The history of parkour is quite fascinating. The first tracers appeared in France. These guys took inspiration from army training Foreign Legion, adopted in the 19th century - in fact, parkour skills are quite capable of replacing modern classes with any kind of martial arts.

Many guys subconsciously gravitate towards parkour. There is something inspiring in the idea of ​​moving through any space and any obstacle the way our distant ancestors would do it. In addition, parkour leaves no chance for your annoying bad habits: you won't want to smoke or drink after the first workout. Here's how and why you need to do this strange, but very useful sport.

• Inner freedom

  Parkour gives you a unique opportunity to resurrect your inner child. The world around turns into a giant playground, it becomes interesting to find new ways to maneuver through the everyday environment... You can play ninja as much as you want - and no one will tell you a word. It just won't catch up!




Sport

Harder fitness is hard to come up with. Running, jumping, climbing, swinging: parkour can be thought of as training every muscle in the body. In addition, parkour also improves the overall coordination of the body. This difficult task will develop you comprehensively, because in addition to physical effort, you will have to exert mental effort.




Sociality

Never know how to make new friends? Parkour can solve this problem too. Sport is not competitive, but rather social. Trainings are often conducted in groups, where each participant is happy to help others. The entry threshold is very low: you can not be ashamed of the level of training - everyone else once did not know how to do anything either.




Self defense

We are big supporters of the idea that everyone should be able to save at least their own life in case of emergency. Parkour is really capable of providing the necessary skills for this. No one expects that he will have to run away from danger, climbing over high obstacles. But it's better to be ready for anything.




Search for like-minded people

The best way start training - find a local enthusiast group. Trust me, it won't be difficult: there are plenty of parkour communities online. In the very first lesson, you will be able to get an initial idea of ​​this tough sport and understand where to move on.




Risks

It is worth learning to objectively assess your abilities. The first thought, before any trick, must necessarily contain a bunch of "how to do this without harming yourself." For the first few months, you need to train only with a partner or in a group - so there will be trained people nearby, who, in which case, can provide first aid.




Haste

Control your limits. The guys around can do crazy tricks, flying over the gaps between buildings at great heights - this does not mean that you have to repeat their achievements right now. It will take your body some time to adapt to the physical demands of parkour. Don't move on until you master the basics. Take each new trick very seriously; bragging may well cost you serious injury.




Balance

Balance is vital. This skill will have to be developed first. This will require considerable muscle strength- do not neglect classes in the fitness club. Practice on low objects, starting with regular curbs.




Run

You must be good at running. Starting in parkour requires both explosive sprint skills and stayer endurance. Without additional morning runs, it will be difficult to get on track, and you will have to forget about cigarettes once and for all.




Jumping

Not just a jump - but a well-defined movement, as a result of which you can move a long distance and land on limited area... Doing this requires developing whole-body coordination, balance, and an understanding of your own limitations. Never jump at random - it's just stupid to do that.

We've all seen the films Yamakashi, Casino Royale and The Bourne Ultimatum. If you've also played Assassins Creed, you've even played parkour - at least virtually.

Yes, this is the same sport when you have to jump from roof to roof and easily climb over the walls. It is very cool to watch from the sidelines someone who overcomes obstacles in the city that bypass everyone and generally do not consider as something to be conquered and overcome. It inspires improvement. own body, on the knowledge of the boundaries of its capabilities. Plus, it looks much more interesting and seems much more useful than any sport: how can the ability to lift the bar help you in the conditions of the zombie apocalypse, when you need to run away from the brain eaters?

What is parkour?

Parkour is overcoming the obstacles of urban space, moreover, efficient and natural. Those who practice parkour are called tracers: they jump over obstacles, climb walls, conquer city buildings. Their goal is to get from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible.

The history of parkour is very interesting. It originated in France, its origins are considered the military tactics of the century before last, designed to help soldiers escape from captivity and hide from persecution. In fact, it is a method of military training for French soldiers. Once again, the new turned out to be well forgotten old, only now this practice is used by fitness soldiers, so to speak.

What is the difference between parkour and freerunning?

Often these terms seem to be used interchangeably. It is true that these sports have a lot in common, but there is a small difference.

Parkour is simply maneuvering through an urban environment with efficient use of jumps, turns, and complex movements. There is no need for any somersaults and other difficult acrobatic stunts. In freerunning, efficiency fades into the background, giving way to steep acrobatic movements. This is a more entertaining sport.

