Parkour Helper: "So I'm a traceur, now what?"

Welcome to Parkour Helper

2011-02-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

People can get frustrated pretty easily when they are trying something new for the first time. Somehow, we expect ourselves to be absolutely perfect at the things that we are just starting out at. Certainly, it doesn't feel great when you can't get something on the first try, but it shouldn't be something to discourage you. Instead, you should learn from your mistakes and make yourself stronger.

Of course this sort of advice could be pulled from any sort of self-help book checked out of a library, so why am I mentioning it? It's simple: people want to try parkour. And, many of them will find that it is not as easy as they had hoped. Having been there, I want to ensure that these sorts of people don't lose hope in their attempts. Parkour is something that absolutely anyone can benefit from.

That's why this site exists.

I'm no professional. You won't see videos of me floating around youtube with a million hits and I haven't been featured on any late night talk shows. What I have been though, is in your position. Wanting to try something new and wanting to get good at it.

Parkour Helper is here to help you with that as best as I can. Here you will find plenty of articles to help you get off your butt and on your way. My content is user-catered. What that means is that I reply to the questions you ask. I do my research, I look through real experiences, and I select the best answers for you.

If you want to see an article specific to your interests, you can always email me at parkourhelper@live.com.

Good luck in your training!

It's Winter Time

2011-02-10T10:52:00.001-05:00

That's the way the seasons go: we're back to winter again.

Winter is a tough time for training; for most people, training outside is not much of an option if you live in an area prone to ice or snow. There are persistent few who wish to continue their training outside during winter, and I applaud them. To train in winter shows some great determination and requires more mental effort and alertness than regular summer or spring training.

If you're training outside, be careful!

If you choose to train outside, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Mental alertness and determination as previously stated is essential. With more difficult terrain and more dangerous circumstances, a traceur must be constantly on the lookout; area checks (which you always do anyhow, right?) and precaution are required to keep from careless injury from ice and other obstacles that come with the wrath of winter. Determination is required because of the increased strain, both physically and mentally.

The way you dress will affect your movement (look HERE for some more information) and the rate of exhaustion during your training; burdensome boots and restricting jackets make it difficult to maneuver and cause easy exhaustion. This increased rate of tiring makes it hard for you to want to continue, but you must do so in order to progress; that is why winter is hard on you, but it is worth it. Just be safe.

Or, you can go to a gym!

For those of you who are more careful or unsure of their ability and choose not to train outside for any number of valid reasons, also need to keep a few things in the forefront of their mind. It is easy to forget about training, and it is easy to slowly seep away from regular activity in winter, and it is hard to keep a regular training and conditioning schedule; I know it just as well as you. While you will not be able to work on your technique as much due to the restrictions of winter, you will work more on conditioning and toning your body.

Try going to a gym: be it some nationwide fitness chain or an independent parkour gym, you'll want to stay in shape.

Physical fitness is one of the three keys to aid progression in parkour; without it you will not advance beyond smoothing out a technique. During these dreary months, work on some calisthenics and plyometrics but don’t just do them for the sake of doing them, do them until you know you have accomplished something. You may stay in shape and that is fine and well, but in order to move forwards you have to push yourself. It will hurt and be hard, I will not butter it up for you but if what you want is to progress and have better ability come parkour season that is what I suggest.

Regardless of your choice, remember to train safely. Do not train until it hurts, I meant merely that it may hurt (mentally and physically); training should not cause injury if done right. Be wary of your surroundings and what you are doing, train safe, and try to have fun.

Training Green

2009-06-21T13:27:00.004-04:00

I'm not here to talk about how you should get environmentally friendly clothing to train in or how to lessen your carbon emissions while training (of course, everyone is already doing their part... right?). I'm here to talk about escaping from the concrete jungle and training in our natural habitat: the greens.

Woods and forests might sound a little pansy to many traceurs - people thinking along the lines of: "where are the nice gaps? What about all the railings? Show me some walls and levels!" - but I have a few things from my own experience for you to consider.

It feels so much better. There is something about escaping from the monotonous grays of the typical cities. Training parkour, in a philosophical sense, hosts a fundamental interest involving your interaction with the surrounding environment. Ask yourself right now, which is going to feel better: concrete corners or wooden branches; pavement or soil; scraped knees or muddy shoes.

Okay, so maybe you aren't entirely for the aesthetics of training. Maybe this whole 'it feels so good' talk isn't what turns you on. Well let's look at the physical and mental aspects of training then. Consider adaptation.

Everyone has to admit that there is a fair degree of repetition in a cityscape. Eventually it seems as if most of the 'new' structures you come across in your travels are far from new, the seem like they are just replicas of other training environments. What degree of adaptation is available to you in these circumstances? I'm not saying that you cannot find new things to adapt to, but rather that they become limited in scope. It is all so familiar.

Now consider a new forest or wooded area. Each one is almost entirely unique in structure. Each arrangement of trees and rocks and creeks and brush opens up a new opportunity. It could be argued that the variation in the placing of these things in a forest equals that of a city or other populated area and therefore there is just as much possibility for adaptation in each location. I note this. But I disagree. Having trained in both areas I find that there is more ability to train your mind to cope with adaptation in a forest than in a city block. Really though it is up to you to decide which is your stance.

I speak of adaptability training in a forest or green area, but how do you go about doing it? I have one favourite drill/exercise for this, and it is very easy. You run, and you run fast. Pick out a starting spot and just run as straight and as fast as you can. You'll find yourself thinking quickly to overcome those upcoming obstacles: watching your footing, deciding in a split second whether to vault or roll under a fallen tree, how to most efficiently get through a tight knit section of trees and branches. This kind of training works both the mental and technical aspect of your training as well as testing your physical ability and endurance. This training is difficult to replicate in a city because of the way that cities are partitioned and segregated in blocks and areas. It's hard to find a location where you can just run for awhile with obstacles that constantly pop up without having to seach or aim for them.

So we've looked really quickly at two of the three main areas of parkour (technical, and the mental or 'spiritual' if you will) and we are left to consider physical training, that is to say simply the brutalic weight lifting and such exercises.

If you have never heard of the MovNat training program, I suggest you give it a look. At the bottom of this post is a teaser video of the training program. MovNat is based on Georges Hebert's La Methode Naturelle training concepts and emphasizes training the seven main calisthenic (body weight) movements in natural settings. This type of training can be easily done in a forest or wooded area. For weights you have rocks and fallen trees whose forms are irregular and help train stabilizing muscles. If you want to train more along the lines of simple calisthenics such as push-ups and pull-ups, it is just as easy to vary difficulty. Consider pull-ups on a wider branch to work the forearms more, elevated push-ups on soft soil, or sprinting up a steep slope.

I think that green training is absolutely great. It is way more enjoyable and at the same time demanding in my eyes. However I recognize that this article will not cause traceurs to immediately jump up and down in anticipation to train out in the wilderness (and that some may not have access to such resources). All I ask is that if you have the opportunity, give it a try. Don't take my word on it: never take my word on anything as the absolute truth. Just get out there and try it for yourself - see how it feels.

(Recognize any of those movements?)

Confrontation: Audiences

2009-06-02T15:33:00.010-04:00

Having spoken to the issue of confrontation with security guards and curious passerbys and how to explain what you are doing, I thought I would speak to the other confrontation: the silent one; the audience. This iss about those people simply watching you practice, or perhaps they are commenting on what you are doing, but not in a constructive or curious mannerism so much as one that instills a sense of nervousness and/or fear.

So what do you do when you are being watched?

