By Henry Collie

Parkour Games: The Elements: Wood

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed last month's games, because here are some more! Last month we looked at the element fire, and this month I'm going to continue the theme of the elements with wood. Wood is its own thing. There are many different kinds of wood which look differently, act differently, and grow at different rates. This is very appropriate to Parkour and life in general. There are thousands of people in the world and we're all unique, no matter what (unless you believe in dopplegangers in which case you should probably ignore the rest of this article). We all need to progress at our own pace. Trees mind their own business and do what's right for them. In the end, they benefit every living thing on the planet for the simple fact that they do what they have to do to progress. That last statement can be taken in a lot of different ways, but then again that's the beauty of being a human being, we can adapt things and make them our own. This month, the games will not be competitive in any way other than to the self, in order to stick to the tone of both the above and parkour overall. So without further ado, here are this months parkour games.


Game 1:

One of the main points in the introduction was that everyone needs to do things at their own pace, so the aim of this game is that you do it at a pace that suits you. This is meant to be a guide so you can gauge your level and see where to go in your training from where you are now. It's a bit like parkour top trumps.

1. Find a spot that has a lot of space and a few obstacles to practice on. Bring your training journal if you have one. If you don't have one then it's always a good time to start one as they help you to set goals for yourself.

2. Write down all the goals you think you can reach i.e. sprint 200m, kong vault a particular obstacle, 50 precision jumps without failing. By goals, I don't mean things like: jump off a 40 ft wall, somersault up a 40 ft wall, or run around in circles until you get really, really dizzy and then fall off a 40 ft wall.

3. Set yourself a time in which to do it all and then do it.

4. When you have done it all rip out a sheet from your journal, or better yet, actually get a few pieces of card to write on. I know it sounds silly, but if they're colourful you're going to be more likely to want to use them. Write down on the card everything you just did and in what time you did it.

5. Work on getting that level up every training session. As soon as you have brought everything on the card up to a new level, you can make a new one, maybe even with different things on it. I would suggest putting about ten values on any given card.  Here is an example of what two cards might look like, but yours wouldn't have to be exactly like these.


5th May 2009                                           7th June 2009

200m sprint: 30 sec                              100 m sprint: 12 sec

pull ups: 30                                           dash vaults: 45

muscle ups: 5                                        muscle ups: 8

wall run: 3 full steps                              lateral leg raise pull ups: 10

kong vaults: 40 in a row                        upside down sit ups: 20

cat leaps: 35 in a row                            front plank: 2:10 min

lateral leg raises: three sets of 15          cat balance/walk: 20 ft

rail walking: 16 steps                             handstand: 20 sec

push ups: 70                                          push ups: 80

running: 11 miles                                   running: 15 miles



Be sure to take your time with this! By the time you have twelve, everything should have improved dramatically. If not much has improved to the level you would consider enough, then you haven't done it right.



Game 2:

This game is going to focus on helping you to expand your roots, much like the tree. Many people will pick a few movements, or even all the movements, that have been written on paper and stick to them as their only form of practice. Hopefully this game will teach you how to become more creative and open minded about how you move.

1. Find somewhere dense with obstacles.

2. Pick two movements that you know at random. One way to do this would be to write them all down on separate pieces of paper and then jumble them all up.

3. Do these movements over and over until you really get the feel for them, and practice a few flow drills too just to get in the right frame of mind.

4. Try to mix the two movements together and create an entirely new movement.

5. An advancement of this is to mix another two together to create a new movement, and then take both new movements and mix those together.


Although this is a good exercise, you do need to practice and hone your creativity in other ways as well because this game on it's own is still technically thinking inside the box. Try to incorporate this game into a flow drill i.e. pick a few moves and try to improvise them together. This will also help your mind to work faster.  Remember to be careful, start low and don't move on until your near enough to 100% sure you're able to. Always progress at your own pace, just like a tree.

Train safe.
Have fun.