If you watch a video in which people jump over in a jump, pushing off a wall, know: this is freerunning. If they just jump over fences and climb walls, they are tracers, not freerunners.

Why do you need parkour?

Parkour is fun! He teaches you how to deal with fear of the world around you, transforming the city into a giant playground. It's fun to find non-trivial ways to move around the city and pretend to run away from zombies. It helps you not to lose your inner child, to let it out, to explore the city and the boundaries of your own body, and just, finally, to play.

Running, jumping, climbing walls. Parkour is a whole body workout that improves both body control and coordination of movements at the same time.

Parkour is a challenge to yourself. It requires physical and mental stress from you. At first it will be difficult for you to do some movements, but over time you will have enough strength and coordination, and you will be able to work out movements of high complexity. You will face obstacles that seem insurmountable to you, and the deeper you look into yourself, the better you will begin to understand that your body is capable of surpassing what previously seemed to you the limit of possibilities. In short, parkour will make you a man. You will be able to prove to yourself what you are capable of, to become more self-confident, and this will be reflected in other areas of life.

Parkour - great way to make friends. This is a team sport, so to speak. It is usually taught in groups whose members are very friendly and supportive. This is not a competition. The overall goal is to have a good time and improve yourself.

Parkour can save your life. We at the editorial office believe that a man should keep his life under control and cope with all the difficulties that occur in his life. Parkour gives you skills for extreme situations. We joke about zombies, from whom you have to run away in urban conditions, but seriously: sometimes your life can only be saved by a quick and confident escape, and, probably, there will be some obstacles on your way. You have to somehow get around them? Parkour will help.

Parkour teaches you to think creatively. He teaches you to perceive the surrounding space in a different way. Instead of walking around the city, as the architects expected when it was designed, you can do it the way you want it. Ladders? We don't need smelly stairs! Every wall, every fence, every ravine becomes an opportunity to try a new movement. This is both play and creativity - and they will be useful to you in the most unexpected moments when you need to solve a problem outside the box.

How to start doing parkour

Find a team of tracers. The best way to get started with parkour is to find a local group of tracers and join them. The people in this sport are super friendly and will always support you. The dudes who are already adept at parkour will give you valuable instructions, plus there will always be a person nearby who will show you how to do it and help you make the most difficult movements. Of course, if an accident happens to you, there will always be people nearby who will call an ambulance.

Remember safety. Don't take unnecessary risks. Your goal is to have fun and get out of your comfort zone, not get hurt. The first question after being shown a new trick should be, "What kind of injury can this lead to?" It is necessary that the guys support you and help you if necessary. Before each workout, inspect the area for hazards: broken glass and the like. In general, don't be idiots.

Do not rush. Know your limits. Just because people around you are doing crazy tricks and jumping from roof to roof, that doesn't mean you have to do the same. Don't try to do too much through too much a short time... Your body needs to adapt to parkour. Don't move on to more complex movements until you've mastered the basics. Also, do not overestimate your capabilities and do not take these activities too seriously. Pride leads to falls, and falling really hurts in parkour.

Don't bother anyone. Parkour should be practiced in parks, courtyards and streets. Try to avoid sidewalks where there are many pedestrians. If someone asks you to leave, leave. If the police bother you, be polite, explain what you are doing, and go elsewhere if asked. Parkour is not the most widespread sport in our country. If you can help him earn a good name, that's cool.

Basic movements

Balance

A very important skill for parkour. You often have to walk on something narrow, small, slippery and stand on the edge. You will need muscle strength and good coordination movements so as not to fall to the ground. Learn to balance by standing and walking on rails.

To successfully hide from any aggressors within the city, you need to run. Running in parkour requires both speed and endurance. If you train often, the skill will come by itself over time, and we would also advise you to pay attention to the usual, dear to our heart runs: 5 km with acceleration - and it's in the bag.

Bounce

Jumping plays a big role in parkour. They jump to overcome the difference in the height of objects, to get over ravines and the like and overcome obstacles.

Precise jump

An accurate jump allows you to jump on small surfaces: on upper part walls or on a stone peeking out of the water. An accurate jump requires concentration, balance and awareness of one's capabilities.

Tick ​​tock

A combination of wall climbing and jumping. This technique allows you to get to places that are higher than the level of your usual jump. When a person runs up a wall, he pushes off with his foot and jumps somewhere else. This trick is often used in conjunction with others.

Drop

Active jump somewhere on a lower surface. When you first start exploring parkour, never jump off surfaces taller than you. You have to practice landing, and your body has to adapt to the stress that comes with jumping from a height.

