Thailand - movement camp 2017.

Dear Thailand, you were good.

The land of smiles is a real jungle, from a perfect nature to an imperfect architecture. Everything is blended together in a unique characteristic randomness - as if somebody had played a giant Mikado with the landscape elements.
The wilderness heavily governs the roads: few traffic lights, huge unpredictable intersections, families riding all together on a single scooter with the family dog held by the neck. Helmets? What’s a helmet, can I eat it? …and yet people manage somehow to stay alive. Well I did not check the statistics though. It could just have been a lucky month.
The creatures you find can kill you in all the possible ways. All of them. Yes, that beautiful tiny frog too. I touched and ran after most of them. The sun is just too heavy to take, put your sunscreen on or expect burns all over your body and fever the next day. Not sure someone can get used to those laser rays, ever.
I have even almost missed part of the event on a free afternoon. I got lost in a beach with a handful of monks and some friends because the taxi driver (that didn’t speak a single word of English) decided to drop us where he felt more comfortable.

I had to find my way back to the facility. It all started with me having a coconut, a quick massage and a gesture chat with an old lady. I mean, to live in a different culture you gotta live a different paradigm.
Things in Asia apparently happen, unfold, unravel differently than in the west. The approach to life is much more fluid. People react more and plan less.

The Camp

The camp itself has been a great experience. It ran flawless and I never got the feeling something was not organized by the clock or was partially unrefined. 3 training sessions a day with a lecture / discussion / Q&A in the evening.

Every morning the alarm was at 6.30 am, breathings, shower, buffet breakfast and fully switched on for the first activity of the day. I’ll post down here the quick description of the class given in the preliminary pdf of the Movement Camp with some comments to it. Don’t expect too much, all this should be felt on the skin and practiced, words can be misleading when touching these themes.

1. 1H4W - Ido Portal Ido's class will focus on the Quadrivium of movement, time, space and movement in time and space. Physical tasks will be supported by smaller segments of practice, with a pinch of insight from our collective physical knowledge.

Ido has exposed us to a variety of principles and concepts expressed through physical practices. However, all the exercises he used could have easily been switched along with others. It was very clear to me that those were just examples on how to apply precise ideas into reality. As Rasmus Ölme said during his lecture quoting Heidegger: the technique is a revelation of a concept. Not the other way around, not the way in between. Do you have a collection of techniques without a fine line connecting them all? You have a bag of garbage. A big part of this workshop came from his research with Connor, Gunnar, Michael Venom and all the other fighters. It was astonishing.
We were given example of tools on how to soften and harden a structure, how to create more reactive, intelligent and connected bodies.
I must say I was critical with this in the beginning, but this approach works. In 4 days of full in training and attention to details I felt a huge difference and improvement in the games we were playing. The neuroplasticity systems installed inside our bodies work extremely well if you are pushed in the right scenario and you try hard enough. A lot of frustration seemed to fade off session by session and the solutions appeared just clearer.

We used a wide range of drills, spacing from bouncing boxing drills from the Russian school all the way to traditional tai chi to eyes and reflex training. I am just telling you I am going home with tennis balls, eye patches and all sort of weird material. If you are still thinking about dynamic correspondence, classic transfer theories, the Verkhoshansky, Siff and the others you are misled. This is not only strength or track and field training. This is way forward. In this perspective, the movement coach should be considered a strategic coach (not the technical nor the tactical). How? Using riddles and scenarios as diagnosis tools to discover an athlete’s weakness.

If you want to look at one of the many things that we did, check out my friend Aviad trying his best in this symbol recognition drill: https://www.facebook.com/portal.ido/videos/1484870191554956/

2. Microbatics - Odelia Goldschmidt
Odelia's research into air/ground play, smooth emergency landings, crawl/flight and comfort in the face of fear through worst case scenario practice. - Get your wings.

