American Parkour - Parkour and Freerunning - Addressing Your Weaknesses

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Addressing Your Weaknesses

Sunday, 16 July 2006

This tutorial is an exercise in thinking, problem solving, and doing. First you evaluate your skills to discover your weaknesses. After doing this, you must develop methods to improve upon your weaknesses. Finally you must be disciplined in application and practice of these drills to develop your skills.

Application

Parkour by nature is broad, general, and dynamic. It is not an exercise in specialization; it is an activity in which you must excel in many different things. Unfortunately, everyone has their weaknesses. Whether it is fear, fitness, body type related, or something else, these mental blocks can be hard to overcome. The burning desire to improve is what can separate a serious, well rounded traceur from a lazy, less skilled one. Some practitioners become complacent in their challenge, refusing to break through these mental blocks or comfort zones. If you want to take your parkour to the next level, the weaknesses must be addressed.

Preparation

In order to improve, you must first find your weakness. To some of us, our weaknesses are pretty obvious. However, a lot of us are so weak in some areas that we never train those areas and therefore overlook them.
If you do not know what your weakness is, go train with several other people for a day. Instead of moving in the way that you typically do, challenge yourself to move in the ways of others. Often times when challenged by others to move in ways that you are not used to, you will be able recognize your weaknesses. Also, ask the others to watch your movement and give their opinion on what you need to work on.

Execution

Make a plan to address your weakness – This should be a realistic, logical, and thoughtful plan to help you improve upon your weakness. Some questions to ask yourself include: What factors contribute to my weakness? How will I address these factors? How much time and repetition will I dedicate to addressing my weakness? What is my end goal? How will I evaluate myself?
Guide and Sample Plan – To help you get started, download the Guide and Sample Plan used by Ryan Ford to address his weakness, rail to rail precision jumps.
Put your plan into action – Our weaknesses are weaknesses because they are the hardest things for us to overcome, otherwise we would be better at them! It will take dedication and determination in order to succeed. This is a big reason why you should come up with a strict plan to improve. Because our weaknesses are the most difficult thing for us to do, a strict plan helps force us to take action and motivates us to succeed. Improving your weakness will take time and effort. Do not give up if you do not see immediate improvement. With hard work and discipline, you are bound to succeed.

Other Notes

Parkour is a progression and you must always think creatively on how you can devise methods to progress your skills. This is the concept that all the drills on Parkour Elements are based upon. If you took part in this tutorial, you have created your own drill.
Please share your ideas and drills with others in the forum. If it helped you overcome obstacles, chances are it can help somebody else as well! If you put a little extra thought into your own drill, please share it with us and we may even put it on the web site. To make a submission, please send us an This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Users' Comments

Display 39 of 39 comments

1. 08-15-2006 05:25

i may just do that myself, what did you make the "mini-rails" out of?

pointman323

2. 08-17-2006 20:03

sweet as a newb i can understaned this which makes it a good article

thepunishermjm

3. 08-21-2006 17:23

Very informative.As one who has just
become aware of Parkour this article
has given me encouragement to begin
acquiring tools to practice.

Morpheus

4. 08-22-2006 16:13

can someone give me an idea on how to get rid of fear of big drops? :sigh

DuDe9

5. 08-24-2006 10:51

great idea. Is that metal pipe?

kewlguy213

6. 11-24-2006 07:01

ya that helps a lot

arab456

7. 11-25-2006 08:35

on the big drops I would say find a small one and build confidense then progress to a higher one and so on

guest

8. 12-11-2006 17:40

i used to not be able to back flips they feked me out then i got people to spot fo me and now im ok with them

flipinG

9. 01-29-2007 18:43

Great Idea.. But what if you can't find other traceurs in your area? :eek

Boboblueshoes

10. 03-08-2007 18:22

i had or should i say i'm having arhard time with the Kong Vault and everytime do i do a speed vault instead.... any suggestions??

