When we were attending the conference being held by Chris Rowat, Thomas Couetdic and Ryan Doyle, word began to spread about an invitation to Mexican traceuses to train together afterwards. The moment arrived. When the conference ended, we started a collective warm -up by jogging, the leader showing us the way and setting the pace was Thomas. After starting up the first stairs, going down, up again, running, jumping sideways, running, down, up, more stairs, even more stairs, that we realized what we were getting into. Thomas had turned some jogging into body conditioning work. The collective energy of the group became present with encouraging words and friends pushing others who lagged behind. Mariana took the task of accompanying those at the rear and we did not see her until the end of the run when she finally arrived. They believe strongly in the unity of training, that the exercise is not finished until the last person has finished. Karma? Perhaps.
After the whole group had arrived, Thomas and Chris announced that they would give us girls a small workshop. In high spirits we formed a line facing a staircase with wide steps. Chris told us that we would start with something not physically demanding to let our body recover from the jogging. The method of what Chris suggested was very simple. All we had to do was to make a precision on the first step, focusing on our technique. The challenge was that all of us had to do it at the same time, land properly and stay there.
After several tries, we got the thumbs up from Thomas. In many girls, there was a visible improvement especially in propioception, in body control and in the feeling of sisterhood. Next, we carried out a foot placement routine. It was nice to see how we began to add some movements to the route by ourselves. No matter what path we took, we all managed to arrive from point A to point B effectively. Personally I tried to focus on being fluid, trying to mentally visualize my route before my turn. So when it was my turn, I gave my attention to the moment, to move to my destination and to place my body in the best possible way.
It’s amazing how our body always knows what to do. How are we able to place the tips of our feet on a small wooden ledge even though our eyes are looking away from our feet? It is because of our natural coordination, a miracle of the human body. Thomas started to run. We followed him happily. We weren’t tired, we understood that we were learning an important lesson and so we were ready to keep going. Surprise. Thomas led us to a wall. A wall that started at vault height and increased in height gradually up to indomitable wallruns.
Our mission was to place ourselves along the wall, taking in account our personal wallrun limit. After several repetitions Chris challenged us to get over the wall five more times. Traceuses arrived at the top, very optimistic, got down to began the second wallrun and then got up. Chris says: “One”. What? But it’s the second one! In that moment we noticed that no repetition would be counted unless ALL of us got to the top successfully. One team. Everything changed. We started to demand more from ourselves, for if even one of us fell, we were all affected as one team. After we counted the fifth repetition, some girls yelled “One more!”. Surprised, Chris smiled and together we conquered one last wallrun.
Finally we ended by doing some flexibiliy exercises to cool down and stretch our muscles. Many of the traceuses showed their natural abilities for this section, bringing some positive buzz from friends and observers. After that, Thomas asked us to lay down and close our eyes for a while. It was a great relaxing moment to think about our recent training, truly incorporating it to ourselves. When we opened our eyes, we got up satisfied and grateful with the training provided by Thomas Couetdic and Chris Rowat.
National Traceurs Reunion 2009 was organized by Urban Runners, based in Mexico City. Their website is www.urbanrunners.net
Thomas Couetdic and Chris Rowat are part of UK-based Parkour Generations, their website is www.parkourgenerations.com
All photos by Humberto Bermudez Cardenas ( www.dfinitivo.com )
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