In this workshop, the direction and the clarity of the analytical information proposed were the key. Too often I see people teaching progressions that are way too hard for the level of the participant. Thus, deliberately ignoring that the person cannot deal with them. Either as a skill or as a capacity problem, the coach should be able to see, correct, regress the proposition into something possible for the student.
Practically, we have built up into a closed system flow (check it out here) of new elements: kicks, standing, low gate, air material, rolling and entries.
The principle underlying each section was the loss of control, as the maximum form of developing control.

Few has grasped the details of this pure poetry in motion. Put on the right glasses.
If you want to see what I am talking about: https://www.facebook.com/portal.ido/videos/1416374791737830/
The secret behind this is: smart consistent practice.

If you meet her, please notice the amount of experience installed in her body, you will be blown away. Odelia, you know you are my favorite!

3. Frozen Shadows - Dudi Malka A glimpse into some of the preliminary practices - Vyayamas, that are used to release some of the obstacles and stagnation in the body, preventing the free flow of the life force alongside the process of reshaping the lower limbs, removing the stress from the knee and loosening the hips. These practices involve different spiral and circular squatting movements and manipulation of the abdominal cavity. The time together will be an opportunity to introduce some basic breathing patterns and the ways it is abused while acquiring tools for observing and developing stillness - so necessary for movement.

What can I say. The name already says it all. Frozen Shadows. You don’t want to know what, why or how.
Go, meet Dudi, practice with him. There is a world to learn and you will develop your questions as you walk the way hand in hand with him. He has not always been a teacher, nor a yogi.
He developed his practice after his youth and saw most of the world. He met the dark side and came back. Only big respect for his work. We spent a lot of words on how to deal with life and death, illness and problems, ethics and culture.

In between the good talks and the reflections, we learned breathing exercises, diaphragm control, abdominal massages, stillness and meditation. Finally got a good insight about those themes that are always touched in a mystical way, very far from a practical application. You can think and talk about deep theories without making them unnecessarily complex. Synthesis and clarity are good markers of understanding.
We have also done some routines to open the hips, the knees and the toes, so much discomfort. I loved it.

I leave you with a reflection, that Dudi shared with me at the end of the last session. We should practice what we find difficult. We should go against the instinct of preservation, the one that wants us to train our good side forever and practice our talents. Fuck talent. If our body does not like stillness we should give it stillness. If our body does not like practicing endurance training, we should go for a run. If our body does not like something it means he needs it. It is shouting for it. Practice your weaknesses. What is difficult is what should be practiced.

4. Rhythmically - Shai Faran We are existing, living and MOVING in and out of various rhythms. Your heart is a beat machine that started working upon conception and will stop at your death. Since movement happens in time - tools to relate it to rhythm and beat are essential. Through this workshop we will be dealing with groove, coordination, musicality, counting and the relationship of all that to movement.

When Shai came to Italy for a workshop I was shocked with the amount of information my brain had to deal with. Her attention to details is just on another level. This time was also an amazing refinement of the previous work we did together, plus, on top of that, some new material to work with. We went all the way from finding our groove and connecting our bodies and minds, to rhythmical training with the drumsticks. We also created a CSF with different material based on the concept of leading soft movement from different part of the bodies to spine positioning. I must say it, at some points I was not enjoying 100% but who cares about fun, it is an overestimated concept. It gave me a lot of dynamics and material to practice on.
I have been working loads with rhythm before, but this drums class finally gave me the skeleton key to write it down. Learning how to deal with pace, cadence, tempo, etc.., brings to you a new awareness but can strip away the naivety of hearing without listening. As the Taoist saying goes: if you take this, you lose that – if you lose that, you take this. Just be conscious of it, embrace it, cringe, accept, smile, move on... we live in an evolving reality.
If you want to know more about her work, check out the brand-new workshop finally coming through Ido’s official channels: “Creative movement tools”.