urbanhybrid

11. 04-06-2007 22:27

like the other guy said, work your way up slowly, also if you're fortunate enough to have sand dunes near your home, go take a dive off of those. 20-30 foot drops with big time cushion if you mess up. be careful you can still really hurt yourself.

kodokwai

12. 05-10-2007 15:35

20-30 foot drops :eek

anywayz, yeah I can do backfilps extremely well on my trampoline with no fear whatsoever. I can even do them on my trampoline without jumping to gain height. but when it comes to the ground, it's like a completely different realm. Physically, I can do them, mentally, I can't. any suggestions on how to overcome my fear without anyone's help, and without any like pads or anything?! I really need help with this!!! thanks! ^_^

demonicfire

13. 05-10-2007 22:08

for your fear of back flips i would recomend standing into back bend then walk over backwards til u get really good then imagine yo self on trampoline and go. It dosent hurt bad atall to fall in grass even on face :-)

godsmack1985

14. 05-20-2007 16:15

Good subject. I like the mini rail, it looks like some stuff I've built in my backyard to train.

Spartan

15. 06-03-2007 17:57

what is the pipe made of in your mini rail?

zarsky

16. 06-15-2007 16:32

what could i tell my parents that would make them belive that i could and should do parkour? (im good for a beginner at it)

Dublinrunner

17. 07-21-2007 12:23

sure it's specific, but yea, that's it. Two days ago I could do them till cows came home (excuse the southern saying). But scince yesterday, I just can't make the flip. I trick off the only possible obstical in my neighborhood, A green electrical box outside surrounded by grass. Please, suggestions?

Crosseyes

18. 07-23-2007 05:34

To Crosseyes: practice some easy moves like LOW drops (not to freak them out, jumping off a roof ;-) ), easy vaults, maybe a couple of simple precisions and just plain running.

Demonstrate to them that you can already do that much and that it is fun and is good for you, exercise-wise.

Then you could show them the video "Dispersion" which you can get trough this website's video page. It's a great video that shows efficient Parkour movement without sensationalizing it with a bunch of flips or huge building-to-building gaps.

If you show them the basics and how it gets you/keeps you in shape, they will probably be more likely to support you in Parkour.

Just don't show them a bunch of high jumps and stuff! Parents get freaked out when they think stuff is dangerous to their kids! No reason to ruin your chances of doing Parkour by doing something reckless that makes them ban you from Parkour!

okctraceur

19. 12-05-2007 11:52

I have a fear of flips. Got any tips for me with out any mats or any thing? :sigh

parkourfan6501

20. 12-21-2007 16:02

Ok i know im physically ready for it....iv ran it through my head a thousand times but when i get a lil uup the wall i for get it all......iv got the height and the momentum....iv got my frontflip and working slowly but surly on my backflip....iseem to hld land that one......any suggestions on the wall flip?

Recklesslife321

21. 03-06-2008 18:06

Ok, so if you could figure out a way to mass produce those rails you would be making quite a hefty profit-- simply genius. Guess you can't let people get lazy though...

Thanx again!

Sammamyninja

22. 03-08-2008 17:36

It doesn't matter what the rails are made out of, the point is, he thought for a few seconds about his problem and solved it.
Everyone keeps asking about backflips, I'd suggest getting a friend to spot you and use a mat. Addressing the fear? Strengthen your neck, so even if you do land on it, it won't be as flimsy? I dunno.. Do it off a diving board (make sure you jump away from the board).

Practicing long drops? Practice on soft surfaces (grass), and like everyone says, start small, perfect your landings, and then increase distance.

coWard

23. 03-21-2008 19:23

Awsome! Now can you make one about dashes?? :grin

AdamMathis

24. 04-05-2008 12:19

i'm not good at the precision jumps and i think this will help me out ALOT!!

shredder94

25. 05-07-2008 21:33

Dash vaults look pretty awesome, but I personally don't find them very applicable to most scenarios.

