#parkour — Public Fediverse posts

This is my first AI-based Micro-Movie:

"A Parkour in a Ruined City," in which a white robot is doing parkour in a post-apocalyptic, abandoned city in cinematic style.

I have created this video using generative AI.

#FirstMovie #FilmMaker #movie #Film #video #AI #robot #city #building #media #cinema #cinematic #cityscape #parkour #freerunning #skyscraper #MicroMovie

This is my first AI-based Micro-Movie:

"A Parkour in a Ruined City," in which a white robot is doing parkour in a post-apocalyptic, abandoned city in cinematic style.

I have created this video using generative AI.

#FirstMovie #FilmMaker #movie #Film #video #AI #robot #city #building #media #cinema #cinematic #cityscape #parkour #freerunning #skyscraper #MicroMovie

I've jumped around so.much it's changed me, over on Ko-Fi. #parkour
https://ko-fi.com/post/Why-Old-Farts-Like-Me-Should-Jump-Around-A-Lot-Y7N52327YP
Please suport me, it really helps.

I've jumped around so.much it's changed me, over on Ko-Fi. #parkour
https://ko-fi.com/post/Why-Old-Farts-Like-Me-Should-Jump-Around-A-Lot-Y7N52327YP
Please suport me, it really helps.

No to co tam się u mnie zmieniło jeśli chodzi o #sport w 2023 roku?

- #parkour coś tam jeszcze był "grany" ale raczej z sentymentu niż tej frajdy, która kiedyś z niego miałem,
- skupiłem się w dużym mierze na #siłownia i treningu z ciężarami,
- w między czasie wraz z paczką znajomych przebiegliśmy nasz pierwszy #Runmageddon (skromne 3,5km i 15 przeszkód),
- po tym debiucie, zdecydowałem że #biegiprzeszkodowe to całkiem fajna sprawa 😇

No to co tam się u mnie zmieniło jeśli chodzi o #sport w 2023 roku?

- #parkour coś tam jeszcze był "grany" ale raczej z sentymentu niż tej frajdy, która kiedyś z niego miałem,
- skupiłem się w dużym mierze na #siłownia i treningu z ciężarami,
- w między czasie wraz z paczką znajomych przebiegliśmy nasz pierwszy #Runmageddon (skromne 3,5km i 15 przeszkód),
- po tym debiucie, zdecydowałem że #biegiprzeszkodowe to całkiem fajna sprawa 😇

𝑯𝒐𝒚 𝟔 𝒅𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒐 𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂...

#diadellenguarusa #controldeplagas #hidradenitissupurativa #yoyo #parkour #6dejunio

#ADDPK #ParkourNantes

🏃‍➡️ 🧗Si cela vous tente de se faire une petite session #parkour ensemble de temps à autre, n'hésitez pas à nous rejoindre !

Sessions fréquentes sur #NANTES :
- Dimanche 15h30->17h (si 🌥️ < 25°C)
- Jeudi 7h->8h30 (de mai à sept si 🔅)
et parfois en semaines de 20h->21h.

Mais vous pouvez aussi proposer des sessions à d'autres moments (...et pour d'autres villes !)
Tout niveau bienvenu. 😉

#NANTES #PARKOUR #ParkourNantes

🏃‍➡️ 🧗Si cela vous tente de se faire une petite session #parkour ensemble de temps à autre, n'hésitez pas à nous rejoindre !

Session régulières :
- Jeudi 7h-8h30 (🔆 mai->sept)
- Dimanche 15h30-17h (🌥️ oct->avril)

Mais vous pouvez aussi proposer des sessions à d'autres moments (...et pour d'autres villes !)
Tout niveau bienvenu. 😉

Source: Interesting Engineering
https://share.google/ykEurEHIxfpl3gCiK

https://labs.google/fx/tools/flow/shared/image/a8bace05-a477-41f5-81a0-0f3a77b41c96

#Parkour

Today on Jenny's Bench, reacting to one of my #parkour heroes falling from grace.

https://ko-fi.com/post/What-To-Do-When-One-Of-Your-Heroes-Falls-From-Grac-A0A61ZER8T

https://releaseswing.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/dash-vault/ dash vault #cerpen #parkour

https://releaseswing.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/kong-vault/ #cerpen #parkour

In my little corner of the internet, this is the shock of the day. Storror announced this on their Instagram this morning, and it seems like the amount of material Callum Powell has pleaded guilty to creating is quite staggering.

I’m unsure how Storror can go on after this. Of course the other members are not to blame in any way, but Callum is such an integral part of the team, and watching old videos with him in them – and we are talking hundreds upon hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of video here – will never be the same again.

