays.

[kingtheking]

The highschool I train at is actually now used for a Marin Parkour beginner session every sunday at noon haha, its definatley worth checking out to any of you willing to make the journey.

[Seng]

The way I'm understanding this discussion, Aero is saying that we don't learn to adapt to new environments and that is a fundamental ability to build in parkour. I think this kinda begs the question, how are people learning and what can those of us who take on the teaching role do to expand that. I agree, it doesn't matter where you learn and good instruction, especially to beginners (or novices, to differentiate between us beginners and the truly uninitiated or inexperienced), is not dependent on location; however, another aspect of that is that lessons, especially at an introductory level, need to emphasize concepts of movement, not just the technical aspects, and we need to create a solid physical foundation before considering vault techniques that are identifiably parkour. I don't mean that newbies must go through weeks of conditioning before attempting a safety vault, but there are way too many people trying to kong before they can do coordinated qm for ten yards. Most folks haven't developed the proprioception to really properly learn any techniques and they aren't developing that proprioception by practicing the techniques because we aren't emphasizing enough that kind of body awareness; instead, we are fixating way too much on getting past an obstacle instead of learning to move through space. That almost certainly means that individuals aren't learning to help themselves which can only lead to more students instead of more teachers. I think the subject of parkour pedagogy deserves a few threads so I'll stop this paragraph here.

On another point from the original post, I think it's a serious embarrassment to BApk when we get kicked out of a location during a basic training or really any other regular weekly session. Maybe this is an age thing, but I don't need to be involved in any activities where being escorted from the premises is a continuing and expected part of the practice and I'm fairly certain that if we had gotten kicked out more than a once or twice in my first few months of parkour, I would have found something else to do long ago. I imagine some folks felt it when we got nixed at Cap last October, but for some of you City dwellers who don't train outside of SF regularly, you may not understand how much it sucks to drive 45min-1hr (or more) each way to be treated as a trespassing child, especially if you had to ask family or significant others to rearrange their lives just for you to be there.

So sure, new locations for Sundays would be great, but it's really not the time to be going anywhere that is untested of will likely result in ejection.

[marisa]

Well Seng thats just tough titties.

Cops HATE us and everything about what we do is pretty much against what they would want us to do.

IF a cops sees us or gets a call from anyone about us anywhere you can bet we will probably have to leave.

Its just the sport not the spots. maybe some day we can train in peace... morre MTV SPECIALS!!!!

[marisa]

I just wanted to say that Marisa actual neither supports nor condones the previous statement and will try and make a point of logging out of HER ACCOUNT on HER COMPUTER from now on.

(dick.)