By Mariana Podesta – Diverio
Location: Sydney. Australia
The sun was out, and the day was blistering – but nothing was about to stop the Sydney girls from taking advantage of a training opportunity. At 11am, we met at town hall, and the fact that only three traceuses attended Jan-Jam just meant we had the chance to train with a different group dynamic, and possibly even had more flexibility with our training area options. This was my second girl’s jam, and I eagerly anticipated the prospect of training with more experienced traceuses – both Shi and Caitlin – who have been training for over a year.
First we headed to Cook & Phillip park – an area screaming with a range of different spots for training – where Shi led us through a warm up which included a quadrupedie up a flat incline surrounding one of the park’s staircases and back down the other side.
There was a wall perfect for practising wall runs and vaults – the other girls took their shots at getting over the wall – using different techniques. I observed them and stuck to a shorter part of the wall – where I practised wall runs – even just getting to the point where I’d hang on – even if I couldn’t pull myself up to get to the other side.
After some vaulting, climbing of water features and wall-runs, we moved on to a wall/barrier type structure that had stairs and grass on one side, and a rather large drop on the other side. The top of the structure (which housed three flights of steps) looked a bit like a giant, horizontal open-bottomed piece of Nutri-Grain cereal; and around the top, the barrier was about 30 cms wide and made of concrete – perfect for practising quadrupedal movement with the added mental obstacle of being at a vertigo-instilling height.
Getting around this obstacle has been my best Parkour-related experience so far – the serene calm that sets in when you get back on solid ground is… beyond words.
We took turns in moving around the object – to the first half, and then further in, to the second bar of the structure (where the distance from the ground was bigger). It was nothing short of a great exercise to practise mental clarity during parkour movement – really, one of the only necessities (other than the physical side) needed to overcome obstacles involving a potentially large drop. These things would be a lot different if you were a metre from the ground – it’s much harder to get freaked out, but when you are 15+ metres from the ground…
Conversation buzzed as we moved across the city to join up with the Sydney APA classes which Shi and Caitlin had previously attended. This was my first APA class and certainly won’t be my last – there’s nothing better than a safe, non-threatening environment where you can build up your skill level in the presence of trained instructors.
Plus, the wheelbarrow race at the end was just plain FUN =)
All in all, it was a great day – ending with some pier jumping to cool off, which maybe I’ll try one day when I’m not too scared.
Precision exercises between piers during the APA classes that unexpectedly turned into a watery dip it for 1 traceur.
I couldn’t be happier that I stumbled upon Sydney Women’s Parkour on Facebook – the traceuses I’ve met have all been welcoming, helpful, and never hesitant to provide a training tip or be patient to help you in developing a new skill. I’m sure Jan-Jam was just the one of the many awesome sessions to come.
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