Texas Parkour

-=An article written by Matthew Lee Willis from his recent trainings=-

Robert S. is 52 years old and lives in Texarkana, Texas. Robert is my new inspiration. I remember about two months ago a man emailed me about some possible training tips and techniques. Knowing he lived farther away from me I knew it would be even more difficult for me to help him. After some emailing back and forth Robert decided to come down to Austin and make a great trip and training out of it all.

Until I met him, I wasn't too sure how the events of the day were going to unfold. He held a book in his hand "The Self." I always thought those books were for people who didn't know themselves. Though he was teaching me. Before I tell you more about who Robert really is, I wanted to state what I felt from him first.

Surprised at his abilities I got a couple of ideas about him and his life. I saw in my mind, his mind working. I saw him watching a video. I saw him mentally attacking that video. I couldn't see him sitting and meditating over a thought he couldn't overcome in time. He trains his mind, and his mind trains him. I feel he has the biggest leap on me....experience. He has the ability to understand things that I would throw my body into to understand. He was able to asses the situation methodically instead of physically. My body unfortunately does not take that process. For me, its fail with the body and let the mind take over to fix the problem. It was so interesting to see it as the other way around. He worked smarter, not harder.

His background included several martial arts art forms and being an RN. Gentle and dangerous. He has a traceur's heart. Be strong to be useful. I believe this man has the greatest tools behind him to propel him into everything he wants to do. The greatest thing I think for him was the realization that he didn't have what he needed. Along came Parkour and someone to his degree of methodical training and thought, probably felt empty without this new art.

His training was great. Physical endurance was the down fall of the super 52 year old but his vaults were achieved if not the first time, then the second. Wall runs, which were never performed in his life were achieved with straight forward explanations. For some reason he felt I was the perfect coach. I felt he was the perfect student. We meshed in our training in an instant. I asked him to change his form, he had it locked into how I asked in seconds. Rolls improved, vaults improved and he was on his way to training correctly and effectively by himself. Not wanting to kill him with conditioning I decided to reserve for the end of our training so he could take back what he learned.

Our next meeting was agreed to be conditioning. Since then he has grown. Simple emails about shoes have spawned discussions such as, be strong to be useful in every situation. "Why worry too much about shoes when, I might be called upon at any time to use what I have on currently." Something I didn't even prompt.

He will learn much in his training. If any of you want to be more inspired by Robert I am going to tape a bit of our training next time maybe even have him talk a bit. Thanks for reading.

This year we are going to get more organized and start to use our EVENTS application on this good old Website.  Make sure to check it out and look for some good events that will be happening right in your neck of the woods.

We felt this year would be the year of the small town.  Many of you have jammed in one the major cities that Texas Parkour represents, though we are trying to get all those good in between people and show them the basics and hope they can show us a bit too!  Look at some of the events:

Fort Worth Workshop

A&M Workshop and Jam

Waco Workshop and Jam

That is right ladies and gentleman.  3 Run is coming to Texas.  We may be starting with them, or without them but they will definitely be we'll warm up the playground for them.

There is a lot to be planned so trying to get this out there as soon as possible.  More information to come later.

EVERYONE MUST COME

Click Me For RSVP and INFO