Author Topic: Not good at vaults  (Read 1807 times)

Offline J Kyle Smith

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Not good at vaults
« on: February 11, 2010, 08:15:36 PM »
I've been doing parkour for about three months now, and I still can't seem to be able to do that many vaults. I find my strong points being climbing (which is strange coming from a guy who has little upper-body strength and a lot of lower body strength), some jumping (mostly distance), landing and rolling. But the vaults are difficult for me and I have a list of suspects.

One being is that my right leg is significantly weaker than my left leg, not to mention my left foot is about a half a shoe size bigger than my right. I have a huge fear of messing up and getting hurt. And jumping heights is not my thing. And that my flexibility is very stiff.

Of the vaults I have problems on, diving kongs are one (monkeys I can do). And speed vaults I find awkward to preform. Lazy vaults on my right hand, and normal vaults come to me naturally though.

It's a bit embarrassing for a traceur if you ask me.

Offline Sean Au

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2010, 08:34:21 PM »
Same thing here. I've been doing parkour for 4 months now. I can only do the speed, lazy, two handed, and monkey (only around waist height). All you need to do is practice the vaults more. The more you practice, the better you get.

I also have fear of messing up, but f*** that and tell yourself what's the worst that could happen to you if you failed. If you think of that then you won't really be scared anymore, but it's kinda hard for bigger stuff.

Offline J Kyle Smith

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2010, 12:40:39 AM »
The funny thing about fear is that the more you fear the more likely that situation you fear is going to happen, and the less you fear the less likely it will happen. My problem is just learning to filter through my thoughts and ignore the fear.

About practicing, do you know any good exercises to get your body used to speed vaults? I've found some for kong/ monkey vaults, but none for speed vaults.

Offline Sean Au

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2010, 02:32:33 AM »
For speed vaults try doing the vault but tap your outside leg on obstacle and bring the other leg through. Then keep doing it faster and faster then the next thing you know, you've done a speed vault.

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2010, 11:45:19 AM »
I'm performing parkour for about an year and a half now, and when i was beginning, i had the same problems.
here are some eazy tips:

-Overcoming the fear: keep in your mind that the pain is temporary, unless you do something very stupid and get crippled for the rest of your life. I remember i feared falling after the dash vault, and never could do it right, until i hit my knee in the iron bar i was vaulting, i fell and couldn't run for a week, but when i healed, i said to myself: "i only fell because i was afraid, and i won't let it happen again". Almost never missed it again.

-diving kong: try to keep your arms straight and push yourself forward, you will push yourself upwards if you do this, so your knees will pass far from the bar.

-speed vault: try training vaulting one-handed, this will give you confidence to do it, then start trying to speed vault over bars or walls that are not higher than your waistline, and go increasing as soon as you feel confortable with the wall you're vaulting at.

Perhaps these tips won't work for you, but for me it was just like that.
And try to increase your "upper-body strenght".

Peace.

Offline Mr.WWII

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2010, 02:07:12 PM »
Learning the Kong I think is a matter of obstacle. Some obstacles are going to be far more daunting than others. If you can find anything on the spherical side, like a boulder, it could help cause it won't have and hard edges. And definitely don't learn it on a rail or super thin ledge, you want a nice big surface to plant your hands. A good way to practice is, let's say you're on a picnic table, to run up do your dive and plant your hands, but bring your feet on to the table. Keep doing this, trying to get your feet further on to the table, until you are not scared of the approach and dive anymore. After this, your fear might be just minimal enough to fully commit.

Offline J Kyle Smith

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2010, 08:45:01 PM »
Thanks guys all of you. Each of you gave good advice, I will be sure to incorporate it into my training. Please give me any more advice if you have any more.

Offline Hazim Salem

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2010, 08:55:35 PM »
My advice:

Progression.

A number of months don't count unless you train seriously on a daily basis. I've been training parkour over 5 months now, and I just got my lazy vault near perfection 2 days ago. I've got my diving kong down a month before that; because I trained the kong more than the lazy.

I hope this opens your eyes. ;)


Offline jp2ykz

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2010, 09:11:55 AM »
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet but...

Conditioning!!

Work on your flexibility, lower body strength and upper body strength. This will pay off for you in spades.
Konging low stuff is stupid. Just jump over it. Or just do a cool flip over it.

