American Parkour

It was bad enough when i started out with the basics on the play structure, but I feel embarrassed when I go into the city and everyone is watching me training and giving me weird and sometimes dirty looks. This forces me to train at night, or spend a heck of a time looking for a place without any people in it. And when I train at night i have no depth perception and I almost broke my leg last night when I jumped off a rooftop and landed on a flight of stairs! Help! what do i do?

Try getting a group together.  I haven't had this problem, but I would assume if you have a group of friends training with you, it would be a lot easier to train in very public places. 

I always get weird looks from time to time when out training, but most tend to be people who are interested in what I'm doing and think its pretty cool. You shouldn't really be embarrassed about going out in public your going to be doing it a lot ha. You shouldn't have to give up training in a safe environment to feel comfortable its a free country. And if your going to train at night honestly you shouldn't be doing something dangerous like being on a rooftop. Your experience from the other night can justify that. Just be cool about it, be respectful to people around you and continue what you do in the day time man.

Alright well it kind of sucks but nobody else is as interested in it and it would be way to hard to hook up with someone. Parkour is is not a very big sport at all. And what would you think if two 14 year old kids are running through san fransisco jumping over fences and climbing up on rooftops. If its not the people I am worried about, it is the cops! I want to keep my record clean...

Um... if you're in San Francisco, there is already an established PK community. Try training with these folks:

http://www.sfparkour.com/

Hope that helps! :)

Ya well I am only 14 and just starting out, it seems like that is a big group of really good guys.

Don't worry, once you get good at parkour and you can flow smoothly over obstacles, you won't feel so embarrassed anymore. You'll feel more like RAAAR!

And they are a group of really good guys. If it were me, and I had the opportunity to practice/train with a group of really good/experienced guys, I'd take it. :)

Otherwise, it sounds to me like what you're saying is, "I don't feel comfortable training in public, but it's not a good idea to train at night, and I don't feel comfortable training with an established group, but there's no one else around to train with." If all of this is true, maybe you should just give up and quit parkour now. I mean, it's really too hard, right? :P

Okay okay, I'm kidding. :) But the point is, it's unlikely that you'll find the ideal training situation ever. So do the best you can with what you have to work with. I used to feel silly training in public too, when I first started out. In a lot of ways I still do! I worked hard to find a group and that is moving along slowly, but surely. But to me parkour is important enough that it's worth the difficulties that come with training alone, or trying to get a group organized. After all, feeling silly training in public is just another obstacle, right?

I suspect, although I'm not familiar at all with the scene in SF, that if you joined and asked those guys for help with training, they'd be pretty friendly and supportive. You don't lose anything by trying, do you?

As a side note, I don't think you should be monkeying around on rooftops at all, but that's just me. I'm kind of a "den mother" type.

In any case, I hope you come up with a workable solution for your dilemma soon!

Good luck!

Wow, thanks for your input. But to be brutaly honnest, the reasen I hate trainin in public is becuse I am not good at all, I can barrely get down any of the harder moves and I fall a lot so all people see is so kid falling over stuff and jumping over picnic benches... aw well... Anyway, my parents are so protective of me, I havent even told them about what I am doing, I just say i am going out on my bike and then ditch it when i am out of sight of the house and start running though a course. I dought they would let me train with an bunch of other guys jumping around and stuff. So that makes my situation even harder!

But I did find a school very close to my house and in the hours between 4:30 and 8:20 (to dark to do anything) I can train. But still, What else am i going to do?

Ok well I am not from San Fransisco. And I understand that you are just starting. But I met a bunch of the SFPK guys, and BELIEVE ME, they are there if you need them. I had only just met a few of them and they were giving me tips on my kong vaults, and my rail-to-rail precision jumps. They are incredibly friendly, and they will help you.

As to the parents thing, the best way to do it is to just tell them what you are doing. I had the same problem, where I didn't think my parents would be too happy about me running around and jumping on stuff. But they didn't seem to mind after a while, and I showed them videos and stuff and told them how I'm being safe. Also, for safety purposes, even if you lie and say you are biking, TELL THEM WHERE YOU ARE GOING!!! If you get hurt, and they don't know where you are, they'll be a lot more pissed off than if you got found pretty quick and prevented more serious consequences. And back to the overprotective thing (I know I'm jumping around quite a bit), ask the San Fransisco Parkour guys to talk to your parents. They are all mature people, some of whom are adults. I'm sure they will be able to get your parents to let you off the leash and go train.

And to the first thing, getting embarrassed in public, just don't think about the people watching you. Focus on the task at hand. Just today I jumped on a shed that was already occupied by a couple people. At first I wasn't gonna do it, but then I figured "What's the worst that could happen?" I'll embarrass myself and walk away, that's the worst. I knew I could jump on the shed, so I knew I wouldn't get hurt. And what did happen? I jumped up, jumped down, and they asked where I had come from. So I said the other side of the shed. That was it. I kept walking. Also don't let screwing up in public get you down. People might laugh, but probably not. They don't know what you're doing (for the most part), so they won't really know if you screwed it up, and if they did they'd prolly help you out. I know I would if I saw someone trying Parkour in my area.