The first edition will be held in Miami and my friends Sean and Aylin (Republic of Movement) in their new facility soon. https://www.facebook.com/events/488947558160784/

5. Primate - John Sapinoso
Physical attributes should be developed in context or they end up hanging in the clouds. Combining kinetic koans, chaotic tasks, problem solving and open scenarios while using partners, basic instruments and the laws of physics to optimize the development of our abilities. - There will be blood.

In John’s class I could see the deep research he has been doing in the last few months: how he connected the dots of the different paths he went through – what a beautiful thing to witness. I cannot write much about this one, it was a performance with the participants as actors of the play.
I know everybody was focused on the exercises for their personal development but to me it has been more an artistic journey than a practical training. A unique mixture of experiences blended together by one catalyst. Classic kinetic koans revisited into some organic strength material, that previously crossed my path during the EMM in Copenhagen, a year back.

Each day, we looked at old material from another perspective, until all the elements summed up into a final deadly heavy day that had the signature of Johnny all over it. You made me smile and gave me goose bumps with your words. Beautiful work, my friend!

6. Functionality without a function - Rasmus Ölme
In this lecture Rasmus will speak about his take on movement from the viewpoint of the artistic research that he has been engaged in that last 8 years. It will involve some philosophical approaches alongside practical efforts to walk the talk.

The evening lectures were probably my favorite bits. Good moments to talk together about the development of the current physical practice. We managed to front issues and reflections about the whys, the hows of most of what we do. We have spoken a lot but also watched performances, that made me corrugate my eyebrows or made me laugh to tears – Martin Kilvadi is a genius. Shai talked about the connection between her life and her dance research and vice versa. A very genuine approach, to which many practitioners can relate, to feel a deeper connection within themselves.

Ido brought on the table interesting thoughts about the paradigms we live in at the moment and the philosophy underlying the movement practice. On top of that, we also discussed about the development of a bright new culture that cares about its growth. All seasoned with a strong Ethics and a critical mindset. Extremely pleasing and meaningful moments that bring our community forward and forward via big fast steps. 

On a final note, I really think you should check out this video from the Mr. Phd down to earth Rasmus Ölme about functionality without function; organic delicious food for the mind:

“The body is not there to be tamed or understood. It is there to dive into and to wonder over. The body is not a tool for the mind, the body is a weapon, a self defence weapon of mass construction. An abstract weapon. […] Where a weapon loses its function, what does it become? […] Functionality transforms into art when it loses its purpose.”

Well, you got the idea of where I have been in this long week.
Oh but, excuse me, you did not do any ring work, hand balancing, locomotion?
Yep exactly.

Not even one single moment. 

Jump on the train folks, it is always in advance. Fight your laziness, the language barriers, the money, the excuses. Let’s make this big. See you at the next movement camp.

Full in or nothing,
Marcello.

Interpretive dynamics - closed vectors

Are you tired about seeing palm spins, chevaliers and same couple of noisy floppy flips over and over again? 


Yes, me too. 

Creative expression in Parkour has always been underrated and little researched. It's ok and it's understandable. Developing adaptability, discipline, efficiency and a strong body-mind connection is definitely on a higher priority in the list than flowing like water on walls and bars. However, I believe a coin has always two sides. A practitioner that does not explore both of them, ends up incomplete. Big things can happen if parkour crosses other disciplines (dance for example).

In these last few years I came in contact with many amazing people that took me out of my shell and that have shown me many ways to look at physical expression. Out of a lot of practice, thinking and many mind maps later ...interpretive dynamics was born!

Interpretive dynamics is a collection of information related to flow. This categorization though should not be seen as an accumulation of techniques, but more like a lot of principles and vectors that can guide our choices. Harmonic actions do not come from a good connection between a sum of moves, but from a good thought process that is shared throughout a sequence. It is similar to a jazz jam. A flawless technique and a sharp ear are nothing without the heart and the soul that can help merge every single note.

Basically I look for the ideas that can emerge in between a person and an environment. How many layers are out there? I say: potentially infinite.

