''The Six Basics to improve''

THE SIX BASICS – METHOD TO IMPROVE

I was thinking about my own training and as well others training. I noticed that what many people train, especially beginners, are vaults. Vaults is what we often se on websites like youtube and It’s like it tells you ‘’than more vaults you do, the better are you.’’ There are no doubts that you improve in parkour by doing vaults. When you’re facing an obstacle you often have to be able to do them. Those vaults. I’ve practised vault pretty much this summer, but now, in the end of it, I came to think that there are many areas that has to be refined to be able to learn control to those vaults and I don’t think it is a safe way and the most effective way to learn them is to simply practise them. Now for a start, at least.

When I started with parkour I simply did a list of vaults that I wanted to learn. I learned them, and I did them slobby. All because I didn’t have any knowledge about parkour in that time, the dark years when information like this was hard to find. Yes, I improved. But it had consequences. I was doing them like crazy, spending sometimes one hour doing the speed vault over and over again because I wanted to improve and refine it. I did refine it, but I didn’t refine myself physical. I got hurt because of ht impact that your legs will experience when you’re doing vaults. People new to the parkour scene often do high drops, and some don’t because they know that it damage your body extremely much, so instead they do vaults. I personally think that It is not good. I am speaking of my personal experience now.

There is no doubt that vaults, always depending on wich one you do, always bring an enormous impact on your legs and knees. Especially on hard surfaces as asphalt. You might not notice this in the beginning but you will probably do it later. Keep in mind that it all depends on your physical experience from earlier training. So, what I did this week was that I actually stoped doing vaults. – Sure, my damage to my legs are gone, but I don’t wan’t to travel the same way again so I came up with a ''new'' method of training. I am sure, that someone or somebody follows this method to before I came up with it, but for me, for myself, It’s new. So, If this method is found anywhere else, well, It is.

This is the method I call ''The Six Basics'' wich is a method to prepare yourself for vaults, but also other thing in parkour. It’s about preparing yourself to be able to move.

This is the basics:

1 .Strength
2. Endurance
3. Balance
4. Coordination
5. Flexibility
6. Explosive


Your body are very opened to be damaged the first two-three years when you train wich means that you have to improve very carefully and slowly when you start training. You must always think about what you do and how you move. Vaults, for example, is good because you have to use less energy while crossing an obstacle plus that the impact on your legs and knees are much smaller* when you cross this obstacle, since you move with much more forwards motion. If you just jump over a trashcan for example, you would come more vertical wich basically means more impact on your legs and knees. It depends on the surface too. But if you use for example a speed vaults, or a lazy, you come more horizontal wich means less impact on your legs. The vault that do most impact on your legs if you’re just counting in the basic ones, is the Kong vault. This is because you move in a more horizontal way, but in the speed vault, you’re moving much more vertical.

I think vaults is the most unnecessary thing in parkour. Vaults comes with the time, when your body are prepared and ready for it. What I am going to use is another method of improving in vaults and improving your whole body.



Let us say that you’re about to do a kong vault. I am going to list the Six Basics that you need to improve your kong in a longer, but much more safe way. It will affect your whole training, to, not only the vaults.

When you do kong…


1. COORDINATION

When you’re running against the obstacle ready to do your kong It’s important that you know where you put down your feet’s and when you should do the movement. When you have done the move, you will have to land safety too. Good coordination will help you to land much more precise.


2. Explosive, fast moves like doing a fast push-up onto a wall, or jumping a long precision jump is one of the common basics that is great. This one will really help you to do a high and/or a long kong vault.



3. BALANCE

You balance will help you not to fall and to gain more control when you are doing the Kong vault. It will help you hold your balance when putting your hands on the rail (lets say rail..) and It will help you to hold yourself up in the air. If you do loose your control, it will help you to get it back again.

4. Flexibility

With good flexibility you will feel much more smoother while you do the move and you will have it much more easier to put up your legs so they don’t touch the rail. We don’t want to move like a cement statue, we want to move like a soft rubber statue.


5.ENDURANCE

With good endurance, you’ll be able to do the kong many times without getting so tired.



6.STRENGTH

The most important thing if you want to avoid injuries. Your strength, you muscles, will protect your body while you land and take the whole impact.

So, as you see those areas, what I call ‘’The Six Basics’’ is very important to train. That’s why I am not going to do so much more vaulting, instead, I will go and try this method. Does it work? Well, do you get good balance while walking on rails? Yes. Do you get strength and endurance when you’re walking in monkey walk? Yes. So, basically and logically it works. What I’ve seen so far is that my flexibility that comes from good warm-ups and stretching helped me with vaulting. I was able to use my legs much more easily. Of course, this method is not just to improve and prepare for vaults – It’s about preparing your whole body for any kind of obstacle!


Please leave a trace.

Thanks for reading.

// E.A