Training in Riga, Latvia
I finally met up with the traceurs in Riga for the third time, and want to re-invigorate this "wlog." So, this time I'll say a few things about my participant observation in/of this training...
First of all, as you can see, the training here is commonly in a training hall; this is also a training specifically for people interested in learning parkour, including a lot of strength training and conditioning. - In Vienna, training is (so far) an informal meeting, more rarely in a training hall than outdoors, very little if at all about conditioning. Also noticeable was how the focus here, and this time, was not on specific techniques but on runs: free technique or with instructions, but typically moving along the line of obstacles.
This is something I had been wondering about in Austria, where it's rather common to go to one (part of a) spot and work on one technique, then go on to the next. Moses is the only one I've seen working on runs even in normal training...
Djuxa and I also talked a little about the Red Bull "Art of Motion" event in Vienna, which he had been invited to.
The first videos I had seen looked rather silly (yes, I should not be quite so judgmental, but here I can't shake it): Instead of using the "natural" obstacles, a course was built into the spot, and it was not a course offering much more than drops. Hence, what I had seen was only people going from one drop to the next, doing flips, landing roughly.
Well, Djuxa told me he had written to the organizers about that, pointing out that there had been some unhappiness about the track and some other things. More importantly, however, he emphasized the backstage events: people getting together (without having to pay for it themselves), jamming, having a great time... which reminds me of the "unity in fractures" I have been finding more often already.
It is, in fact, crystallizing into one of the potentially more important parts of the ethnography of parkour I'm working on. - And now, finally, want to get on with ;-)
First of all, as you can see, the training here is commonly in a training hall; this is also a training specifically for people interested in learning parkour, including a lot of strength training and conditioning. - In Vienna, training is (so far) an informal meeting, more rarely in a training hall than outdoors, very little if at all about conditioning. Also noticeable was how the focus here, and this time, was not on specific techniques but on runs: free technique or with instructions, but typically moving along the line of obstacles.
This is something I had been wondering about in Austria, where it's rather common to go to one (part of a) spot and work on one technique, then go on to the next. Moses is the only one I've seen working on runs even in normal training...
Djuxa and I also talked a little about the Red Bull "Art of Motion" event in Vienna, which he had been invited to.
The first videos I had seen looked rather silly (yes, I should not be quite so judgmental, but here I can't shake it): Instead of using the "natural" obstacles, a course was built into the spot, and it was not a course offering much more than drops. Hence, what I had seen was only people going from one drop to the next, doing flips, landing roughly.
Well, Djuxa told me he had written to the organizers about that, pointing out that there had been some unhappiness about the track and some other things. More importantly, however, he emphasized the backstage events: people getting together (without having to pay for it themselves), jamming, having a great time... which reminds me of the "unity in fractures" I have been finding more often already.
It is, in fact, crystallizing into one of the potentially more important parts of the ethnography of parkour I'm working on. - And now, finally, want to get on with ;-)
Labels: comparison, competitions, participant observation, pk in Riga (Latvia)
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