Topic: taking that first jump

[silent_rain]

Well let me first start off by saying there is just so much to read and find out about this growing sport (if thats okay with me calling it that)
I am a girl and know there is a boad just for us but figured I might get more responses on here.
anyways the reason I write is I have been wanting to pick up parkour for a few years now. It really has caught my eye as something challenging and very mental. Both which I like.
I will be a junior in college and will also be playing softball. I go to a small school and do not have access to a gymnastic type gym at all. I have watched a lot of videos on training and read some of the formus about diet and exercise.
I want to push my self to train more outside of my softball training and I think parkour might keep me interested.
I know there are many things I cant do that guys can, but I know there are many things I can do just the same when I put the determination into it.
I guess what I'm really getting at is I don't want to train the wrong way or being unsure of things that I might hurt myself and risk my softball career.
Is there any suggestions you can give to training without a group or guide that would allow me to feel safe when training and not worry about a wrong technique or hurting my self?
Thanks

[Muse_of_Fire]

Howdy!

There's nothing guys can do that you can't. It might be a question of degree: a guy might be able to do more pullups, but I'd bet there are plenty of guys out there that can't do as many pullups as you (or at least eventually). Don't sell yourself short.

I would start with the APK WOD; the APK warmup is often workout enough for people and that's okay. You will build slowly to doing the workout. I would guess that a lot of those conditioning moves are familiar to you via softball training so you probably are okay in terms of not hurting yourself with those. If anything is new, there are great step-by-step photos and explanations for every exercise in the WOD on this site. You can just link to them.

With regard to actual "parkour moves," don't try to bite off too much at once. Start with just rolls and short drops (a foot or less). Look at the tutorials for rolls and drops here in the "How Do I Get Started?" article. These will take a long time to get down well, but it's worth the time investment. These are probably the two most important "moves" in the discipline.

As to finding a group, you will have to do some legwork. It may be that you get a group together, and you are all beginners! Given how new parkour is, it's very likely, in which case they may very much look to you to be the "leader" (which is different from being the expert, so don't worry if you don't feel you know enough about parkour yet--be clear that you are all beginners, and put the focus on learning as a group. It doesn't take any parkour expertise to organize a group of people to set up regular training sessions and communicate and make plans.)

What my group and I did was we picked a regular training schedule: same 2 days a week, same time; and then we keep our eyes open during the week for training spots. Every training day we meet at a different spot that we agree on, and then we do the APK warmup, and then mess around at the spot. Most of our stuff is very basic, since we are all beginners. Sometimes we play "Hot Lava" or "QM Tag." Other times we'll set a theme to the training, e.g. precisions or vaults, where we drill those moves in as many ways as we can. We almost always still practice rolls and low drops.

After a while it just sort of happens.

I hope that was helpful! Good luck to you!

[Gregg]

Training by yourself is always a challenge. The APK warmup is a good way to get started. Then you can move on to the WOD, if you'd like. The WOD is insanely difficult some days.
This article will help you Construct workout.

The first parkour skills to learn are the landing and roll.  APK Landing, APK Roll, Team Ukemi Roll video, Eliminate roll bruises.

Watch Jump Westminster to get an idea of how beginners/ kids are being trained in UK. You said you don't have access to a gym. That's ok. Just start off small and safe. Then slowly push yourself to try things you can almost do, but not quite. This is where you have to be careful.

Listen to your body, closely. If you're 'feeling the burn' that's ok. Pain is bad. If you start feeling pain, it's a sign that you're overdoing something, or doing something wrong. Back off on the intensity immediately, and try to figure out what's going on. If you train on an injury, you risk making it worse. Also, the rest of your body has to compensate, so you have to take that into account.

The easiest way to make sure your form is good is to find a good teacher. For some of the basic workout stuff, that should be easy. For the vaults and rolls, maybe your best bet is to video yourself, and then compare it to some of the tutorials available. If you plan to trick [flips, etc.], find a good gymnastics teacher, who can train you in a safe environment under controlled conditions.

Hope that helps!