Unless you faceplant. Then you look stupid no matter what sport or activity you're doing.  ;D

Thanks, I think i might have to tell them in the future but it can wait, and I DO tell them where I am going and I have a cell phone and they call me all the time.

But I have one more question. When you ARE ou there practicing and training do you run around looking for things and just do them really quickly like I see in the videos a lot, or do you stay in one place for hours prefecting a move? Also, should I focus more on speed or getting it dialed and learning new things?

Whenever I am out in public, and I become embarrassed because of what people might think, I just say to myself, "I am a traceur and this is what I do." So then I go and do it even sometimes doing it better when they watch just to prove to them that I am serious. Just say it next time, " I am a traceur, and this is what I do". ;D

When I am training, I will maybe stay in one spot for...I don't know, like 30-40 minutes? Mind you, these are spots that have a few varieties of things to do, but they are not the best in the world. As to speed, I would say no. Focus on technique first, as you said, "getting it dialed". Speed is not really that important, as one of the guys from SFPK told me. It's all about technique, and once you have that, speed can come into play. Also, Parkour is really not about sprinting from move to move or anything, or at least that's not what it's like to me. The only running I do is when I need to run up to do a vault or wall run.

Here's my solution:  Ignore them ["them" being others, the public, etc.].

I used to be very conscientious about what others would think about me jumping around on stuff, vaulting over things, etc.  But then I realized:  Chances are, I'll never see these strangers ever again.  So why should I care if they think it's weird for me to run around vaulting things?.  That's why the quote in my signature block is what it is:

I realized that I was literally losing focus on the flow of movement every time I was worrying about if someone was watching, etc.  So I consciously decided to simply ignore the fact that some people might think what I was doing was odd.

And if you're worried about what people you do know might think, just think about this:  "Yeah, I might not be that great right now, but I will see these people again and when I do, I'll be even better than I am now and they'll get to see me improve so much!

Just remember: worrying, or not even to the point of worrying but just even thinking, about what others might think of you doing parkour, in my opinion, instantly breaks the focus you have on mastering your own movement, which is bad.  So just ignore it.  Don't care.  Forget them.  Then, you will be free to move as you wish....

Overprotective Parents: This obstacle can be overcome smoothly and efficiently by presenting the art of parkour to them in a positive light, simplified by use of the professional parkour documentary by film-maker Julie Angel, titled Jump Westminster ;)

Show this to you mom: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4001097277208720031

You have to have a sincere desire to improve yourself, this makes the opinion of others relatively worthless, just another *small* obstacle to overcome in effective training. Keep your eye on a concrete goal and you  have little to worry about!

Haha, I have the same issue. All of my friends have been away at camp all summer, so I've needed to find practicing places for myself. Problem is, the ONLY available places around this small town are the inhabited areas.

Who the hell cares what people think? you're not there to amuse them you are there to train (unless of course you are there to amuse them). but put yourselves in their perspectives they see you moving that way wouldn't you have some sort of reaction?
hopefully their's will be one of interest and not one that is simply annoying.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to go somewhere to practice and have someone either call me spiderman or urban ninja
or the allways popular "Hey! do a flip!" which trust me even if you do one they will still won't stop asking.

Thanks guys.

Just yesterday I was practicing at the school near my house, and they have this huge base ball batter area fence thing with a bar across the top of it. I always like to do stuff on it. But when I got there there was a TON of people on the field, like around 300 people just sitting on the lawn having a pic-nic or something. So I just decided to do it anyway. SO I climbed all the way to the top of it (around 40 feet high) using just my arms and when I looked back every single person was looking at me, so I did one of the upside down hanging things in the very middle of it, and then climbed back down. When my feet touched the ground everbody started clapping. It was kind of inspiring...

....And I bet every single one of them was thinking...

"I wish I could do that"   ;)

And there you go. :)

It will get easier the more you do it, I promise.

You overcame an obstacle in your mind, which are the hardest kind.

*tumbs up*

THanks guys!

And I also showd my mom that video (good idea Muse!) she started nodding and stuff when they where talking about how it shows disapline and issue solving. I think she is going to support me now...

i still have the same problem. im very self conscious. it's really hard when you're a month from 17 and you've only been training since augest 10. when people see you messing up on vaults it looks like you're acting like your 8. but as soon as i get better im sure i'll loosen up.

I love it when i know people are watching cause most of the time they will come up and ask me what it is I am doing. Also just wait another year or two when Parkour has blown up even bigger and the dudes that were making fun of you are now taking lessons from you.

yea, that's why im glad im starting now, because when it gets big i wanna be good

How do you know its going to get big?

because it is. the only reason i started is because it started getting big.

Well I suppose we don't "know" its going to get big but honestly its already booming from what it was. Front page stories in the news paper and news programs about it. I don't see it getting any smaller thats for sure.

It's going to get big because its easy, its super fun, and everyone can do it to stay super fit and help themselves mentally. Plus the whole community is pretty tight, who wouldn't want to be part of it?