In order to start easy, look at this video, and make up you mind about these closed vectors.
Enjoy:

I call these vectors closed since they do not open space to other possibilities, they can be only be used as a disposable notion and applied straight away, but they cannot be furthermore interpreted or used.

1. Throwing - Throw one of your extremities and let the body follow.

2. Reversing / Shadowing - Create a sequence and play it reverse.

3. Sliding - Glide with any body part on an object. Apply weight on it as you do it. Interesting dynamic balancing situations. Without speed, it does not work.

4. Gluing – (you guess)

5. Guiding – (you guess)

6. Bouncing  - (you guess)

7. Etc...

Home/Class work: 

Develop one movement sequence that combines 3 of these concepts. 

Develop one more closed vector of your choice and build up a movement sequence around it. 

Ok, that's all for now. I am going to Thailand for the movement camp to meet some of my good teachers. I will post here my impressions if I manage to survive the camp and the Thai wilderness in the days after it.

Until the next wifi,

Marcello.

Parkour flow - A destructive experience

New plans

Next week I will release some practical insight about a topic that is related to parkour, dance and art: Interpretive dynamics.

The idea behind it, is related to the creation of basic criteria, themes and principles that can allow anyone to start looking into movement expression with a new awareness.

These guidelines can help you build movement sequences of any kind, starting from nothing but a thought.

However, before digging deeper into this production of constantly making something new, I felt the need to do a totally opposite experience first.

Let’s freeze all the new stuff for a moment and give me the chance to disentangle a darker topic first.

The creation process is as important as the destruction process

What do I mean? Well, being too attached to what we create is a dangerous thing to do*. I believe it can only lead to frustration and self demolition. On the contrary, we should take every movement as a unique act isolated in time, that guides us forward in our practice, step by step. We should create and then let go of it, keeping with us the process that brought us there.

Monks getting ready for a Mandala creation (or building the death star, not 100% sure of which one)

Today’s experiment consisted of 30 minutes of flowing around with the environment. The only rule was to never stay completely still. What changes will occur during the movement creation as the tiredness comes by?

At the beginning, everyone’s** focus was into making aesthetically pleasing creations. No one was thinking about the long road ahead. Up, under and around the bars, individually selecting the best moves that first aroused in our minds. Every choice was appropriate and harmonic, even though everyone was doing his own thing.

As the heart started to beat faster and the breath to get heavier and heavier, the first notes began to be played out of tune.

Everyone fell in the same routine loop: similar ideas popped up in our minds, regarding what movement to choose next. At this point, the energy was dropping down. The quality of the choices was compromised. If we wanted to keep up with the process, something had to change. The group widened up for a second. From distance it was probably like a single organism that had to reorganize its own thoughts. A shared movement conscience started to grow. We started playing one another in the tiredness. Grabbing one another, making suggestions and fighting like human cubs until the final relief.

Sun and fatigue made our faces look purple and fluorescent. Like a Macaco’s butt.

A visual representation of what happened below:

1st - fast motions, smiles, focused minds, individual harmonic movements.

14th minute - smaller motions, a lot more walking, stronger echoes in movements, legs made of glue and slower body-mind connections.

20th minute - everyone has his space, eyes do not predict movements anymore, getting closer to the end. Hypnotic situation.

27th minute. Towards the end - last phase. Interaction. The death of the ego, the birth of the wego.***

Don’t forget to let go of your creations. The physical outcome is not the only point.

Marcello.

Notes:

* If you are interested about this, I suggest you check out Tom Weksler and fighting monkey’s workshop.

**Raffaele Najjar, Nicolò Geretto, Tommaso Molinari and me.

***beautiful term I got from my friend Shanti Zimmermann

Berlin - 2017

The sun was settling down behind the city lines. Martin Gessinger and me were already strangling each other in a bright room at the top of a high building in Berlin. Why? My first Brazilian jiu-jitsu class had just started. I am quite convinced that this could be a nice strategy to start any collaboration. Fight before you talk. Further conversations will be more sincere, I guarantee. The basic rules of that night rolling game after a warm up:

-        No kimono

-        No hits

-        Tap before you lose your senses – you have about 5 seconds.