Offline Travis S

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2010, 11:51:00 AM »
It was a long time ago but I think the second day I started doing parkour I did a kong over a picnic table, if your body is strong let go of the mind and just do the move.

Offline jp2ykz

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2010, 12:09:17 PM »
Yep.

I was naturally strong and agile coming into parkour too but allot of people here don't really have a good athletic background.

One of the biggest things for allot of people will be general strength and agility.

I just remembered something that I use to do for agility early on. I posted it on a different thread but it may be pretty good here to.

Foot work dancing (for lack of a better term) Just hop around on the balls of your feet kind of like a kickboxing stance. Then just quickly switch which foot is forward do some fake outs find where your arms give you the best balance. Move in all directions, spin to your left and right with different feet forward, jump spin in both directions. When you are doing this try to keep your flow good and smooth (music may help.) If you are stumbling then you still need work; you can slow it down if you need to. If you get it down then try to speed it up!!

 
Konging low stuff is stupid. Just jump over it. Or just do a cool flip over it.

Offline Impulse1990

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2010, 08:09:32 AM »
Kongs eventually will come with practice just gotta get over the fear and know your not gona get hurt if you do it correctly.

Offline J Kyle Smith

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2010, 09:15:12 AM »
Good news is that I am slowly coming over the fear of doing knogs, I think doing monkey vaults helped a lot. Bad news is that I can only vault with selected hand/ leg placing so it's difficult for me to do various 1 handed vaults, such as speed vaults.

Offline Black Sheep

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2010, 12:11:55 AM »
Since there's already a topic for it I'll post here. Lol. I'm having issues with clearing my right leg when using my right hand on vaults in general and when I use my left it feels...um...uncomfortable I guess? . I'm brand spanking new to PK, so its probably I'm just not use to it yet, but I'm looking for advice to help improve myself. Thanks.
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Offline Mr.WWII

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2010, 05:25:58 AM »
Since there's already a topic for it I'll post here. Lol. I'm having issues with clearing my right leg when using my right hand on vaults in general and when I use my left it feels...um...uncomfortable I guess? . I'm brand spanking new to PK, so its probably I'm just not use to it yet, but I'm looking for advice to help improve myself. Thanks.

yea man just keep at it. We all have our dominant sides, switching to the other will always seem uncomfortable, but through enough repetition it becomes normal just like the other.

Offline Black Sheep

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2010, 08:52:31 AM »
Okay, thanks.
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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #16 on: March 25, 2010, 10:33:25 AM »
yeah vaults are a big thing, i can jump straight over a rope and lunch (waist high) and i can do a lazy vault (couch broken enough to prove it) but the kong and one where you jump over and push your hands underneath you (the name has slipped my mind) are the things i have trouble with (and i can't find a good practice place) there's these trash cans at school every time i see em i really want to try to vault them but i never find the right moment.

Offline J Kyle Smith

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #17 on: March 25, 2010, 12:28:38 PM »
yeah vaults are a big thing, i can jump straight over a rope and lunch (waist high) and i can do a lazy vault (couch broken enough to prove it) but the kong and one where you jump over and push your hands underneath you (the name has slipped my mind) are the things i have trouble with (and i can't find a good practice place) there's these trash cans at school every time i see em i really want to try to vault them but i never find the right moment.
The vault you're thinking of the dash vault I believe. If you're having trouble with konging and dashing I would recommend for you to go to a local gym (a gymnastics gym) during open gym nights. The equipment there is perfect for gaining confidence in your movements, it helped me a lot with gaining confidence in my kongs.

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #18 on: March 25, 2010, 02:20:34 PM »
The vault you're thinking of the dash vault I believe. If you're having trouble with konging and dashing I would recommend for you to go to a local gym (a gymnastics gym) during open gym nights. The equipment there is perfect for gaining confidence in your movements, it helped me a lot with gaining confidence in my kongs.
yeah i think i've heard of a place with open gym a few nights a week. the line lunch rope is getting old anyways

Offline Ryan Thomas

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Re: Not good at vaults
« Reply #19 on: March 31, 2010, 09:17:01 AM »
yo, u used to be lk kinda good at vaults but thenj winter came and i took a huge step back >.< im in the same boat as u now
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