Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour

Posted by Cadet Ashlyn Trenton (Security Officer) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour

Posted by Cadet Sharah Fayth (Doctor) in Side-Sim: Learning Parkour
(snip)
Trenton was focused on the color wheel option for the lighting on her clothes, flashing through a rainbow of colors until she settled on mint green. The color bleeds in across all the bands that outline the clothing making Trenton smile with approval. “Thanks, there were a lot of hours put into making this and I’m just hoping it doesn’t crash. Given the usual scene selection from the holodeck menu, not sure how many people will appreciate the Minimalist Cyberpunk Aesthetic but I like it. It’s equally peaceful and intimidating, dark while still being well lit, and mostly safe. For now, it’s just buildings and platforms to use with Parkour. I may add more to it later.”

Trenton turned her attention toward Sharah, the largest smile she’s had since the two met and a wave of genuine excitement. “The program is awesome, it comes with a follow assist in the play areas so you can still follow even if you lose track of me!” Trenton steps out into the ‘Novice’ play area that is lit up with gray lights, as she moves across the field, her footsteps also light up to show where she has been and linger for several steps. A quick handstand that goes a few paces before springing back onto her feet also shows handprints on the ground. “Pretty neat isn’t it?”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

“That is really cool. Here on the ground I think I can keep up, but not up there,” she pointed up. “Wow, that is really intimidating.” She looked back at her friend, “You’re really excited about this. I’m glad. And I can’t wait to get started. Oh and we both know how clumsy I am, so I brought a medkit.” She laughed totally picking on herself. “I mean last time I fell and hit my head. I’m not planning on a repeat, but better safe.” She looked around again. “I don’t know about anyone else but I like the minimalism. It’s subdued and doesn’t distract from the purpose, the goal, of the program.” Despite her lack of experience and confidence, Sharah was excited to try the novice program. “Should I start stretching?”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Trenton nodded softly, though she had hoped for a larger gathering, doing something with the reserved time was better than doing nothing. “By all means, let’s get limber!” With all the energy of a dance instructor, Trenton led Fayth through stretches and movements to help warm up the inexperienced cadet. Though there were a few small voices of doubt, they were easily overwhelmed by the voices that were running through the numbers and reviewing the instruction plan. That is when they’re not making comments about how Sharah looks in her outfit or having arguments about making things awkward. “I know last time we left off with jumping, then things got busy. Have you been practicing?”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

“More people may show up, I’m just early. It will give me a chance to practice a little before everyone else.” Fayth started following Trenton through the stretches. Sharah bit back a grin at the thoughts she picked up from Ashlyn. Her friend was certainly unique. “Not really. I’ve been doing the stretches to keep limber, but I’ve been pulling extra shifts to catch up since I was released from sickbay. I haven’t had time to really practice.”
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Trenton moved with a practiced grace to make sure her body was more than ready to take falls and keep moving. The path of her glowing footfalls moved to a new point in the field. “So do you want to continue with jumping or practice falling first?” Trenton changed positions to better give examples to Sharah. “If we’re going to continue jumping, I’ll have you do hops and standing long jumps, then move into vaulting techniques. If we go into falling, I’ll teach you how to fall while minimizing how much you hurt yourself which in the long run is something you can make use of outside of Parkour.”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah thought about it a moment. “I think learning the jumping will be more fun, but I might be safer if I learn to fall first.” From a medical stand point knowing how to fall correctly would help her in treating patients who often come in with athletic related injuries. “I don’t want to fall on purpose, but I’d rather know how to do it without getting hurt.”
Fayth followed Trenton over to the new area and took a deep breath imagining how sore she was going to be later.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Trenton laughed and shook her head at the other cadet, clearly amused by her statement. “The irony is to learn how to fall correctly, you do have to fall on purpose. The key point is all in body position, you want to fall on your back, but not on the spine or shoulder. When landing on your feet, you want to bend your knees to minimize the impact. The same when catching yourself with your hands.” Trenton jumps up and flattens herself out to catch herself on her hands and toes, making sure to keep a balance to stop herself from bouncing off the floor. “It’s easy enough to practice on your own bed, softer too. You also want to create directional momentum of any kind so when you hit the ground you can roll out of the fall.” This time the cadet lurched backward, but the moment a part of her body hit the ground she rolled out of it to stand back up. “This becomes especially important to keep the momentum for long gap jumps. For example, when jumping from building to building.” Trenton gets a running start and launches into a long-standing jump, but when she lands on her feet she rolls forward and is back up into a run again. “The technique also works for low flat surfaces or crouching people.” Trenton double taps the ground with her foot to bring up some crates that she proceeds to demonstrate with. “Just remember, never go flat, ball up and keep moving. This is what they mean by roll with the punches.”

This time she stood next to Sharah, “So, to practice the roll, we’re going to crouch first, then we’ll place our hand out in front of us, rock ourselves forward into the roll. All the weight should hit the shoulder blade and back muscles.” Trenton demonstrates a few times. “Now you try.”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton

Sharah watched Ashlyn carefully. “Okay.” She crouched down on placed her hands in front of her, and pushed forward into the roll and promptly smacked her head on the floor. She reset and this time, tucking her head in she made it over, but not to her feet, her legs smacking the floor rather hard. She got up, shook her head at herself, crouched down again and this time she managed to roll and get halfway to her feet before her balance went backwards and she landed on her backside. “Ow” she mumbled under her breathe. She reset again, this time using more force and managed to get to her feet, but the momentum kept going and she stumbled a few steps before tripping on her own feet and falling, again. “What am I doing wrong? Or not doing?” she asked looking at Trenton.
Cadet Fayth, Doctor

Trenton tilted her head from side to side while watching Fayth make her attempts at rolling. “The first time was pretty obvious, you forgot to tuck your head. It happens so don’t take it too hard. The second time you should have gone into a back roll which is far easier to do than a forward one. Move with the momentum you have until you find a balanced stop. The last one was great, but you had the momentum to do a second and tried to stop yourself. Don’t stop, just go until the balance is found. You’ll be surprised at what you can do when you follow the momentum. At the same time, don’t overcompensate yourself over the edge. Rolling twice is fine, three times is risky, four times and you’re probably going over the edge or lose too much forward momentum to get back up and keep running. The best long jumps are done from a running start, but if all your running space is taken up by rolling then you lose your momentum because you have to go back and restart your run on that surface. For example…” Trenton used her foot to trace out a large square in the playfield and moves a good distance from it. “Now watch.” She runs at the square and jumps into it, rolling once and getting back up into a run that she uses to launch herself at the end of the square. “See, with one roll there is plenty of running space for the next long jump. Now watch what happens if I get more than one roll.” She repeats the action but this time does two rolls to show the shorter running space and the resulting jump doesn’t go as far. Repeating it again with three rolls makes the long jump a standing one which covers even less space. The last attempt has her rolling out of the square. “As you can see, it’s your call on how much you want to risk, but if you find yourself stumbling just redirect the roll. That way you can at least stay on the surface. It’ll take time and practice to get used to it but once you do, long jumps get much easier.”

• Cadet Ashlyn Trenton, Security