The Storror brand is to a large extent about the people, their cooperation, friendship and interaction. And the lens the world will see that through, has fundamentally changed. The brand in itself is tarnished, even if the remaining members have done nothing wrong.

It is especially sad for his brother, whose comeback after really bad injuries has been one of the great aspects of the latest year.

I might be wrong. They are masters at social media. They might find a way to go on. They have twice my countries population following them on YouTube, after all.

But as a fan, I struggle to see the way out of this.

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/26089003.sussex-parkour-group-storror-remove-callum-powell/

#storror #parkour

REJOINDRE les SALONS DE DISCUSSION d'#ADDPK sur le #PARKOUR 🏃‍➡️🧗

#TutoMatrix CC-BY adapté de @rezolibre :

1) ⬇️ Téléchargez #Element_X sur votre mobile ou PC
(ou une autre appli matrix :
https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients)

2) ☁️ Créez un compte sur le serveur matrix.org
(ou un autre fournisseur de compte matrix : https://www.chatons.org/search/by-service?field_software_target_id=274)

3) 👤 Choisissez un nom d'utilisateurice facile à prononcer
(pour plus facilement le transmettre).

4) 🔑 Configurez une sauvegarde

5) 🗨️ Cliquez sur "+" pour rejoindre une discussion.

6) 🧭 Saisissez l'adresse de notre salon d'accueil : #addpk:matrix.org
Rejoignez-le et glissez-nous un mot 🙂 👋

Today on Jenny's Bench: How do you approach making a stats database for the sport of #parkour?
https://ko-fi.com/post/How-Do-You-Store-The-Stats-For-A-Sport-That-Defies-K3K21YZU5L
Support me if you can, it means a lot.

@TakoTaco is such a baddie, wth

#parkour

Floating First Person Parkour Controller #Unity #Parkour #Controller #Floatingcapsule #Rigidbody #Physicsbasedmovement #Crouch #Slide #Wallrun #Grapplinghook #Climbing #AssetStore

https://u3dn.com/packages/floating-first-person-parkour-controller-220173

Gaza calling

Labàs, mercoledì 22 aprile alle ore 17:00 CEST

🍉 Mercoledì 22 il programma della giornata a supporto di SOS Gaza in collaborazione con GazaFreestyle prevederà:

* Dalle 17: lezioni di skate a cura di bologna.skateschool
* Dalle 19: diretta live con Gaza City e gli equipaggi della Global Sumud in Sicilia

Tutto il giorno e sera:
✨ Free skate area
✨ Parkour zone
✨ Breaking cypher

🍕🍹 Pizza e cubalibre solidale per SOS Gaza

🔗 Per iscriversi alle lezioni → contatta bologna.skateschool
🛹 Materiale skate verrà garantito per le lezioni

🍉 Free Palestine
🍉 Fight Zionism

https://balotta.org/event/gaza-calling

Gestern die erste richtig ausgiebige Parkour-Session des Jahres mit einer kleinen Gruppe Freund*Innen gehabt.
Heute entsprechend mit Muskelkater in jeder Faser des Körpers auf dem Sofa. Die Kraft reichte gerade so für die Demo gegen Reiche und ihre Korruption im Energiesektor, nun reicht sie noch um ein Buch zu halten und Tee zu trinken.
Aber gut fühlt es sich trotzdem an.

#Parkour
#freerunning
#Erneuerbare
#Hamburg
#ReicheMussWeg

隆巴仔
[JFFLIVE打機精華] 朝偉完美部署 最強誘餌戰術 | 三傻跳傘 集體parkour? ｜GTA RP 肥貓精華 EP9(下) @JFFLiveChannel @JFFTHK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe42A6m-EK8

Erster Climb-Up seit meinem Armbruch vor einem Dreivierteljahr. Noch mit Müh und Not, aber ohne Knie und Ellenbogen aufzusetzen, also gilt.
Sehr zufrieden und freue mich auf den Sommer, in dem ich mit einigem Training hoffentlich auch wieder die schnelleren und galanteren Varianten schaffe.