Lazy people.. There's always those couch-potato types that hate physical exertion. I know it's hard for any traceur to imagine, but it's real!

Thats where you are wrong lol this is the only physical activity I have done since inter murals in middle school. It catches on to everyone!

but i think there are people who wouldn't want too. i don't think rosie o'donald would want to. i don't think any one could convince her to.  :-X

I think parkour might be the thing that encourages some lazy people to get moving again; simply because it's fun and you can do it anywhere. :)

Glad the video helped you convince your mom, king! But you should thank Muhammad, not me. It was his suggestion. ;)

Keep your eyes on the prize with your training! Keep up the good work!

  I had the same problem with my parents. I thought they wouldn't approve of me doing parkour and would turn it down because it looked too dangerous. I showed them a youtube video and explained that it's about training and discipline rather than just jumping off of things and hurting yourself. Now they'll actually give me a ride to where ever my team meets up each week.

  As for the training in public, I was never embarassed to practice out in the public because I love to do parkour and don't care what other people think of it. Besides, if anything they'll think it looks cool and will want to learn more about it so you shouldn't be ashamed to practice in public.

P.S. Rooftop_King don't go on rooftops. I did that for awhile thinking it was cool until I almost got arrested for it because someone thought I was a robber. After that I decided to stop dicking around and actually learn real parkour. So please for your own good don't go on to rooftops.
.

People love to watch Parkour in action anyway. It's quite a spactacle to see.

unless there dicks

Don't worry about what people think, unless said people happen to be cops, in which case, DO care :P. Make sure though that you don't get on anything on private property (people's yards, churches, etc.) without these landowners' permission. Other than that though, just disregard any laughs or insults people may say. ;)

Holy Resurrected thread, Batman!

I know what you're talking about. I'm relatively new to the whole parkour thing so some of my movements are awkward. I think you'll feel less silly when you get better and you flow better. People rarely think someone is stupid when they are obviously very good at something

Kind of pertaining to this topic, but kind of not. I wanna meet up with some traceurs so I can learn from other than a video. But I know I'm gonna fall and land on my butt like I did today, in my yard, with no one there.

You just gotta ignore them. If they're watching, they must think you're good. Or they're interested in what you're doing. Or in my case and probably NOT yours, you fall on your face.

If you quit because other people saw you fail, you're a failure.  If you press on, you will succeed.

Public humiliation is really not as bad as you may think, anyways.  You'll find your fear of embarrassment is much worse than the actual embarrassment.  Don't let it get under your skin.

bailing in front of people is good for you. it makes you humble, which is an excellent quality to possess.

Dude, it's hard being a leader sometimes. Don't be afraid to stand out. Just be indie man! Why the hell care about what others think of you? I had a friend that was so frustrating to train with because he was scared to try new things. He was scared to move outside his comfort zone, and would always stop moving when people would walk by. He then quit Parkour because he was frustrated with it. If you want to progress in Parkour, focus on yourself not others around you. You can't worry about looking stupid for trying something new. That's the art of creativity. Imagine how David Belle looked when he first started. It takes drive and diligence. Now get your ass out there and start training!!!  >:(

Sorry for the rant. I was going for the Miracle motivation.

Although this has been said...

You probably aren't going to see most of the people ever again. Sometimes, people have outcasted opinions because they don't know what Parkour is...

It seems like this problem has been solved...so keep goin!

if people make fun of you and say they can do that better than you, they probably dont know what parkour is. just ask them politely to show you in front of you so you may learn better. most will probably walk away. :P

yea
if they are laughin then they cant even do parkour
so i would just bust out some awesome move and walk awsay

here's something you can do to ease your way into it. When somebody walks by, do something parkour related. Observe their reaction. They may not even notice you. Keep doing this, eventually you will be able to practice all the time without worrying about what other people think. At least, it worked for me. good luck!

Of coarse I am sort of new at posting on this forum but my experience with it so far is that most everybody here is nice and supportive. So far I am loving this forum, you guys have helped me alot. I have had similar problems as some of the people posting but your tips seem great...never give up and give it your all!

The only thing I don't like about parkour getting big is that the "wrong" sort of people will be getting in...if that makes sense. From my understanding most of the tracuers seem to be supportive, understanding people. They encorage the right things. They are not going around down grading other people that want to be a tracuer because they don't "look the part" or some other stupid conception of the thing. I don't want Parkour to be changed into something it is not: a competative sport (I mean a bad competative sport...not the friendly kind). I am sorry if I am ranting this is just a fear I have had. I want a good community of informed people who practice parkour. Even if it, by some strange chance, becomes what I have been saying I am glad to know there are still people, like in this forum, out there that will help support eachother....

.....wow. It does sound like I am just rambling. I hope this community stays good (I am sure it will). Time to go outside and practice.  PS: I moved to Hernando, MS. I live alittle south of it now.

*applauds Spblob*
very well said

Oh yes I agree.  Part of Parkour is helping eachother to become better.  I have some of the same fears for Parkour.  Already I see stupid videos and people that do parkour just for the glory or to get people to think they are cool.  They are not tracuers in any sense of the word.  Parkour is about learing about your body, and perfecting it, not about getting glory.  It's about overcoming your weaknesses and making them strengths, both physical and otherwise.

