Matthew Lee Willis

You can really see that a lot of training is done at night. I feel this is really great because it helps with depth perception while training in low light to no light.

Austin Parkour from hilltopviews on Vimeo.

This was a questions asked at the workshop in Houston where we were celebrating the growth of the city. Thank you so much for all that love and help Texas Parkour. You can view the clip below.

Michael Schulz has done some amazing work with us. He has even started to deem himself as a visual artist. Lets take a look at some of the recent media he has rushing through the i-webs? We recently worked on our ongoing project to make Parkour look amazing under all conditions, Michael just has a knack of making things look Epic (number one used Parkour terminology for awesome). Many of you know me and many of you would say, "Wow Matthew, you lack epicness." Guess what? Is this epic enough for you?

We have been working on this for about 2 years now...and guess what...it just got real. (finally) So, why don't you check out some things I did over 2 years ago, with no idea of spacing or my look on camera. We were originally going to start a film and decided to go with web episodes. The Writer/Directors are Val Gameiro and Rita Quinn, two fine individuals if I may say so myself started the project deemed 7 Shades of Lenity. I have been able to look a lot more at the creative process of film since I was just a fledgling getting into the movie industry. Things have changed a lot and things are starting to work better in my favor. I always stand behind my work, but I will tell ya, this wasn't what I would call "instilling brilliance" on my part. There are some things that I can work on but, I am always my biggest critic. As time passes there will be more of me actually acting, and we will see where it goes alllll goes. Thanks team.

I'm working with a genius of his time. His name is Ben Gaskell, a recent convert to the Austin scene and he's been coming around checking out how amazing and cool we are, of course. We did a couple shots but we are working together for the next couple weeks to shoot a commercial for the new Parkour Academy we are soon to open up. Check out his little teaser here.

100 - Speed Vaults
100 - Precisions
100 - Wall climbs
100 - Safety Vaults
75 - Run to Cat
50 - Cat Passes
50 - Safety Rolls
575

300 - Straight Jumps
100 - calf raises
50 - Left calf raises
50 - Right calf raises
50 - Shoulder Shrugs
25 Squat on's
575

All Together 1150 +26 = 1176 ( I always do 2 extra ) One for me and one to grow on.

1176

To be quite honest with you...I did some other stuff but can not remember :) Thank you everyone that came out and trained!

Guess what? It's my 5yr Parkour Birthday on Wednesday(the only one worth celebrating these days). February 17th will continually live in my mind for all of time. I knew the day was going to be important (that might be why I remembered the exact day) when I first laid my eyes on Jump London. There are few in the United States that trained for this amount of time and even fewer in Texas...only one in fact Jereme Denis Sanders.

Can you see 5yrs of Parkour training in me? Some say yes, some say no. I agree with both. I can tell you this much. One thing that you'll never see, me quit. Other then God, Parkour is my goal, dream, hobby, love, life and inspiration for everything that I do. I have never stuck with anything this long. I am trying to wrap my head around this, having been training for half a decade. A lot of things have changed in the art for the better and for the worst. I have made 100's of friends. Trained in different cities and countries with the common unifying theme of Parkour. I have lost friends over those fun little indiscrepancies of Parkour.

I am glad to be helping others with Texas Parkour and the 20 or some emails I get a week from all around the world asking me question I can never really answer; What is Parkour? I want to thank each and everyone of you who has been there for me. You may think that I was there for you in Parkour but...it was you guys that have been there for me. I truly appreciate each and every one of you.

To celebrate I will be doing what us Texas Parkour guys call a 350. I will not be teaching the Parkour Austin class that day but hopefully inviting everyone to train with me :) But watch out...I might turn this 350 into a 700... One thing is for sure "I am not stopping my training until its walking becomes hard"

What is better then Parkour? Using Parkour as a tool. Humanzee Parkour Ministry is a group that I have aligned myself with to help further the message of christianity in the parkour community and in the world.

We were able to get around 60 people at this workshop when all said and done. This was a great opportunity to help Houston grow and it was a SUCCESS. Here's some footage from the event and more to come.

There are a lot of things going on up north. It is too bad that I am not able to be up there. We have a lot of small groups going on for Parkour. I feel there are a lot of people that are just not be guided like they should. In better words, I am not there, so I feel it is unguided. Thus we just had a workshop in Fort Worth. I was blown away by the amount of people that showed up. All together I was able to train and train with around 50 people.

We have a great intuitive in place though. The Denton crew is really organizing and getting good! Keep it up guys. Here are some great pictures from the workshop. Pictures Credit: Bethany Hodge's

Alright, so I have not posted of course in a while, though, when you type in my name this is the first thing that shows up so I really need to get on that right? Well, here goes my Resolutions for 2010.