Well first we have to understand the possible outcomes of having an audience. These are the main five I have come to think of:

The first thing I would identify is paying too much attention to what you are doing. You are made nervous by the presence of an audience and you doubt yourself, you fear making a mistake and - because you are second guessing yourself - you do make a mistake.
The second thing is paying too little attention to what you are doing. You think about the audience more than your technique: where to place your feet, where you should take off, how you should grip the railing et cetera. You make a mistake or a miscalculation and you get injured.
Thirdly, I would say again paying too much attention to what you are doing but also paying to little attention to what you can do. You get pumped up a little about having an audience and work to tailor to what they want: a really sweet show. So you go to try some bigger gaps, a harder vault, a longer wall run, and you don't think about your limitations. Sure you might make some of them, but you can also easily hinder your performance in the short or long term.
The next posssibility is that in which you are able to ignore the audience on your own and go about training as if they weren't there. You might make a few minor mistakes and you hurt your pride a little, but you end up okay in the end.
You step up and confront them on your own accord.

Let us rule out the first three scenarios immediately. It is not to say that they don't happen and that they will not happen to some traceurs at some point, but rather that we want to strive to do better than that. They can be hard habits to break I know - I'm not some robot spewing out articles: I've been there too (some where between scenario one and two for myself) - but I'll suggest an alternative solution shortly that I find helps me a lot in avoiding victimization of those first few cases.

Obviously I could simply say "ignore them" as in the fourth scenario, but that wouldn't help most traceurs. Ignoring an audience isn't easy to do for most people, especially when you are training alone. Trying to ignore them can bring yourself inadvertently to becoming victimized by one of the first three cases. So I say don't ignore them, toss out that option completely unless you are confident that you can continue at the level at which you are training without interruption. If you can on your own ignore them, then by all means do if you want, but I prefer scenario five.

My favourite is scenario five hands down. You confront the audience. You're polite: say "hi" and introduce yourself, ask them if they know what you are doing, what they think of it - consider explaining it to them if they don't know. A few things can come of this: you can spark an interest in parkour; you could satisfy their interest and they may leave you be; you may find that they are an authority whom will ask you to leave that site (be nice and comply); you might get a new training partner; they can walk away before you get close enough to talk; they might make requests and demands.

Which leads us to another aspect of this confrontation. If the audience through one means or another comes to demand you do things for their pleasure, how do you deal with it? I have said that ignoring is out of the option for most scenarios – and I do feel the same toward this – but how do you confront them in a way that will have them let you be? We know that you can only say “no” so many times, but I suggest that you say it anyhow until the point comes where it is evidentally futile. If they demand you do something cool like jump that huge gap or do a backflip off of that window ledge, say no. If you can’t do it, don’t try it.

If you are continually pestered though, I offer another solution, one that I didn’t present in the above list of possibilities: you walk away. Come on, if you are getting haggled like that why should you stick around? Certainly there must be more than one place to train in your area (there always are more place to train), why not move to another one for the time being? You can return any time later.

I know this has sounded like a parental talk about stranger danger or something similar, I just want to stress that safety is key and that audiences tend to take away from the safety in an area: as lame as it sounds. Certainly with maturity and capability you can come to ignore or find means of getting around audiences on your own – these are only suggestions – just remember to play it safe out there. You can’t train nearly as effectively with a broken leg.

Confrontation

2009-05-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

So it's nearly inevitable: you're training someplace with some other people - or maybe by yourself - when you are confronted. Perhaps it is a security guard letting you know that you cannot train on that property (to which you politely consent naturally as it is his job) casually inquiring as to what you are doing; maybe a concerned parent wondering if you should be doing these things in front of a child; perhaps it's just a pedestrian wondering what you are doing. What are you going to say?

"Yes, I'm doing parkour. Basically we jump off stuff.
Have you seen Casino Royale? Yeah it's like that."

No, you don't say that, because that would be entirely wrong and give a false impression. In other articles I try to stress the maturity required in practicing parkour - you need to recognize that your actions affect all traceurs; traceurs that make fools of themselves give a bad image to the face of parkour, and the same can go for a person who accidentally mis-describes the art.

So what do you say then? You say what you feel. It is almost steriotypically corney to suggest such a thing but I mean it in all seriousness. If you are practicing parkour to the extent that you are here on my pages reading my advice, then you care about parkour. If you show your point of view to those asking, they might come to understand it properly as it is. Here's how Mike aka Skittles defends himself:

"Personally I've been using this: PARKOUR: A form of Movement with a strong Mental Discipline attached, that teaches that no obstacle is insurmountable, either mentally or physically."

Does it work? Certainly. It reduces parkour to a few lines without taking away some of its depth. Certainly it is not a flawless explanation, but it works and it is short: easier to swallow than a five minute long explanation. I suggest a few things when trying to describe parkour.

Take your time: don't rush into an explanation without thinking it over. You shouldn't be standing there drooling but neither should you bark out a definition unless you have it thought out and/or have used it before.
Keep it short: keep their attention. Don't turn it into a lecture. When I ask someone what they are making for dinner, I don't want the recipe. Keep it short enough that they can pay attention to it but still learn from it.
Emphasize safety: try to squeeze it in there somewhere. One of the larger misconceptions about parkour is that it is deathly dangerous. Certainly it is dangerous, but many things are. It's important that they know that we are approaching parkour safely. We don't want to be labelled as reckless.
Be polite: even if they are about to kick you out of one of your favourite training places. If you aren't polite to them then they have no reason to want to let you stay or train. In a world as legally oriented as our own we can't afford to lose training places (well we can, but it isn't fun). Don't spit an answer in their face or ignore them.

Once again prior to closing off, I want to emphasize manners. When getting kicked out of a location, be nice; in the very least it might unsettle them that you are being so pleasant while they are trying to be mean and gross and kick you out. We have to respect that almost all the training areas used in the world are privately owned and that we have no permission to be there. If they let us be, so be it but recognize that when you are told to get out you should oblige. Apologize to them and maybe even let them know what you were doing, try to get them on your side. That way, even if you lose training grounds you can earn street cred.

The best thing for a traceur is positive media. With all the "skateboarder" stereotyped traceurs hitting up YouTube and similar places, it is essential that a true traceur distinguish themselves in a positive manner in order to gain respect for all trainers.

We are crazy but we aren't stupid.

Tracking your training

2009-05-19T16:24:00.003-04:00

From: *************@hotmail.com
To: parkourhelper@live.com
Subject: Kudo's
Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 17:32:47 +0800

Hey PicPac.
I stumbled onto your site and found it really useful.Your articles on gear and media are rather inspiring and i decided to take your suggestion of starting a blog to keep motivated to train. Its a work in progress but i reckon i'll be able to run with it (no pun intended). So keep up the good work mate.
-Mike
http://flying-skittles.blogspot.com/

A while ago in an article focusing on how to keep motivation in training I suggested people start a training blog. Unfortunately my own personal training blog is long gone to the depths of the internet, so I cannot set much of an example that way. But apparently some people have taken the advice and have taken to trying it for themselves.

Mike is one of those people as seen above. He contacted me by e-mail with this beautiful message linking to what will become his own tracking of training as well as other things. Currently he is just starting out but has already posted a review on a new pair of shoes he got as a pre-birthday gift, his opinion on the "parkour park" controversy (which I fully agree with) and some more tidbits. I ask you to take a look at his blog if only to inspire him to keep in his own training and to say hi to a fellow traceur. Though hopefully you might take a leaf out of his book and track your own training.

TRACKING YOUR TRAINING

Tracking your training can be mundane at first: writing down everything you've done - how many reps of what, what gaps you made, what you need to improve on. However it is a very useful tool if you plan on doing parkour and indeed any form of athletic training for a length of time.

Why should you track your training? Motivation and comparison.

1 - Motivation: I tracked my workouts over the course of the summer and found myself feeling more obligated to train because of it. Even if you don't take the extra stretch and show off your training to other people, it still feels like you have some form of audience you have to appease - even if it is yourself. This causes you to push on and continue your training. I'm sure we have all hit one of those snags where you tell yourself "I won't train today, but I'll train hard tomorrow to make up for it," only to have tomorrow keep stretching into the future. I admit to it fully! When I kept a little journal of my activities though, I could see that gap in time and it made me feel kind of bad - so I would get back on track easier. If you are finding yourself hitting a motivational block - I fully suggest you try it.

