Hi All! I would love to know if theres anyone that partakers/knows some that partakes in free running/parkour sport. It is a main theme in my first novel. What i know is from reading only and watching videos but i'd love to get some further insight such as: 1.What sort of training you do to get better. 2.What other sports help with free running 3.If there are any competitions in Britain 4.How often you get injured taking part in it In the abscence of any real parcticers any great videos you think i should know about or websites would be excellent. For example there's an insanely amazing London group called 'storm freerunners'. They are B-E-A-utiful! Thanks in advance
I actually used to. I was never very good and never too it very far. Parkour I found was all about vision, seeing the route you want to take, then momentum to keep going. I never trained but if I did now I would do chin ups, press ups, loft weights and plenty of jogging/running. I would also do pryometrics Injuries - they are very common with inexperienced runners, and possibly more serious but rarer with more experienced runners. I would suggest maybe googling 'free running forums' or other websites and seeing what you can find - also blogs/vlogs or YouTube may help
A lot of calisthenics for training. Gymnastics and diving seem to somewhat assist parkour/freerunning, but any sport that requires flexibility and coordination would help. I've seen a lot of videos where people train at playgrounds, but the best ones I've seen have had an extensive background in gymnastics or martial arts (but like the 'show' kind). As far as injury goes, it depends on how far you want to go. Some will only get minor injuries if they go safely. Others that decide to leap off twenty metre buildings might be risking it a little. My friend's brothers are pretty avid freerunners, and I haven't heard of any freak injuries as of yet. However they're all gymnasts and potentially Olympic athletes though.
My son loves parkour. He is always noticing ways he could vault himself onto a roof or over a gap. He doesn't do tons of it which is why he's never broken a bone (touch wood) but he has gotten some yucky cuts, abrassions and bruises. Now days he ussually looks like someone is beating him. He will only buy certain types of shoes. He did hours of research and hours and hours of shopping before we bought his last pair. The amount of time he spend shopping was amazing because he truely hates shopping but the right shoes matter. Gymnastics is a very helpful background. I'm so glad he has years and years of gymnastics. He 'trains' with pull up, sit up, squats and stuff but mostly he just does. Everytime we go by a railing or you name it he is running across it to jump and grab something else. Oh and there are training videos on youtube. He watches a video and then practices and practices the new move on carpet or some sort of padding before he attempts it on concrete. He also uses this book called How to Jump Higher to get other ideas for things he can do to increase his leg strength like jumping with both feet at the same time from the floor onto a chair. He says it's as much about depth perception and as it is about actually doing it. Of course you need to use momentum to your favor and be just daring enough to not pause and think about if you can actually make your body do what you're attempting because as soon as you pause you'll be bleeding.