-        Whatever you do will come back.

A couple of words here and there but mainly a lot of shut up and practice. Very straight forward and no space for talking or complaining in between. I’ll dig into it more in the future.

The good people I was training with. A special thanks to Ralf Warneking for letting me drop in.

After the class, we stopped to buy a light dinner and went home to have a chat before bed (it was hard to keep my eyes open after three trainings and over 1000 km of travelling in the same day).

Anyhow, eight hours later I was already feeling the cold German wind on my face while sharpening my eyes to look for a nice branch were to hang my rings in a park. I had a nice talk with an old lady passing by and two pigeons and a crow as companions. On my way to the ParkourONE hq I even met an handbalancer doing his thing at a traffic light.

During my stay, I felt a strong artistic atmosphere surrounding the city. Good vibes for developing any art at a deep level.

At the office and in the following days I had some talks about the history of German’s parkour community, the hierarchy of their organization, their approach to teaching (TRUST), some ethical views, etre-fort brand and more.

I have also joined a couple of classes both as a student and as a teacher with no big introduction or so. It was a nice experience and a moment of deep analysis of a system similar to the one we are building with ParkourWave in Italy atm but different on many layers.

To quote Nujabes – you gotta read the signs.

Every coach implements a personal work into a broader structure, defined a priori by experts in the field (i.e. mobility routines are developed by sport scientists and then shared with the coaching team / practical teaching strategies are developed by educational scientist).

In my incognito action, I really appreciated the talks and the recollections that occured after every brief session.

Classes are fully mixed and there is no separation in level or age for inclusivity reasons. As any choice, it has a price to pay, but I believe it can be a valid option to contribute to a big cultural change in the movement world.

This experience ended with a meeting I had with Markus Meyer regarding a presentation we will bring to the Research & Development Forum in Denmark before the international parkour gathering in Gerlev, this year.

On the last day, I experienced a genuine training session under one of the strongest wind ever tried in my life. Think of parachuting, ok close enough. It took me over half an hour to stick 21 running precisions due to that condition.

It all ended with a group traverse of the orange paradise walls without touching the floor:

“let’s do this quickly!” …five hours later… “let’s do this quickly!” …five hours later…

Just to finish off this post I’ll leave you with some ghetto wisdom that crossed my path – check it here:

"Dedicated to all style seekers, and masters. Put your childish fights aside. It's not good for our future and the future of hip hop. Our art has taken us this far and will take us further still, not the money, not the fame or the drugs.

Everyone that is true to the game will get their share of the cake."

Berlin, one love, hip hop. (If you are not smiling by now, you have something to hide!)

Thanks to Samson for being such a great host and to ParkourONE for being so open and welcoming (if you are interested about their work check their website - here -). Good luck on your projects guys! Torino next weekend and then off to Thailand for movement camp 2017, Paloz.

Rail balance - practical trainings part 3

Hey guys, welcome to the last episode of this rail balancing journey. This time I will give some directions for everyone that can eat a whole meal on a bar.

Try and look at the work behind what I am doing and you will see what’s beyond. What do I mean? That it’s nice to see others’ exercises but not as constructive as creating yours. There is a profound importance in the creation process, that is not only the creation itself. You can buy or steal a beautiful vase, sure, but your potential of creating more vases remains unaltered. If you start creating something new (even if horrible at the beginning) your potential to create will now start to grow. One step at a time.

I will give you some ideas on how this pure theoretical concept might actually become an extremely practical tool in the next few weeks.

Here we go! Oh and if you manage to perform a rodeo both sides without falling off the bar send it to me, I will send you an ice cream back. Promise.

Advanced - circuit 3

Warm up

Blind balancing walking x 5 min work.