2 - Comparison: Relating again to my own personal experiences, I have had times where I wonder why I've been doing the training I have been - it just didn't seem to be taking me anywhere. During my tracking, I was able to look back on previous days and fitness levels and see the difference in my physical ability - strength, endurance, flexability, stamina, etc. Furthermore, I was able to look back on the individual activities and see which ones seemed to do the most for me and which I needed to work on: if I could do 80 push-ups at the start of my training and only 90 a month later, yet had doubled the reps in my abdominal count - I know that my abdominal training has been worth it but maybe I need to focus more on being able to do more push-ups or find alternatives to that exercise. If you find yourself not needing motivation, then maybe the ability to compare is a reason for you to try tracking.

Of course, all this techinical tracking stuff isn't to deter from the fun of training and practicing. By all means it can add to it (though I respect that many of you can't see how). It adds another dimension as you try to outdo yourself, as you get better and better and try new things. If hyperactive children and confused/angsty teenagers can find writing in a journal attractive, why can't we do the same?

As always, feedback is appreciated. Happy training, PicPac

Spot Checks

2008-11-13T17:48:00.002-05:00

I have been picking apart forums and communities to attempt to find what subjects I have yet to cover (aside from basic tutorials which I mean to work on once I can afford a quality camera), and found nothing worth note. Thus I turned and looked instead to my own training and community to find what readers and aspiring traceurs should note; and I was surprised.

Very few traceurs in my area perform spot checks, insisting instead to go right ahead and begin training. While no injury has resulted of yet, I know there are dangers and possibility of injury lurking at each area we visit to train at that we should be checking for.

Spot checks are very simple: you check the area that you are training in to ensure such things as safe foundations and sturdy supports, broken glass or other sharp objects that could cause injury, nature of the grip and texture of the ground and obstacles, all simple little things that take sparse moments to check but that traceurs are ignoring.

In real life situations where you are using parkour to escape or stay safe, obviously you will not have the oppertunity to check the areas you will plunder through; however, we are simply training and there is no need to avoid making ourselves and our surroundings as safe as possible.

Some things I like to check for are:

Broken glass and other objects that may injure you if you fall wrong or grab the top of a wall (even pebbles can leave a traceur injured in some circumstances). Simply sweep these objects away with care, out of the way of your training.
Foundations: are the walls cracked or the ledges showing signs of disitegration (ie has debree obviously fallen off?)? Check also any railings you may try to vault: are they firmly rooted in the ground?
Structures: are they slippery or are the ledge's edges sharp enough to cut a hand? Has there been any rainfall or dew on the objects that could make them slippery or elsewise unsafe?

This simple check takes virtually no time and can save you a great deal of time and health down the road. Once you identify any dangers in the area you can clear them out or remember to ignore them later, rather than have a ledge crumble, glass cut your hand open during a climb or cat grab, or slip off of a rail on a precision.

Safety is always key.

Simple Motivation Tips

2008-10-23T19:35:00.003-04:00

Winter is approaching and at least here, it is getting pretty messy outside. The dreary atmosphere and unforgiving conditions may make it difficult to maintain motivation and continue training. Winter is not the hardest time for traceurs, it is Spring: when everyone realizes how out of shape and form they are due to a lack of activity in the Winter. Here are a few things that I have found helpful to do when you begin to run low on motivation:

Relate where you are now to where you want to be. When you can "see" how accomplishing one task will bring you closer to that goal, it becomes easier to get motivated. Break big goals into smaller ones so that they don’t seem so overwhelming. Visualize this and know that with a little motivation and effort, you can accomplish it.
Create "to do" lists to give yourself a place to start (and a place to end). Cross items that you have completed off your "to do" list. Doing so will give you a sense of accomplishment, which should motivate you to tackle the next thing on your list. Reward yourself when you have accomplished what you set out to do. A simple piece of paper on the wall will suffice. The satisfaction that comes from reaching a goal and crossing off one more thing is well worth it and will continue to push you forward.
Start a journal or blog online. Open your training up to the world and you feel a little obligated to post. When you get people commenting on your workouts etc it helps you keep your level of motivation up. This is also a good way to track your progress. I suggest you use Blogger for this; it's easy to use and has a great network (I'm using it right now!). If you start a blog, send me a link and I'll promote it or visit it and comment frequently.
Train every day. One missed day may not seem like a lot but it can cause you to completely lose your motivation. One day turns to two and you think "I can do it later". I know this through experience, and chances are you do too. So train daily and make it part of your routine.

Wall Runs and your Rear End

2008-10-17T21:35:00.002-04:00

Being both a traceur and a rock climber, I know a fair bit about butts; when you stand under someone belaying or watch someone try a wall run: you get a good eyeful. One thing that I’ve noticed in both instances is that people like to show off their bums, sticking them way out there; this is bad.

Well, not so much bad as not good. Let us start with references to rock climbing as a prelude. Many people struggle because they do not properly use their legs: they do not get the most efficiency out of them and as a result cannot reach further or get tired quicker. Once I instruct them to utilize their legs more, the most common problem becomes where they stick their butts.

The bum and your general waist area is where your center of gravity and the middle of your body is. When you straighten out a leg, it extends through where your waist and butt were, pushing you away from your foot. If my foot is to the right and my butt is firmly over my left leg, I will be expecting to move to my left when I push off, unless I accommodate and move my butt around.

Examine the following skillfully drawn picture with care. Upon examination you will find a rather lean individual on a rock climbing wall. The person, who we will call Joe for no reason other than to avoid anonymity, has his butt a fair bit off of the wall. Joe’s current problem is this: he cannot reach the next hold from where he is.

So Joe decides that he will push up with his legs, straightening them out and increasing his reach. While Joe accomplishes this, he wastes energy. As seen in the picture, Joe’s choice location for his bottom means that he is pushing away from the wall as much as up, and he has to compensate for this by pulling in with his arms. This is a waste of energy and can lead to early exhaustion; furthermore, had Joe placed his rear good and tight to the wall, but over to one side, he would push horizontally more than vertically and not gain nearly as much height as possible.

So how does this apply to parkour?
One complaint you hear from people is that they can’t seem to get enough height from their wall runs. While you will require strength training and plyometrics in order to increase your ability, you want to maximize your potential by working on your technique. The following is an extremely brief definition of the steps involved.

As you approach the wall, you want to plant your dominant foot around waist height on the wall. The reasoning behind this is simple: any lower and you miss out on potential inches, any higher and you lose energy trying to get over your foot. Continue into the wall until you are almost kissing it, and then push up with that planted foot. I also like to add an additional tap with my hand as I go up for spatial reasons and because the motion causes my body to swing a little more into the wall and promotes greater height.

So where does all the talking about bums come into play? The second part: “Continue into the wall until you are almost kissing it, and then push up…” This is an aid to help you get nice and close to the wall. Remember that rock climber? Right now you are that climber getting ready to push up: the further out your butt is, the further backwards you will go (and you don’t have a lovely handhold to keep you close to the wall). So the goal here is to get right up to the wall before you push off to ensure the most vertical extension possible at your current fitness level.

There you have it: how to use your bum to get more from your wall runs.

