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By: Henry Collie
This month, seeing as it's the end of the summer, I'm going to go back to element based games. Last time, we had water and metal as our combined elements, which I tried to relate to the importance of fluidity in parkour. This month however, I want to focus on a different principle and that is of power and unpredictability. A main fundamental of parkour is, of course, power in both a physical and mental sense. So for that reason, this months' elemental games will be based around fire.
A traceur's body and mind should be (in my own opinion) powerful and unpredictable like fire. Allow me to hypothesize: You are being chased by someone (this being in the spirit of parkour, and for self defense) and you need to get away. Now surely you don't want to be predictable, because in that case you make it a lot easier for them to catch you. In fact, the the less predictable you are the easier it is to get away. This overlaps to the creative mind of the traceur. Of course, it is very hard to be truly unpredictable if you haven't got the physicality to match your creative mind. I'm sure we've all been there, "Wow I could definitely do that if my legs were strong enough.", etc.
I will finish this introduction on one final point. It's very easy to say, "I could if I only..." but it's much more rewarding to live by, "I will when I do."
Fire
Game 1: Power
This can be played solo or with as many people as you like.
You will need space and something with which you can mark distance. For the purposes of this article we will be using two stones.
1. Lay down a stone and do a static two foot jump as far as you can from that point to wherever you land, then lay down the other stone on the point you landed.
2. Whoever is next to jump starts from the point on which you just landed and tries to jump further than you. This continues until you have a winner.
The extension:
You can extend this game by adding new rules once the winner of the last game has been picked.
1. Use a running jump instead of a static one.
2. Use a one foot jump (running or static).
3. Draw parallel line from either stone and turn it into a precision jumping game.
4. Jump backwards.
Game 2: Unpredictability
Unpredictability and creativity are, as Charles Moreland said last month, incredibly hard to teach. No-one ever reaches the peak of their possible creativity, as you can always do something different to what you did last time. This is true in life and in parkour. In order for me not to influence the creative aspect of this game, the only thing I can do is be somewhat vague and trust you to get the feel of the game. I will try to post some videos soon on all the games I've done to date.
1. Go for a run. Just a run. Not a parkour run. Just a run. Bring a friend if you like, but just run... at least for the first few minutes.
2. When you see an opportunity, do the first thing that comes into your head (within reason. Obviously, hitting little old ladies and jumping off skyscrapers is not the idea here.) It should probably feel like a random thought, a reflex, muscle memory. Don't think about it (again, within reason) just do it. What this is training is how to turn those momentary thoughts before doing something into motor reflexes.
3. This exercise works on the opposite end of the scale too. Pick a place with a lot of obstacles, and by this I mean really clumped together, with very little room between. Begin to work your way through them. Try to do it fluidly and precisely. Keep going over and over, but from different angles and speeds . Even if it's the same angle, try to mix it up as much as possible, it's all about getting into the flow.
4. You can time yourself while doing this if you like, and try to beat yourself or a friend each time. This is quite a hard thing to do, which I myself have a lot of trouble with, so don't get frustrated just keep at it.
I know that last one was very vague but I hope you can understand what I was getting at.
Train safe.
Have fun.
Henry Collie
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