Landing

The ability to land safely after a jump or drop is a very important skill for a tracer and freerunner. Correct landing allows you to immediately get up and move to the next obstacle and, more importantly, eliminates the need to call an ambulance.

The choice of landing method depends on several factors, namely: 1) the height from which you are jumping; 2) the distance that you cover in a jump; 3) the surface you land on; 4) previous movement.

Landing on both feet

They are more effective than landing on one leg, reducing the level of stress experienced by your unhappy body. So when you can, try to land on both feet. When you land, first of all touch the ground with your toes, feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.

Your goal is to land as softly as possible. To accomplish this, during landing, bend your knees, but not 90 degrees, this is already too much. If you jump or jump to a very high level, or if you jump forward with too much impulse, let your torso pass between your knees, rest your hands on the ground so that they also cushion. When you put your hands on the ground, then it will be easy for you to get up and move on. This method of landing takes practice, you need to start with low drops, and then move on to higher drops.

Roll

A very important skill to avoid injury. It is usually done to soften the force of the impact on the body, which reduces your chances of injury. As a rule, you need to roll immediately after landing, when a drop is made from a high place or when you jump forward with great speed. When done correctly, a roll will help you land and stand on your feet without a scratch. It looks like a somersault. It is important to group correctly, and your weight will do all the work for you.

Vault

On the run, you will come across objects over which it will be too difficult for you to jump. This is where the wult comes in. You put your hands on the object and use them to jump over it. There are different types wult, you can use them depending on the type of obstacle and your own preferences.

What to do with the wall

Ladders for weaklings. Sometimes it is much more effective to go straight up somewhere. This is where you need wall tricks. Take your time with them. When you have already learned something, then move on to this. Never climb onto objects from which you cannot jump - this is the golden rule.

Ox wounds

He will help you climb high and very quickly. Ox Ran is a complex movement, moreover, not an easy one. To successfully do this trick, you have to run, jump, climb a wall and hang on it - not as easy as it seems.

Kat Lip

It's a combination: you jump and climb. You will need to use cat limes when you jump onto higher walls or jump distances beyond your normal jump length. We must grab the edge of the wall and push against bent legs in front of you into the wall.

Should parkour be allowed for children?

If you let things take their course and simply forbid the child to do what he likes, then, most likely, he will begin training on his own, without the supervision of real tracers. Often such activities lead to injury and even disability or death from overestimating one's own capabilities. Out of every ten people who want to learn how to learn parkour, only two choose this lifestyle. And out of the retired two or three have serious injuries.

Until the age of 15-16, other sports can be offered that will contribute to the development of a muscular corset, help develop joint flexibility and ligament elasticity:

• Non-professional gymnastics.
• Athletics.
• Rock climbing.
• Combat sports.

Parkour for beginners should be formed with knowledgeable mentors who will help, support, warn if necessary.

A beginner is one who has been practicing parkour for less than a year. The main rule of parkour is not to harm your health.

To prevent stretching of the ligaments, destruction of joints, you need to build up muscles in the arms, legs, body. There is no rush, parkour does not tolerate haste. It is harmful and dangerous to go to study next exercise without bringing the previous one to automatism.

Safety engineering

1. Beginners should not jump from a height of more than 1.5 meters. With each jump, unprepared joints receive microtrauma. After a few months, destruction of the joint, especially the knee, can occur.
2. Legs should be bent with an angle of at least 90 ° in knee joint when falling down. It is strictly forbidden to twist the joints of the foot and knee under load.
3. Jumping with support - decoys - it is recommended to train at a support height not less than the level of the beginner's belt.
4. Right and left-hand side bodies must move in sync with parkour training. This is especially important when landing, so that the load on the tracer's legs is evenly distributed.
5. Before doing parkour and at the end of the workout, you need to warm up, and you need to spend an equal amount of time on warm-up and strength exercises.
6. Do complex elements of parkour only when you are physically and mentally ready for this and are completely confident in the correctness of the execution.

How to learn parkour?

A more experienced tracer will show you how to learn parkour from scratch. It is better to have a personal teacher, perhaps training in a team.

Parkour lessons for beginners should include the following basic exercises:

• Vestibular apparatus training, movement coordination.
• Jogging 1 km. Late overcoming, daily 5 km with acceleration.
• Circular rotation of all joints in order to develop their flexibility and ligament sprain.
• Running jumps, standing, over rough terrain.
• Training of correct landings and falls, brought to automatism.

