Busy Busy Bumble Bee

Although still in very early stages, I attended a meeting in London about the discussion and formation of a governing body to oversee and maintain the quality of coaching for Parkour in Britain.

It's dissapointing to see and hear of many people getting injured at organised events and hopefully the creation of this body will help to bring about a standard of teaching and emphasis on safety, never before seen in this country.

The goal is to create a qualification that people can earn to become a certified coach, so that new traceurs have the facts in front of them and an option to choose a quality and trusted teacher over someone who may not have their best interests at heart.

Being a non-profit organisation, aimed solely at trying to guide the development of Parkour in Britain (and perhaps other countries in the future) in a decent direction, I trust it will grow into a solid building block for the future of our discipline.

Representitives from experienced groups all over the UK were present at the meeting and it was very refreshing and satisfying to see we all had the same goals and hopes for the future. It was also great to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in years, such as the Saiyans (link to their blog on the right).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Video Update: I now have almost two minutes of edited footage for my new video but there's still loads I want to capture - most of the stuff I have so far hasn't been planned - I've just spotted the movement, drilled it until it's clean and filmed it on the day.
The majority has been filmed at a new spot recently discovered near Leicester that is absolutely brilliant. It is entirely under cover so everything stays dry even when the weather is at its worst. Not only is this a great place to go and train when it is wet, it is also a very good spot in itself. I would have been happy to find somewhere with a couple of dry walls and a dry rail but this place has so much to offer... Finally I have a reason to smile when I see rain on a Saturday morning!

With a couple of dry weekends (fingers crossed) to film the rest of the stuff I want, my video should be finished some time this month. Expect plenty of weird scaffolding variations, strange underbar 'things' and hopefully a big improvement on previous videos that will inspire and give some people ideas on new ways to move other than the usual 'cat precision' epidemic I've seen recently (I think I was temporarily infected myself).

Remember - when travelling to a new spot try to find an obstacle and practice passing it, rather than trying to find a place to do your favourite technique.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trace: I'm happy to announce I'm now officially a member of the newly formed Trace team alongside a handful of very talented and exciting traceurs.

Trace has been created to provide practitioners with quality clothing and equipment for Parkour training for a good price. Profits will be used to produce tutorials, physical training guides, diet advice and run workshops to help new guys and girls get started in the discipline.

Check out Tracehq.com for more information.

-Blane