If you're trying it for the first time, I would recommend doing it in a gym. Wrist flexibility is important as is achieving the correct height over the obstacle. The correct height allows your hands to propel your body FORWARDS as opposed to taking the downward impact caused by jumping too high.

questionmark

26. 06-25-2008 07:25

for dash fing a wall u can clear with just a jump but isnt too samll then maybe speed it if its a nic eheight then try your dash. Wall flip run towarsd the wall push of as if your doing a wall up then lean backwards and tuck many people find it easyer to not tuck so much. Try it on a bank first.

Now for me i used to be able to front flip of walls but fell on my back with a 4ft drop :cry

and havent done it since.... its not the back falling thats worrying me its hitting my head. Any tips on getting over the fear of hitting my head with both front and back flips. ty

ryanmjames

27. 07-10-2008 05:46

hehe i tryed overcoming my fears as well... another peice of advise, if you get someone to spot you, make sure they know what they are doing, coz i made the mistake of letting my martial art instructor improvise spotting me and he held my belt...bad move thats all ill say

anyways nice advise in this article and for people who need help, don't ask as a comment on this, go on the forum, that's what it's for right? good luck people at overcoming your fears! live safe, parkour hard

onlyhuman3

28. 07-27-2008 15:36

im scared of hights, but i have been working on this, jumping off things maybe 8 or 9 feet high is scary to me sometimes. but i seem to work things out, and get the hang of things, that really my bigest fear

hat trix

29. 08-07-2008 10:44

hehehe. good idea.(but why did you have to stick it onto your carpet using me?!(hurts me...))

velcro113

30. 09-24-2008 20:04

UMM DUH! The pipe he used to make it isnt a pipe its a used paper towel roll! :grin

tobin

31. 10-05-2008 14:30

uhh... don't think so, paper towel rolls aren't that long, also they would get wrecked. Maybe the rolls from wrapping paper??

bboy_onewinged

32. 10-17-2008 20:53

can somone help me? i can do a backflip on the ground but when it comes to running up a wall a doing it just makes my mind say i can't do it. any suggestions on how to over come that? thanx!!!

polodrummer

33. 01-19-2009 12:13

first lift knees, i have heard a lot of parkour is about lifting your knees. Next, with fear, do it in a safe area, where no matter how you fall it will not hurt. If you are not sure about an area, then just drop yourself on it from a standing position, even throw yourself down on it. Then try the flip while remembering that it will not hurt to fail. Also make sure to have at least someone nearby, for the really unlikely case of hitting your neck or something, they just need to sound the alarm, not to do anything, like spotting you. If it was just fear, this should be enough to get over it. gl

mark1hamilton4

34. 01-19-2009 16:10

ok, as crazy as it sounds, its not hard to get over the mental part of anything. You know what the mental block is, over come it easier said then done, i know. make sure you clear your mind the best you can, start small is the NUMBER 1 RULE! if you don't you WILL hurt yourself. When doing anything, with a clear mind visualize yourself doing it,over and over,this helps with repetition without doing it physically. Do it in steps, like, a wall flip i cant do but have seen this done to learn just run up the wall to see how high you can get, then after your positive you highenough do it hope i help

Rickthyne

35. 01-19-2009 16:20

Thank you very much. This helped me out considerably.

Brigitte

36. 03-27-2009 11:26

hey thanks i'll go out and try that i'm sure i can

that all makes sense so thank you very much.

polodrummer

37. 08-13-2009 16:42

To Urbanhybrid,
I did the same thing. I'm not sure about you, but for me if was the fear of getting tangled up and falling. What I did is instead of starting on some thing kind of tall like a picnic table, I started on a shorter, less wide object. For me, living in an Agriculturally rich area, I used a Sheep trimming stand. It is about two feet tall and about one and a half to two feet wide. I started off on that. Soon, I will turn it lengthwise, which is about four feet long, and try that for distance training. When I get comfortable, I will move on to taller, harder objects.

gwichparkour94

38. 08-20-2009 08:11

Nice....