Displacement Parkour

Iv been having a bit of a mental time of late.
As a result my brain has been working over time, which when your me and sitting on a bus trying to workout what to say to all you fine people isn't necessarily a good thing
So im just going to fill you guys in on what my last thoughts where last night so you know just how messed up by thought process is

So while lying in bed last night trying to sleep, I suddenly came to the realisation that if the Zombie apocalypse was to happen right now id be totally unprotected.
You see in my room there would normally be a few for lack of better words weapons or at least something I could use in a bind.

For example my coat hanger is a Shuriken (ninja stair), bellow my bed is a Bokken (Japanese's wooden sword), my trusty Lightsaber and a type 1 S.T.I.C.K (if you've been to any of our movement classes you know all about these and how important they are).

But at the moment all of these are in my friends as we are working on project very important to us.
So it meant I was defenceless, at this point my brain hit overdrive thinking of what I could use in each room to fend off the hordes of the undead.
 

My split paddles I was fixing in my room
In the hall theres the extension pole for the vacum
What's in the bathroom .... the lose pole in the towel rack, no wait thats gone quick quick...... AWWWWww.. dead
Ok so avoid the bathroom its a death trap, there is the window to escape but thats it what use is that
It was at this point this video popped into my head
Whedon On Romney

Iv got one thing the average joe doesnt im in the 1% of really really fast people WIN!!
Iv got at least 3 Jackie Chan style escape routes for each room

Then a new/old problem hit me
When i train im wearing a nice pair of shoes, baggy trousers, a tight fitting tshirt and depending on the weather a jumper
Now i dont know about you but i dont go to sleep wearing all these, This just got interesting again.

Back in 2010 or so people came across this idea, in im assuming a very different way
The idea back then came about with the release of Parkour shoes
This caused outrage within the community (still does in some instances), everyone said the thing that makes parkour great is the fact you don't need specialized equipment
Now this seemingly harmless statement changed how everyone trained and thought about Parkour more then any other

You see in defiance of these shoes people started doing a strange thing, training in dress shoes, sandles and the big one Barefoot!!
The idea was simple if you dont need shoes to train you can train at any point, as a bonus when you remove all the fancy padding strapped to your foot you need to make sure your landings are perfect.
A win, win situation right?

Having trained through that period of time, I can honestly say although it came from a strange place the benefits of Barefoot training is incredible
It not only strengthens the muscles in your leg especially all the ones supporting your ankles, but your landings will increase tenfold

So if you want to survive the on coming Zombie Apocalypse and have bomb proof landing, try training Barefoot.

This started off life as a talk for our Frostbites event back in 2012 and has been modified for here



Fellow Traceurs (Friends really)

Yes, I know this look weird.
First (and this should be obvious) the noobz and quit statement is NOT directed at you.....

But rather its for the REAL NOOBZ who are screwing up your flow, and messing with your mojo.

You all know the term noob, used to describe the so called "new generation" of practitioners out there who are assumed to live on forums and youtube churning out crappy video after crappy video

But theres the thing, this isn't about them, well because they aren't the real noobz
WHY?

At least they try
(for gods sake, we all started off as noobz really)

SO WHO ARE THE REAL NOOBZ ?
Let me explain

Well as I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the kings warehouse just finished talking to Antoine about visiting him in France, mid way through our annual first meeting/party where we test out our new crazy ideas, right now snowy and dave are trying to patch up a wake boarding pool we are working on

I know this doesn't sound like much, but to be around guys like this is the most humbling experience
Now i know what your thinking. who cares? what does this have to do with me?

Well consider this Antoine's first language isn't English, And in fact when i first met him, his English was more broken then a glass dropped of the dam its self.

Now, i have entire conversations with him. He's not perfect at it (but sure neither am I), but to see someone learn a language from scratch in his mid twenties and succeed is nothing short of inspirational, and all to help teach the art.
Much respect

Or even Dave for example, Hes the top dog over at kings, thing is 6 years ago before this all started he was a nobody in terms of event organising, with little to no experienced.

He looked at an industry filled with experienced people, running events all over the country with tones of contacts and big budgets.
Now he gets calls left, right and centre, looking for advice and contacts.
And is heading up and event with an attendance of 10 thousand last year, and an estimated figure of 1/2 million to 1 million people over the two days this year
(yes that is the right figures!!!!)

Both of them set an "imposable standard", worked towards it and succeed.

That's extremely inspiring to me
You see, this has everything to do with you,  whether you are fresh to the art or if you have been around a while because this will determine where you will eventually stand.

The REAL NOOBZ aren't the ones that start as nothing and then do something about it

The REAL NOOBZ are the one that just whine about their bitter lives, and do nothing to improve themselves.
They certainly don't think of them self as noobz , which is probably a big reason why they don't improve themselves much and when it comes to walking the walk they have nothing to show.