#Parcours
#Parkour
#Freerunning

Ultimate Parkour FPS - Character Controller #Wallrun #Person #Engine #Speedrun #Controller #Parkour #Fps #Running #Character #Jumping #Movement #Shooter #First #Weapon #AssetStore

https://u3dn.com/packages/ultimate-parkour-fps-character-controller-293000

#funny #viral #reels This little bandit is on a mission! 🐿️💨 You won't believe the parkour skills. What's the most daring thing you've seen a squirrel do? Share in the comments! 👇 #shorts #viral #trending #fyp #foryou #squirrel #animals #cuteanimals #wildlife #nature #parkour https://t.co/7JYpoyHkaQ on https://twitter.com/AcerboLivio/status/2032135285803290643

They really sped ran (?) that ending…

Well, guess I can play the DLC now…

The MajorLinux Show: BHM 2026 Series: Forspoken (Part 6) – MajorLinux

https://majorlinux.com/the-majorlinux-show-bhm-2026-series-forspoken-part-6/

#BlackHistoryMonth #Exploration #FemaleProtagonist #Forspoken #Gaming #OpenWorld #Parkour #PC #SquareEnix #Steam #Twitch #YouTube

They really sped ran (?) that ending…

Well, guess I can play the DLC now…

The MajorLinux Show: BHM 2026 Series: Forspoken (Part 6) – MajorLinux

https://majorlinux.com/the-majorlinux-show-bhm-2026-series-forspoken-part-6/

#BlackHistoryMonth #Exploration #FemaleProtagonist #Forspoken #Gaming #OpenWorld #Parkour #PC #SquareEnix #Steam #Twitch #YouTube

Obstacles

When you start to see your world as something more in line as a tool and an obstacle to interact with, play with, you’re going to take that lesson and look at other obstacles in your life. Your relationships, your job, your work, your health even. All these things are going to be so strongly ultimately affected by this tiny little change of yourself and your city.

~ Caitlin Pontrella

slip:4a823.

By STRØK in Paris France (4 photos)

https://streetartutopia.com/2022/01/09/strok-in-paris-france/

When do you stop?

I’m away at a parkour event this weekend, lots of walking and playing and jumping. One session was a discussion of fear, and of consequences. And one particular question for discussion was, “When do you stop?” People raised lots of ideas—good ideas, wise ideas… lots of things I was in agreement about.

But I was also thinking, “Wait. Why do I have to decide that?”

I know I’ve certainly faced decisions about stopping. Work, play, relationships, sports, parkour practices (ask me about the time I climbed across a train station outside of Paris,) … yes, deciding if, when and why to stop is an obvious question.

If I think about two paths—perhaps diverging in the woods, if you like that imagery—an hour’s hike along the path of one choice, I might decide I’m going the wrong way. There’s one of those when-to-stop decisions. But the mistake was an hour before, where the paths diverged.

This business venture: what if I had truly been committed, and had planned clearly the way we’d know when to stop? The question is gone. This relationship: could it be planned, or could two people be so honest, that the question doesn’t appear? This parkour jump, at the end of an exhausting day of training: why am I standing here, right now? If I’d planned better, could I have gotten all the same benefit, but a few minutes before right-now, I’d have moved to something else?

Might it be possible to still have challenge, commitment, growth, love, spontaneity, and humor… without ever having to decide, “should I stop this now?”

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Presenting at Art of Retreat

Next weekend I will be moderating a session about the state of global parkour organization. Please follow the link and submit any questions you feel would benefit the discussion.
http://artofretreat.com/governance/

This session is happening at the Art of Retreat (a parkour leadership and education retreat) in New York City. The event itself is full, but there’s great information on their web site about the speakers, and presentations to inspire you to attend next year.

Meanwhile, this year the event organizers are working to produce more take-aways for the participants and the parkour community at large. As part of the preparation for the Friday session, we are producing a detailed report about the current state of global organization efforts. It will be made publically available as a PDF.

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Rest stop somewhere in virginia. Thats 11, swap drivers n back on road!

Rest stop somewhere in virginia. Thats 11, swap drivers n back on road!

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§1 – Introduction

This series covers all the physical things I’ve discovered which make light-weight traveling easier and more fun. (My thoughts on the philosophy, etiquette, and mindset of traveling are in a separate series.) This series of posts is only meant to give you ideas; I certainly don’t expect you use the exact same solutions. For me, the challenge was not to pack as light as possible, but to pack as light as is reasonable.

I’ve read countless articles on travel, written by everyone from ultra-light hikers to seasoned business travelers. Sometimes, I stumbled over useful ideas and then figured out how to apply them. At other times I went searching for a solution to some specific problem I was having. Over the years, I’ve come up with a collection of items, and related tips and tricks, that I find extremely useful.

It’s obviously important to know what to pack, and to be able to pack well. But I believe the most important part of traveling “light” is developing two habits: unpacking and reviewing. Unpacking ensures I’m always ready, and reviewing ensures I’m always improving. The next two parts of this series will go into these two habits.

