March/April Part 1 - That Minor Injury You Just Had? Best Thing That Ever Happened to Your Training...

How is that for a long title? First off, my apologies for my lack of writing in the past month...I could list excuses, but they don't matter.

While trying to decide how to best recap the past month, I concluded that I would break it up into several parts that may be useful to you in your own training...here goes

Ok, so a couple weeks ago I broke my cardinal rule when freerunning..."When you are going to do something DO IT and when you aren't DON'T!" in short...commit or don't try it when you combine the two you Get Hurt.

I was getting psyched up for a big jump (big mental not physical) when I realized that something on that particular day wasn't clicking there. Instead of walking away and coming back a bit later I instead pulled the "major foolio" card and went for it without taking proper time to overcome it mentally. now let me change font color here and note something: This is not to say that you have to plan out every move in your head or contemplate a move every single time, HOWEVER you should be confident in it through an understanding before attempting it. a.k.a. the standard don't try this at home [unless you know what you are doing]. So I "went for the jump" and bailed on the idea of landing while in the air EVEN THOUGH I had enough of a jump to make it! Then I put my feet down to land in front and became suddenly aware that I was about to slam my knee into the CONCRETE in front me.

This is where practicing "how to fall" comes in handy....

As soon as I hit, I twisted my body to the side. I still bashed my knee into the concrete, but I only bruised it instead of potentially breaking it lol.

I feel like I am digressing too much into the story so lets get back to the point.....

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This minor injury (bruised knee) kept me from training for about 5-6 days. By properly resting it and taking care of it I am healed now, but for that short period of time...training was not an option.

During this time my ability to move in ways I used to was temporarily taken away! In this time I found myself frustrated. NOT because I was injured, but for how much opportunity I have wasted while HEALTHY!

My GREATEST motivation this whole month has not been something like, "that awesome video that just came out" or "that show that is coming up soon" but INSTEAD that EVERY DAY is an opportunity to improve and although I trained nearly all of them...I felt I could have done SO much More!

So I challenge you, in EVERY aspect of your life...

What opportunities are you wasting? Decide TODAY how you are going to work to use them to reach a Goal!

Whether that goal is becoming a better Freerunner/Traceur, being more productive at work/school, improving your relationships with friends and family, or glorifying God, you can make choices today and EVERY DAY to not waste opportunities to reach your goal!

Think...reflect...perhaps comment on this blog (what a crazy concept right?)

...and wait for part two =)

1 Love,

MB

March 7th-14th Training from Within

“How do you train when you are by yourself?,” I was asked. GREAT question Calvin. This is how I answered…

When I train, I train from within. I warm up, physically and mentally. Perhaps watch a few videos that have recently inspired me. Then I set a goal…sometimes it is big, sometimes it is small, sometimes it is a movement I am on the brink of capturing, and sometimes it is a location. In any case I set out in a direction. I continue to move until something enters my mind…FEAR.

I will get somewhere and an image with flash into my mind. Sometimes it is something I have done before, or it is something I saw someone else do. Other times it is something I KNOW I can do, but in each case it is something I am uncomfortable or “afraid” to do.

Now this gets back to where I define “fear” in two big categories. Fear due to lack of understanding the movement. Fear due to the unknown.

Now fear because you don’t understand a move is Dangerous in my opinion. This is where people “chuck a tuck” and get hurt. Fear due to the unknown, however, can manifest itself due to silly notions of what “could happen” that really are not probable if your attention is instead focused on performing the move.

When you can get to the point where you recognize places that are right there, just outside your comfort zone, that is your greatest opportunity to train!

Because of this, it can sometimes take me HOURS to make it to my destination and back. EVERYWHERE that this notion occurs, I stop and overcome it…whether that takes a long time or a short time in each instance comes from my ability to focus myself for the move.

On that particular night, I demonstrated this by prying into Calvin’s abilities, finding a move for him that I knew, and he knew, he could do, but made him perform it somewhere that scared him. For Calvin, it was a palm spin on a concrete railing…after he overcame that obstacle, I made him do it on an exact duplicate railing, but this time with an 8 foot drop off. It was the EXACT same move, but different IN THE MIND.

