Topic: Lower leg fracture to tibia and fibula

[Mike Aman]

Date of Injury: 6/14/09
Time of injury: 1:00
2/23/09
Mike Aman
Webster, NY
1/2 year practicing parkour
2-3 hours a week practicing parkour
Other exercise: ~5 hours a week long distance running
Location: Railing on the porch in my back yard.
Conditions of location: Normal (sunny, no precipitation)
What you were doing: Monkey vault into a 6-foot drop
Where any other people involved? No
Spiral fracture to the tibia and fracture to the fibula - 8
Did you see a doctor for diagnosis? Yes
Did you get X-rays or MRI's? Yes
Picture of the injury: None
Could you / how could you have avoided the injury? Possibly, in retrospect I was trying to progress too hastily
Date / type / severity of your last injury? No parkour involved injuries beforehand
Notes on the experience? I was very surprised that a very serious injury could result from such a simple vault; especially at a height of only 6 feet.

[Anne]

Six feet is quite a large drop. I'm going to guess that if it isn't taller than you, it almost is. A guideline I like  to give is: don't jump (or drop) off it if you can't jump onto it. I'm sure you realize that  now, though. Sorry to hear you got hurt - be sure to give yourself lots of time to heal.

[Steven Low]

Pretty much what Anne said. Parkour/FR isn't about taking drops at all. Drops should be generally avoided until you have an extremely solid handle on technique (the yamakasi in France don't do anything more than like knee height IIRC for at least a year).

Good luck getting better!

[Mike Aman]

Thanks for the tips. I'm actually 6'5".