The Body and Self?

[reevesyzapha]

Has Parkour changed who you are or how you think about yourself?

Has being a traceur altered your awareness and/or understanding of your own body?

This is my final set of questions for my research so i won't be pestering you all much longer...

[gladders]

yes, i feel that parkour has changed my life and how i feel about myself, i feel more confident wit myself - that is the main change i can feel, we dont realy have a lot of ganf violence or too much trouble

but i feel that if trouble comes my way - i can escape it - seeing my surroundings and knowing what my body is capable of ;D

parkour has changed and increased my understanding of my own body so much, i really cannot expalin how useful it has been

[ANTISFIT]

seeing as 2 years ago i was a fat lazy sod, i can now see a huge difference through parkour.

i'm an entirely different person now, i have a much better attitude, like different music, changed groups i hang round in, etc etc.

My body is also different, i've lost alot of weight, gained muscle etc.
i can do now things that i never thought i could, the body is an amazing tool.

basically, everything i view now has been affected by the lifestyle, whether it be obstacles, work, helping out etc, it has all changed, and i have become a much better person due to it all :]

[reevesyzapha]

anthony: do you feel that the body as a tool is the most appropriate metaphor for how your body interacts with your environment and how you feel about your body? This is not wrong only that it seems kind of cold to me in how i initially understand that word... i hope that makes sense

gladders: parkour as useful?? is it merely utility in the sense of getting away or knowing what the body is capable or in changing yourself, this suggests that there are other ways to accomplish the same experience. would you agree with this or is parkour unique in what it offers people?

[ANTISFIT]

yeah i know what you mean.

and it was hard for me to choose the right word,
what i basically meant was how you know when your body feels right and wrong, and you can adjust what you do to help it, for say a precision, adjusting arm movements, landing positions etc.

how the body can adapt to all it acts with, say when i went on my first session, i came home with blood literally pouring from my hands, now they come home clean and fine.

hope you get my drift.

[Lukman]

Hey, Reeves. You're not, uh, gonna use the responses you're getting from parkour forums to develop an anti - traceur weapon, are you?

[reevesyzapha]

No i think i am fairly positively disposed toward parkour so any anti-traceur weapons will have to wait... you guys would just move past any weapon anyway...

Is there an ideal body in parkour, something traceurs strive for?

Also another question i have relating to this is that in some respects people have mentioned that the body is part of the self when it comes to appearance, i look different or i am more healthly, but then when it comes to doing something the body becomes a tool, an object somthing separate from the self? Am i reading this wrong or is there anyone who can clarify? This is kinda what i meant in the question i asked anthony in a previous post but did not express it very well.

[Lukman]

This may sound really vague and "hippyish", but, oh well...

As we train, we hone our bodies. As we train, we strive to better ourselves mentally, to see and understand our surroundings and how we interact with them.

The two are not separate. We want to integrate our minds and bodies to perfect our skills.

It is not enough to be physically and mentally capable of doing something. Physically, I can clear a 10' gap from standing still. Mentally, I know how to do it, and can convince myself how to do it. This does not automatically mean I can do it every time. I need to develop the skill, by making my body do exactly what my mind tells it to do, until it is muscle memory, and my mind no longer has to tell it all the details at once.

It's not something often said, because words make it seem absurd, but you want the correct balance of mind and no mind. If your mind is too full, you concentrate on individual aspects of your actions, and are liable to slip up. If your mind is too empty, you are working on instinct alone, but as admirable as it is, you want to retain enough consciousness to guide yourself in a way that is appropriate for the situation.

As an example, a few of the places I train with others are busy and public. One mistake I see capable youngsters make is to stress out and prevent themselves from vaulting obstacles, even though they have vaulted simpler safer things. This has the potential to lead to their injury. Another mistake a few make is to try and blank out part of their surroundings, even though there are other people around who they will get in the way of, or who will get in their way. This has the potential to lead to injury for both parties.

I was amused yesterday by a result of this increased awareness of the relationship between mind and body. One of the guys was insulting his legs, and saying how stupid they were after a couple of days on the go. The rest of us could all identify, having sworn at bodily parts (knees seems to be a popular one at the moment). Or perhaps us Norfolk people are mad. Make your own mind up!