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version en español (click aqui)
This time we bring you an interview with Tyson Cecka, this traceur from Seattle Washington has been a great inspiration for a lot of people worldwide. He has participated in commercials and tours for K-swiss, and has an active role with the PNWPA (Pacific Northwest Parkour association) helping the development of Parkour in United States.
Tyson shared with us his personal story and thoughts about the growing development of PK around the world.
First of all, introduce yourself:
Hello, my name is Tyson Cecka and I've been training in Parkour for almost four years now in Seattle, WA among other places.
How did you get into Parkour? How was your beginning?
My start was probably like many others, I simply saw a bit on TV about the Yamakasi and eventually found some people locally to start training with.
From that day to now, how much has passed? What has changed in your life?
It's been almost four years now since that time, although I'd say I've only really been dedicated to my training for about half of that time. I've made lists before of the many things Parkour has changed in my life and there are definitely too many to get into here.
The major changes are that I've dropped out of school, am living on my own with no "real" job, and have gotten into teaching and nonprofit community work - all of these things that I had never imagined I'd be doing at this age four years ago.
How is your training? What do you do, how many times a week, etc?
My training is unfortunately as erratic as my schedule is right now. I'm pretty much either tied to my laptop working or outside jumping over things somewhere ;) I train as often as I can by myself or at jams, but my best training comes from traveling across the US to visit friends who really know how to push and inspire me. Unfortunately those friends are spread out over quite a large distance, but we still find opportunities to get together and train.
Recently we've been doing a lot of "fluidity" work that I'm enjoying a lot. The idea is just to create a path throughout an environment involving several movements that work well together and don't mess up the momentum; then repeatedly practice that path until everything - your steps, your hand placements, your flow, the chosen techniques - feel perfectly suited to the environment. It's a method of training that comes up with some very strange movements if you let it, and is as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
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You have done several projects, commercials, trips etc, and also you work with the PNWPA, what have you enjoyed the most ? is there something that makes you feel like your greatest achievement ?
That's a hard one. I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with many amazing people on the commercials and performances I've done as well as the awesome K-Swiss tour.
The small amount of progress we've made so far with the PNWPA has also been very rewarding, but it's very hard to nail down one thing I liked the most. Although I have to say that the best for my training was probably meeting up with Parkour Generations in New York and Ohio; and the best for my career was obviously the K-Swiss commercials. As for great achievements, though, and what I enjoy the most: it all goes to the mostly invisible work done by the PNWPA so far.
There are so many liability issues and red tape we have to cut through to ensure a good future for Parkour in the area that there isn't much I can directly point to right now unfortunately, but I am quite fond of how our info packet is coming along http://www.pnwpa.com/resources/parkour-info-packet.pdf
What else would you like to do ? Is there something that you want to accomplish?
I would like to do Parkour for the rest of my life. That means I need to make myself strong enough to be able to handle that, and I need to do my part to actively make sure that Parkour has a good future and isn't relegated to "just another extreme sport" or a passing fad. I want to see Parkour share the same status and acceptance as other fundamental "sports" like rock climbing and running.
What else do you do besides Parkour? Any hobbie?
I used to do quite a lot of different sports and had many many hobbies when I was a kid. Now I just climb every once in awhile, spin poi and juggle occasionally, and fence (classical) when there are friends around who can. My hobby is now pretty much the Internet :)
How do you see the current growing of Parkour worldwide? Do you like the way things are evolving ?
I get a little distressed as I see more and more groups profiting from Parkour without giving much back, and there are still terminology and copyright issues being fought by various orgs without any resolutions in sight.
But the good knowledge that was so hard to find a few years ago is now all over the place with amazing traceurs dedicating themselves to teaching and spreading this stuff correctly. I feel like things are definitely going in a good direction, it's just that the crazy speed and branching paths that they're moving on can be very disorienting if you try to follow.
When the global parkour community stops squabbling over the little things and simply focuses on the future, we're going to have a very exciting next few years.
And the future? What do you think will happen with Parkour in the next few years?
I feel almost as if a physical revolution is coming (especially here in the states). Where everyone realizes how lazy of an animal they've become and reclaims their natural movement capacities and sense of play, through Parkour! ;) This stuff really isn't all that new, we just tend to forget when it's easier to order in and watch TV.
You can usually find me messing around on my blog http://tysoncecka.com, "working" at the PNWPA http://pnwpa.com and APK http://americanparkour.com sites, or lounging around the local WAPK http://washingtonparkour.com community.
Stop by and say hello!
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