Introductions

[rydra_wong]

Because I thought it might be interesting to see where everyone's coming from ...

Here's a thread to say hi, and say a bit about your interest in movement/embodiment/whatchamacallit.

What movement things do you do -- or not do? Or: what did you do in the past? Or: what might you be interested in learning more about, but haven't tried yet? Or: what do you love reading about even though you'd never want to do it personally?

I suggest that people feel free to jump all over each other and ask questions if you're curious about something someone else mentions (if you'd rather not answer questions, please just say so), or want to say "me too" or compare notes.

Comments

hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Doing: parkour! (thanks to thedeadparrot Also running.

Used to do: crew / sweep rowing.

Intrigued by (yet vaguely terrified of): rock climbing.

Also intrigued by: dance, sign language.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[lunabee34]

I am not familiar with crew / sweep rowing. What does that entail?

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Crew is a type of rowing in skinny river boats where you can strap your seat in and row using a sliding seat (which allows you to make full use of your leg power, instead of being stationary and just stuck with you back and arm muscles). It comes in two favors: sculling, where you row with two oars (and you can row solo, or in a pair, or in fours); or sweep rowing, where you row with one oar each on alternating sides (in fours is smallest; most row in eights) and there is an additional person called a cox (short for 'coxswain') who sits at the back facing everyone else who steers and barks out pace changes and other instructions.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[lunabee34]

That sounds like it would be very satisfying to be able to use your whole body and to work together as a team.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

I did crew in high school, and for the last two years primarily rowed starboard in the first varsity eight (sometimes port - we used to joke that people able to row either side well were 'bi-sweptual').

It's harder to find water access, time, equipment, and eight other people to keep rowing in an eight boat like that regularly outside of a school, but I might try picking up solo sculling at some point when I can afford paying for a monthly boathouse membership.

What I love about this kind of movement: racing is blast, but even more than that I enjoy the incredible flow that comes when you're one of eight trying to match each other as seamlessly as possible so the overall balance of oar stroke power, pacing, weight, and momentum is symmetrical, centered, synchronized, so oars go into the water and the boat glides surging forward with no contrary jerks and often no sound beyond quiet water noises and the cyclical protesting creak in unison of the oar locks when you all catch the water with your oats and begin pulling through the stroke (and the lighter creak at the other end, when the stroke is finished and you push the handle down and away to flick it out of the water and start the recovery back to the catch). The seats make noise too - all those little wheels rolling down their tracks - and so do you and the other rowers, little huffs and sometimes grunts of effort magnified by the water right there to reflect how quiet everything is, really, when you're out together early in the morning on the river and even the occasional cars on the roads over either bank seem curiously far away. You can row right by turtles and ducks and sometimes a solitary heron without disturbance to them, especially when the cox has you all pause right at the end of the stroke with your oars out and see how long the boat can glide before your collective balance wobbles too much to keep all the oars clear.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

but even more than that I enjoy the incredible flow that comes when you're one of eight trying to match each other as seamlessly as possible so the overall balance of oar stroke power, pacing, weight, and momentum is symmetrical, centered, synchronized, so oars go into the water and the boat glides surging forward with no contrary jerks and often no sound beyond quiet water noises and the cyclical protesting creak in unison of the oar locks when you all catch the water with your oats and begin pulling through the stroke (and the lighter creak at the other end, when the stroke is finished and you push the handle down and away to flick it out of the water and start the recovery back to the catch). The seats make noise too - all those little wheels rolling down their tracks - and so do you and the other rowers, little huffs and sometimes grunts of effort magnified by the water right there to reflect how quiet everything is, really, when you're out together early in the morning on the river and even the occasional cars on the roads over either bank seem curiously far away. You can row right by turtles and ducks and sometimes a solitary heron without disturbance to them, especially when the cox has you all pause right at the end of the stroke with your oars out and see how long the boat can glide before your collective balance wobbles too much to keep all the oars clear.

This is a wonderful, wonderful description. Thank you.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

My pleasure. It's amazing to me how vividly it all comes back as soon as I start to think about it; I do get wistful seeing other crews out on the river, sometimes.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[lunabee34]

That description gave me shivers. I've played team sports before, but I don't think I've ever had a collaborative movement experience that made me feel like what you're describing. It sounds awesome.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Thank you! I'm glad I could describe it in a way you find accessible.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[vi]

You describe rowing beautifully. *__*

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Thank you. :D

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

Intrigued by (yet vaguely terrified of): rock climbing.

I can and will babble about climbing at the drop of a hat, should that ever be of interest. Also the curious are always welcome at disobey_gravity.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Thank you! I may well take you up on that, if I hit the point where I'm going to 2+ parkour classes a week instead of just one. Rock climbing would help a lot with the upper body strength stuff I'm finding most difficult about certain parkour moves (also the heights thing; I will feel much better about crawling around on building walls with dubious footing if I develop the strength to hang for a moment just by my fingers if I have to).

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

A couple of years back, the indoor climbing wall I most often go to added a sort of combined parkour/climbing/functional fitness training area/playspace: big scaffolding climbing frame, wooden boxes of various heights, kettlebells, ropes hung from the ceiling, big crash mats, etc.. (as well as the usual fingerboards and campus boards you have at climbing walls) -- they deliberately wanted to encourage crossover and people learning from each other's disciplines.

So there are a bunch of parkour people who come to the wall to train and dip into climbing as an adjunct to their parkour practice, as well as people like me doing the opposite. And you'll see people who've got circus skills doing aerial stuff on the ropes, people doing pole dancing moves on the climbing frame, and so on.

It's wonderful, and I've had lovely conversations with strangers when someone asks geeky questions about somethng another person's doing.

(Which was one of the many things which led to me starting this comm.)

Anyway, yeah. I think climbing and parkour can complement each other very well.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

I would love a discussion post on this community about movement crossovers and transferring / remixing movement from one kind of practice to another; I keep coming back to this as something I want to talk about more.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

I would love a discussion post on this community about movement crossovers and transferring / remixing movement from one kind of practice to another; I keep coming back to this as something I want to talk about more.

You should post it! That sort of discussion is exactly what the comm's here for.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Actually, I do have a rock climbing question for you that's immediately relevant for me: how do leople who rock climb outside in the cold keep their hands warm?

I keep having to take off the cheap gloves I got especially so I wouldn't care if I ruined them doing parkour because I simply can't get a good enough grip with them on during class. I was thinking about fingerless gloves, but the actual wear and tear I tend to notice on my hands from class includes close to the heel of my palm (mostly from quadrupedal motion drills / games on urban ground like concrete).

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

For rock climbing: take gloves off, climb climb climb, hurriedly put gloves back on again. *g* If it gets very cold, people will often go for bouldering rather than route climbing (as each climb is briefer and you're generally moving around more and not having to stand around belaying).

However, for winter climbing (mountaineering and/or ice-climbing), people do wear gloves -- friction on your hands isn't so critical compared to not getting frost-bite, and (with ice-climbing) you're holding onto ice-axes rather than gripping with your fingers.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Well, at least I'm not missing any obvious solutions, then. Thank you!

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[rydra_wong]

Oh, belated thought -- for wear and tear on your hands, you might want to check out some of the climbers' hand-balms like Climb On Bar. They're designed to speed up healing of scrapes and abraded skin, without softening your callouses.

Re: hey howdy and all that jazz

[jjhunter]

Thank you - I'll check them out! (I get callouses in such peculiar places these days. /wry)