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Recently I began to teach a parkour class and as I began to break down the techniques for new traceurs I started to see a similarity in the ideas I was explaining for different movements. I decided to really delve deeper into the concepts I was explaining and try a determine what the unifying factors were. What at first began as a recognition of a pattern became a pathway to understanding the roots of our discipline. Through both physics and philosophy I approached this idea and what I learned helped me pass on a better understanding of parkour movement and ideals to the students. So I wrote this article in hopes of aiding other people either working to teach others or improve their own movement, or maybe simply just to spur some of their own throughts about some of the things we naturally do without a conscious knowledge.
The Five Steps
Parkour is the all about finding the most effective way to span a distance. Crossing any area in the safest most efficient way possible. The most notable moments in parkour are those in which the traceur is faced with an obstacle that must be overcome. But the understanding of the movement being performed is what separates a traceur from any other person. When given a problem, say for instance a railing, and a need to overcome it almost any person could find a solution, a traceur on the other hand has studied the movement and learned the most effective way to pass by it, in effect integrating it into his movement as if it were just another step on the path.
The true essence of every move can be broken down into five simple pieces, all derived from an analysis of a single stride. Running is the most effective and studied of all parkour techniques and it is there that we can look for are best understanding and base of all other movements, it contains the five steps that make up each technique.
The five steps can really be understood by thinking of it as three tucks and two extensions, but for the sake of detail I will break it down into five unique motions: Loading, exploding, tucking, extending, and absorbing. When looking at a single stride the five steps can be observed, the initial bend of the knee, the push off as weight is shifted to the other, the tuck as it swings forward, the straightening as it reaches forward and the absorbing as weight begins to shift to it. These simple steps can be extrapolated to all the movements of parkour and the combinations of them.
The first step, loading, is where the power comes from; it is the determining point of how much effort is going to be exuded in this technique. In a tic-tac, for example, this would be the plant on the wall, how far or high the traceur is going to travel is first decided here.
Step two is exploding, this is directing the energy cultivated in the loading step. In a precision, this would be the time at which the traceur’s feet are just leaving the take-off point, the body is stretched out, aiming the motion out and up or down or in a tic-tac perhaps to the side.
Third is tucking, this is where distance is gained, usually overcoming whatever the obstacle may be. In an underbar this is the point where the space between and the bar is passed through, in a vault this is the point where the legs come up to clear the obstacle.
Extension is actually the second time the body extends but this is the point in the technique when the legs shift from tucked under the body to out so that they can land on the point of landing. In a cat leap this is the point where the legs reach out to land on the wall, or more apparently in a precision when the legs extend out to spot the landing.
The final step is absorbing; in a cat leap this is when the legs take the force of the impact against the wall. In something like a low vault this might not be as pronounced, more of a slight bend in the legs to step out into a run, from a higher drop this may lead into a roll.
When combined these motions create every basic movement that we practice. From the first step to final landing and back into the next step. These five steps are in the cycle of stride, in every technique, and throughout every run.
This knowledge of this essential idea of movement does not create an intricate comprehension of each technique, but it does help provide a base for understanding, and makes the teaching of each move much easier. What it truly comes down to is that there really is no differentiation between each movement, to truly do and understand parkour is to know that each movement is just a piece of the actual action, to comprehend that the act of parkour is not a cat leap or a vault, it is the movement over space. We describe what we do by saying it is climbing, it is jumping, it is vaulting, but those motions only illustrate the steps necessary to perform parkour and do not dictate what it is. Each vault or wallrun should just be another step on the run, another section of the journey between start and finish. These five steps are not to say that there are not much finer details to be learned about how to move, but think of it instead as a more efficient way to approach learning any technique. These are five steps to help you perfect each step you take.
-Frosti
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