Parkour Training Progress – Summer 2011

We’re not quite at the end of the summer yet, but it’s still approaching pretty fast.

In June I mentioned I wanted to work more on bodyweight movements over the summer. What I also wanted is to get back into Parkour training. As you may guess, both are quite tied together. I had started Parkour a few years ago for a couple of months, but had stopped because I wanted to focus more on my Martial Arts training at the time. This year I felt a need to go at it again.

If you don’t know what Parkour is, this video should give you a glimpse of an idea.

So, what have I been working on? What did I want to get better at? Here’s a summary:

• Balancing my body
• Pressing my body
• Pulling my body
• Jumping

Now if you think about it, the basics of Parkour play around these concepts. If you can get better at these overall simple skills, learning actual technique will come way easier since physical ability gets more out of the way. Never completely though, because your body and muscles still need to learn the movements themselves.

As time allowed I went and met some traceurs in Montreal and seeing them accomplish their feats, as well as learning the basics from them, got me very motivated.

Given my situation, I couldn’t necessarily train Parkour every single day or workout. For starters, I find it much easier to progress technique when having other traceurs around, and my busy schedule has been giving me a hard time to make that happen as often as I’d like.

Not a big matter, I already knew a few things I needed to improve the most, and the two sessions I was able to go so far have shown me even more. Additionally, some traceurs also teached me a great many cues on how I should approach technique practice when I get to practice solo.

On some of the things (but not all) I’ve been working on, I’ve also filmed myself. Without further ado, here’s a montage of some of the stuff I’ve been working on to improve my Parkour (and overall) performance.

As you’ll see, in the video you can observe progress on the Hanging Traversals and the Double Jump. However, I can tell you I’ve made progress in all of them. I daresay I’ve had more trouble getting as much improvement as I’d like in the Pull-Up/Chin-Up, but that’s been the case for a number of time/years and I know I need still to get better at… getting better at them. I am experimenting with many different strategies in order to make that change and someday I know I will get it right.

On the Muscle-Up I’ve had the chance to educate myself with a video from the Tapp Brothers, which explains very thoroughly a series of progressive movements to build up to it. So far that has shown to help much more.

The traversals I haven’t had the chance to do them in a while, but the progress I’ve made is very positive. All of this work on the rail is also paying off with more hand/pinch strength, which is useful for too many things to list here.

The Double Jump, I’ve done all that progression in the same night, as you may have guessed. I simply set myself to learn the best, most efficient manner to jump up over those two obstacles. I believe the Quality progress to be undisputable.

One Parkour movement I am actively working to learn to get right is the Kong Vault (French: Saut de chat). I believe this movement to be the first, truly scary one I actually started building into.

My biggest challenge is getting to understand how my big, long legs can get under my body and between my arms without clipping the obstacle, if not myself. So far it is proving much more difficult than I anticipated, but over time I have learned of better ways to build into it, which I’m doing now. When I understand the movement, I will get my Kong Vault.

As the Fall and Winter come, I shall be continuing to train inside; there is a Gymnastics gym in Montreal that also offers a special weekly session for Parkour training. I shall go as often as possible in order to make progress during the cold season.

That’s that. I am not in a hurry, but I’m taking it seriously. By following my body and learning in a smart fashion, I shall make impressive progress. Just the way we like it, don’t we?