Tyson Cecka

Mary Anne Albright of the Clark County Columbian newspaper has just written a great little article on parkour in Vancouver and surrounding areas.

Traceurs say parkour is more than a hobby or sport. It’s a lifestyle and culture, and the problem-solving skills practitioners hone in the physical world transfer to their professional and personal lives.

The story focuses on a new parkour group at Skyview (my old highschool) calling themselves “The Pack.” It covers how they started, what in general parkour is, and what some of the people who have come from that region are doing now (Janine and I mainly).

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Man I’ve had a great past two days training. Friday up in Bellingham for the gym jam, and Saturday over at Gasworks for one of our weekly jams. I went to both mainly to teach as I have a big job coming up, but I managed to sneak in some low-impact conditioning and training, and I’m definitely feeling it now.

The varied amount of interesting people coming to jams seems to be increasing as well. The variety of different people in the scene is still expanding rather than shifting towards a set age group or lifestyle. These last few jams have seen people from 13 to 30 years old, and from video gamers to crazy martial artists to rock climbers. I feel lucky to live here in Seattle

…but I’m going to China. Just for a week though, starting Wednesday if my visa comes in time. Trip canceled, technically “postponed” but I’m betting canceled.

Stefan drew 100 of these daily monsters and posted them to his blog originally to bring more attention to his design studio 344. Over time, it became more and more interactive with people submitting stories about each monster and eventually creating their own through his open source inkblot project. An awesome project from an amazing artist if you ask me.

But he didn’t stop at 100, and he still posts and encourages interaction from his readers. This is one of my favorites, number 108. Enjoy!

I’m not sure what channel or where but my parents saw one in California!

That means that I’m in two different commercials showing on TV at the same time, that blows my mind…

Oh and I think I’m going to Shanghai for a week…will update when I know more!

Is now up on http://kswiss.com (as TV commercial #1), which means that it’s showing on TV! Now I just need to get a TV…

The last one showed on ESPN, TNT, and MTV so I’m guessing this one will as well. It certainly was a lot of fun to be in, and the finished product is amazing! I also have the director’s cut (which is awesome) prepared by Ken Arlidge, and I’ll get it up here as soon as I have permission.

Just want to say again how great it was working with Ken and the stunt coordinator Gary Jensen, both are so good at what they do that I actually feel honored to have been there. Check out some of Ken’s other work on Aero Film’s website, and you’ll see what I mean. The other principal in this, Victor Lopez, was also really fun to work with on this spot and on the Taurus Stunt Awards.

You can find out more about this commercial and other work on my media page.

Enjoy!

Had a great training session today even though I was going light on my wrist and ankle which still feel a bit tender. I worked on a lot of balance and precisions but also experimented with a bunch of random one armed and one legged things. The greatest accomplishments were a controlled one armed turn vault and a strange no armed underbar…

Pretty fun day in all, definitely managed to still get a full workout even with limited capability.

I twisted my ankle a bit after that long day of training, and here is what happens when I’m injured and bored. Turn on Javascript if it is off and click these pictures!

What the hell?

From: Tyson Cecka

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RAHH!

From: Tyson Cecka

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kapow...

From: Tyson Cecka

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...I win!

From: Tyson Cecka

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That’s right, I install new things for my blog! You can navigate between them using your left-right keys or by clicking on the left or right area of the photo as well. It also works on videos as you can see by the videos in the sidebar or just click here.

Edit: I originally took those pictures because I thought I looked like that guy from Street Fighter, well two people have now told me I look like Guile! Pretty funny, maybe I should dye my hair blond and wear militay pants everywhere…

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Wow, yesterday was one of the longest training days I’ve ever done. I was out at UW from around 12:30 to somewhere close to midnight, minus a few hours here and there for the requisite intake of food of course. Mostly just jumps, rolls, and more balance/precisions.

Think I found some good advice for roll training. First of all, if it doesn’t hurt than move to something harder, when it doesn’t hurt on concrete that means you are doing something right. To improve the roll in general and get more speed out of it, you have to make it smaller and curl more into a ball. I find myself extending my body more with the more momentum I have coming into it, and that tends to flatten it out and make it slower. Normally for low jumps into rolls I would land with my legs split to enter into the roll easier. But now, to avoid flattening out I’m trying to land all high momentum rolls two-footed while leaning forward and pushing/jumping directly into a tight roll. This is closer to how David Belle does his and I’m making some good progress.

Today was a pretty killer day. I hadn’t been out for awhile to train so when I went out today I was a bit hesitant about jumping back in right away. It didn’t take me long to realize though that my physical abilities were all still the same, it was just my mind holding me back.

So for the rest of the day I mainly limited my practice to railing precisions, balance, and max distance precision jumps from standing. The three things that my mind tried to stop me from doing. I went to UW, Gasworks, and a playground in Fremont. It took almost the whole day but I feel great, my railing precisions are getting better and better and I’m up to eight of my own feet. My balance is fine walking on a rail forwards and backwards, fairly good at turning around, and pretty solid at standing sideways. My standing jump is a bit farther than ten of my own feet, and my landings are so much more controlled and relaxed now. I used to injure my ankles very easily for precision jumps because I would tense them up too much.

All and all a very worthwhile day! My legs will definitely be feeling it tomorrow.