Parkour and Free Running Training Tips

By Andi

In the UK there has been a trend to find a funky name for every movement, and whenever you change a little thing in that movement, find a new name for it.

But the idea of the Parkour is not to perform pre-defined movement, but to know the abilities of your body and adapt to every obstacle.

In this tutorial I will help you to understand the way that the naming of movements was originally done, by the pioneers of parkour.

When you see a picnic table, what do you think about? I bet, most of you will think 'diving kong'. Or a pingpong table will have the same effect. - have you ever rolled over it? Have you ever jumped over it? or to add a little more efficiency and control, jumped up, placed a step on the table, and kept going?

Have you ever tried to do a fast forward lazyvault over it? (I'm using the FRscum terms here so all of you know what I mean). Have you ever thought about other techniques to overcome this obstacle, than the ones you see in vids every day (dash, speed, or kong)?

Many of you will answer 'no'.

Parkour is not performing preset techniques. I remember back when I was in UF, we discussed Catleaps, and some people said its 'wrong' when you land with only 1 foot on the wall. "WRONG". As if parkour was about performing techniques in a right way, like gymnastics.

But my friends.. it isn't. Parkour is about your individual movement. What you prefer, what feels better for you, what makes you faster and efficient.

The following techniques should build a solid base for you to be able to overcome obstacles, and on this basis you should start to adapt to each obstacle on its own, do what is neccesary.

I was in vienna (Austria) training with some guys, and there was this wall, but the top of the wall (where you would put your hands when vaulting) was not straight like ---- but a bit sloped like \ (but not that extreme, maybe 30°) and this one guy said 'ah that wall is bad', I asked why, and he said 'you can't vault it well'. That is the perfect example. You dont need to vault it. you can jump it, you can diving roll it, you can take a step on it, etc... there is always other ways to deal with everything, the keyword is ADAPT.

These movements are just basic movements. You have to adapt them, for every obstacle, every situation. you will prefer some, and you might not like some. you should find out what you are capable of, and train it, so your individual movement becomes more and more effective.

I hope this helps some people.
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andi