Why

But first, why travel lightweight? Why not simply grab the largest bag I have, stuff it with everything I might need, and head out the door? Why spend time and money fiddling with travel gear and solutions? I found my answers to those questions by sorting out the following: I’m most free when I have just the clothes on my back, but I will be unhappy, stressed, or in physical danger when I don’t have whatever-it-is that I happen to need. So at the most basic level, packing light is simply the balance of freedom versus preparedness.

There is also a deeper mental level to that balance. Do I feel free and relaxed, or am I worried? For me, it turns out that simply packing more things does not make me feel more prepared or relaxed. Rather, it’s the idea that I know I am prepared which enables me to be comfortable.

Clearly, the less I have to carry, the easier physically are my travels: In a packed car, my bag can fit on my lap. On a bus, it fits in the over-head, where it’s handy through the trip. On a plane, I can travel with just a carry-on-bag, saving me time and money on checked baggage. It’s also easier to not unpack — to just live out of the bag at my destination. It’s quicker to settle down in the evening, and quicker to pack out in the morning. It’s even easier to keep track of my stuff the less of it there is.

Certainly, there are lots of challenges and trade-offs with traveling light. It is not all champagne and roses. But by investing the time to solve problems and get better at the process, I’m able to have a lot more fun. So my challenge was to pack as light as I can, and still have everything I need.

My first task was then to figure out, “What exactly do I need?”

How

The more I dug into these ideas, the more I realized that the only way to know I was prepared — to truly feel prepared — was to thoroughly examine what I was packing and carrying. I wound up asking myself a litany of questions and exploring the answers and solutions: Why am I uncomfortable right now? What could I have brought that I could use right now? I never used this thing-i-packed, so why did I bring it? I’m exhausted after carrying my pack all day; Why does it weigh 30 pounds?

This process of examining all my worries, habits, and situations led me to search for solutions. My habits of unpacking and reviewing, which I mentioned at the beginning, are the result of all this questioning and refining of my travel gear.

Along the way, I learned to not pack based on fear or uncertainty; To not pack anticipating everything that might go wrong. Instead, I learned to prepare only for the scenarios that matter — safety items, spare cash, medication. I also learned to feel comfortable in knowing what I could obtain at my destination if things didn’t go according to plan. This became a sort of “anti-packing,” where I learned what not to pack.

Eventually, I wound up with “systems”, or “kits”, for just about everything. A sleep system, in one stuff sack, that has everything I need to sleep on a bare floor. A bathroom kit, in one zipper-bag, which has everything I need for bathing, shaving, etc. A medical/urgent kit (the “m’urgency” kit) that has what I frequently use, plus what I feel is sufficient for common urgencies.

The more I tuned my gear and systems, the easier packing became. These days, I don’t grab my toothbrush out of the bathroom, find my razor, and wonder what soap may be at my destination; I pick up the small, black, zipper-bag that is my bathroom kit. If I might be sleeping on the floor I grab my sleep system. I always grab the m’urgency kit. I grab the clothes I want, and a stuff sack to pack them. I add in various other things, (described in coming posts,) grab my favorite backpack, stuff the contents, and go!

An exercise

If you really want to get a feel for how much your packing improves, try doing a “test packing” as a starting point for future reference. Note the time, and go pack for a 5 day, 4 night Parkour trip. Let’s presume mild weather, sleeping indoors but on a bare hardwood floor. Let’s say you will be training 3 of the days. Pretend you have no idea what the host conditions are, but assume you have access to a bathroom, shower, wifi and whatever electricity outlets you are used to. (Dealing with not-your-usual electrical systems is a post in this series.) When you are ready to walk out your door, note the time again. Now weigh your stuff and write down the time it took to pack, the weight, and maybe some notes about how you’d feel carrying all that stuff while trying to board a bus, a plane or hop in a car.

Now, as you put everything away, imagine dropping all that on the floor at your host. What if they have to move it while you’re out for the day? Is their dog/cat/toddler going to get into your stuff? Maybe also note your worries: I don’t have a sleeping bag or pad for sleeping on a floor! How do I dry my hair? Look at all these clothes! What if this trip had been to a place with weather extremes, say, you had to train outdoors in freezing temps? What if you knew you’d be video recorded during one of your training days? What if your destination had different electrical power? What if someone threw, or sat on, your bag?! What if… What if…

Recall the two habits I mentioned: unpack and review? You have just done your first unpack and review after an imaginary trip!

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§9 – Commit to the move

No this. No that. No delay.

~ Sensei Wirth

If you want to go east, go east. If you want to go west, go west.

~ Koichi Tohei Sensei

If there’s somewhere you need to be, you need to start walking.