I find 10x's easier to train with friends in public. If you have 3, 4, even 5 people with you training, it helps a lot. At least it does for me! I recommend that everyone should give it a try.

I'm at the point where I see most objects as training obstacles. I don't get to train a lot, but I am hyped up to do it all the time.

Do it with a friend. Or at least have him/her watch you and talk about something to keep your mind off it.
I also do it at night but in parks. Well lit ones considering I live in NYC. I even jump over desks (from place) in school when I can. Though trying to jump over the higher once I busted my face on a locker. Though 2 out of 3 jumps I made it. And it didn't even hurt.

Its easier for me to look like an idiot in class than it is in public. Luckily I have weight training Mon-Thurs. But I'm sick right now and its killing me to miss it.

Now I'm just talking about myself. xD

I like how you mentioned you didn't want it to be a bad competitive sport.
Sometimes friendly competition can drive us to work a little harder, but if it gets too vicious, you'll end up pushing yourself way too hard. Good point. =]

YAh, I know what you meen about training in public, but you just got to push past it. I was at school during OP, kinda like an extra period if you want help, and I speed vaulted off a rail by the trailors and then kept running, I herd the guy behind behind me say to his friend "Man look at that  freeking monkey his such an idiot, I just want to see him fall on his face." So I ran to the next rail, did a reverse vault and spun back over the rail, I looked at him and told him that wasnt going to happen and then lazyed over the rail agian and konged over a garbage can and kept running.

i agree with some of you people on when people laugh at you, or give you looks like "what the hell is he doing"
as for me in school, only one who practices it, only one who gets it,but when i explain it to them they will laugh then they will ask me to show them something.
ill do a simple monkey, or lazy boy, and they will just laugh at me more then say "psh i can do that watch"

then ill be laughing for the next 5 mins at them falling on their ass. they get the message after that...

Yeahhhhhh hahahahahaha. The things we do seem semi-easy and anyone could do it. A lot of the time we make it look 10248912048 times easier than it really is. And, even if the person does end up doing it, you can tell they're awkward and uncontrolled about it, unlike us. =D

they be uber noobs and we are freerunning pirates! aarggh! :-Sarcasm

Yah, I got it down now so I can speed over a rail, land on the siding percison across and then monkey to the other side. I was with my sisters friend and shee relised how hard it was when she couldent even get over the hand rail

The best way to spread parkour in a supportive, friendly, respectful way is to do it yourself. Apply it to all facets of your life. Learn to be courteous and respectful, try to avoid discrimination and be helpful to others, etc etc. Train hard and lead by example. Thats the best way to ensure the community stays the way it is, the way we like it  :)

agreed. but yet, people have property and such things like that.

Back to the main topic of overcoming embarrassed about practicing in public, I always considered getting over this embarrassement to be a move I need to learn just like the roll or a monkey vault. It's something necessary to practicing parkour. Basically, I just kept practicing even when people were watching and if someone asks a respectful question I'd stop and answer them until eventually it didn't feel embarrassing at all.

I agree 100%. ;)

I was the same way at first, and I even get the feeling every once and a while.  However, there is good chance you are never going to see the person that is watching you again and by the next day they won't even remember you(unless you do some huge flips or something  ;D).

HAHAHA, this is when my backyard parkour course comes in handy. Alright mine is 2 trash cans, a card table, a cooler, 2 bar stools, some pvc, my precision trainers, a fence, and a tree. I can do everything from cats-underbars, from kongs to every type of fence/gate vault imaginable just experiment :)

Wait till you get the "Mommy that boy is wierd.....What is he doing....Hmmm and the mom is like "lets stay away from him"


BTW this post got like 64 posts in like 6 hrs
thats like a record

Try doing parkour in a kilt without undergarments.... THEN you get some weird looks... not to mention countless women flinching in fright...

Maybe to you but me ehhh im British Im close enough to being Scot haha

Im not embarassed by it, I wear it offten enough to have gotten used to it. I was meerly saying dont be afraid to be different.

and high five! Im mostly scottish and irish myself...

Ey well at least your training is Breezy Mate

Don't say that to a real scotsman or you may get a caber parker up your arse ;)

Really, cause all I got was a bunch of girls numbers.  ;D

Oh blimey you bloody git lol jk lad........


Scots and british people never  get along...............brits are better

I can see that topics have varied since I last checked this thread  :-Sarcasm

Anyway, I have found (especially of late) that i perform bettr when others are watching me.  I sometimes cannot get the nerve to do something unless someone is there with me, sort of subconsciously pushing me.  This is especially true with strangers.

It's another obsticle I need to overcome now.  I should be able to train with or without the support of watching eyes.  So you could say that I have the reverse problem, lol!

the numbers to their fathers with the shotguns maybe...


INFIDEL!!! 