Now I'm sure you've met someone like that before

So to set things straight

I don't hate the youtube video making "noobz", far from it, almost the opposite in fact i quite respect them.
but before you go on about how they "****" moves, have no respect for the discipline and don't know what is parkour and what is freerunning, hear me out

I believe in the term " Delusion begets greatness"
now lets brake that down a bit shall we?

Delusion - A weird believe or impression that is strongly kept despite being the opposite of what is generally excepted as reality or rational.

Begets - Brings about

Greatness - Being Awesome (copyright Barney Stinson)

So "weird irrational believes makes you awesome".
See it makes perfect sense. Right?

OK so i probably should clear that up a bit more, i guess what I really mean when i say " Delusion begets greatness" is ...
Not really delusion in the sense of those hilarious x factor, talent show addition fails we all love to watch.

You see its NOT "I am the best !!! you are all noobz !! troll a lol lollollol"
I'm talking about delusion in the right context, in the right situation.

Back in 2008 when we started this journey as displacement, guess what most people hear where saying about us, that we "a bunch of w*#kers"with "huge egos".
And had several treads on various sites and emails asking us to stop in a non nice way to say the least, especially when we started getting media attention.
not to mention a boycott of an event we where asked to perform at and help organise.

I distantly remember Andy (crimson) coming up to me one day, "congrats man seen you guys in the paper again, was talking to X (clearly not real name),  he thought it was rubbish, misleading and thinks your frubes (changed from sware to delicious yogurt in a tube)".

It was the old "this is not the art, it will never work, no one can see it happing, you may as well give up". statement.

And i guess it does make sense, i mean if leading names in the Irish community where telling us it wouldn't work, and if hundreds of others
around the world also tyred and failed, i mean surely we would to and its imposable right?

Then again, if people say " i definitely cant succeed i should quit", then they definitely cant and wont succeed because, well they quit.
We could have just gone  "oh no, sob! we are frubes we should really stop before we make bigger fools of ourselves".

But as you have guessed we didn't
And not because we are genius or anything, far from it, its more like as you probably know by now we are a bunch of weirdos who believe
crazy things are possible and well, its worked out pretty well so far

so how does this delusion stuff work? how can it beget greatness?
think of it this way

What does an external opinion matter, if you KNOW your right and what your doing will infact work?

If someone told you that your toes where turning green and growing rapidly, you wouldn't worry about it (not unless you recently where involved in an accident while experimenting with gamma rays)
no because you know its not true (i apologise in advance if you have a tendency to turn into a giant green/gray/red rage monster)

you see I'm not telling you to block out constructive criticism, because well we all need it to improve.
what I'm say is there are times when i recognise that someone's mind set is merely incompatible with mine.
not wrong just incompatible

They don't know my steps
They don't know my plans
They cant see what i see
so they wont understand

Yes they could be right, but maybe i could be too.

So here is the thing that i believe, "i am the best around".
By saying that "I'm the best around", i really mean that every step I take and every step i will take , leads me to be the best i can be

Before you go "its easy for you to say, your not a noob"..... let me tell you a little about my body
Iv broken every finger, and even a thumb, one if which (my right middle finger) i did while kayaking in 2008, tearing a ligament in the process.
Now ligament's don't heal they just fuse back through scar tissue, so the weakness still remains there today.

Iv fractured both ankles one of which now clicks every time i move it, due to the way it pulls on the Achilles as it heals.
And slipped disks in my spine windsurfing to the point that due to the vertebrae being semi fused i have no movement between L3 and L5 (most of my lower back)

It was so bad at one point i was told that with time and a lot of hard work again i may be walk (and believe me it was)

Iv got hyperflexablity, which basically means i cant stretch, at all
Doing so rips and damages my muscles
This means that iv to do a lot of massage to get out any knots that occur and have a lot of weakness and clusters of knots in my back that can only be described as rope like in feeling

Now all this means i could have and should have stopped a long time ago, but man i just love this dam art.

I remember how id (and still do) see someone do something really cool, that i know ill never really be able to do, and feel a bit discouraged
but then id remember that mantra, pick myself up and think "you'll see ill be the best"
Not with anger or hateful emotions, but with the belief about myself firmly maintained, despite being contradicted by what seems to be reality or rational.

I am the best, maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but i will be and as long as i work towards that with a solid plan and believe it longer then anyone else, well then i will be the best.

