Ok folks, a lot of you know that I like to post parkour videos here and there. Well, how about one of our own this time? Check out Noah Amparano rocking Ryder’s PK course at The Cave. This wasn’t even his best run. Man, that boy is quick! (Please excuse the sideways start… it gets corrected a few seconds in.)
By the way, for you CrossFitters, I was going to post Martin’s Push Jerk PR, but it occurred to me that I’d better ask him first, before I get in trouble. Hopefully on Thursday or Friday!
Hi Cavers,
Tonight instead of the elaborate blog post plans that I had I am simply going to let you all know that Rafe is visiting the San Francisco Bay area and that I’ve been fortunate enough to have been invited to meet with him to talk shop and train with him and Albert Kong. ”Who is Rafe Kelly?”, you might ask. Rafe is the founder of Parkour Visions in Seattle, one of the first and most respected parkour programs in the country. Parkour Visions is a non-profit that focuses on making parkour as accessible as possible to their community. I hold them in the highest regard. Here are a couple of videos of Rafe showcasing a little bit of his training:
On Trees:
At Parkour Visions’s National Parkour Summit:
And of those of you who are curious, studious, and patient enough, here’s is Rafe on Parkour Programming:
More on Rafe’s view on Parkour programming & a (related) Kid’s Night Out Blog to come later. For now I’m hoping for a few hours of sleep before training with Rafe!
Who is this phenom on the American Ninja Warrior IV Course?
(We are having our Ninja Warrior & Parkour Seminar at the Cave on Nov. 3rd, 2012 (Kids) & Nov. 4th (Adults), details here… so if you’ll please excuse the shameless promotion.)
Here is your American Ninja Warrior Trivia Quiz for the Day:
1> Name the Caver depicted in the “cover” picture of the May 8th, 2012 American Ninja Warrior Workout Men’s Health article show here: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/american-ninja-workout
2> Name the obstacle that he is on.
3> What “stage” of the competition is it in and what obstacle on course? (Ergo, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,… etc.)
4> What region did he compete in and where was the competition held?
5> What discipline does he specialize in?
6> How far did he get in the competition, ergo, what obstacle (if any) did he fall on?
7> Who were the commentators for his run?
Ok,… so,… how about this guy? (This picture was used on buddy TV: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/american-ninja-warrior/american-ninja-warrior-season-45701.aspx
as well as Monsters & Critcs: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/smallscreen/features/article_1699436.php/American-Ninja-Warrior-Pictures?page=11)
Can you name the Cave Ninja??
1> Name the Caver depicted in the picture above.
2> Name the obstacle that he is on.
3> What “stage” of the competition is it in and what obstacle on course? (Ergo, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th,… etc.)
4> What region did he compete in and where was the competition held?
5> What discipline does he specialize in?
6> What obstacle during the competition(s) (if any) did he fall on?
7> Who were the commentators for his run?
Come train with both of these Cave Ninjas and many more of the ANW 4 Celebrities at the Cave on Nov. 4th. Read more here: http://www.inthecave.com/blog/?p=7556
(Answers will be posted later this week on The Cave’s FaceBook account.)
Cavers,
Here’s an interesting article written by Ryan Ford, for those of you who like to follow and think about the “development and unravelling” of y(our) disciplines: here
http://www.facebook.com/notes/ryan-ford/reebok-crossfit-and-the-sport-of-fitness/375082369232493
An additional question, will CrossFit “embrace” parkour once again in the near future?
-Amadraeus
Hi Cavers,
As you know we’ve held several American Ninja Warrior events, seminars, & competitions here at the “Cave”. Nevertheless, the next one coming up is going to be the biggest and most spectacular yet, and best of all there will be a new format that will enable even more people at different skill and fitness levels to try their turn at the course and practice their skillzz. Here are the details:
Saturday Nov. 3rd 1-6pm: 1st Annual American Ninja Warrior Kid’s Course & Parkour Training Session with Celebrities and Guest Coaches
Ages: 6-12 y/o
Come train with the American Ninja Warrior Legends. There will be 2 Kids courses, Ninja Challenges, Vaulting Clinics, Games, & More. Meet some of the biggest personalities of the show and half a dozen of the United States top Ninja Warriors from the “Great North West Region” as well as the stuntmen from the “Spectacular South West”, and don’t forget the Cave’s own Mt. Midoriyama veterans! Re-define your Ninja Skillzz.
Cost: $50 early-registration/ $65 preregistration / $85 at the door.
(Early registration ends Oct. 19th, preregistration ends Oct. 30th.) (no sibling discounts- sorry.)
Registration open for: 36 little athletes (may be extended to 48 good weather permitting)
Includes 2 obstacle courses, parkour vaulting clinic, games, raffle & course prizes, and of course, mingling with American Ninja Warrior celebrities.
Who will likely be present? : David Campbell, Travis Furlanic, Chris Wilczewski, JB Douglass, Kelvin Antoine, Ryoga Vee, Tom Hutchman, Andres De la Rosa, and several others!
Event Location: The Cave
Member cost: $50.00
Nonmember cost: $50.00
Notice how stylish and comfortable Travis looks in his sweatshirt!
Sunday Nov. 4th 8:30-2:15pm:
Ages: mature teenager to 50+
Cost: $50 early-registration/ $75 preregistration / $85 at the door
(Early registration ends Oct. 19th, preregistration ends Oct. 30th.)