TOSHPOT! lol this is interesting

go nithe on cot ho agus go nithe on jowel on cot

whaaat?

hmmmmm idk lol Averinnd i dont think were supposed to understand it lol

Its an Irish Gaelic proverb (I;m trying to learn some Irish gaelic.

it means "May the cat eat you, and the devl eat the cat"

ya same here but just do it and dont think bout the ppl  ;D

Wow this thread has gotten completely off topic lol

the farther off topic the better it gets

The best solution really is to go with a group. Not only to prevent the embarassing situation of wondering who might see you fall, but it really helps with training. If there is a move you can't quite figure out, someone in your group might have a different perspective to help you. It's also good to have a group for safety reasons. If you're practicing at night or where there is nobody around, you could hurt yourself and no one would be around to help. Even if it is just one or two friends, the group approach really helps.

and dont forget to wear your kilt

Any one with the fear of practicing in public. I know you pain/curse. I can barely do anything in public unless i have a freind or someone with me. Im really anxious. I get nevous walking down the street if I see someone else walking twards me. It gets really annoying to me. But for the whole training in public thing taking some one along with me to help train keeps my mind off of people and keeps it on what we are doing and it helps me by pushing to get something down with the help of the freind.

thats just another road block that you need to overcome, just as a fear of hurting your shins during monkeys has to be overcome. it's all about progression, even the stuff that isn't physical.

And when you train in public, bring a camera and tape people's reactions. It's friggin' awesome!

theres a wonderful little article on overcoming fear that I would gladly post, but I cant remember the link off the top of my head, so ill post it when i get on my home computer.

Ahhh, fear. I hate that thing. I'm not sure about great ways to overcome it but I find that usually when you just go for it, you find its really not as bad or as hard as you thought. Plus, if you go at it and focus more on technique than fear, you will usually get it.

Not saying I've completely conquered my fears though, because I still have to deal with them for something every training session.

To my knowledge fear can never be completely gotten rid of, just brushed to the side.  The key is to not let your fears you from trying something.

You need to find a balance with your mind and your body.  If one aspect gets out of hand, you wont have the proper confidence or ability to perform whatever it is you want to try.

And don't forget to wear a towel!!!.........you wanna get high?

get a group of peeps together you wont feel embarrassed if your not alone

This thread is going nowhere very quickly.  I think it should be locked, but I have not the power to do so.

who cares? were having fun and socializing. If anything this post should be moved, not locked

ohhhhh man, i don't know whats going on!

That's just what I think, which doesn't really matter, cuz I can't change anything anyway.

So have fun to your hearts content! ;)

I had this problem for quite a while. i was deathly afraid of looking like a moron in front of people. then i realized that i had to just get over my self, and just do it. what actually helped me was working into slowly. do a little vaults and jumps in front of people, and eventually you'll start to notice that some random person's opinion doesn't matter at all if your doing what you want to do and it makes you happy.

Shae, thats exactly it, i found that is how it should be in every aspect of life.

yea... I wear a kilt because Its fun... not to mention...."refreshing"

Are you talking about the article on Parkour Generations (http://www.parkourgenerations.com/articles.php?id_cat=2&idart=10) by Dan Edwardes?

I never feel embarrassed but I usually practice on playgrounds because i am a newb, the only problem i have is little kids watching me and trying to do the same. because of that i practice only when there is no little kids around, I don't want them getting hurt.

yea that would be it

That's respectable, and I encourage to keep that up. The ones that are a tad older, I let them know that I've been training in it for a while, and give them a very brief overview.
I mainly just cover:
It takes lots of work and training
I'm not just screwing around
Don't do this sort of thing, because it's very dangerous.

You'd be surprised how much they actually comprehend and respect what you're doing.

I had that problem, people lookin at me weird when I'm drilling.  But what I like to do when someone is staring at me, is just stare back with like a "watchu lookin at, fool?" expression.  They usually look down and walk away with a "oh oh, nothin...uh...sorry" expression.  But yeah, if you're with a group, people will probably watch with respect, you know?

Usually when you're with a big group of people noone is going to even say anything to you.  I also dislike training in front of people but I am slowly getting over it.

Thats a great video on page 1

As an attention whore, people watching, and asking questions is not a problem.

High five!

Thanks for the high five, but I will say it's odd when a group of skateboarders stop to watch you.

yah i know what you mean, expecialy when your ontop off your school

Which is it? Ontop or off = P lol
But yeah I was practicing precisions in Florida and a bunch of skateboarders all stopped and watched me and I climbed up this condo and they like were just staring lol..

In PE when we practice the same thign happens. That kid this morning watching you wall spin was like " WTF?"

I wish I could do wallspins...

It'll come. First learn the palm spin, which is easy to learn on beds. Then get picnic table if possible (If not that's ok) and put it up against a tree or wall. and make the angle increase each time. If you don't have a picnic table your screwed though...lol jk you can use anything else that's flat and sturdy. ;)

lol , ontop of, then later off. yah i am definatly going to prctice palm spins, thats something a cant realy get yet.

oh, and try doing parkour at a school thats half-trailor park,  half school, in a suit.

cool beans... yes I said cool beans. Thanks for the Tip.

