Topic: Has it gotten this easy?

[edgey]

   Recently I've seen a couple posts like "I need help starting parkour, what should I start with, what should my workout rountines be, what should I eat, etc.." And I was thinking to myself about a documentary called "Pilgrimage" that said that it was getting to easy for beginners to start without believing that they themselves could find out what to do, and what not to do. I'm not saying that I wasn't guilty and still am not of making posts about these things, but I think about Sebastien Foucan and his friends who found out everything by themselves with experimenting and over coming their fear by themselves. I'm also not saying jams and workshops are bad, but I do think to myself alot has it gotten this easy?


- I hope I'm making sense to everyone


EDIT: when I say has it gotton this easy I don't mean Parkour is easy, but for people learning to rely on others in a forum instead of of themselves, like Sebastien Foucan said in his book "Don't always ask"

[Alec Furtado]

I think I know what you're getting at. Basically I think Seb and the boys might have taken quite a long time in the beginning. People could try to discover everything for themselves as well, but just the fact that we have all these huge communities now makes this unnecessary. It's not a bad idea, but just not necessary. Even then though, learning about yourself is still a gigantic portion of training... overcoming fear and whatnot.

[max eisenberg]

I think I know what you're getting at. Basically I think Seb and the boys might have taken quite a long time in the beginning. People could try to discover everything for themselves as well, but just the fact that we have all these huge communities now makes this unnecessary. It's not a bad idea, but just not necessary. Even then though, learning about yourself is still a gigantic portion of training... overcoming fear and whatnot.

not to mention everyone has physical strengths and weaknesses, they make us all move a little differently.

the ones who really care need somewhere to get a footing and then they develop their own exercises.

ive come up with countless stretches just doing some qming in my drive way.

[TR]

I agree. People just want things handed to them without much work, really.

I think a lot of people have lost sight of what Parkour really is, and how to go about training. There is a general idea that people believe it to be, but it's much more than what the average Traceur thinks it is.

[max eisenberg]

knowledge can be taught, wisdom must be gained.

only through training will you discover yourself, anyone can tell you how to monkey vault.

only you can make it your own.

i was one of those who took the easy road and i paid for it with chronic knee pains, now im doing things right and taking my time.

the real traceurs are the ones who can see this, those who take and stick with the easy route are the ones who give it up after a short amount of time.

[Neon Camouflage]

So what exactly did you do that caused you pain? I'm new to parkour too and from what I've heard I don't want to take the easy way out. So does that mean quit asking questions and find it out myself? Or is there something specific?

[Bowdz]

knowledge can be taught, wisdom must be gained.

only through training will you discover yourself, anyone can tell you how to monkey vault.

only you can make it your own.

i was one of those who took the easy road and i paid for it with chronic knee pains, now im doing things right and taking my time.

the real traceurs are the ones who can see this, those who take and stick with the easy route are the ones who give it up after a short amount of time.

I couldn't agree more. Great post!

[max eisenberg]

i had knee pain because i didnt condition, i just jumped and played.

take your time, do small jumps. even off waist high ledges i generally do a quick 180 and hang off and slowly climb down.

practice jump tuck silent landings until they feel flawless and sound like theres no weight in your shoes.

when you do a bad jump you can hear it, it like "kkkkhhhhhh" and you can hear the weight falling to the ground.

a good jump should be more like a "pffffttttt" or a "chhhh"

when you can do that, move on up to small jumps like a foot or two untill you can do the same.

alot of new kids think they should be silent on big jumps too, i always did.

its not true, you just need to hear the difference between your weight slamming into the ground and your legs absorbing it and lowering you into the ground.

just practice, practice, practice and more practice.

read ALOT, ive read countless articles about the human body and its physiology. another point to bring up is that when landing resist it and try to keep moving, its like a cat. a cat doesnt land on all fours and stay still, the almost always land on with some forward momentum and try to continue it.

again, more practice and time will tell you what you are doing right or wrong.

also, when you go out to train, take your time.

watch alot of videos, i can send you one video that might improve your training regime. its a video with stephane vigroux talking about his parkour history with david belle and all the training that he went though. i could show you countless things i do when training but, that is in a way taking the easy way.

parkour at the beginning is one of the hardest parts, when you get good and start to plateau is another one of the hardest parts. a real traceur doesnt plateau and stay there, he overcomes it and becomes stronger.

urbanflow101- get at me on AIM for that video. im always down to share ideas with new people.

[Jeremy Osborn]

i actually too kthe easy way out and quit last year, like it wasnt interesting.. but this year, ive come back with a passion, a passion yearning for the adrenaline rush of doing a maneuver effortlessly and a passion NEEDING the sore muscles that comes with training. im definitely not taking the easy way out, and i am also thinking of starting a project for Parkour-Awareness, i'm not only training myself this year, im training others, training is only easier when you have someone to train with. im doing work this year 

[max eisenberg]

i actually too kthe easy way out and quit last year, like it wasnt interesting.. but this year, ive come back with a passion, a passion yearning for the adrenaline rush of doing a maneuver effortlessly and a passion NEEDING the sore muscles that comes with training. im definitely not taking the easy way out, and i am also thinking of starting a project for Parkour-Awareness, i'm not only training myself this year, im training others, training is only easier when you have someone to train with. im doing work this year 

your enthusiasm is good, its just not seeming to be in the right place.

before you focus on others you should focus on yourself. before you think about training others you should get your own training situated seeing as you quit last time.

honestly you probably dont know where to start so you will start with vaults more than likely, one of the less important aspects of parkour.

training is never easy, with or without a group. if it is easy you arent training the right way.