Push yourself with Gauntlets

2008-10-12T12:19:00.001-04:00

The last article emphasized how rock climbing can be used as a complimentary training regimen for parkour, as well as a way to generally increase fitness. Today we follow that up with an exercise called named the Parkour Conditioning Gauntlet (or Gauntlet for short), which is also meant to compliment parkour training. In modern day terminology, the word ‘gauntlet’ is often used in reference to a long and trying course involving a sequence of difficult tasks that challenge both mentally and physically. The traceur “Demon” of www.americanparkour.com decided to create a circuit of exercises echoing this definition, which used everyday obstacles in the environment in challenging ways order to aid in a traceur’s development. To quote from the original article:

A Parkour Conditioning Gauntlet, or Gauntlet for short is a conditioning method to improve your parkour fitness. Gauntlets are planned courses through the environment that convert walls, parking lots, rails, trees, and other obstacles into exercise apparatuses. Gauntlets involve many different challenges and exercises done in a sequential and continuous manner until the predefined course is complete. Ideally, Gauntlets should be done with others so that you can push each other through as best you can. The typical Gauntlet is a mentally and physically grueling course that lasts around two hours. During this time, there should be no screwing around, no lagging, and no distractions in general. Gauntlets are for mental and physical training and should be done with great focus and motivation. Gauntlets should be done at least once a week and every week to supplement other strength and conditioning training. Each week, the Gauntlet should be tweaked and the difficulty increased. This will prevent boredom and promote continual improvement.

Most traceurs do not condition and prepare their bodies properly to withstand the great impacts and forces that are accumulated from doing parkour. While Gauntlets are not a solution on its own to solving this problem, they are a good supplemental training method that can be done anywhere and at any time. I have found Gauntlet training to be highly beneficial and enriching to my own personal parkour training. Not only is it empowering to design your own course to condition your body using walls, rails, trees, and more, but many of the exercises performed in Gauntlets also specifically enrich parkour skills. I can think of specific instances in my own Gauntlets where I have developed increased strength, endurance, creativity, technique, flexibility, and more. Because of these reasons, I believe that every serious traceur should design and engage in a 2-4 hour Parkour Conditioning Gauntlet once a week.
~ Demon

Basically, a Gauntlet is an extremely difficult obstacle course for traceurs in which natural obstacles found in the environment are used to challenge a traceur to utilize elements of parkour and supplementing exercises in order to better their physical health and endurance. I've begun to look around my city for a few adjacent areas where I could set up a gauntlet for myself and my fellow local traceurs; so far there are a couple possible locations, but the majority are too heavily secured or distant. There is not much more to be said other than what has been, and I doubt I could do it any better than the original author, so I will leave you be with a few links.

Original Article: HERE
Sample Gauntlets (varied difficulties): 1 / 2 / 3

Rock Climbing and Parkour

2008-10-10T23:54:00.000-04:00

When asked about alternative conditioning options for parkour, many new traceurs will receive an answer along the lines of “Rock Climbing.” While some may view rock climbing as a purely physically beneficial practice, I beg to differ.

Rock climbing. I expect that the majority of you will not require a definition for something so self-explanatory, however for the remainder of you: rock climbing is an activity in which the participants climb rocks. Now that we have the definitions aside, let us get into what it is to me, and why I have decided that it has such value that I should dedicate my time to write about it.

I am a rock climbing instructor at my city’s local indoor rock climbing centre. My job consists of general gym maintenance, providing advice on climbing technique and etiquette, belaying for individuals and groups (simplified: belaying is the act of removing the slack from a climber’s rope to ensure that in the event that they slip, they do not fall) and teaching others to belay. However article is about how to improve your ability, not how I make my money.

In regards to the physical aspect of climbing, it is obvious that it is just as good of a workout as any. It is one of the few sports or practices that actively work your finger, forearm, foot and grip strength along side the larger more common muscle groups such as your legs and back. This aids in wall passes and a fair few moves in parkour, aside from just the muscular endurance and strength. Some of the more experienced rock climbers are able to support more than triple their bodyweight with one hand or a few fingers, just from climbing experience alone. This is one angle that allows me to fit rock climbing into my fitness regimen, however complete fitness is not limited to the physical.

One of the secondary reasons I decided to get in shape was to better myself in my parkour training. Parkour takes more than just brute strength or agility (as mentioned in previous posts); there is a lot of mental work too. Before I began working at the climbing centre, I was deathly afraid of height; the slightest changes in altitude could break me apart. However after spending time exploring my limit, and repeatedly assuring climbers that they were safe citing facts and test results, I gradually began to gain control of my fear and as of this day no longer have a phobia towards it. In the mental world of parkour a traceur is constantly faced with difficult situations, and if a traceur has never faced fear they likely haven’t trained very hard at all. It’s key to be able to define your limits and nudge yourself out of your comfort zone, overcoming your fears in a safe controlled manner. Rock climbing helped me gain control of my phobia, and I have been able to expand that new talent to parkour to overcome my fears.

Another thing I have acquired through my experience in rock climbing is the ability to push my limits. Being able to push myself past my comfort zones is a good trait to have acquired, but being able to push yourself to go harder and try more challenging feats isn’t always the same. While the two may go hand in hand and are near assimilation, there is a slight variance, at least in my mind. There is the ability to overcome a fear (for example’s sake, try a precision from a considerable height), but there is also the ability to push your self further (jump further from that height or to a smaller target). In the bouldering area (bouldering is rock climbing without the aid of ropes) of any indoor gym, there is a huge choice in paths and selection. The choice to go high shows the ability to overcome a fear, but the ability to choose to go high while avoiding those jugs and buckets (terminology for rocks that are easy to hold onto, usually with a depression or hole in the top for easy grasping) and using more chips (extremely small, thin rocks) shows a willingness to try for something harder and stray from what you would normally do. The latter shows not only a willingness to complete a goal, but to make it a challenge so as to avoid repetition and work harder to push themselves. Without the willingness to push oneself a traceur will quickly plateau, becoming a one trick pony, never advancing.

With the aid of rock climbing, I am able to push myself mentally to work myself harder and try new things. That is why I personally recommend rock climbing as a complimentary workout/activity for parkour. While my experiences will likely vary from yours, I suggest that you try it at least once: give it a chance.

Dear Beloved Readers

2008-10-09T20:13:00.002-04:00

I.O.U. One post.

(Likely tomorrow)

The delay is due to a couple of reasons:
1) Really hectic time here, and being the only writer: it's tough getting time to write.
2) I am not hearing many new questions. I have gotten a request for an article on flips which is a little difficult but coming along.

So please, if you want more articles comment here with your question.

My apologies for the delay; I know only two posts a week as it is, is quite minimal.

Ladder conditioning

2008-10-05T12:19:00.005-04:00

Many people want to try and build up strength quickly; consider the options, get strong fast, or get strong slow: which seems more appealing? To increase your ability in strength training you need to perform repetitions in a sufficient amount - enough to allow the body to learn how to perform the exercises in a skillful coordinated way. There is a problem though - if you cannot do many repetitions in the first place, it will take you a lot longer to increase your strength. So how do you get a great enough repetition volume to allow you to get better quicker? Consider ladder training.

1) Ladder Conditioning: The concept of ladder conditioning is quite simple. You start your activity/exercise by doing one repetition, then rest. Follow this by doing two repetitions and rest again. Each time, you increase the exercise by one repetition: the rest intervals should be just enough to allow you to complete the next "rung" of the ladder. When you cannot complete the next rung, rest a few minutes then start from the bottom and try again. This style of training allows you to increase your repetition volume. An example is as follows:

Perform 1 rep of the given exercise
Rest a few seconds
Perform 2 reps of the given exercise
Rest a few seconds
Perform 3 reps of the given exercise
Rest a few seconds
Perform 4 reps of given exercise
Rest a few seconds etc.

"In a normal workout, our neophyte trainee may manage for example an initial set of 7 pull ups, a second set of 5 and a final set of 3 to give him/her a total workout volume of 15 reps. More volume (repeated efforts) is required to improve the skill of the pull up but insufficient strength makes this a difficult task.

Using our previous trainee as an example again, our beginner client manages to ladder up to 5 reps in the first set - giving a rep total for that set of 15 (which is normally the total for their whole work out.) After 90 seconds rest, they perform ladders again and reach a high of 4 reps - giving a rep total of 10 reps and on their final set managed 3 reps giving a rep total for that set of 6 reps.
So, in total, our trainee will have completed 31 reps of pull ups - 16 reps more than they could normally have achieved!"