Train from within my friends…

Discipline is not one’s learned abilities but one’s ability to learn.

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March 4-6th Freerunning meets CTF

Ok, so it is BEAUTIFUL outside...50 degrees, light wind, and SUN...

I have 4 tests, a speech, and a paper due next week...

But everybody needs a study break right???

HA, I met up with the guys this afternoon for a bit of jam when we were approached by some guys from a Fraternity who were hosting a "Capture the Cure" event for charity - a game of capture the flag to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. They wanted us to join in, so we obliged, splitting up onto the two teams.

Much fun was had as we jumped, vaulted, and flipping through campus attempting to steal each others' flags. My favorite moment was teaching some of the guys on my team how to vault to escape being tagged!

The biggest downfall to CTF is going to jail right? Wrong.

In "jail" we practiced moves and even had a few photos taken for their album for the event. My one-footed fronts from height rapidly improved as I worked them for one of the first times since the weather got cold...I LOVE throwing them outside now.

In the end my team won ;) but pizza was had by all. The important thing to me was we were given the opportunity to positively portray fr/pk to a portion of the community

I love this weather...but my test scores may not. I hope it rains? nah...

1<3

March 1-3rd - Sharpening the Blade

You learn best through teaching...it's so true. The past week I have been working with two guys on backflips and it has made me consider all of the little things in my form that I could improve on to make my movements more effortless, clean, and powerful.

Wednesday, I hit Cheer Express with Nick and Adam. We worked form form form. Tumble track frontflips...with hands behind your back. So great. Your take off must be just right to give you the momentum you need for the move. You drive your hips UP! Then, you must rely on your abs to tuck you nice and tight, keeping your HEAD TUCKED IN. The real challenge is to do multiple flips in a row...precision landing is a must.

One thing that I have realized is that I generally don't keep my head in on front tucks. I REALLY focused on this while throwing fronts on the tumble track. Although it is something I know I needed to work on, the practice of it makes you spin MUCH faster and the timing required to land it is different...aka scary. My first tuck was so tight I missed my feet straight to my chest...ouch..but AWESOME! After that I got the timing down....a huge improvement.

I also revisited the two-footed wallfront...Legend. I love this move so much. I focused on getting CLOSE to the wall so that the drive is hard and the spin is FAST (applying the tucked in head from earlier). I feel that I am getting much more control of this move and I can't wait to take it outside soon :)

Soreness to come...Rest will be essential.

1<3

Feb 19-28th Moral of the Story: Don't Throw Banana Peels Out the Window ;)

Wow, just an awesome week of training...

Tuesday, a new guy came in and worked backflips. We went over the steps, got him over a few fears and he went for it....SUCCESS! (Number 277 if you are keeping count with me). I spent most of the rest of practice working backfulls (still striving for that better understanding of the twist to make the move simpler)

Wednesday, we went over to Cheer Express (an awesome cheerleading gym that allows us to put their slanted mats up and wallflip all we want). I had a specific trick in mind that has been rolling around in my imagination for weeks...Double footed wall front! As I stretched out and warmed up I focused on what I knew of the movement and reflected back to Cane's tutorial that I had just watched... I do have a history with this move...I have tried it once before. A year ago, strait to my back...not ready... BUT that didn't matter now. So I went for it and made it around! NOW to LAND IT! A few more tries and a tighter tuck later and I landed it to my feet YES YES YES YES! I freaking love this move!!! I can't wait to get in to train it some more :) ...ALSO highest wallflips I have ever done...off the mat with my feet up the wall lol VIDEO to come...

Thursday and Friday were naturally days of rest and healing for.....

SATURDAY!