[Jeremy Osborn]

i actually too kthe easy way out and quit last year, like it wasnt interesting.. but this year, ive come back with a passion, a passion yearning for the adrenaline rush of doing a maneuver effortlessly and a passion NEEDING the sore muscles that comes with training. im definitely not taking the easy way out, and i am also thinking of starting a project for Parkour-Awareness, i'm not only training myself this year, im training others, training is only easier when you have someone to train with. im doing work this year 

honestly you probably dont know where to start so you will start with vaults more than likely, one of the less important aspects of parkour.

i did that last year, not making the same mistake 

[Neon Camouflage]

I've been spending the past week or so researching all kinds of things to do with parkour but it still seems so overwhelming. Is it like this for everyone or can I just not wrap my head around it? Mainly it's the fitness and conditioning things that I don't get, where to start, what things to do first, and how to know when you're ready to move on.

[Jeremy Osborn]

bodyweight excercises and demons drills i think is a good place to start, correct me if im wrong...PLEASE

[TR]

bodyweight excercises and demons drills i think is a good place to start, correct me if im wrong...PLEASE

hahaha no, you're right. Body weight exercises are the best exercises to start with. If you SERIOUSLY body-weight train, after about 8 months or so, you'll begin to plateau and the next most logical step is to get into lifting for better gains.

[Jeremy Osborn]

haha i just didnt want to be giving false info, if u read my previous post, i dont know much myself

[Muse_of_Fire]

Just because someone can look online and find a rolling tutorial or whatever, doesn't make parkour easy. It just makes it more accessible, and that's not a bad thing at all. I'd rather have good tutorials and resources available to a lot of people, than to keep it in the dark and make everyone "figure it out for themselves." Having to figure it out that way only increases the likelihood that people will get injured, or at least get discouraged and quit. No sense in re-inventing the wheel. Just because parkour is more accessible to more people now does not mean it's easy. There is nothing easy about parkour.

[Gabe Arnold]

It's the system of "keep this, drop that" in action. Foucan, Belle, Kazuma, etc., had to experiment and work hard to determine what worked and what didn't. They kept what worked for them and one by one dropped what didn't. They learned by trial and error. Everyone after them has been adding to the foundation they and their forerunners created. Person by person, day by day, we are discovering what works best. To ask beginners to repeat lour mistakes and missteps would be a great disservice I think. I'd like to avoid the saying "history repeats itself." If I know that coming out a roll in this direction will hurt my hip bone, why should those that come after me have to hurt themselves to learn the same fact? I can pass on the information so that they at least are aware of the fact. Whether they heed the advice and conduct themselves accordingly is up to them. But to keep them ignorant on purpose...that would just be wrong, in my opinion.

Think of Bruce Lee and martial arts/physical fitness for a parallel. He experimented on new workout routines, diets, and techniques to decide what worked and what was useless or not of enough merit. He then passed down these teachings in the hopes that others would learn and build on his work.   

[TR]

Personally, I believe people learn A LOT about discover & the movement when they figure it out on their own. Sure it's nice to have some sort of guide or teacher, but I believe once they are told exactly what to do, how to take off, how to plant the hands, how to jump etc... it just limits their imagination and personality in Parkour. People should move how they are comfortable through their environment, not conforming to a list of vaults. Sure, handy, yeah, but again I think it just limits movement because instead of thinking, "Ok, that obstacle is there, what can I do to most efficiently get over it" rather than, "Ok, that obstacle there, I'm going to pick a vault that I've learned to get over it" See the difference?
But, this is just me... I did Parkour for 8 months before joining my local community. In that time I taught myself all the basics, and I know I have a better understanding of them, than if I just resorted to watching tutorials and having it tell me what to do.

It's amazing how little variety/imagination is in Parkour videos these days :/ They all consist of.. pretty much the same thing to be honest. Though there are still those out there that are very creative and different.

Oh, and the amount of Parkour tutorials is.. quite frankly... retarded.  Some things that don't need tutorials... have tutorials!!

I can understand things like... conditioning tutorials and such, but something like movement doesn't need a tutorial, but everyone is different and has different beliefs and feel the faster they learn the vaults the better I suppose :/

To each his own I guess.

To ask beginners to repeat lour mistakes and missteps would be a great disservice I think. I'd like to avoid the saying "history repeats itself." If I know that coming out a roll in this direction will hurt my hip bone, why should those that come after me have to hurt themselves to learn the same fact?
I agree, but I still believe, since Parkour is basically, about discovery, and living! It's still great to learn things on your own, to have a better understanding of the technique, as well as to challenge your mind to break a movement down and figure out what it is you have to do to figure it out. What is the rush to learning a movement?

Think of Bruce Lee and martial arts/physical fitness for a parallel. He experimented on new workout routines, diets, and techniques to decide what worked and what was useless or not of enough merit. He then passed down these teachings in the hopes that others would learn and build on his work.
Yes, Bruce Lee was an amazing individual, yet no one really compares *yet* to his physical ability, so it's hard to build off of such a strong individual or surpass if others don't experience what he experienced/get to the level he was at, if that makes sense haha

[max eisenberg]

i have to stress that lifting is not the way to go.

look into the natural method or movnat (same thing with a modern twist).

[TR]

i have to stress that lifting is not the way to go.

look into the natural method or natmov (same thing with a modern twist).

I know about MovNat. It involves lifting as well, cept with natural substances. It's the same thing... you're lifting weight. Lifting on the other hand is more controlled, and probably more beneficial as far as strength goes to lift with a barbell or dumbbells, rather than logs or rocks. If you prefer both, then that's fine.

MovNat is based around 10 principles: Walking, running, Quadrupedal movement, climbing, jumping, balancing, throwing, lifting, defending and swimming. Of course you can do do all of these, but the most benefit will come from incorporating some barbell/dumbbell lifting into a routine.