2) Horizontal Ladder Conditioning: This is a simple variation of the ladder conditioning that spans a longer time frame; sometimes used for more drastic results for those starting from minimal prior ability. Whereas normally the rungs are spaced within one period, they are in this case spread over an extended time frame. An example of this is a variation on one of the "How to get to X push-ups in Y Weeks!" type workout.

EXAMPLE
Day One: 5 reps every ten minutes for two hours.
Day Two: 10 reps every ten minutes for two hours.
Day Three: 15 reps every ten minutes for two hours.
Day Four: 20 reps every ten minutes for two hours.
Day Five: Rest
Day Six: 20 reps every ten minutes for two hours.
Day Seven: 25 reps every ten minutes for two hours. Etc.

Rest when required, you will know. The day after the rest, do the same number of reps as the previous day. In regular ladder conditioning you would repeat the ladder in multiple sets throughout a time period, increasing the repetition volume each time; this repeats over days and days, gradually building up to reaching the higher rungs. In horizontal ladder training there is a definitive goal; a certain rung to be reached each day.

There are other variations that you can come up with: experiment and have some fun.

Can I do parkour?

2008-10-02T15:54:00.001-04:00

This won’t be a long post, but I have felt the need to address this question due to the frequency of its asking. Regardless of the forums or communities that I browse as a member, there are always posts from people asking

Can I do parkour?

…adding specifics such as weight, age, height, gender and even sexual orientation (!).

Parkour is not defined as belonging to anyone with a certain amount of skill or physical fitness; anyone can do it if they work hard enough.

Consider one of the definitions of parkour: “To move with the most possible efficiency and speed from one location to another”. This means that if you are late, catching a bus and you hop over a fence or park bench, you have just done parkour! Of course the levels at which you see it in most videos requires a great deal of training and usually surpasses jumping over a park bench, but if you work hard, it is achievable for anyone with the right mentality.

YES! YOU CAN DO PARKOUR! Age, height, gender and weight all mean nothing; it's your physical ability (developed through training), positive mentality and a willingness to try that let you go far in parkour.

Have some fun with your training

2008-10-01T21:11:00.003-04:00

Training doesn't always have to be the gloomy monotonous thing that I sometimes make it out to be. In fact there are lots of things you can do to spice up a good training session. Here are some games and activities played in our group meets:

Tag/Manhunt: As simple as they get. The good old fashioned games from our childhood brought to new life when played in the midst of a bunch of professionals. I suggest you play in a dense area filled with obstacles to really challenge yourself and work on your parkour technique. (Basic rules for each are HERE and HERE respectively)

Grounders: Another blast from the past kids game that hones in on your ability to maneuver as silently and as efficiently as possible as well as some maneuvers and techniques such as precisions. Ensure that the structure is public property so as to avoid trespassing issues and nasty people telling you to get lost. Also ensure that the structure is smaller to increase difficulty. You require a lot of people for this as well to ensure that the person who is "it" does not remain so for hours on end.

The "it" player must start from a determined point, and give a full 10-count before beginning pursuit; The "it" player must be blindfolded/unable to see (If the "it" player is caught peeking, they must start again, returning to the original start point and counting to 10).
If the "it player touches another player, that player becomes "it"; If the "it" player calls "Grounders" when another player is on the ground, that player becomes "it". If a player is on the ground, and jumps when "Grounders" is called, he must land on a structure to be safe. Landing on the ground counts as a tag.
No player is allowed to physically strike the "it" player with anything. If a player DOES strike the "it" player, it counts as a tag and that player is "it". Players are allowed to make any non-physical distractions they like, as long as it does not interfere with the other players: ie no non-"it" players are allowed to hold another non-"it" player, for use as a human shield or otherwise. Violation is punished by the player becoming "it" -
All disputes are decided by general consensus of all impartial players.
If a player who is "it has been "it" for more than 20 minutes, and has still not tagged a player, "Mercy" may be called by any player, including the "it" player, and a new player is nominated. It is then up to the other players whether or not the "it" player may continue playing.

Add-On: Adapted from the bouldering version of the game, the rules are quite simple. One person picks an obstacle and performs a move over it; the next person then matches it and adds on another maneuver (does not have to be on same object); the game continues indefinitely - or until everyone is tired. Try this in an object-dense area for the most fun and least running. Try to keep moves at the level of your least experienced traceur for fairness sake, or allow moderations of maneuvers.

H.O.R.S.E.: This game is a little more risky for parkour as you don't want to push your teammates past their ability. Our parkour team knows everyone's limits pretty well and plays as such, however I don't suggest playing it in a group with a great range of ability or where the people aren't too familiar with their own ( or others') limits.

"The object is to not accrue the five letters in the word "horse".The first [traceur] calls then performs a maneuver, then player #2 must duplicate it under the same guidelines. If player #2 misses, he receives the first "letter" from the word "horse" (in this case - an "H"); this continues through the rest of the [traceurs] until player one again: who once more makes a call. When player #1 misses his called maneuver; then player #2 is now free to call a maneuver and, if successful, force the other players to try and duplicate it. A player is knocked out of the game once he has enough letters to spell out the word 'HORSE.'"

There are many other games I am sure, and if you leave a comment with your favourite activity for training or an idea, and I will add it to this list.

Increase your long jump distance

2008-10-01T19:18:00.002-04:00

A great deal of jumping is required to adequately perform parkour. As such, any traceur should be willing to add any tips and tricks to their arsenal on jumping ability. While a previous article has commented on jump height and length through exercise, there is a method to increase jump distance that is based solely upon technique:

Lean forwards.

I thought that an optimum angle of take off for the most distance would be forty-five degrees – a combination of height and distance, but I was wrong. A couple guys have extensively studies the long jump and have found some interesting results. The optimum angle for take off is between twenty and thirty degrees!

CHECK IT OUT

Some additional thoughts.
I stumbled upon this article through a friend on an online parkour community who placed it under the heading of “How to improve your precision”. Some interesting debate arose and a fair few traceurs decided that this will not increase your precision ability. Their arguments being quite simple: no-one will think about this in a real life situation, only when posed in practice with considerable time to think and contemplate the jump; more than distance is required for a precision, a traceur requires an element of control among other things that this technique may diminish; finally they argued that plyometrics and leg strength training would do much more.

The opposing side argued in response to these. No-one in a real life situation would consider regular parkour moves with efficiency; the moves are imposed upon them through training, as can this technique. The added distance does contribute to ability though, and control can be improved on outside of this field – it is not dependent on distance. Plyometrics and strength training will increase your ability, but the technique identified will help to juice the most out of that ability.

Obviously you can see my bias; I feel that any little bits that can work towards improvement are worthy of consideration and while the article may have required a different title than chosen, the facts are legitimate and the overall can be applied to precisions regardless.

Is parkour hard on the joints?

2008-09-29T18:33:00.004-04:00

"Is parkour and free running hard on the joints? I've considered training for it but I just want to know, exactly how bad are these practices on your joints? Like... In the future, would you need a knee transplant or something?"

Yes, and if anyone tells you else-wise they are lying. One of the issues of recent with parkour is that the media has blown it out of proportion to the point that people are associating it with dangerous jumps and exquisitely breathtaking stunts. Newer traceurs see this and consider it a sign of achievement that they can jump and land from twelve or thirteen feet in the air with "no pain". No pain they say; that must be a good sign. These jumps are dangerous; while you won't feel the impact right away, you will defiantly wish you reconsidered it in ten years when you need a walker.

1) Start slow. Too many new traceurs feel the need to jump right into parkour and try the big moves; in all actuality, the best progressive traceurs started out with weeks to months and even years of extensive conditioning in order to get their bodies in shape.

2) Jump low. You need to condition your joints in order to allow them to take greater falls. While it seems like a bore, try doing little drops from two or three feet: a thousand times a week. I know many of you won't commit to that, but in order to keep yourself the safest you can be you must condition yourself.