Baramble

A1. Running on a bar variations - feet turned out (FTO)

A2. Running on a bar variations - foot in, foot out (FIFO)

A3. Complex 1 - Side position to side cat walk to side jump

A4. Complex 2 - Side position to low cartwheel to front cross step resolve to front foot half pivot

A5. Complex 3 - Front position to front sit half turn into dragon squat

Perform A1-A2 x 10 total mins. Focusing on breaking and turning and on getting comfortable with falling from the bar with dignity. Then do A3-A5 x 5 min each complex focusing on making it feel effortless.

Drills

B1. Complex 4 - kneeling to full squat to sitting and back

B2. Complex 5 - Back lying into pistol, switch leg, back

B3. Rodeo

B4. One leg side position - head motion: side to side

Pick one between B1 and B4 and spend up to 20 mins to perfect it.

Bar mounts

C1. Bar mounts - Eel-fish x 25 successful reps.

As a conclusion I'd say don’t over think guys your body knows more than your mind. Drop the excuses, the bar is short, wet, it's dark, small ..it shakes ..yes. And so? You just need to spend more time on it, if it's not comfortable it's just more interesting.

Good balance people,

Until next time.

Paloz

* Music in video - Lenine - Jack Soul Brasileiro.
* I don't remember where I saw the Rodeo, but it's not a movement that I came up with.

Rail balance - practical trainings part 2

Hi guys, as promised - back on the bar!

I have been hearing some feeds here and there, and the first circuit is working good ..or to better say is tickling many minds. Curiosity can be a far more interesting phenomenon to explore, develop and promote compared to inspiration.

Where inspiration is a red big bang, curiosity is more subtle - like a small spider walking into your ear as you sleep to make you wonder and wonder for a longer period of time.

It’s not that I refuse inspiration - it can play a huge role in boosting one’s motivation. I just believe it is overestimated and, as a booster, it can have a shorter nature compared to many other qualities.

Anyhow, this bar is not going to be walked by itself, off with the second circuit:

Intermediates - Circuit 2

Warm up

Forward and back walk (at height) – spend 5 mins without ever coming down

Shake it out on the ground.

Baramble*

A1. Hands behind the back / head / in pockets. The bottom line is, don’t use them! X 25/25 steps forward/backward

A2. Complex 1 - Side to front cross-step to back cross-step x 5/5 (switch side after each cluster)

A3. Complex 2 - Cat walk into forward walk x 10 in total

A4. Complex 3 - Squats to lunges x 10 in total

Try and complete A1-A4 in the least amount of time possible without decreasing the quality. X 2 sets / rest until your focus does not pop into your legs and feet again.

Bar drills 

B1. Bar turns x 10/10 reps - switch side each time

B2. Front position bar head touches (regress them using fists as markers) x 5/5 reps

B3. Side position to straight legs jump into same position x 10 total reps (do a very small jump, just let your feet off the bar, it should be enough for now)

Try and complete B1-B3 in the least amount of time possible without decreasing the quality. X 3 sets / rest until your focus does not pop into your legs and feet again.

Mounts 

C1. Bar mounts - one leg swing up x 25/25 total reps - switch leg each time / rest as much as you need in between the reps

To make the circuit harder, just increase the height of the bar.

Frequency:

This work will not exhaust you since it is made of a lot of small neuromuscular refinements, I suggest high frequency training. Minimum 4-6 times x week for at least a 3-4 weeks period to start getting some good results. Don’t underestimate rail balancing, something great can grow out of this.

Some more rebalancing tips:

• Think about the boat rule. What would you do if the sea goes wild when you are standing on a boat? You would lower your COM, you’d widen your stance to reorganize your structure in a better position as fast as possible. Every millisecond counts.
• Throw your limbs HARD in a last strife to counter balance.
• And the most important one - Fight! You have not fallen until you fall.

Soon the advanced variations on this topic,

Good balancing!

Paloz.

*Neologism I came up with to indicate dynamic “rambling” sequences on a bar.

*Music in video: Barbatuques - “Baiana” - which means ..curiosity ;)