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Starting Parkour can be a daunting task if you have no direction. Here's a bit of direction of SovXietday, one of the old-school crew in the American Parkour scene ;)
How to Start
So, you're interested in parkour. You've seen it on tv, or in a magazine, or in a newspaper, or you just happened to run across it with some random typing on google. However you found it, my guess is you've just turned into a five year old school girl giddy about getting started... either that or you're tired of googling your life away, whatever. If you're thinking about running out of your house now and finding something to jump off of, I will gladly divert your attention to Wile. E. Coyote and his imfamous plunders to earth in a most painful manner. Please, take your time, just like Michael Jordan didn't become an NBA star in a day, you won't be leaping over buildings any time soon. So... how do you start this jumping over stuff malarky anyway?
Well, let me answer that question with another question, do you have good shoes? If not, GET SOME! There are hundreds of shoes to pick from, your best bet is to pick something that you like and feel comfortable wearing, but make sure it's designed with A)good cushion to protect your feet/ankles/knees and B)good grip so that you don't slip moving through your environment. Insoles might not be a bad idea either, but they're optional. Ok, so you have shoes, now how do I really start?
It's simple really, let's start with the living room carpet. Why the living room carpet you ask? This is where you will begin learning how to roll correctly. Yes, rolling. It may sound lame, but personally I'd much rather take a week to learn how to roll than break my leg being a newbie superman. Take your time, learn it correctly, the more corners you take the worse off you'll be in the end. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither will your abilities. We already have a rolling tutorial, click the link to visit it and go try it out!
Rolling Tutorial
Now, just because you're moving on in the world of parkour, doesn't mean you should forget about the roll. You learned it first because you use it the most! So keep practicing it!
Moving on. After you get a good understanding of the roll, you can move on to a large variety of things. Vaulting, jumping, climbing... it's all part of the art and you're going to find a need for it at some point. My next suggestion would be to go learn how to jump and roll correctly.
Jump and Landing Tutorial Rolling Tutorial If you can't touch the top of what you're jumping off of, take care when jumping. The velocity at which you land goes up exponentially as the height increases! The higher you are, the faster you are moving when you land, the more stress that your body takes, the more damage your body recieves. Remember, there is no avoiding body wear-and-tear (however slight it may be), there is only limiting, so take care of your body and use common sense. Is it worth jumping off something high in the long run? I'll let you determine that for yourself.
Well, I hope while you were frolicking around you didn't try to jump over a trash can, get tripped, and taste worms. If you did, lighten up, I did it too, but it leaves you thinking... "how in the world do I get over that!" This is where a "vault" comes in. There are many different kinds of vaults, since you're just starting we'll do the two "easiest" vaults. These vaults are the least complex, and normally the fastest and most fluid aswell.
Speed Vault Tutorial
Monkey/Kong Vault Tutorial
As you learn more and more vaults, you'll begin to get more comfortable with going over obstacles using your hands. I personally rarely do any other vault than the two above, but if you're feeling adventurous here are a few more to have fun with.
Underbar Tutorial
Reverse Vault Tutorial
Dash Vault Tutorial
Gate Vault Tutorial
Ok... after you conquer the trashcan it's time to move on to those really really tall things that you can't seem to monkey vault. In this scenario, we would use what is called a "wall run" which is basically running vertically up a wall. This allows you to reach the top of a tall object and with practice is a very useful tactic.
I'm going to put tic tacs and turn vaults in this category as well. Tic tacs are used to run along walls, such as tacking off a wall in order to get over a rail that you don't feel comfortable vaulting etc. Turn vaults on the other hand are used at height, when you want to get down but don't feel comfortable simply speed vaulting a rail that is 10 feet above the floor. A turn vault allows you to overcome the obstacle, and then will lessen your fall from the height. Why and how this is done is discussed in the tutorial, so go read it.
Wallrun Tutorial
Tic Tac Tutorial
Turn Vault Tutorial
Now that you've learned how to climb appropriately, chances are you're going to start running into what are called "cat leaps." These are jumps that you will not be able to land with your feet, but rather you will jump and grab the edge of whatever you're landing on and pull yourself up.
Cat Leap Tutorial
The last of the basics, is called precision. That's right, precision. This will take quantive amounts of balance and concentration to learn, but is probably one of the most rewarding practices in parkour. It's extremely important to learn this, but I feel that it's not a skill that is best to learn early, as it is a very difficult one. The best time to learn precision is after you've gotten a good understanding of what you're capable of, that way you have less of a chance of injury... so now that you've got some experience under your belt, go learn it.
Precision Tutorial
Now what you ask? Simple, practice is what follows. The largest influences in parkour practice every day, but it's up to you what, when, how, and where you want to practice. Your journey truly begins here, this is where you can begin to link everything that you've learned together. Whether it takes you a month to get to this point, or a year, it doesn't matter. What is important to remember is that the name of the game is having fun, and being safe.
If these tutorials just aren't helping you out, you can contact (PM or Email) your local Moderator or administrator with questions regarding starting, they will be happy to answer. Also look in the movement forum for some great discussions on specific techniques. The journey begins here, it's up to you where it goes. Just remember to be safe and have fun! |
