Topic: Wall Flips

[David Peter Palermo]

At What Level Of Experience Should u Start Practicing For a Wall Flip....Meaning.....What Moves should u be able 2 do before u should attempt the wall flip

[Michael Zernow]

Personally i think it's best to be able to do some sort of backflip, either standing, round off, or from height, although i have known several people who learned wallflips before backflips. I think that knowing the feeling of performing a back flip helps greatly in doing wallflips, i attempted to learn them before i could backflip and it was not pretty but after i got backflips down my wallflips improved tremendously and exponentially faster. ALso it helps to be comfortable doing vertical wall runs, getting the feeling of running up the wall will get oyu comfortable running at the surface and dealing with it because it's not somethign one usually does.

Hope that helps.

[Rafe]

It depends if you have safe enviorment to learn in and experienced spotters there is no reason you can't learn a wall flip as your first flip, I have taught 5 or 6 people wall flips this year who had little to no flipping experience. A wall flip is physicall easier then back flip, however it is riskier and more complicated mentally. So in genereall I would advise that you learn backflips first.

[Invisiblex]

well i learned wallflips before i could even kong properly (still cant do a backflip though)
but its best to do it if you have a spotter (spotters)
try on something a bit slanted first, i learned on a tree
but it really doesnt matter what moves you have down first

[silentrushman1357]

hehe, if you're more into the straight parkour thing then get basic movements down pat, like vaults, cats etc...when you get them down you will have a better controling and understanding of your body, then working on flips and such is a good idea. To be more in depth i suggest learning a backflip before a wall flip only because backflips are a bit more stressful on your muscles then wallflips, meaning you get a better workout from them. SO you'll be able to learn wallflips quicker and more smoothly if you already have backflips down.

[ninja-MIKE]

should i practice one or two step wallflip first?

[willgrind747]

I'd like to add one little suggestion.

When doign a flip, always try and do it the best you can. I learned wallflips about 2 years ago and after a while they just became "something i could do" so i dind't put a whole lot of effort into them. this really caused my form to suffern and instead of getting better at them, i actually got worse.

[Unique]

Should'nt this be in the socailize section flip are not pk. Anyway just get some mats about 2 then find a tree in you backyard or near you. Put on mat lying the tree and the other on the ground, then get a rope and tie it to a tree branch. Grab the rope (used for suport) and run up the mat lying on the tree do the flip (while half way into the trick let go of the rope. You should land it and get over the fear of falling. 

[Josh Klute]

It is a movement, the movement section isn't totally restricted to parkour movements .  Of course we probably don't want to have movements like "belly flops" or "toe pullups" (actually toe pullups would be AWESOME!). 

Anyway thankyou for that rope tip, last time I tried a wall flip I totally embarrased myself by falling on the trainer at the gym (he was trying to spot me).  I can usually do most anything when I know I have the security of something, but instead of a tree I will probably start out at the gym, just to be safe .

[Chewy]

Is it just me or does it seem that half of the people at this site are not instead in parkour but just flips?  I hope not, because I dunno how long parkour has been around, and is already getting ruined by a crowd of people only looking for big jumps or cool flips?  I know it didn't take aggressive skating long before it got surrounded by a bunch of amateurs who were always looking for help and getting in the way.  Don't get me wrong, I know that everyone starts out new in everything, hell I'm new in parkour.  But I don't think that flips are the main thing to learn in parkour or for the matter even parkour.  So why is the Movement forum crowded with every other topic being about Flips?

[Josh Klute]

Well, I've never really thought about that.  I guess there are a lot of topics on flps here.  I really haven't worried about it too much because I still can't do any flips.  My guess is that people talk about them so much since they are fairly difficult to achieve.  Though they may not be parkour, the could still symbolize a "landmark" in a persons skill level. 

Of course I have seen a lot of people that can flip out the wazoo, yet they can't do any parkour.  So I don't relly know why flips are talked about so much here, it's probably just the fact that people like to show off.  They may not admit it, but everyone likes to show off at least a little , and what better way to show off then doing a flip.  Of course I could be totally wrong on this, but I'm not exactly the "flip expert" here.  You bring up a good point Chewy

[Kipup]

Back to the original topic:

At What Level Of Experience Should u Start Practicing For a Wall Flip....Meaning.....What Moves should u be able 2 do before u should attempt the wall flip

The ONLY move you need to have down pat before you attempt to do a wall flip is a Standing BACK TUCK.
That being said, I strongly advise you to get to the point where back tucks are nothing/effortless before you start training wallflips.
The reason being: when you learn a standing back tuck, you are inverted whith your center of mass a max. of 2-3 feet in the air, but that extra push off of the wall (when done properly) can cause you to be inverted with your center of mass about 5 feet in the air.
This additional height does two things:
1. It gives you more time in the air, thus causing you to open up to slow down your rotation - something that can be difficult to do without previous flipping experience.
2. It takes you HIGHER from the ground, meaning that if you bomb it - there is more room for you to potentially hurt yourself.

If you didn't read the rest, here's a summary:
 LEARN A STANDING BACK TUCK BEFORE learning A WALLFLIP!!

[Altimot]

well, i haven't learned a standing back tuck yet, and i am so close to getting wall flips that i don't know if it is that necessary for me right now. I just have one question, what do you do if you are doing a gainer into the wall. I used to know how to do them in the gym, but then, all the sudden i started doing gainers into the wall and i cant make myself stop. It looks soo painfull to everybody, but actually it isn't painfull at all, it is just really annoying. I was so close to doing them outside of the gym when i started doing gainers into the wall.

[Josh Klute]

I've started using the rope on the wall for help.  Maybe you should try it too, it seems to be helping me get the basic movement down.

[Altimot]

i have already done that in my backyard a ton. 

[Josh Klute]

Oh, ok, just shoot my adivce right in the heart, I see how it is .................   Seriously though, I think yo ujust need to have one of the "trainers" watch you and help you out.  Maybe if we could get sideburns to give us a few pointers .

[The Manilla Gorilla]

Well seeing how in NYC you can't just go Putting rope on trees, (it freaks people out) i think ill pas son your advice cheetah, although it is good.

[Altimot]

Ya, i was askin a trainer before but he just kind of left half way through my little lesson, lol. He was just kind of like, "oh look a bird!! and walked away". Ill try again though.

The only thing that i worse would be a narcoleptic trainer lol, imagine that...."ill catch...you......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" *then i fall and break my neck, while he is sucking his thumb on the floor*

[Josh Klute]

Thats why we need to get sideburns to help us , he seems pretty reasonable.

[Altimot]

SIDEBURNS MAAAAN  ACTION FIGURE!!! TO THE RESCUE!!     WITH HAIR AND SMELL LIKE PEANUT ACTION!!! 




Anyway, it sounds like a good idea. That guy is pretty cool.