Hey man I am from the Harasaki Team in Chattanooga Tn, and let me tell ya, we used to be embarressed here to practice. We would go to downtown in teh city to practice too. We still do and have found some great spots. Basically, don't sweat it. Yeah its a bit weird practicing at first. But it gets A LOT easier when you have a team to work with. When I'm downtown by myself I don't even care what others think anymore. Buts heres a tip. Make sure wherever you freerun/parkour, only practice for like 1 min.-5 mins. cause otherwise people get mad. Move form place to place. Last time we stayed somewhere for 10-15mins and the police came. Its was horrible. But just make sure you have fun with it whatever you do.

Ive never practiced in daylight :( Training at night is very dangerous, as I can't see where im placing my feet or landing half the time...

It is kinda embarrassing to practice during the day and the places I like to go are kind of inappropriate to practice on during the day. 

I like to train at a local High School and then Fresno State University, both of which have ppl on campus all day.  What do you think I should do?

Heck maybe I should go to FSU tmw morning nice and early.  There is a great wall to tic tac up by the art department...  ;D 

First try to get permission, and if you are embarrassed you must have just started, because once you get into parkour, you don't really get embarrassed, you love to show the community what you a doing, and you eventually get a nack for talking to them about it. Just be careful about your decisions. =D

I agree with rainer. You do get a nack for it after a period of time. And talking to people about it is actually quite fun. Its gets some people interested in trying it too. That leads to making teams ^_^

And when you are first starting it is great to get others involved, but make sure you teach them propper technique and if you don't know how to then send them here. =D

So I went to fresno state yesterday afternoon with a buddy.  We were all over the art department and part of the business department.  We found a great place where a large water fountain had been drained. 

People didnt mind too much.  No one said anything and they just watched us jump from one part to another.  It was actually pretty cool. 

-Thanx guys

Glad to hear you gtting better and less embarressed! Keep it up ^_^

Woot! I am pumped for you. keep up the good work! +1

I wish I could just go to practice and NOT row... theres a pretty sick spot not far from the boathouse... adn its secluded!

I didn't know what you meant by row at first...lol I was like is that a technique I havent heard of...lol.

Well rowing does help your harm strength and i'm sure it helps leg strength as well. I believe it sounds like excellent training for Parkour. I'm going to be full out training for Ninja Warrior. My main goal in life is to be the First American to win it.

Umm, SkyNative?

I hate to break it to you but SkyNative already won it I believe.


And by the way, rowing not only works your arms and legs, it works EVERYTHING from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. Go do a search for topics on rowing. Iv already written quite a few of them for this site.

>.< Did he really? Darn you SkyNative!!!!! Wait you sure he won the whole thing? Well Then a new goal!! I will be the youngest American!!!!!

And no offence intended, I am sure it works everything. I just meant it probably helps quite a bit in Parkour to have that strength ^_^

none taken. Rowing gives you all kinds of strength as well as a great deal of endurance and stamina. The boat with the rowers with higher stamina and endurance will cross the finish line at the higest speed with the least effort.

That sounds really awesome. I may need to try that. Rowing sounds like just the thing i need in my training.

Yea, Its enormously time consuming though. Most teams will have a 2 hour practice every day during the school week, and 7 hour practices on saturdays if you dont have a regatta. If your looking to get into rowing I recommend you try and find a local/high school team. (I should have mentioned this earlier, but I recommend rowing sweep, not sculling. google it if you dont know what it means)

Hey Averinnd, what school do you row for?  I've rowed for the past three years at Lower Merion High School.


To anyone tryin' to incorporate rowing into their workouts- be careful!  Rowing without any complementary leg exercises will cause you to develop imbalances that compromise the functionality of your legs.  Good exercises, as perscribed to me by an osteopathic doctor, are partial (less than 45 degree) wall-sits and weighted partial shin lifts (hold a weight between your feet while sitting with your lower legs hanging off a chair/bed, lower less than 45 degrees then come back up).  I'm recovering my imbalances now, as a result of too much rowing specific exercises.

I used to worry about people looking at me funny but now I find it entertaining.

Haha, that is the attitude to have!!! I love when people watch, I feel satisfied!

I row for Yorktown High School (Arlington Virginia). The season ended last week for my boat. We lost our last race of the season by 0.10 seconds, while rowing with only 7 people. On the 5th stroke of the race someones (I think it was 3 seat) strechers came undone and he couldnt row anywhere near full power. Had we found out about it we could have called breakage and restarted, but we didnt find out untill after we docked.

Is that a difficult sp9ort to get into? lol..

not particularly. The conditioning can be difficult if your out of shape, or just not up to standards, but the conditioning is decided by the coach, so it varries. Depending on who you want to row for, getting into it can be expensive. At Yorktown, crew isn't considered a 'sport' (like baseball or football) so were considered a CLUB sport, therefore, we dont get any funding from the county like baseball and football do. So basicaly that means that everything you need for crew (boat, uni, stuff, etc.) has to be paid for by the rower. One things for sure, you'll probably spend over $500 just to pay for staying at a hotel when you have a out-of-state reggata.

dude training in public is the only way to do it if the good spots are full of people. Its good anyway if your good at PK, coz they are amazed by it. My uncle though pk was stupid but as soon as he saw me doing it he was amazed and wanted to see more. Just ignore anyone who gives you funny looks apart from little kids coz they go up to you and start asking a load of questions about what you are doing

Ah, sounds fun, but I don't think I could do it..lol.