~ uncertain; possibly Lao-Tzu

Each of those quotes expresses a certain commitment to beginning; to taking action; to moving in a direct way. But what really is commitment? I thought I knew what commitment was, until I started to think deeply about it. Now, I’m uncertain.

There are some things to which I am deeply, unshakably, committed; Take breathing for example. At first glance this seems trivial since it’s a physiological imperative managed by the body. But if I imagine a scenario where someone is trying to prevent me from breathing, I can easily imagine myself consciously acting — wildly, vigorously, berserk even — to achieve the goal.

What would it mean to be that committed to something of my own conscious choosing?

What does it mean to “be committed to” a new habit?

Sure! I’m committed! I like this new idea — this new habit. I’m going to really stick to it! I have goals, and a plan. Let’s do this!

…and a month later the habit is nowhere to be seen. Does that failure mean I was actually not committed when I thought I was? Did my commitment evaporate over time? Are there degrees of commitment? Is there some minimum level of commitment necessary at the beginning to achieve certain goals? Does commitment need occasional inputs of energy to keep it going, like a spinning top? Or is commitment a simple binary — yes, or no?

Perhaps understanding commitment would be easier if I tried to untangle a simpler type of commitment. What does it mean to “commit to” a physical action in the very near future?

This jump scares me. But I know I can make it; I’ve definitely jumped this distance successfully many times. I know there’s value in doing this jump. I should do this. I want to do this! Okay, I’m committed! I’m ready! Here I go! abort! ABORT!!

What happened? I thought I was committed? Was I lying to myself when I said, “Okay, I’m committed”? What would it mean if it was possible to lie to myself– to truly believe myself when I was lying? Did my commitment somehow evaporate in the moment just before I aborted? Did my body — my physical corpus separate from my mind — somehow, literally, physically refuse my mind’s directions? Is that even be possible?

Here’s another experiment I’ve performed countless times: I get set up for a jump which pushes my limits. There are some consequences to missing, some real bit of danger is present, but it’s a good jump, something I know I can do. I’ve checked my surfaces, and I’ve explored and thought out everything to look for unknown-unknowns. I’m ready. The thinking-me-brain commits — really commits — we (the me-brain and the body) are ready to do this! And then I notice that my palms are sweating. Wait- What? Who called for sweating palms?!

Therefore I’m forced to wonder: Does my body have a mind of its own? In fact, I believe this is the case. We know the brain — the entire central nervous system — is an amalgam of layers. The thinking me’s consciousness is just the topmost layer, and there are deeper layers, sometimes called the “lizard brain”, performing fully autonomous functions. Performing many autonomous functions.

After all of that thinking and experimenting, I’m starting to believe that commitment is actually easy. The thinking-me-brain is good at committing to something after a bit of reasoned consideration. Committing may be one of its greatest skills, in stark contrast to the body’s short-sighted visceral behaviors.

So what then is hard?

Learning what level of control I am in fact able to exercise over the rest of my body is hard!

My commitment evaporates when my body rebels; When it literally, physically refuses my thinking-me-brain’s commands. My commitment evaporates when unconscious triggers, and reward/feedback loops, guide my actions when the thinking-me-brain isn’t actively paying attention. The teacher leaves the classroom and the students start throwing paper airplanes. “I thought we were committed to reading our studies! …why all this fooling around?!” I thought we were committed to this jump! Why have we not jumped?! Why are our palms sweating and heart racing?!

The more I examine this situation, the more it feels like the thinking-me-brain is a tiny little prisoner who has very little control over almost nothing.

“Commit to the move,” the book says. The tiny, weak, thinking-me-brain would love to practice talking the body into doing things it doesn’t want to do. So let’s — thinking-me and the body — let’s go out and see what we can agree to commit to!

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§8 – Focus on the process

Early on a brisk Saturday morning, I was struggling to find the motivation to put solid effort into a quadrapedie workout. During a break, I was talking to someone about how I’ve recently been dropping goals. I’ve always had a laundry-list of goals such as getting to a free-standing hand-stand, or a specific number of pull-ups. But I’m learning — slowly — that blindly chasing goals only leads me to injury and failure. Tenaciously refusing to let go of a goal can be counterproductive, even overtly unhealthy.

I find it’s easy to learn, and easy to get some new bit of knowledge stored in my mind. But it is difficult to get my instincts and feelings to change to align with that new knowledge. So it is with my processes and goals: I know it’s all about the process, but my instincts and habits are to create goal upon goal. I regularly get caught up chasing the goals, and lose sight of the process.

