Parkour & Safety

Physical Graffiti's latest video, called 'Parkour is' claims that ''Parkour is safe... If you train hard''. This video was uploaded 07 Augusti 2008 and was a real success. However, since It's release there have been many people debated about parkour and It's safety, and If it really is safe or not. Still this is a hot topic among traceurs/tracesus and non-traceurs/tracesus. So, I am going to write my own opinion about it.

First off, people around the world have been talking about the dangers of parkour and now this debate has come to all the traceurs and tracesus around. Pretty recently two accidents here in Sweden was parkour and freerunning relevated. One accident when a young traceur died while doing a precision jump from less than a half meter, he slept and banged his head into the concretestair behind him. He died at the scene. The other accident was a 13-years old boy climbing and balancing on a roof when he suddenly lost his balance and felt down while training at his spot, about seven to eight meter high spot. Like a miracle, he didn't get serious injured.

My own, personal knowledge about parkour is that it isn't safe at all. Accidents can happen and when It really happens it's hard to prevent it from happening. I cannot say to anyone that they're in a activity that is completely safe. What you do might be very easy but if you do a mistake everything might be over in seconds. Therefor, calculating the risks of what you do is very important. It is not just about physical capacity, but also the mental one. You physical and mental state depends on much, for example if how many hours you have slept, what you have ate etc. And of course that you feel used and comfortable with what you're doing. Visualize your movements is something that I feel usefull and I think It is something that really can help you to know what you're able to do. First I check my physical and mental state, if I am O.K or not. Then I try to visualize the movement I am about to do. From my own experience I teach myself to do it while training alone. What really made me feel like ''Wow...'' was when I, for the first time, used visualization to execute a movement. It felt good and I did it. What really got me was how close my visualization was to the real thing – the movement itself almost felt exactly as it did when I visualized about it. I guess that it is something good to learn and to use to increase the safety while training.



Whatever, when It comes to risks everyone should bear in their mind that there are risks in what we are doing but that it always depends on what you are doing. For example, jumping an small precision jump isn't really dangerous but it might be. If you want to take no risks in parkour you can't train at all. You should be indoor your whole life and be scared of everything. What if you fall on something when you're about to visit a local grocery store for example...? There are risks everywhere, whatsoever if you're training parkour or not. The danger of driving a car a rainy night is pretty big. In a morning this week I felt because the whole road was covered in snow and ice. Only good thing was that I didn't hurt myself at all. But I guess you get the point – falling is natural and might happen. Doing a little precision in the summer are probably more less dangerous than walking on roads covered with snow and ice during the winter but leaping of a building to another is extremely dangerous and unsafe. It doesn't matter how much you train or for how long you've been training. Nothing in parkour will become completely safe. But remember - it will get safer but there are no guarantees. Personally, I've felt more times while not training. Like the example above. Why? Probably because I didn't pay enough attention when I was walking.

In the beginning I gave a example of a 13-years old boy that was balancing on a roof about 7-8 meters over the ground. This boy had, I can tell, not the experience and the proper plus enough training to be balancing on heights like this. But why did he do it? Well, as everyone probably think now, I guess, is that he saw it on TV OR... internet. Belle for example have a great experience in parkour. Far more than that actually.. God, I don't know what to say about his experience. (If you don't believe in God you should know that Belle actually exist..) He's been training for over 23 years now and balancing on this roof wouldn't be safe for him either. Not at all, BUT I can do tell you, it would be EXTREMELY much SAFER than what it was for this 13-years old boy.

Damage. Accidents. When I say accidents many people would refer it too someone that falls of a roof or falling while doing a vault and hurt themself real bad, maybe they even start to bleed or break something in their body. There aren't actually many accidents like this in the parkour community at all. If you only count with serious traceurs/tracesus it is even less. Someone makes a high drop or a huge kong and then doing a proper landing or a roll, many think that ''Yeah, he got controll. His body can handle it.'' But this isn't really the case. There is a detail that many people forget. Long terms injuries. Injuries that might show up the day after. The week after. The months after or one or many years after. There are unfortunately too many people in the parkour community that has to stop training because of kneeproblems, jointproblems, shoulderproblems etc. etc. Yes, they did good techniques on the landings and the vaults. But did they have the physical ability to do it? A question you should always ask yourself. It's about to be and to last.

Safe training isn't just about being good technical it is about the knowledge of yourself, your limits, and your whole body. I have to say that it is very hard to know what a regular traceur/tracesus body can handle but I can tell you one thing – I don't think it is that much that many people think. Dangers in parkour is not just the typical ''It's not so dangerous, I haven't felt and hurt myself at all''

How can you make sure that you won't have knee problems in the future? How can you make sure that your shoulders . For many traceurs/tracesus around It's been about success and error. I can't tell anyone if I will have problems with my body in the future but I can tell that now, now my body feels fine.

My own advice would be something like this;

Study the deep philosophy, study some methods of training yourself, follow your instincts and do not train to impress. Do not just train to be very good. Do not train to serious. Hook up with some friends, train relaxed and don't think too much about progression. Let playfull training stand before progression in the line and remember some very, very important things – Always be sure of what you're about to do, be carefull and have fun while training.

Follow Georges Hérberts fine words; ''Étre et durer.'' - To be and to last.

For that sake, remember to be strong to be usefull. We shouldn't just be training for ourself, but also for other people. This is my personal opinions and I'll hope you have yours and that you took the time to read this.