Saturday my great friends Colleen, Adam, Nicholas, and Derek traveled down to Indy with me to train for the afternoon. EPIC! I landed INWARD FLY-A-WAYS and my KICK THE MOON's were so high I think I may have affected the tides. Seriously grand training sesh all the way down to my lunch on the way home (Packed with love by the stunning Megan Renee). We had loads of fun throwing triples into the pit and I worked back fulls as well...I experimented with a modified technique that I believe is spinning me round quite nicely...looking forward to playing with it in the gym. ALSO I threw some sideflips on flat ground before we left. I changed from my old tuck to a tighter tuck in front...I was so high and fast you would think I was Big Z for a minute ;)

Two more days of rest and I will be ready to go again...Thank God for freerunning...I feel alive

"True discipline is not one's learned abilities, but one's ability to learn."

1<3

February 14-18th Back to Feeling the Burn!

After two weeks of limited access to the gym, I was left thirsty for adrenaline. To quench my thirst, I cleared the evening schedule and hit the gym HARD three days this week. I started out with my latest break though of last week...back fulls

I suspected that perhaps it would take a bit to get back into it...and I was right. One thing that I find very hard is learning a move....then coming back to it. There is always the tendency to oversimplify a move in your mind after you have landed it before...quite disastrous, as it causes you to over think a move...however you must eventually overcome this because ultimately you need to know EXACTLY what is going on throughout the move and be able to manipulate it if you wish to "master" a movement....a tough thing to do that I am sure anyone can tell you only comes with experience and TIME.

Eventually I made it through the struggle with the help of my good friend Colleen who pushed me to land it in "three more or not at all" ...eating my own advice as I often do lol...What a tough girl...she is learning the discipline of resisting the urge to train with an injury, always a hard thing.

The week went by fast but judging by my intense soreness I feel it was a good one lol. I also worked some kick the moons which went delightfully. I hope to keep them up and take them outside when it gets warm.

We had a pretty good close to the week by creating a multi-level obstacle course to be traversed by handstand...epic

Loving the Olympics...

Februrary 8-13th - Beauty Amidst the Chaos

Super busy week this week; however some GREAT training came of it. Due to back to back exams on Thursday, I realized that I would be faced with only one day to train in the gym so I had better prepare for it mentally and stay rested physically.

Tuesday came, and I had visions of backfulls dancing in my head. I got to practice early, warmed up, and set up a stack of mats. Something that I realized, that I noted in a previous post, is the importance of REALLY elbowing/punching hard into the twist for a back full. I spent quite a bit of time in days prior (mostly bored in class) going over how the move should feel RIGHT before I leave the ground.

I played with the move a bit, first just throwing a normal backflip. Then, I moved on to lightly pulling my arms in to see how much twist I would get...ABSOLUTELY KEY that your flip part of the move never changes. With this, I could just pull harder and harder each time as I got more comfortable with the move. Eventually I could estimate how many degrees I would rotate as soon as I left the mat by FEELing how hard the twist was pulled initially. I eventually worked up to getting the twist all but the last 45 degrees of a full....

...I concentrated for a bit on the feeling of pulling into the twist, got up, and threw it again..."YES!" totally landed it, strait up and down...I ended up landing three of them after that and then I did that hard thing again...I quit them for the night.

Later on in practice, Nick and I worked on Butterfly Kick. This is a move he has really been working on lately. After some careful instruction, I tried a few and landed them! Once I get the synchronization of the move down pat I plan on moving up to Butterfly twist...The potential for generating energy at the beginning of this move is FANTASTIC!

Colleen and I worked some of her moves tonight. After recovering from a sprained ankle, she needed a bit of help getting her moves back to where she remembered them...(One thing that I always find funny is that you remember your moves better than they were so you end up holding yourself to a higher standard if you just let them go for a bit in between training sessions.) Her fronts were back (We need to pick a night to just work fronts and slowly work her down to sticking them from a lower and lower and lower height (beautiful way to slowly learn to throw a move more efficiently and with greater power) I would also like to work this technique with my back fulls until I get them to a nice low height...

Moves on the horizon...

-Been watching Chase's cartwheel front tutorial...beautiful stuff

-More KICKS! great moves to combo for continuing energy!

-Back hand springs...mine need more work...I have a plan, so we shall see how it goes

Well, wow, I'm just amazingly pumped for training in the upcoming week, so stay tuned as I plan to be writing more now that my schedule has freed up a bit.

Reading/Stretching/French <3