How far ahead can I see? How wisely can I set my goals? Do I chase them blindly causing my journey to veer off? Or do I have a broad spread of goals that firmly draw me in my desired direction towards the horizon, and ultimately, to the end of my journey?

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Tomorrow is going to be….

INSANE. Today is already off the chart @ppkphilly

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Texas may be flat…

But when they accidentally drop a pk spot, BOOM! #jumponallthethings

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Be excellent to each other!

Be excellent to each other!

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Opus40.org

OMG. o. m. g. OH MY GAWD… Mr and Mrs Fite, thank you. A stone visionary!

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Scoops!

Never been here before….

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Keep on keepin’ on!

Keep on keepin’ on!: I’ve filled in the rest of the bars and this thing now needs a name. Until you’ve tried moving in a complex space, you won’t know how supremely capable the human body is; shoulders, grip, torso, knees, feet, vision, proprioception, spacial mapping… that meat-frame your mind lives in is meant to M. O. V. E.

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THE Cathedral in Èvry

Spent all day here… push bend jump qm run vault parkour all the things!!! One more ‘section’ to go as soon as our training partner returns from a coffee run.

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Mom, calm down…

It’s only a splinter! I usually only show the rosy side of travelling and jumping on stuff. Well, seems I picked up a wee sliver of England at RDV XI. (ask me about the barefoot bail into thorns) Yes my tetanus immunization is up to date. THIS is why you should always travel with your personalized med kit… #DIY Tracy trained all day while I did my “wimpy lion with a thorn in its paw” imitation. Hopefully good to go tomorrow #famousLastWords (PSA: early symptoms of Tetanus include jaw spasms, drooling, excessive sweating and irritability? …oh i’ve had that for 45 years then :P

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When the ‘me’ is obliterated

When the ‘me’ is obliterated by fear or the demands of immediate survival, action is no longer constrained by social forces, and the individual is left with a sense of self-determination. […] Behavior in edgework appears to the individual as an innate response arising from sources deep within the individual, untouched by socializing influences”

~ Stephen Lyng from, Edgework, 2004

A couple years ago I tried to write something explaining what exactly it is about practicing parkour that I like so much. It turns out others are way WAY ahead of me. Julie Angel (you have read Cinè Parkour, right?) talks a bit about “edgework”; The idea of negotiating the “edges” between things like consciousness/unconsciousness, sanity/insanity, and life/death. Others (H.S. Thompson and Lyng) have talked about “edgework” in depth.

And I agree. My experience is that being in the parkour practice — even just the visceral edges where I’m pushing my physical limits while exposing myself to only manageable levels of risk — just totally strips away all the context of my work-a-day life. Everything — all the way down to my thoughts — everything falls away.

My martial arts teacher has a great phrase related to edgework: No this. No that. No delay.

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4,000

I passed the 4,000 reps mile-post last week! Woo-HOO! 6,000 reps to go. Booooooo!

Last week was a Herculean effort on bar precisions to dig out of the hole I created. I did 700+ bar precisions in 3 days. It was deliciously decadent to have Saturday/Sunday off from this project. (I spent the days “off” by driving 3 hours to play/train with friends in upstate NY, driving home, and then going to regular Parkour class on Sunday. “Rest” may not be the right word.)

After last week’s “no plan” plan turned out well, I’m going back to my regurlarly scheduled work-rest-work-rest-rest 5-day pattern. I’ll do 100 reps of each, and my goal (over the coming weeks) will be to bring the pull-ups closer together. Currently, I’ve been doing ~100 pullups scattered in bunches of 8’s (as 3,3,2) or 7’s (as 3,2,2) spread through the day. I’ll work on making pull-ups into larger bunches of 9’s (4,3,2), 10’s and so on. The dream being to get to 10×10 pull-ups in one workout. My right forearm/grip is feeling better, but nowhere near 100%; so I’m keeping this as an odometer race, I’m not going anywhere near max rep’s on pullups until my forearm feels 100%.

A note about handstands: I’m going to keep doing them as 15-second stands. I was increasing the time per stand, but I realize now that I need more practice on the kick up and balance. So doing lots of shorter stands gives me lots of practice. I’ve managed a few instances of 5 seconds of complete free standing after kicking up onto the wall.

Next week, I’ll consider going to 120-rep workouts. That would bring the pace up sufficiently to finish 10k well before July 20. (Alternatively, I might invite friends out for a day of hurt to try to do something crazy like 500-of-each-exercise in one sprint to the finish, but that seems risky to me.) I would LOVE to wrap this up early so I can move on to other things.