Researchers and top traceurs agree that you shouldn't be jumping from anywhere over your head level for the first year or more, in order to allow your joints to prepare for the excessive impacts. I do recognize the truth however: that many of you will disregard this warning, and I can accept that because I did the same when I started. Keep in mind when training though that while we may be crazy, we aren't stupid. Train smart and safe or you may pay for it later.

Underbar Help

2008-09-28T13:50:00.004-04:00

I am afraid of hitting my butt or bak off of a bar on underbars and I want to improve at them even though I am kind of scared of them. Is there something I can do to help this?

Underbars are a little difficult to manage; squeezing through tight spaces without hitting your back off of them takes some practice and control, but how do you practice this when you have a phobia of hitting something off of the bars?

I use masking tape. The process is quite simple:

1) Find a good place that has two vertical bars or walls topped with a horizontal bar that could be used for chin-ups or pull-ups (allow for space on either side so that you can actually swing through). When selecting a spot, aim for trying places with different bar heights; the horizontal bar is the bar your hands go on, and thus you are practicing for different levels of underbars. I personally like to go to playgrounds around elementary schools which sometimes feature structures like the below attached to the main jungle gym. Otherwise I will also use the end of a monkey bar structure among other countless possibilities.2) Pull out your trusty tape of choice (I use masking tape as it leaves less of a mess) and tape a line across the opening under the bar. This will act as your lower boundary or bar; the space between the tape and the horizontal bar is where you will swing through. This way if you do hit your back off anything, it will be the tape and you will suffer no injuries.

3) Practice your underbar until you are comfortable with it at that height and knowledgeable that you can successfully complete an underbar in an area of that size.

4) Decrease the swing space by raising the tape. Continue practicing again until you are comfortable, then raise the tape again. Repeat until you have maximized your potential and minimized the area required for your swing.

5) CLEAN UP YOUR MESS. Discard of any tape and remove any residue left on the structure. Respect the property and the public so that they will respect you.

CLICK HERE to view a video demonstration by Demon of American Parkour's "Demon's Drills" who posted an article with this concept in it and brought the idea to my attention. I suggest masking tape over duct tape as it leaves less of a mess to clean up.

How do I get sponsored for freerunning?

2008-09-27T08:39:00.003-04:00

I have been doing Parkour for about a year and freerunning for almost just as long. I am starting to look for some sponsors but I have no idea on how to do this. I did some research and it says start with small in town companies and work up from there. I understood that but don't know how to apply or what to look for as in for a company. any help or advice?

From a potential sponsors position, you don't have too much to offer right now. Free-running is not a business, there aren't competitions or events based around it (well in all truth, Urban Freeflow has hosted one, but it was exclusive and open only to highly profiled members of the free-running community). You have to find a way to make a business off of free-running in order for the sponsor to gain advertising and thus want to sponsor you.

Consider selling yourself out as a street performer if you are good enough. That way you can perform at some venues and parties et cetera as a bit of a side show. For example if your city has parades you could go in them and show off some free-running, and build up to performing elsewhere such as local halftime shows. It may be easier too if you have friends around the same level, then you could have a little crew and make a business that way.

What I'm saying is that sponsors sponsor people for a reason, advertising. If you don't have something to offer them, what would the have to offer you?

I hope that didn't sound overly negative, I meant to give as much positive feedback as I could. I just want you to understand your position and consider what you may have to do. Sponsors aren't going to give you money or gear etc just because you can do eloquent wall passes or backflips.

Summary: You have to be able to say, this is what I can offer you (advertising, showing the public that the sponsor works positively with the new generations and is willing to invest in and support new concepts etc) in order for them to offer you anything back.

Can I use parkour to get in shape?

2008-09-25T22:20:00.002-04:00

The answer is both yes and no.

Parkour can deliver a fair degree of workout if you are willing to put in a great deal of effort in your training sessions. Parkour however will not by itself get you in a great deal of shape, it is the conditioning moves and practical workouts that will help you beef up. Parkour can help though; if training in the right way you can get a fair endurance workout out of it. The training in parkour mostly emphasizes skill and mastery of technique, learning to utilize your strength in different ways and applying them to different situations. Thus the practicing of certain techniques will help you to gain control of your muscles; working under a variety of circumstances and situations, you will gradually help your muscles to learn how to excrete the most power in the most efficient way possible. Quite simply, parkour will help you tone your muscles and get the most out of your current physical shape.

My suggestion as such is that you continue to (or begin to) workout separately from parkour; both compliment each other in order to improve your overall fitness, but you won't get significantly stronger through parkour alone. To quote from The three keys to getting the most out of parkour:

You are not going to improve in parkour if you don’t work on building your strength and endurance. If you can wall pass a twelve foot wall once, you can do it again and again and again [...] only strength and an increase in physical fitness will take you those extra feet, technique no matter how perfect can only take you so far.

Even if you are outside six or more hours daily practicing and making a lot of "progress" on the technical side, you aren’t pushing yourself or your body [...] after all the training technically to control the way you move, you will still be out of shape, without any power behind your movements and have poor endurance skills [...].

[...] there comes the point where you have to realize that all your time spent training the technical portion of your moves is not going to make you any faster, stronger, or have increased vaulting or climbing abilities. You will never significantly advance if you don’t begin to exercise and work out.

Kong (monkey) vault help

2008-09-25T15:52:00.003-04:00

Today's post is quite simple. I'm working on a larger post and also on compiling some video tutorials, though the latter isn't working out as well as I had planned due to device capabilities and malfunctions. For the time being, I will go back to the site's roots and work on answering some questions I have received. Today's post is on the kong or monkey vault.

"I started doin parkour/freerunnin but dont know where to start some vaults like the monkey vault i dont dare do cuz i keep thinkin i will hit my legs on the obstacle and go face first"

I had the same problem when I started on them, as did many people I suspect. It is harder to explain this without a video, but I'll try anyhow. (eventually I'll have a video tutorial for some of the moves up on the site; hopefully within the next month).

The way to learn any parkour move is to work at learning the technique in chunks and progress through the move. Learn the little bits and get comfortable with them before you tackle the whole enchilada. For your monkey vault as an example:

START with a wall or rail that is a few inches shorter than your nipple line ( or lower if you feel uncomfortable with that height) and place your hands on the object about shoulder width apart. This is how each step of the progression will start.

ONE: Start with your hands as mentioned, and keeping them there just jump up and tuck your knees into your chest at the top of the jump. Try and get some good height as this will help with your comfort level. To recap: your hands should remain in the spot, and you should just be jumping up and down, tucking your knees into your chest to get the most clearance possible. When you are comfortable with this and feel that your height is adequate, move on.

TWO: This an intermittary step that can be skipped, though if you want to boost your confidence you can try it: Do the same thing as number one, but lean forward and tap your feet off the top of the wall or railing, to get a feel of your height. If you feel that maybe you aren't getting enough height, re-evaluate your jump style and work on improving number one; then come back and try again.

THREE:Now you are going to do the same thing as in number one, only this time you will land on the object (which is why I would prefer a wall less you've worked on some precisioning). So jump up and try to tuck in those knees, look at where your feet are going and put them there, between your hands. AT this point you will find that it is comfortable to let go with your hands when your feet hit, this is fine. Do this step over and over, not until you feel just comfortable, but until you are confident.

FOUR: This is another intermediate step. If you are practicing on a wall or other thick object, you may wish to work on getting closer to the other side. To do theis you lean into the jump more and swing your legs through a bit; your hands will likely come off a little earlier. If it is considerably thick, you may wish to consider putting your hands further in, but this will mean you have to jump at a lesser angle and you may wish to try step one again with this new angle to get comfortable.