And telling them what you are doing is the next best part ;D They get kinda lost, and then understand, and then get lost again. It is fun to watch their facials expressions...haha. But I was at the local park one time, and this lady about 30-35 let me teach her kids who are around 6-10 years old, how to do basic rolls on the ground and then off the end of a slide. I was really excited that she was so open to it. And the kids definitely enjoyed learning. It was a blast.

i have a really hard time practicing in public for two or three reasons one is that i cant do much (hardly anything) so its not like people will be oggling at me. and second of all because i get really self conscious
and i dont want ta get laughed at (i know thats kinda lame but its da truth) lol  :P

haha! that's great man!

Hmm, just do what you have to do bro.

And it was so amazing. I hope one day I become a teacher/trainer in parkour ;D

somestimes its good now sometimes it isnt. Im at this stage where sometimes i fail and sometimes i do awsome stuff. Loads of girls where watching me the other day doing random training on my own and i got real scared lol

Just put a T in front of your name and you will be a tRainer. lol

rawr :3

people still think im weird when I vault over the pic-nic table... oh well, it would be boring otherwise.

Anyone play Assassin's Creed?  Well, you know when you land in the streets after jumping a great hight, and everyone sort of jumps with a yelp and stares at you for a bit?  Well I was training at my local park and this baseball team was walking by as I dive-rolled over a bench.  The Assassin's Creed effect stated above was the result.  It was kinda funny.

i had a neat experience today. I was just jumping off a huge rock, practicing my landings and a guy (45+ years old?) came up to me and asked what i was training for. i told him parkour, when he didnt understand i just asked, "Have you ever seen those videos of guys running through the city, jumping off buildings and stuff?" Immediately he knew. We talked about it for a little bit and he wished me lots of luck.

awesome.

Haha, tRainer, I like it.

When the girls are watching, that is when you want to show off the most :P

Dude, that is really cool. Did he enjoy talking and watching?

I screwed up in front of some hot girl once (I didn't even know she was there so I couldn't save myself from  embarrassment)  ;D

Oh well, I'm not afraid to mess up in front of people anymore.

hahaha showing off in front of people is the best

Definitely, especially when you have amazing flow, or like me have a little bit of tricking experience...lol. They like seeing flips. ;D

yeah he seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, like he wished he could do it

the cure for embarrassment while training is to do lots of QM all by yourself in areas of high pedestrian traffic, especially where there are alot of people in your age group, such as a large university or college campus. eventually, you get used to people thinking there is something wrong with you, and just accept it LOL.

Public diving monkey pushups and sideways monkeys are also good ways to overcome the perceived barrier of social ostracism. i know i always look like a complete fool doing that stuff in front of lots of pretty college girls. there's nothing quite like it. especially when you do it really fast LOL. then you can finish it all off with a good stretch of your hamstrings in full public view, followed by some hip circles. that's like the icing on the cake.

people come up and rub my abs all the time, its some sort of good luck around my school.... Im pretty used to it now, theres not anything much more embarasing then having people walk into your class and just rub your belly then leave. The teacher just stand there and is like, "WTF?"  :P

Me and my friend bear crawled across our campus once! that got rid of a lot of training embarassment

HAHA I was thinking about monkey walking through my school. All day, never regular walking. You telling me you did it across your campus inspires me to actually do it. Not sure yet :P

Monkey Walking?

HAHA, my bad, quadrapedals...lol. I call it mokey walking...lol ;D

I like that name for it its more spot on i think for the name cuz its exactly how monkeys walk and we are Primates so yeh ty  ;D

just do lunges through the locker rooms while wearing only your boxers.... that'll cure all embarassment I assure you

just do lunges through through areas of high pedestrian traffic while wearing only your boxers.... that'll cure all embarassment I assure you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umvvlP508wc

Wow I give him props for that... Thats amazing and inspires me even more... Thankyou gustav for posting the video +1

Who was that guy, and that is a huge feat! 2500!!! That is a lot of cash, but that was a lot of work ;D WAY TO GO TO THAT GUY!!!!!

It was Jin from Team Traceur, and yes quite a feat, hes got a sampler on his youtube channel if you wanna see his movement, hes one of my favorites.

Gustav have you got his link?

heh, im sure thats illegal SOMEWHERE... unfortunatly...  :-\

Gah. We do this at the OSU campus five days per week. It's our regular warmup before training.

Thats insane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuBvFZtBnV8

Think of it like this... You don't know them. They don't know you. So you'll theoretically never meet them again. Plus when you get better, doing the tricks bring a crowd. an example of this would be when my friend and i were at school and we were kong vaulting the lunch tables (while skipping a class;D) All of the seniors and juniors were looking at us. Some even came up to us and were pretty amazed. Never be Embarrassed. Cause i doubt just any person off the street could do better than someone who cares enough to practice.
                                                              - Tyler

i'm 17, so i can still get away with using elementary school play structures.  pretty much, my opinion is that it's not really that embarrassing compared to skateboarders 20 years ago.  we're using our hands/feet and just 'doing body resistance training' in the public's eye, compared to people doing tricks on boards.

those of you just standing around trying to do backflips, though, you're on your own.
 :P

I know, it's poor message board etiquette, but I didn't read every single page before posting.