For the long view, I sketched out doing 100-rep workouts on my 5-day pattern and it now comes up short at the one-year date on July 20. Astoundingly, it comes up exactly 500 reps short. (Except for pushups which are weird now due to that one-a-day ascending pushups thing that is going on unrelated to this 10k challenge. I’ll fiddle with pushups in a few weeks when that’s over.)

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Working on controlled precisions

Fun with controlled precisions: I finally got around letting the camera run while repeating a jump. Here’s two that I was working on yesterday. These were just a wee bit odd for me to sort out. This is the aspect of indoor gyms that I love; being able to set up something very specific. This was taken at Innate Movement Parkour -Kingston, NY.

1. Innate Movement precisions

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Scaf 101: Epilogue

Closing thoughts, other random clamps and ideas.

A fist full of clamps

Here are three more clamps. The first two you will certainly end up with, eventually. The third one is just a fun, sort of, “what would you ever do with that?”

Split cross

This is your new best friend, the “split cross”. This is better than sliced bread. This clamp can be opened (by tapping one of the pins out), and then placed onto an existing pipe in a structure. Note that the pins are slightly tapered. You’ll see they stick out on one side (that’s the thick end) and they are flush on the other (that’s the thin end, the end you tap).

With these clamps, you can add another pipe, like this, when someone says the top one is too high…

Or you can just throw a precision (or balance etc.) rail right into the middle of a build. I keep one, 10-foot-plus pipe laying around for this purpose. You can even strap on extra bars angled across the build if you bolt to the vertical poles. You can strap to two different horizontal poles, at different heights and make odd-angle slopes. There’s tons you can do with this clamp.

90° single outlet

There’s a 90° single outlet tee which is handy for making really clean builds:

Swivel mount

I have a few of these that I use as feet on my ground rails. Makes the pipes sit neatly on just about anything. But you could also attach these to big wooden blocks, and then use them as feet on the bottom of your scaf corners to keep it from sinking into your lawn. (Because of the set screw, these feet would move easily with the scaf when you pick it up.)

The simple wooden feet are great, but in the lawn, they tend to flip over and come away when you move the scaf. So using feet that are attached to the legs would be slick.

A few clamps more

Clamps are easy; point, click, ship. (Unless you’re lucky enough to live near a place that stocks them.) But as you accumulate more steel pipe, you’re going to want to start cutting it yourself.

…well, ok maybe you never end up cutting a single pipe yourself. If you buy your steel pipe from a supply house, you can just list all the lengths you want. But if you’re just going to buy a couple sticks at a time, then one day, you’re going to want to make a few cuts.

Ye ‘ol hacksaw is tedious, and the ends are never perfectly square. The gonzo method is to buy a chop saw and fit it with a metal-cutting blade. But the middle-of-the-road method is to buy a heavy duty “tubing cutter”. A steel pipe cutter will make short work of schedule 40, 1-1/4″ steel pipe. (But you will need to clamp the pipe down somehow to resist the cutter’s rotation.) For example, a “Ridgid 32820”.

The good, the bad and the clampy

I think I’ve done a reasonable job of capturing, and organizing everything (and more) that I’d wish I’d been able to find on the first day I started thinking about buying some scaf. Along the way, I had a lot of fun indulging my scaf habit and I hope you (fellow pragmatist) enjoyed reading this far.

Where to go from here? …to the clamp web sites, to the scaf supply depot, to your first scaf build party with friends!

On the other hand, if you’re in the mood to stare at your screen more, I have a #scaf tag for all the scaf posts on my site. They are mostly photos of built scaf, so perhaps you’ll find some ideas/inspiration.

Finally, a big shout out to Blake up in the Boston area for being a huge scaf-addict and spreading the scaf love. They don’t have anything scaf-specific on the web, but if you hunt them down on your favorite social medium or in real life, there’s pretty much scaf everywhere: Parkour Generations Americas Boston on DuckDuckGo

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Scaf 101: Build 6, Taller A-frame

There are some non-obvious ways to use clamps to build unusual things. Early on, in the first “cube” build, I mentioned you could do pullups and work climb-ups. But this build is way better for building a stable, nearly 7-foot high bar.

There’s no layout shot per se, but here’s a pair of assembled 45° apex A-frames. (Note that the unused outlets in the middle both face up.)

There are two 90° two outlet tees in the middle of the photo, 45° tees on the left and right and 3-foot brace pipes. This looks totally asymmetric, right? Here’s a close up of the tops of the A-frames:

(I know, right? Does this work?)

Here’s a detail of how you put the top cross bar into the clamps; do not over-insert the ends because we need the width to be correct.

