Topic: Techniques in Parkour

[zayn]

PARKOUR!!! thats better 

[Travis S]

Point A: Building door. Point B: Picnic Table. Goal: To sit down. Path: Run up high in straight line. - Parkour
Point A: Picnic table side 1. Point B: Picnic table side 2. Goal: Make room on side 1 for friends. Path: Vault over picnic table.

Wait, so wasn't vaulting over the picnic table the most efficient path in that scenario? Your point A and B don't have to be great distances apart. Wouldn't doing parkour mean being able to get over the picnic table in the most efficient way possible? And if so, wouldn't that require a traceur to have a bag of tricks at his disposal to manipulate to the situation? And if he hadn't drilled those specific movements would he feel comfortable in choosing one? Why isn't practicing specific movements parkour? If they are the most efficient way to move over an obstacle and will be applicable in the future, they are a great addition to your abilities and integral to your practice of parkour in the future. Individual objects present as much potential for the application of parkour as do the linkages of many. Actually, you need to feel very comfortable in surpassing single objects to be able to get over many in a row. I don't see the obsession with what to call parkour practicing, why not call it practicing parkour, you are learning how to get over obstacles and hopefully correcting your movement each time to make it more efficient. This is parkour! You are moving efficiently and you set point A and B. To move in this way you need to know specific techniques and how to change them. So practice parkour, move efficiently and don't worry about always stringing everything together, that's not the only part of our discipline. Is a traceur not someone who does parkour? If you practice parkour and you move efficiently through the paths you choose, you're doing parkour my friend, even if point a and b are within feet of each other.

[Mitch Rhoden]

Well the problem with it being diluted by the media is that everyone will stop looking at the mental part of it. If it goes on espn2 then people will think "o hey i can do that" jump a fence and think they are "doing parkour" if this goes on for long enough parkour will really cease to exist and we will have another event for X games or something like that. If you want to think of the big picture, after we are all gone, and this espn2 rehash of something great has been around for some time, people wont know what it was we were really doing. We will be looked at as "skateboarding without a board" and something that used to have a lot of meaning will be dead. in its place will be something that wants to be parkour but never will and its just messing up peoples perspective of it... phew whata rant

I would have to respectfully disagree. This is exactly what the skaters thought of the X-games, and it ended up being extremely positive for skateboarding in the end. I can see what you are saying, and i hate seeing youtube video after youtube video of kids doing monkey vaults over rails down 10 foot + drops. And it kinda sucks that that is direction many american kids are going with parkour, but as long as YOU are doing parkour the way YOU want to, nothing else really matters.

[Deon Gordon]

People don't practice FOR karate why practice for parkour? Why cant point A be one side of a fence and point B be the other?

[Jerald Donald Konkel, aka JDK]

People don't practice FOR karate why practice for parkour? Why cant point A be one side of a fence and point B be the other?

Exactly..... and why can't point A and Point B be Situational.... as in :

Point A: being chased/ chasing
point B: get away/ catch

or

Point A: unsafe situation
Point B: Safe situation

the path we take and destination we get to doesn't matter.... as long as the Desired result is achieved.

[Adam McC]

Exactly..... and why can't point A and Point B be Situational.... as in :

Point A: being chased/ chasing
point B: get away/ catch

or

Point A: unsafe situation
Point B: Safe situation

the path we take and destination we get to doesn't matter.... as long as the Desired result is achieved.

I'm afraid I couldn't possibly disagree more, both figuratively and literally.

The path we take is everything. Figuratively, its all about that process that we take to become better. The only end we ever truly reach is death, if that's even a death.

Literally, going by a desired result mindset is a good way to get hurt and injured. Ends justify the means? No thank you.

Its all about the path. Efficient or not, a to b or b to a or a to z and back to j. Its a method of training in which we become better in whatever way we're aiming for. More fit, more able, more wise, more fun, more friends, whatever we're aiming for, that process that takes us to our perpetual goals is what I like.

[Jerald Donald Konkel, aka JDK]

I'm afraid I couldn't possibly disagree more, both figuratively and literally.

The path we take is everything. Figuratively, its all about that process that we take to become better. The only end we ever truly reach is death, if that's even a death.