From what I have found I am in no way capable of running an organization with Texas Parkour's current leaders. I have fought for over four years to try and unify a Parkour community. From what I have seen there will always be those who question you and your integrity when you’re trying your best. I in no way attack persons individually. I have always fought for Parkour and Texas Parkour. I however am threatened personally about my tactics and am personally attacked for trying to solve issues in the ways I see as best. I am no longer allowing myself to be subjected to personal attacks from members of Texas Parkour . Texas Parkour has been a democracy since its inception but even in a democracy there are levels of authority. I have officially lost all authority over Texas Parkour due to the dance of misconception and spreading of hate. The process is as follows. I call a meeting of importance, half show up late and half don’t show up. I try to make the organization transparent and share everything with its leaders. Leaders then do nothing to help the organization, bicker about the organization and then do nothing. Respectfully the organization behind Texas Parkour is nothing without its leaders trying to lead. I have the inability to rally the leaders to do their job. It is a job, because you as a leader accepted the responsibility. Why be a leader unless you want to lead? Why accept responsibility when you have the intension to do nothing.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not have the gut, intensions or will power to remain a man at center attention. A man blamed for not making an organization better, when it’s all I want to do/have done. As much as I have done for this community I expected more from many of the leaders in the organization. I have always expected leaders to care for their community as much as I had and it just never happened. I laid in wait for people to care more and to grow their community. I give too much as a man to be mocked on public forums and to be disrespected by members. If anything I want you all to remember, I try. I try every day to connect new people to the art. I try on an everyday basis to make Texas Parkour better and it is beyond me to do so with the poison being laid around the organization. We have leaders who question ideas because they would rather talk circles around the idea of an idea. We even have a group of individuals turning a city into a relic for other organizations who believe in a lesser of two evils debate.

Whether these leaders do or do not, Texas Parkour is still lead by these people. I would like to include that a Leaders is not just an assigned representative of Texas Parkour, but those who you look up to in your community to do more for you. Not all Leaders have attacked me personally and I want to make that clear. As I stated above, I have the inability to lead my leaders. There are many reasons for this, personal inadequacy on my part and unwillingness to be lead.

I try too hard to be treated the way I have. I try too hard to be spoken to the way I have. I try too hard for Texas Parkour to go nowhere. I try too hard to have my efforts striped of all its good intensions. I try too hard to be heckled for what I stand for. I try too hard to allow people new to the art tell me how Parkour is/was/will be. I try too hard to get paid nothing. I try too hard for members to expect money from me. I try too hard to get organizations like American Diabetes association helping us, Clear River Advocates helping us to have them be put to a vote whether or not they are good enough for members/leaders to be a part of. I try too hard to be legally responsible for people who could care less they are ruining my image as well as Texas Parkour’s image. I try too hard to be disrespected on online videos of our own audience. I try too hard to be told I don’t understand what Parkour needs. I try too hard to let others teach Parkour inefficiently without me stepping in to help out. I try too hard to be spoken down to in front of my own class. I try too hard to allow people who don’t know much about Parkour come in and take over what people think of Parkour.

I felt that I have always acted in the interest of Texas Parkour's members. I have also felt that I never attack people on a personal basis and have always tried to work with others. I have recently been heckled for transparency and professionalism. Is my letter professional? I feel the members of Texas Parkour have a right to know my sadness over this issue. Texas Parkour has always brought me up, but it was because I fought and screamed the whole way. Texas Parkour was always destined to grow I just never thought it would grow away from me. What does this mean for Matthew Lee Willis? Matthew Lee Willis, will still do/train/teach free Parkour in and around all of Texas. Matthew Lee Willis will also be a part of Texas Parkour Inc…whatever comes of it in whatever fashion it resides. Texas Parkour has always been a community organization and it will now stand on community organization alone. Maybe that is what Texas Parkour needs? I give you all a personal invitation to email me or call me. I love you all and a very heartfelt God Bless to you all individually and your training.

Many of us want to learn a back flip. I want to show you a video that will undoubtedly explain what 90% of the people who come up to me already assume. Someone actually was able to put it down on a video and for that, I smiles on how accurate this situation truly is in the Parkour world. Enjoy.

This caught my eye, and I figured I would do a semi personal post, just so people could see a little more incite about me. What better to do that with then a random 50 question quiz thing.

1. What time did you get up this morning? I woke up at 7:30am

2. How do you like your steak? I like it Done, not exactly Well done, but just Done.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I saw Harry Potter last night, and it was alright, but not great.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Conan, The office, Daily Show, Colebert Report, Jimmy Fallon

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I would only live there for a year or so, but it would be Lisses Paris. (parkour)

6. What did you have for breakfast? No idea yet.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Thai

8. What foods do you dislike? Mushroom, Liver, Fruit Salad

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Random Asian Shacks

10. Favorite dressing? Ceasar

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Ford Tarus

12. What are your favorite clothes? Loose pants, tennis shoes, Texas Parkour t-shirt

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? If I had a chance I would visit Paris for a while.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Empty

15. Where would you want to retire? In TX some where

16. Favorite time of day? 7pm

17. Where were you born? San Angelo Texas

18. Favorite sport to watch: I dont watch sports but it would be Gymnastics.

19. Is this worth it? Probably not

20. Who will comment on this? No one.

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Anyone.

22. Bird watcher? I hate birds

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning

24. Do you have any pets? a cat. KEKE

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? I'm moving into an apartment this week.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? Fireman

27. What is your best childhood memory? Really, just getting out of the house at any point and time.

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Neither

29. Are you married? No.

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes.

31. Been in a car accident? yea like 10 or so, only 2 or so my fault.

32. Any pet peeves? Too many to say.

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Hamburger (extra long cooked)

34. Favorite Flower? Dont have one.

35. Favorite ice cream? Vanilla

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Casa

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Never took one :)

38. From whom did you get your last email? Tina Rottman.

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Hardware Store.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Not really.

41. Like your job? Yes sir.

42. Broccoli? Love it!

43. What was your favorite vacation? New York City

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? Chris Fontanes, Katie Beth

45. What are you listening to right now? The sound of me typing.

46. What is your favorite color? Blue

47. How many tattoos do you have? None

Well hello guys,

Check out the morning show that I went on this Wednesday. They did an awesome job with their research and they had a lot of fun before and after the clip.