FIVE: Heres the final one. When you jump up pull a little bit with your arms to get yourself closer to/over the object. Instead of the middle or closest part, this time aim for the absolute edge of your target and at the last second give an extra bit of swing (but keep your legs tucked long, elsewise extending them too early you may catch) and push off with your hands. There, you've made it over and done a monkey/kong. If you didn't, well it takes practice so go ahead and backtrack a bit to find where you went wrong. Later you can work on cleaning up your landing, getting more distance, getting over higher obstacles with monkeys, diving into a kong for lengthy or thick objects etc.

After all this, remember to focus on the move; if you think you're going to fall you might do just that because you concentrated on falling, not succeeding.

Parkour in survival situations

2008-09-21T10:26:00.001-04:00

While browsing the internet like I do, I came across an interesting article that caught my attention because of its similarity to some of my beliefs. The article by Thomas Couetdic emphasized the importance of utilizing and training in other practices in order to benefit your parkour as it relates to real life situations. Here is something for you to think about and consider.

The practical use for parkour is to get from point A to point B as fast as you can in order to escape a bad or dangerous situation et cetera. However I (and Thomas) also considered adding to this: if you want to escape, what happens when the pursuer doesn’t want to give up? Parkour will not be enough; in this instance it is the escape survival techniques learned, fighting skills among other things that will help you end up on top.

"How useful are you to yourself if you can do a nice and cool jump in a confortable urban environnement but you can't walk 20km in a mosquito infested jungle ? Unfortuantely, that's the case of most Traceurs (aka Parkour practitioners). Most people train in extremely confortable situations, they have water, food, weather-adapted clothes and they can go back home at any time if they get tired, bored or injured. In the winter they train in gyms because they don't like when it's cold. At no time are they forced to face a difficulty, it always remains a matter of personnal choice."

~Thomas Couetdic

If you are doing parkour in order to better yourself in any situation involving life threats or the sort, then you should make yourself useful in a variety of supplementary skill sets. In any real life situation it is the combination of parkour and acquired skills that will help you survive.

Motivation and Effort.

2008-09-18T22:57:00.003-04:00

There is a problem with the world today: we are all lazy. Sure there are those of us who will choose to run 50k a week as a minimum, but are we really trying? Simple examination will show you that very few people in this world are really trying and putting effort into what they do. We seem to drive towards a certain goal and once we reach it we sit there contently doing only enough to keep our heads above the water.

There is a deficit of energy and willingness amongst us; it has become almost a human trait. We as traceurs face this problem just as much as the next person. Many of you know through your training that you will condition until you feel a little tired, or practice technique until you get bored of it. My question for you is: how far do you think this will get you? The addition of effort and will power into any activity will aid in your progression; you have to find some motivation within yourself, a willingness to push forward.

It doesn't matter what your current fitness level is; regardless of whether you can do ten, fifty or two hundred push-ups you will not progress further without the addition of effort. You have to be able to push yourself that extra step: one extra kong, another set of dynos, one more minute of skipping; once you finish that, do it again. Force yourself to be your own coach, motivate yourself saying "only one more round; ok maybe another right now, I think we can handle this" and pushing your body that extra step. Obviously this needs to be done carefully to avoid injury, but everyone should be working to be able to push themselves past their limits.

No matter your level, no matter what gifts you may possess, you won't experience progression without effort and a little motivation.

Looking ahead to Winter

2008-09-18T19:34:00.000-04:00

Winter is approaching as many of you know. The air has become brisker and the temperature slowly begins to decline. While we are still a fair ways away from it, it might be good to think in advance about how you will work on your parkour progression in the upcoming months.

Winter is a tough time for training; for most people, training outside is not much of an option if you live in an area prone to ice or snow. There are persistent few who wish to continue their training outside during winter, and I applaud them. To train in winter shows some great determination and requires more mental effort and alertness than regular summer or spring training.

If you choose to train outside, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Mental alertness and determination as previously stated is essential. With more difficult terrain and more dangerous circumstances, a traceur must be constantly on the lookout; area checks (which you always do anyhow, right?) and precaution are required to keep from careless injury from ice and other obstacles that come with the wrath of winter. Determination is required because of the increased strain, both physically and mentally. The way you dress will affect your movement (look HERE for some more information) and the rate of exhaustion during your training; burdensome boots and restricting jackets make it difficult to maneuver and cause easy exhaustion. This increased rate of tiring makes it hard for you to want to continue, but you must do so in order to progress; that is why winter is hard on you, but it is worth it.

For those of you who are more careful or unsure of their ability and choose not to train outside for any number of valid reasons, also need to keep a few things in the forefront of their mind. It is easy to forget about training, and it is easy to slowly seep away from regular activity in winter, and it is hard to keep a regular training and conditioning schedule; I know it just as well as you. While you will not be able to work on your technique as much due to the restrictions of winter, you will work more on conditioning and toning your body. Physical fitness is one of the three keys to aid progression in parkour; without it you will not advance beyond smoothing out a technique. During these dreary months, work on some calisthenics and plyometrics but don’t just do them for the sake of doing them, do them until you know you have accomplished something. You may stay in shape and that is fine and well, but in order to move forwards you have to push yourself. It will hurt and be hard, I will not butter it up for you but if what you want is to progress and have better ability come parkour season that is what I suggest.

Regardless of your choice, remember to train safely. Do not train until it hurts, I meant merely that it may hurt (mentally and physically); training should not cause injury if done right. Be wary of your surroundings and what you are doing, train safe, and try to have fun.

Parkour shoes

2008-09-14T14:06:00.011-04:00

I will in time, add more reviews to this page. If you would like me to review a specific shoe, leave a comment below.

“What shoes should I wear for parkour?”

One of the most commonly asked questions in the world of le parkour, and one of the hardest ones to answer. There isn’t a definitive shoe that will suit anyone, and there isn’t any single shoe that is best for parkour.

Parkour shoe diamonds can be found in expensive brands or in cheap discount bins; there isn’t any shoe that stands out as best. Obviously if you are here reading this, you don’t want necessarily want to hear that, you want me to do the work and find you some decent parkour shoes. So be it. I have scouted forums and communities looking through the reviews of hundreds and thousands of traceurs, compiling reviews to determine which shoes are most commonly used and reviewed; and the results are in.

Scoring system.
To properly access the shoes, there has to be some grading system. After scouring many forums and communities, I have decided to use eight criteria for scoring.

Grip: How well does the shoe stick to surfaces? Shoes intended for parkour should have a considerable amount of grip in order to aid in wall runs, tic-tacs, precisions and the like. To score high in this category, the shoe must have a good grippy sole that will not wear thin too easily.
Fit: How snug is the shoe? Some shoes such as skate shoes have loose fits, allowing for the foot to move around within the shoe a lot; in parkour, you want to shoe to fit nicely to your foot to minimize room for injury and increase control levels. The better the other reviewers’ fit descriptions and opinions are, the higher the score will be.
Comfort: This will vary from traceur to traceur, but you will want a general idea of how a shoe is going to feel. To grade this I looked at all the shoes reviews and looked at how traceurs thought the shoe felt as they wore it. Obviously the higher the comfort is, the higher the score will be.
Weight: In parkour, you want a nice light shoe; one that you could forget was there. Chunky and clunky shoes may hinder your performance and can be physically taxing. While durability shouldn’t be sacrificed for a light pair of shoes, you don’t want to get a heavy pair by any standards. The lighter the shoe, the higher the score.
Flexibility: Many maneuvers in parkour that require your feet will require some amount of flexibility (for instance, a wall run), and you want your shoe to be able to allow that. A shoe that scores highly under this category will be flexible enough to allow for freedom of movement, without sacrificing safety or durability.
Durability: You want your shoe to last. When researching shoes and their reviews from traceurs, I look at how long they have been worn and how they are holding up. While you should never spend much on a pair of parkour shoes, you don’t want to unnecessarily be buying more pairs of shoes because your others have worn through. A shoe ranking high here will last a little longer.
Cushioning: This is a little trickier to score. A shoe for parkour should provide some cushioning to help the lesser experienced handle drops and falls (shoes with substantially less cushioning demand near perfect technique), but should also allow the traceur to interact with their environment. A good score here will be a happy medium between the two extremes.
Other: This takes into consideration other miscellaneous details such as pricing (prices will not be listed as they vary too greatly), shape and make of the sole (flatter soles are better for precisions and control; one piece soles are more durable), traceurs’ personal remarks and brand reliability.