Literally, going by a desired result mindset is a good way to get hurt and injured. Ends justify the means? No thank you.

Its all about the path. Efficient or not, a to b or b to a or a to z and back to j. Its a method of training in which we become better in whatever way we're aiming for. More fit, more able, more wise, more fun, more friends, whatever we're aiming for, that process that takes us to our perpetual goals is what I like.

I don't know what I was thinking..... I understand and totally agree with you..... (not being sarcastic) Its like one of those times where you say and do something then turn around and look at what you said and done and think to yourself..... "what was I thinking"

the "Ends justify the Means" point you brought up made me think that I sounded a little to much like a Sith.... when I am a Jedi, just got swayed to the dark side for a second there..... I have to be more mindful in the future.... 

[BaptizedByFire]

Point A: being chased/ chasing
point B: get away/ catch
or
Point A: unsafe situation
Point B: Safe situation

I think you were on to something here. Reading this, I can't help but think how unsafe is the situation? Life and Death? If this is the case, you'll have the adrenaline factor like when you hit a big jump for the first time, except multiply that by a thousand.
What it will boil down to is your technique. not technique(S). Knowing how to vault or roll is fine, but when your flight instinct is kicking in the only tool you'll be able to access is muscle memory. "A rookie does something until he gets it right. A pro does it until he can't get it wrong." -Don't remember who said it but he was smarter than me.

[Jerald Donald Konkel, aka JDK]

I think you were on to something here. Reading this, I can't help but think how unsafe is the situation? Life and Death? If this is the case, you'll have the adrenaline factor like when you hit a big jump for the first time, except multiply that by a thousand.
What it will boil down to is your technique. not technique(S). Knowing how to vault or roll is fine, but when your flight instinct is kicking in the only tool you'll be able to access is muscle memory. "A rookie does something until he gets it right. A pro does it until he can't get it wrong." -Don't remember who said it but he was smarter than me.

well I remember David belle said.... "first just do it, next do it good, then do it good and fast,  now your a pro" ......or something along those lines

and yeah, I've been in a couple situations were I had adrenaline pumping and I did stuff where I look back now and think.... "where did those reflexes come from...." or "man did I run fast." but yea..... the technique i think is hard wired into our brains, in our ancestor memory.... we just don't exersise it enough for it to be natural..... but when that adrenaline kicks in somehow those instincts just "happen" without us thinking about it...... we should strive to attain that on command.... like you said.... into the muscle memory

[Vinh2012]

I don't know what I was thinking..... I understand and totally agree with you..... (not being sarcastic) Its like one of those times where you say and do something then turn around and look at what you said and done and think to yourself..... "what was I thinking"

the "Ends justify the Means" point you brought up made me think that I sounded a little to much like a Sith.... when I am a Jedi, just got swayed to the dark side for a second there..... I have to be more mindful in the future.... 

haha cue the "Vader" theme, but seriously though, i think it's more like you have a distance between two points and if you have the right mindset, the way to get from A to B just comes naturally. i'm pretty sure that's a key point of parkour.

[jtbrown121894]

Thanks for the aninaligy

[Raymond]

Thank you, Asa. I finally fully understand what parkour is. I'm new and I feel like I need the training and basic understanding of all these movements before I'll aquire the ability to use them freely and instinctly.

Practice has to come first, right?

[Austin"Yoshi"]

loved it amazing anolagy :]

[TheNewbIAm]

omg i understand this you dont practice parkour parkour is a state of mind AHA

[John Amos]

Nice job with this post, everyone needs to check this out!

[Joe Brock]

Not that it is any help...but this whole "what is parkour" thing makes me think of someone coming into a boxing class and saying that pushups aren't boxing.  What they're saying is totally valid, and also totally missing the point.

[Nick5]

ok, so i can do many vaults with my left hand on whatever im vaulting...... but not my right:(
any tips?

[Sheldon]

Hey, I'm new to this website. I would like to get some information on how to personally train my buddies. I created a parkour team and would like for them to learn the techniques at a reasonable rate. What should I do?

By the way, very good point dude.

[Jesse La Flair]

11 of what I think are the best Parkour tutorials on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/LaFlairParkour#grid/user/AC90ED58CDC8A748