Read 59 times since Monday, July 25, 2011
Originating in France, Parkour was first developed as a faster mode of transportation in larger urban areas. It is performed by scaling walls, traversing buildings and dropping from great heights to find a sort of exhilaration.
There are three main aspects to Parkour, tricking, dropping and climbing. Since it is something you do independently there are no skill requirements necessary.
Tricking, the first part of this sport, includes anything dealing with flips or kicks. To start out you may want to practice on a trampoline, diving board or if available a foam pit.
To flip you must jump into the air, redistribute your weight and level out to land back on your feet all before hitting the ground. Start simple with tricks like cartwheels, summersaults and back handsprings.
Even though these may be considered childish, these will develop the muscle memory needed to perform the more difficult tricks, like back flips, barrel roles, and some of your more advanced kicks. Don't try anything beyond your skill level.
Parkour is considered an Extreme sport for a reason; these stunts are preformed over cement and off buildings. If you are not confident in your ability to execute a trick effectively, do not try it.
Dropping is simple enough to understand. You leap from a structure with a higher altitude then the structure you are attempting to land on.
Start with lower drops because this is where a lot of free runners, or people that participate in the extreme sport of parkour, actually end up inflicting damage upon themselves. You will want to start low and develop your roll.
Rolling is where you take the downward momentum from your fall and turn it into forward momentum so that you can continue running and don't have to break your legs either. To roll you will, when you hit the ground, let your shoulders drop at a comfortable but controlled rate, this will lessen the initial impact on your legs, then drop one shoulder under the other to achieve a somewhat skewed summersault.
If you try to go straight into a roll head first, you will likely hurt your back, rolling at an angle helps keep your back curved, so not any one specific part is taking too much of the impact. This will transfer your downward momentum through the roll and eject it through a forward run if done effectively.
The roll is one of the most import parts of the sport. So make sure you understand and can execute it accurately when needed.
Climbing is the last part you will have to learn it is probably the easiest part of parkour. But the point of this sport is to make nothing easy.
So in the case of climbing stairs, maybe instead of just walking up them you can jump from hand rail to hand rail on the way up. Be creative, have fun, and try to develop your own style. Destry Masterson is an author who has written hundreds of articles. She publishes articles for http://www.treadmillcomparison.com and recommends them for treadmill reviews.
Contact Info:
Destry Masterson - MyOnlineArticleWriting@gmail.com - Twitter: @DestryMasterson
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