As a final note, when viewing score cards for each shoe there will be two numbers for each category. The first number represents the impression and opinion that I have developed through examination of the shoe and various reviews; the number in brackets represents the average score as represented by the general reviewing community.

Reviews.

Asics Gel-Evolution II

Grip: 8(9)

Fit: 8(8.5)
Comfort: 9(9.5)
Weight: 9(8.5)
Flexibility: 7.5(7.5)
Durability: 6.5(8)
Cushioning: 7.5(8)
Other: 7(8.5)

Score: 78(84)%

While the shoe is light and is considerably comfortable, with a good grip and a nice fit, it seems to fall behind in some of the other categories. The mesh takes away from durability as it can easily tear during any extensive training. The multiple pieces that make up the sole seem to be begging to be torn off and it hasn’t been reviewed as too flexible. Asics also tend to be a little pricey.

UnderArmour Proto-Evade

Grip: 7.5(8)
Fit: 8(8)
Comfort: 8(9)
Weight: 9(8)
Flexibility: 8(8.5)
Durability: 7.5(7.5)
Cushioning: 9(7.5)
Other: 8(9)

Score: 80(82)%

Being rather new to the market still, these shoes are a little pricey, however they seem rather functional. The grip could be a little better, but the overall response from the few traceurs who have tried this shoe has been great. One of the reviewers has suggested that you use another pair of running shoes for running so that this one doesn't wear out too quickly, and with the current price being what it is that may be an idea to consider.

K-Swiss Ariake

Grip: 8.5(8)
Fit: 8(7.5)
Comfort: 8(7.5)
Weight: 8.5(8.5)
Flexibility: 9(8)
Durability: 8.5(8)
Cushioning: 7.5(8.5)
Other: 8(7.5)

Score: 83(80)%

The reviews on this shoe have been the most puzzling, with some people absolutely in love with it and some who want to shoot the creator. What I have heard from the sources is that it can be a little pricey, though it can also be cheap if you look in the right places; it has been incredibly durable and able to withstand great abuse, though sometimes there are little problems like eyelets breaking off. Some other questions of concern are aimed at the toe which is a little longer and to some, a little uncomfortable, but general reviews were rather pleasant to the shoe.

La Sportive Slingshot

Grip: 8(8.5)
Fit: 9(9)
Comfort: 9(9)
Weight: 9.5(9.5)
Flexibility: 9.5(9.5)
Durability: 8(7.5)
Cushioning: 7(8.5)
Other: 8(8.5)

Score: 85(87)%

The Slingshot is a force to be reckoned with according to the sparse reviews I have seen from traceurs. With grip almost comparable to the patented 'Stealth Rubber' of 5.10 and a great fit, comfort and flexibility it seems like the shoe would be a great success for any traceur looking for a parkour shoe. There are a few downfalls though: for newer traceurs, it isn't the best choice as it is a little thin on cushioning and good technique is required, though it isn't sparse on its padding; they last for a year and a half on average if you expect maximum functionality, though they can be used for longer; finally, they are no longer being produced. That's right, the slingshots are now only available through resales; however La Sportiva has two other near identical shoes title the Fire Blade and the Race Blade which come highly recommended by the same traceurs who reviewed this shoe.

FiveTen Savant

Grip: 9.5(9.5)
Fit: 9(9)
Comfort: 9.5(9)
Weight: 8.5(9)
Flexibility: 7.5(8.5)
Durability: 9.5(9)
Cushioning: 9(9.5)
Other: 9(9)

Score: 89(91)%

Almost every reviewer of this shoe was ecstatic. Made by FiveTen, this shoe features the patented "Stealth Rubber" - an extremely grippy non-streaking rubber. The shoe is light, though there are lighter; it is moderately flexible though some reviews have lead me to believe that there is something more to be desired here; it seems to endure well and fit nicely. One source suggested a downfall is that it is perhaps overly cushioned and suggests that their Daescent model is lighter and more flexible, with FiveTen's Freerunner fitting somewhere in between.

Puma California

Grip: 8(8)
Fit: 9(9)
Comfort: 8.5(9)
Weight: 8(7)
Flexibility: 7.5(7)
Durability: 8(9)
Cushioning: 7.5(8.5)
Other: 8(8)

Score: 79(82)%

There were only two reviews for this shoe by traceurs and both seemed to like it a lot, thus I reviewed it. It seems to be a cross between a skate shoe and a functional runner. The fit is stated to be rather snug with the shoe itself is apparently quite light. Another bonus is that it is apparently quite cheap, widely available and there are many colour options. The only thing I would question about the shoe is the actual durability, as I can't see it lasting much more than a year.

Vibram FiveFingers K.S.O.

Grip: 9(9.5)
Fit: 9(7.5)
Comfort: 9(8.5)
Weight: 10(9.5)
Flexibility: 10(9.5)
Durability: 9(8.5)
Cushioning: 8.5(8.5)
Other: 9.5(8)

Score: 92(86)%

I was surprised to see a FiveFingers shoe listed under a couple shoe review threads in parkour communities. The KSO (Keep Stuff Out) version of the FiveFingers is an improvement on the FiveFingers Sprint as it, well, keeps stuff out. Since my first review of these shoes, I have actually managed to purchase a pair, as well as the "Sprint" model. The shoe fits like a sock and while it takes some time to get used to (it took maybe five minutes to get used to having fabric between my toes), they can improve form, work muscles never used, improve balance and foot sensitivity and get you closer to your natural roots. While I was informed that the sizes currently do not come in 'halves' and sometimes this misfitting can cause ankle chaffing, I found that the degree of adjustablilty in the shoes allows you to overcome this with great ease; furthermore the steps on the sizing chart are very compact, which is to say that there is a shoe for your foot size. Finally, this is not for those who are not used to barefoot training or walking. While they can certainly work towards using it, it is not smart (and you will feel it) to jump right into barefoot training if you have lived a sheltered life of shoes. This is not to discourage use, but to have you note that it takes some time to work into them.

Feiyue Los

NOTE: There are various Feiyue shoe types; being asked to review the Feiyues was rather general, so I have chosen to review the Feiyue Lo shoes because they were the most prominent in parkour communities..

Grip: 6.5(7)

Fit: 8(8)
Comfort: 8(7.5)
Weight: 9(9)
Flexibility: 8(9)
Durability: 6.5(7)
Cushioning: 8.5(7)
Other: 8(9)

Score: 78(80)%

The shoe has been identified as comfortable once you got used to them: like many barefoot shoes, there is little cushioning which I find productive (adjusting your joints properly and strengthening your calves) but which those with sloppy technique will find painful. A very concerning point is the durability - the tread has been said to "disintegrate" (a direct quote), an extreme response to the sole shredding by dragging feet and cat grabs. This puts the durability in severe question, though it has been said that the grip once the tread has worn off is excellent (if they last). The shoes are light however and the fit seems just fine. I wonder if the shoes which originally seemed meant for martial arts should stay away from our concrete jungles.

Closing Words.
I just wish to remind the readers that there is no definitive right or wrong when looking for a parkour shoe, it takes all types. You may find shoes in discount bins that are worth five or ten times the non-retail value of the more expensive options. Take some of my criteria if you wish along with your own and go check out your local shoe store, you may find a hidden treasure.

The shoes reviewed are simply those that have appeared most in the parkour communities and forums, and are not endorsed or sponsored in any way by myself.

If you would like me to review a shoe or some options that are carried by a certain brand etc., or have some comments to make on the above shoes, then leave me a comment below. Furthermore, if you would like more information on any of the above shoes, simply type it's name into the search box below.