Wait, this is a thing? It totally is…

Very tall, very stable for climbing/hanging and you can swing a bit (if you like sketchy swing sets).

We have 5-foot pipes and tees left, so let’s add some more side pipes:

I love how the outlets on those tees we used early on, suddenly are just perfect for a cross bar. Obviously, that lower one could go anywhere on the set. If you have extra 45°s, you can add some 1-foot diagonals on any (not the top – won’t work up there) of the cross pipes. I’d put two diagonal doing down from the mid-height cross-pipe; that would give a huge stability gain without being in your way.

There are other variations to this build: You could have used 5-foot pipes for the cross-bars when you laid out the A-frames. They’d be much lower down on the sides. You’d still have the fourth 5-foot pipe to make that mid-height cross-bar. And of course in both variations you have 3-foot pipes that can be added as diagonals if you have the extra 45°s. Remember the rail precisions build, with the diagonals that were “off” but still sort-of fit? You could get a 3-foot diagonal up on the top most cross-pipe.

I really like this build. It’s a sort of “sleeper” build where you start feeling like your wasting clamps at the apex of the A-frames and then it turns into this very unusual geometry. Most scaf (except of course Blake’s scaf in Boston) ends up being all 90° and 45° systems.

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Scaf 101: Build 5, A-frame swingset

By now, you should be pretty comfortable with these builds. So for this one, I’m going to start off by making a poor decision, so you can see how it doesn’t work out at the end. Then I’ll make a change and show it rebuilt.

Here’s a layout shot for one A-frame end of a “swing set”. If you look at the apex closely, you’ll see I was considering using a side outlet elbow. (Two 7-foot legs, and a 3-foot cross pipe.)

At which point I thought this might be an interesting teachable moment. So I swapped in the 90° two outlet tee. This seems like a good idea right? We’re going to use a 5-foot pipe across the top, one end of it has threads, I can slide this clamp further in from the end and it’ll get a much stiffer top corner.

Advanced: If you have the extra 45° single outlet tees you could add awesome little 1-foot braces on two of the corners at the top too. But DON’T – spoiler – we’ll use the 1-foot pieces for something else at the end.

So I assembled one A-frame side and put in the 5-foot top pipe. You can see the other A-frame side is also assembled on the ground. The 7-foot pipes in this set all have threaded ends, and I’ve left them all facing down so the A-frame top clamps are more stable.

And here’s the assembled A-frame swing set. It’s about 5 feet high and is surprising stable because of the very wide 90° angle at the top.

So can we make this more interesting or more stable? Let’s put a 5-foot base across the bottom of one side, just to stiffen it up. (But it can also be a laché precision target too.) Two elbows, a 5-foot pipe, and you’ll see the 5-foot seems long, so bury as much of the pipe’s ends in the clamps as you can. You get this:

We still have two elbows left, so we could do this on the other side and call it a day. But we also have two more 90° two outlet tees, so maybe we could put a bar, across the other legs, but up higher; just to make it interesting? Here you realize that using the two 90° two outlet tees on the top of the A-frame means the entire thing is too narrow to pull this off. In the photo, I have the far side clamped, and the near side just snugged and resting so I could take the photo; it’s clearly too long. If you slid this down low, you could just stretch/spread the legs, but up at this height, it’s a no-go.

At this point (if not sooner) you’d realize that you cannot get those top clamps out and swap them. You have to tear the entire thing down; thus my thought that this would be good to show, so you never have to do it. :)

Here’s a do-over layout shot for the clamp change, and the finished do-over (with that low base with elbows installed).

Now we can add some fun stuff. You can use the two outlet tees (you have four left) to put a base on the other side (note the clamp orientation).

But we have that on the other side already, so you can flip those clamps and position this 5-foot pipe anywhere. You have a “window” on one side too!

We really should flip the elbows on the other side, so they “sit” into the feet better. Now we also have a “ground rail” on one side. Perfect to start from before jumping/reaching to swing on the bar, or as a laché landing target:

Done? …not hardly! We have clamps left over. Grab that last 5-foot pipe and your four 1-foot pieces, two 90° two outlet tees, and you can make a bomber ground rail (because you made all 8 wooden feet way back when).

Finally, you still have two 3-foot pipes left. If you have the extra four 45° single outlet tees, you could add those pipes in somewhere. As diagonals to the base, or in the window, or something crazy like connecting the free ground rail to the A-frame somehow.

So this build ends up being full of options. Climbing/gap challenges around the side braces; balance/cat-on-a-rail challenges; precisions; swinging. This is one of my favorites that you can build with this set.

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