Where else can you be if everyone else puts themselves in second place or worse to begin with?
First obviously

By now some of you will be thinking, "wow  im going to start having that determination"
Most others will be thinking " this is rubbish,  you really are a frube" or " ill never be the best"
Others will have even not got this far and moved on to another tread
Its to these last two that i say thank you for reserving the top spot for me

I think the greatest realisation i ever had , was that focusing on the bad stuff will never make you successful in what you do
My focus has resulted in my success, and the focus of the others in displacement has eared us ours
Sure we still have a long journey ahead of us, but hay its a good start

But imagine if back when we started this journey we went  " we are such noobs, there is little resource's and no one wants to share, is it going to get worse?  when, if ever is it going to get better?"
Well i know that id still be a noob to this day

So let me ask you what is your focus?
Is it on "ill be the best " or  "i am a noob, poor me"
This matters a lot

The questions you ask and the stuff you focus on determines your actions
Your actions determine your results

If you want to be successful in your art, do what the successful people are doing and quit doing what the bitter people are doing
And now for a little awesome vs noob chart

     being awesome                                  being a noob

focus on success and has          focus on forums full of bitterness
a sense of direction                  and whining

works hard                              has vague aspirations at best

finds something and                 jumps from opportunity
sticks with it                            to opportunity

takes charge                            waits for things to get better

sets goals                                doesn't have any

measures progress                   no accountability

reflects                                    doesn't


If you knew that your goals and efforts would make you one of the best and most respected in your art, how hard would you work?
Certainty and belief that "this will work" drives your behaviour.
Without it, you will just keep buying into the misery of many people on the forums

If your committed there is always a way, lets compare that believe to a recurring activity you see in people who don't have any success, at least not yet
Lets take the younoobz for example

I have to admit it some of the people that bash and flame them have a point
A lot of them have no respect for the creators, they show case movements on videos when the obviously haven't practiced it, they name drop and talk a lot and then show some half-baked video they've recorded on there phone
I know I get it , iv see them to and all before, there is no denying it

But they aren't a lost cause, because at least they try and i believe that any one that anyone who doesn't stop trying, reflecting and pushing onwards will never stay a noob.

Thus with every problem comes a solution

Problem: they mess with your day and make you believe that perhaps what you do really does suck.
They make you believe that there is no change in the art that what we do is becoming dry
They try to make you as bitter as them, always speaking in mocking tones on the forum when you have a goal and strive for it, really only cause they are frustrated and have nothing going for them and the weirdest thing is they refuse to quit

Opportunity: this is way bigger then the problem, ok so we know a lot of these bitter "practitioners" wont quit.
They stay around waiting and waiting and the truth is they have good reason to, we know that deep down, a lot of people just want to be inspired and know there is so much more to the art.
They've just been given to many empty promises, tones on hype and eventually just get jaded

The truth is there are so many ways to get inspired, its not difficult when there is so many people working on amazing things.
The reason why a lot of things stay "underground", is not because the successful people want to hide it
Its because they don't want to be around the resentful out there who will go "that sucks, i can do better" but secretly envy what they do inside.

Imagine if all those that truly created and innovated surrounds themselves with such people they would be screwed.
Inspiration travels, it moves, it moves from person to person, from practitioner to practitioner, from generation to generation

All you got to do is search for where the inspiration is and follow it
Seriously that's all there is to it, that's the real "secret" to it all

I picked up this jumpy stuff with Andy all those years ago, and back then there was practically no resources, except for each other and the dozen or so members that made up this community.
So we set standards for each other and challenged each other every day our sessions where endless
It wasn't a battle of who is better then who, but a challenge that gave us a little adrenalin rush when ever it came down to our progress
And the best part we progressed faster then we ever expected

But imagine if i won Andy at one of our little challenges (he usually did) and he turned around and said "your just trying to make me look bad, your so cocky and have no life, you spend all your time on this I quit"
Do you think he would have the smoothest Kong's you'll ever see..... helllss no

Sure he failed tones of times while he was developing it but if he didn't hold on to it long enough to reap its benefits, do you think he'd still be able to share it with the world today

Too few people hold on to something long enough to know the feeling of success.
But let me tell you, the feeling of success is additive

That feeling is amazing, and if you get it once you just want to keep going allowing it to build like a snowball, pushing you further and further.
Forget wasting your time on people to scared to work for anything and to keep trying, often because they cant handle failure they don't realise failure isn't an endpoint but a mid.

I truly believe that anything is possible, which means you will inevitably achieve what you set out to do
which really means every time you fail, your really just one step closer to success.

So here we are coming to you and telling you that we are here to help
But you have to be willing to learn, you have to be willing to try again even though you fail and you have to have the patience to wait for the crazy results to show up

So join me know in saying
"I QUIT"

I quit listening to some dude on the form flaming people, who work hard
I quit talking about or focusing on anything that doesn't make me or this community more awesome at this art
I quit engaging on any conversation about how bad it is, or have become
I quit focusing on fear and falling pray to the paralysis it causes

My confession - I quit sometime around April 2009 when I realised that this art form desperately needed a direction in Ireland, and the only way I could think of doing it was working with a small group of like minded people to work on and promote this art

For me that group is displacement and now we want to bring you what we have developed over the last 6 years
And we are starting here with these forum by sharing with you the information we have gathered and experiences we have had.

When we started we wanted a goal, a aim that defined us
We taught long and hard over it and here it is

"Representing and furthering the evolution of Parkour, through teaching and performance.
To push the boundaries, to learn as much as possible and to make that information freely available"

So now we plan on doing just that
Its about time we all stood together for our art and the artists that represent it.

I'll see you at the top