TeacherNanay Meets Parkour…Again

From my previous post, I ended in the part where my husband and I decided to come back to Ninja Academy the week after.  Yes.  We went back after days of body pains from the previous session.  During the second coaching session, it was the same routine, we had warm up, stretching and we reviewed what we have learned previously.  We were given drills in precision jumping, rolling, and basic vaulting techniques so we could master those skills and use them in an obstacle course challenge.  As soon as we went through the challenges, we were then taught new skills like more complicated vaulting techniques, proper landing, using of bars, etc.  Sounds cool right?  Yes it was!  For those who personally knew me would say I’m awesome because they never thought I’d do those things.  But truth was, it was gruelling.  I thought of just playing dead to delay my turn.

Photo with our Coach during the second session.

My fear of heights was also tested.  The Coach would let me stand on an elevated structure and that would scare the wits out of me.  I am that scared, that I wanted to cry, but I was ashamed to show it (at first).  But our Coach was very patient (I don’t know where he buys that much of tolerance with clients like me).  He wouldn’t stop encouraging me and won’t give up until I do or at least try the challenge/s he’s giving me.  I won’t forget what he told us, “In Parkour, you have no one to compete with but yourself.”  Oh yeah and I realized that, so I told myself, “Ok talo na lang ako.”  My husband was excelling with flying colors and really doing well with this Parkour thing.  While me, on the other hand, would just want to give up and later on transparently expressed my annoyance…annoyance to my fearful self.

Even so, we came back the next week, the following week and then more weeks after that.  I knew they’ll let me stand on an elevated vault and make me do a “cat leap” to transfer to another (took me 45 minutes to do it), but I still came back.  I knew they would let me jump off the Pride Rock to the foam pit (which took me about an hour to do so), but I still came back.  I came home with bruises on my arms, legs, calluses and blisters on my hands, sprained ankle, etc., but I came back.  We became regulars and we eventually became friends with the Coaches and the staff,  so expressing how scared I was every time I have to overcome a challenge became less embarrassing.  I screamed, swore (I’m so sorry for that, if you were in my position you’d understand) and cried (countless times).  But my husband and our Coach won’t give up on me.  Every other session, there was this feeling that whenever I achieved something or unlocked a new skill made me want to come back….for more.

In one of our sessions, we even brought our son (he was only 3 years old then) and let him try.  We thought maybe this could be a family thing.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to comply yet during that time.  The gym was a huge playground for him where he just freely ran around, jumped, stumbled and rolled.

Warming up with our little one during one of the sessions.

Despite all my fears, despite the minor injuries I’ve had, I realized that I (we) started to have a passion for this Parkour thing.  I (we) was enjoying it.  But why?  What’s in it for me?  My closest friends would even ask me whenever they see my bruises and blisters, “What are you doing to yourself?  What are you doing to your body?”  Yeah.  What was I actually doing?  Why did I get into this sport (which was so unlikely for my personality)?  I may be a little active (because of being a preschool teacher) but I am NOT AT ALL sporty.  I don’t hate sports but it hates me (as I claim it).  So that’s the question, why?  And my answer will be on the next post, because it will need a lot of thinking.  I will need to reflect on it, on how this discipline of movement changed my life in different aspects (yes, it’s that deep).

Family bonding at Ninja Academy with Coach Raven Cruz

TeacherNanay Meets Parkour

Wow!  I’m actually going to put an entry on this blog again.  It has been a while and a lot of things have happened.  It’s been a year since I bumped into the idea of “Parkour.”  Other than my yoga practice, being a Teacher, a Nanay and a wife, Parkour was added to my list of activities.

First, what is Parkour?  If you Google the word, this is the definition according to Wikipedia.org https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

Now you have an idea of what it is, you might be wondering how in the world I got myself into this?  For those who personally knew me were pretty surprised.  So in this post, let me share with you how it all began.

Last school year, I was introduced to this discipline using movement called Parkour. I’ve heard of it, seen it on tv and have read about but I never thought that one day I’ll try it. I wasn’t very interested until our school directress, coordinated with Ninja Academy Philippines, and included their program to our Kindergarten curriculum as part of the Physical Education class. I was truly amazed how our students enjoyed this activity and they were really looking forward to their weekly sessions for the 1st semester. It was an outlet for them. They moved freely. They learned how to jump, roll and go over obstacles properly. It was something “normal” for them, it was just like an ordinary play time. During the last session of our students, some of my co-teachers and I decided to drop by Ninja Academy to try out what our kids were doing. I invited my husband to come and try it too (I thought it would be a one of a kind date).

That day came and I was nervous when I saw the gym. I’ve always been skeptical about gyms because they never worked for me (yes! I’m that lazy to work out that’s why I chose yoga for my “wellness” regimen). Truly, I hate lifting weights and doing the same things over and over again.

So our session began, with one of the Kindergarten Coaches last school year.  We did similar warm ups like what our students were doing and realized they were harder than I thought. I tried everything the Coach asked us to do, without complaining (because it was my first time). He made us jump, roll and go over obstacles just like our 5-year old Kindergarteners. But it wasn’t at all “play” for me, I was scared. I was scared to get hurt, I was (and still am) scared of heights. But I’d say, it was a productive session. I got to try new things, a lot of things I’ve never done before even when I was a kid.

That first session ended. It was November 28 of year 2014 (Sunday). As my husband and I headed home, we started to feel the sores of the different parts of our body. We were talking about the experience and we both enjoyed it (It was actually the first time we worked out together). We asked each other, “uulit pa ba tayo?” After popping Alaxan FR because we can foresee how we would be the next Monday morning, we said to each other, “Sige next Sunday uli. Baka hindi na kasing sakit nito.” So we did, and that was just the beginning.

Here’s our photo the first time we visited Ninja Academy.

Just to add, for those who are interested to know:

1. How sore was my body during the first time? My entire body was sore even my fingers and toes!  Going up and down the stairs was such an agony. Even sitting on and standing up on a kiddie chair was a challenge.
2. For how long did the body pains last? Three excruciating days! Haha! (This may not be true for everyone of course.  I’ve never worked out rigorously for a long time that’s why everything was so painful after our first session).

You may want to check this out:

http://ninjaacademy.ph/