I want to say that I understand where you're coming from, I really do. It's kinda like buying condoms (God, I hope that at 14 you have yet to have this experience...). You go into a store to buy some condoms, you expect a couple options only to find that there are half a BILLION options. How do you choose? Especially with shoppers walking by? I was with a friend of mine (he was 29) and he had condoms in his hand. His parents were coming down the aisle so he threw the condoms to the side as to not be embarrassed.

I am now married (for more than a year) and still feel self conscious when shopping for condoms. I'm married!!!! I'm being responsible by not putting children into this world that can't be provided for; yet, I feel embarrassed.

Finally, I realized that I'm actually better than most people by actually going to get condoms and not being irresponsible. (a study has shown that traceurs are more narcissistic than the average person). Being a traceur is like buying condoms.

You're doing the right thing. Others may look down on you for it, but keep at it because you're making the world a better place. If you were a parent, would you want your children to play violent video games or do Parkour? I know what I'd prefer...

thats not poor etiquette, that's smart. btw, the above argument makes no sense at all. you're not better than anyone for buying condoms. Being a tracuer is not like buying condoms. doing parkour does not necessarily do the world any good. then all of a sudden you start a random attack on videogames. if you want to make lengthy posts please make sure they are cohesive and flow from one argument to the next.

The argument does make sense, it was just brief.

The thing with buying condoms is that I'm taking control of my life and future. I'm not going to be surprised by a child, I'm going to be prepared (not to say one might not sneak through). That's what parkour is all about; being prepared for whatever may come up. Being able to efficiently get from point A to point B. Taking your future into your own hands.

Parkour (for many) is about bettering yourself. It's about discipline.


And in regards to the video game argument: I probably should have left off the 'violent'. It wasn't part of my argument. The point was that I'd think most parents would want their kids to be doing something outdoors, something active as opposed to sitting infront of a computer or Tele playing games.

Also, I never even implied that Parkour makes the world a better place. Make you a better person--maybe.


One last thing; RenegadeofJump, can you please utilize your shift keys?

I know, it's poor message board etiquette, but I didn't read every single page before posting.

I want to say that I understand where you're coming from, I really do. It's kinda like buying condoms (God, I hope that at 14 you have yet to have this experience...). You go into a store to buy some condoms, you expect a couple options only to find that there are half a BILLION options. How do you choose? Especially with shoppers walking by? I was with a friend of mine (he was 29) and he had condoms in his hand. His parents were coming down the aisle so he threw the condoms to the side as to not be embarrassed.

-From this it appears as if you are trying to talk about the variety of condoms somehow relates to parkour. Somehow the variety of condoms makes it harder to pick in front of strangers; even though, if they cared, I doubt they would think any better of you if you picked the right condom.

-Then you go into a quick little anecdote about your friend being embarrassed.

I am now married (for more than a year) and still feel self conscious when shopping for condoms. I'm married!!!! I'm being responsible by not putting children into this world that can't be provided for; yet, I feel embarrassed.


Finally, I realized that I'm actually better than most people by actually going to get condoms and not being irresponsible. (a study has shown that traceurs are more narcissistic than the average person). Being a traceur is like buying condoms.

You're doing the right thing. Others may look down on you for it, but keep at it because you're making the world a better place. If you were a parent, would you want your children to play violent video games or do Parkour? I know what I'd prefer...

-This implies that doing parkour makes the world a better place. This also implies that you somehow want to speak out against violent videogames.



Your argument was in there, but your intro and ending conclusion were not really related to what you were trying to talk about. I'm sorry but from now on you should try to be more clear and make things flow from one thing to the next.


by the way, my shift key was broken, jeez.

^wow good post. i have a question though what study showed that traceurs were more narcissistic than the average?

La pratique du parkour chez les adolescents des banlieues: entre recherche de sensation et renforcement narcissique (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6X26-4NDVGNB-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d86867ae76d6b81703bf2734a4a115fc) (The practising of free running in adolescent from the suburbs: between sensation seeking and narcissistic reinforcement) from Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence.  I haven't read the article, since I don't have a paid account.  It's significant to note that the term "narcissistic reïnforcement" isn't defined in the abstract, so it may mean something different from its lay definition.

cool thanks

the way most people talk on this board about parkour and how much more awesome it makes them than everybody is probably proof enough

nothing wrong with wanting to find out for myself is there?

i did at first but now i take it as a complement when ppl look at me wird or call me a savege

traxnyc.com

Do not care, once you get well at parkour and you can flow swimmingly over obstructions, you won't feel so abashed anymore.
_____________________________
Aady
Addiction Recovery Kansas (http://www.addictionrecovery.net/kansas) 

what is with all the