Memoir by Matstar - About me and my passion

I have worked on many projects everything from being a Snatcher in Harry Potter and the deathly hallows to performing at the Prince of Persia world premier (visit my Prince of Persia lens to learn more) to the legoland stunt show (visit my legoland lens to learn more) every day is a new adventure where anything is possible, one of my most recent jobs being a music video for Coldplay's new song Charlie brown (visit my Coldplay lens to learn more)

But for me all the jobs I get and the work I do are just a bonus, I get all my enjoyment out of training Parkour and acrobatics being able to truly express myself through movement, movement is one of the few languages that you can't lie, I believe that you're movement is your universal signature no two people on this planet move in exactly the same way, their movement shows their strengths their weakness and there passions!

There's some food for thought

Parkour is a movement philosophy, It's hard to define parkour, since it's several disciplines combined; you can call it a sport, a hobby, and a philosophy. Essentially, parkour is about learning to navigate obstacles, and rethinking the use of your body and your environment.

Some Traceurs (practitioners of parkour) believe that the techniques and skills they learn in the practice of this sport carry over into their daily lives, In training Parkour your constantly pushing yourself physically and mentally, when you attempt a new move or jump for the first time your always gonna have fear and be afraid of doing it, through the practice of parkour you learn to control you emotions and transmute fear into confidence, which naturally carries over in to our daily life and problems.
The art of parkour is about getting from place to place in the most efficient way possible. In theory, parkour is about learning to quickly navigate obstacles in the most efficient way. Training in parkour allows you to assess obstacles on an individual basis and decide on the best way of getting around them, based on the obstacle, the physical abilities of the practitioner, and the situation.

It all started when I was a kid, you see I've always been fascinated by movement and how the body works, I remember reading so many books on anatomy & how the body works from a young age. My first ever hobby was swimming, I loved it as it was my first real chance to push myself, I quickly excelled with swimming to the top of the class so much so that I remember my coach always made me swim a few extra lengths, so the rest of the class could catch up, I remember being asked if I wanted to go semi pro in swimming and start competing, I turned them down as I felt that I had learnt all I could from swimming and it was time to move on to start a new chapter in my life,

A day or two after finishing swimming I remember desperately looking for the next thing, not really wanting to do any of the regular sports, I didn't know what I was going to do I was lost, and ended up watching TV and flicking through the channels as you do, then I stopped on this Chinese dubbed film, I had no idea what was going on, I can't tell you why but I just got the feeling that I needed to keep watching, thats when I saw this incredible fight scene, it was one guy against a gang and this guy was jumping around dodging hits, using everything around him as a way of moving around and avoiding the gangs attacks, there was one bit where this guy had to get down off this roof, but rather that climbing down he flipped down! as soon as I saw that I immediately knew what I wanted to do. This was probably the most inspirational and inspiring time in my life! I now knew what I wanted to do I had a goal to work towards.

I later found out the film was called Rumble in the bronx and the guy was Jackie Chan.

I watched every film that I could find with Jackie Chan in, after watching them this just confirmed in my mind that this was what I wanted to do.
I remember one day watching one of his films there was some acrobatics being performed, I decided there and then that I had to learn to do a back flip, I rewound the tape and went through the back flip frame by frame so I knew exactly what I had to do, then went out to my garden, I told myself that I couldn't go back inside until I had landed a backflip. It took me at least 30 minutes to even pluck up the courage to go for it, on my first attempt I managed to get round to my hands and knees, but that was enough, it gave me the biggest adrenaline buzz and the extra confidence I needed to go for it again, the second time I landed back on my feet it was so low but I did it. after another 3-4 flips I headed back inside as it was getting too dark, but I had succeeded in what I set out to do, over the next few weeks I learnt different flips and learnt how to walk on my hands, I decided I was ready to start learning a martial art, so I joined my uncles jujitsu school I enjoyed it so much and improved and built upon my skills for nearly 4 years, but as much as I enjoyed it something was still missing,

So me being me I went in search of the next thing, I started to learn street dance, but I still knew that it wasn't meant for me, but it was at a street dance show that I met this guy who had a lot of the same interests as me, and he could also do acrobatics, we ended up having a dance battle (I won obviously) after he invited me down to the gym that he trained at in basingstoke,

So the next day I headed over to basingstoke not knowing what to expect, when I got there I was excited to see a massive gymnastics gym with sprung floors sponge pits and trampolines and saw everyone doing what I had been training to do, I knew that this was what I had been looking for this group of guys had the same goals as I had of becoming a stuntman and had also been inspired by Jackie Chan.



Over the next year we trained a lot and became close friends, I became part of the group that is 3run, and as they say the rest is history, thats where this story ends and a new one began!