Registration open for 36 ninjas (may be extended to 48 good weather permitting)
Includes 2 obstacle courses, parkour skillz clinic, ninja challenges, course prizes, and “meet & train with the American Ninja Warrior celebrities”,
& compete at whatever level you’re comfortable
Event Location: The Cave
Member cost: $50.00
Nonmember cost: $50.00
Here’s a little video with two of the best traceurs in the world helping Fight Science analyze the physics and forces behind a shoulder roll landing as well as a massive gap jump to cat hang.
Post questions or thoughts to comments.
Ryan Ford, founder of APEX movement, was featured on CrossFit.com on Sept. 7th. Here’s the link to .com’s video: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Ryan_Parkour_SD.wmv
And here’s the embedded video on YouTube:
There is a rich and complex history in our gym with parkour. Our formal parkour program at CrossFit Marin was started in Feburary of 2007 back up in Novato Gymnastics where we subleased space for about 9 months from the city of Novato. After getting kicked out for insurance reasons we still held parkour classes on Tuesdays and Sundays in local parks from January 2008 through well after we acquired our own location in Corte Madera and we currently have what may be the most comprehensive Parkour and Ninja Warrior program in the San Francisco bay area. We’ve also had Ryan and his crew from Apex over for a Parkour seminar. (I even think we may end up having a friendly rivalry at American Ninja Warrior in the coming years between our gyms. ) I even promoted parkour in the CrossFit community in the early years with little to moderate success, but generally speaking things don’t catch on in CrossFit unless they’re featured on CrossFit.com. What are your impressions on parkour? Does the discipline being featured on CrossFit.com change your perspective on it or make you more inclined to try it if you haven’t before? Why or why not? Also, what is fitness? If CrossFit.com or the CrossFit Games never shows a video or features an event about swimming, does that mean that swimming isn’t included in fitness? What about climbing? Martial Arts? Dance? Gymnastics? (No, I don’t mean handstand push-ups leaning against the wall, I mean gymnastics like what the little girls do in the gymnastics part of our gym.) Please post thoughts to comments.
This parkour video is a jewl. It helps you look through the skewed prisms that people view parkour through and gives you a more precise and pure perspective. Check this out. I think every Caver that is interested in movement and fitness should watch this!
One of the reason I gravitate towards parkour so much as a training protocol is because I love learning stuff. I honestly believe that since what humans are good at and designed for is learning, “fitness” has to be directly tied in to learning. For this reason I think that only promoting “work capacity” in basic movements that have already been acquired is not enough to fullfill our potential for “fitness” and that’s why I promote activities such as parkour, gymnastics, martial arts, climbing, swimming as well as other sports and not just CrossFit. CrossFit should complement and enhance our lives and other activities and not be the only focus of our fitness. There is no doubt that CrossFit is valuable, it just shouldn’t stand alone.
Hey Crew,
Here is one of my favorite Parkour and Freerunning videos, a highlight reel by Christian Fairfax, an extremely talented and dedicated local bay area traceur. He’s got amazing skills and JB Douglass, the newest member of our staff and amazing in his own right considers him to be his “parkour teacher”. Christian is one of several elite traceurs who are not yet eligible to compete in American Ninja Warrior, because they’re not yet 21 years old, but they will be in a year or two… Gulp! Competition is going to get tighter! Here you go:
Don’t be surprised if you end up hearing the soundtrack around the gym on Thursdays while the PK staff is doing their thing training!
Not everybody knows that we have some rock’in summer camps for kids and teens here at “The Cave”. There are two camps remaining for the 2012 season, one coming up on August 6th-10th, which is a Parkour Camp headed up by our Parkour Director Ryder Darcy, and another Gymnastics Camp August 13th-17th. Sign-ups for the Parkour camp may be closing on Monday July 30th, so please hurry to sign up if you are interested. The camps run from 10am-2pm Monday through Friday. The kids can be signed up for one, all five, or any combination of days for the week. Also pre-registering at least a month in advance is less expensive than the week before camp!
Earlier this month I ran what may have been the most awesome summer camp ever-ever-ever July 9th-13th. It was, of course, a “Ninja Camp” with an American Ninja Warrior Theme. We had 6 American Ninja Warrior Veterans guest coaching including David Campbell, Travis Fulanic, JB Douglass, Andrey Pfening, the illustrious Tom Hutchman, and of course, myself, Andres De la Rosa (Amadraeus). Our coaches poured an enormous amount of creativity and passion into the exercises, drills, games and obstacle courses set out for the kids as well as imparting part of the philosophy of parkour and Ninja Warrior which encircles the themes of:
1> “To be strong and to be useful.”
2> “With great power comes great responsibility.”
3> “We’re here to improve ourselves together” and last but not least
4> “Stay safe and be a good judge of your limits.”
Overall the kids were extraordinarily well behaved and had a great time. Here are a couple of pictures and a video of our awesome little group:
Summer Camp 2012 "Ninjas" with coaches JB Douglass, Travis Furlanic, Andrey Pfenning and Andres De la Rosa
Here’s a little video of one of our “Parkour Capture the Flag” game:
We also have “Survival Camps” run by our self-defense and CrossFit coach, Nick Wise. Although there won’t be another Ninja or Survival Camp until probably next year, both our parkour and gymnasics camps are great fun for the kids. After all, The Cave is the perfect place to get stronger, get skilled, have fun, and make friends! And even if your schedule doesn’t quite work out for our two remaining camps this year, there is always Kid’s Night Out as well even throughout the school year on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month from 5:30-10pm! Please call “The Cave’s” front desk for pricing or more information.
Cheers- I hope everyone is having a great summer!
-Amadraeus