It is best to train outdoors. Unlike the gym, parkourists here learn to fall and get up without the softness of the mats.

What a beginner should be able to do to practice parkour:

• At least 15 push-ups.
• 5 pull-ups.
• When jumping up, you need to reach with your knees chest, buttocks heels.
• Run a distance of 1 km without failing to breathe.
• Do not smoke, do not use drugs, do not drink drinks containing even a small amount of alcohol.

Parkour has a lot to do with martial arts:

• It takes dedication.
• Obligatory mutual assistance, discipline.
• Your fears are conquered.
• Endurance develops.

It should be remembered that when a person chooses to practice parkour, he chooses a different way of thinking, a different way of life. Parkour is the freedom to move around the city in a different way.

The capabilities of the human body and brain are still poorly understood. And, perhaps, doing parkour is just a step that will help you better understand yourself and develop your own abilities, to achieve harmony between body and soul.

They dream of parkour and would like to join this current. In principle, those who want to start practicing it have only two options: to start independent training or to join one of the many communities of tracers.

Self-guided parkour classes in Moscow

Where to start doing parkour? Of course, from a comprehensive theoretical acquaintance with the history of this movement. It is worth reading the forums dedicated to parkour, perhaps the blogs of famous tracers will be useful. At this stage, you should note for yourself what difficulties beginner parkour amateurs faced and how they overcame these difficulties.

Be sure to pay attention to the terminology in order to speak in the same way with your like-minded people in the future. There are many training videos for athletes of various skill levels posted on the network, and many of them are really worthy of attention.

After theoretical training enough time has been given, you can start mastering the basic elements of parkour. It is most convenient to do this in parks, squares, stadiums and sports grounds... You should not draw undue attention to yourself by training right on the street, because a neophyte who does not yet have sufficient skills can not only injure himself, but also injure a person passing by.

Exercise, jogging or any other should definitely be included in your daily routine. physical activity, because the execution of even not very complex elements of parkour is available only to a person with a flexible and trained body.

To start doing parkour in Moscow in a group: is it possible?

Many well-known parkour teams periodically hold master classes and exchange experiences with newcomers in the format of friendly meetings. Most often they take place in sports clubs and stadiums. All these events are announced in social networks, and everyone who subscribes to the website of such a community will know in advance about such meetings.

For those interested in parkour, a special training block is held. He is supervised by instructors, who then divide the neophytes into groups depending on their level of initial physical fitness.

In the future, several times a week, members of each of the groups, under the guidance of a trainer, shoulder to shoulder master more and more complex elements of parkour. This allows everyone to gradually improve their skills and make friends among other members of the parkour community. After completing such a course, yesterday's beginners in parkour already have a decent intermediate level.

Parkour is overcoming various obstacles by jumping or climbing. Moreover, such techniques should be performed as spectacularly as possible. Railings, fences, concrete slabs and even whole houses are used as obstacles. Many people like this extreme. But how to do parkour, if you are a complete zero. There is an exit. The main thing is to believe in yourself.

What do you need to practice parkour?

You will need a minimum sports equipment and small equipment. And so, you need:

Sneakers. Normal, direct for sports, with thick soles;

• Sportswear. Cotton. Convenient. Any brand;
• Bare hands. No gloves!
• Horizontal bars. Yes Yes. Muscles will have to pump up;
• Street. All you need to eat outside.

You need to start working on yourself in the gym or in the forest. You must learn to fall and keep your balance. Climb a couple of trees, and only then start to conquer concrete obstacles.

How to do parkour from scratch?

If you are zero in physically then you have to end it. A parkurist needs:

1. Good respiratory system;
2. Strong hands;
3. Strong legs;
4. Tucked up belly and so on.

You will also need to learn how to jump, land, climb over an obstacle, and so on. All these techniques are worth hone in ideal conditions... You have to work them out to automatism.

Only after that, everything can be complicated. In this case, you should not immediately climb the building or try to conquer the wall. Learn to climb over a simple fence or jump over a small bench. Then you can move on.

Parkour for beginners

If you are a beginner in this field, then you need to find yourself a mentor. He will tell you everything in detail, and you can avoid making numerous mistakes.

Try to do this with the company. It will be more fun for you, and you definitely will not give up such a thing.

If possible, enroll in a parkour school. This will teach you how to do many of the tricks professionally.

As a last resort, watch a video course about this direction. After all, theoretical information is no less important here than strong muscles. Without knowledge, you might just be doing the wrong sport.

Myths and reality

Many young people are trying to figure out how to practice parkour. Most of them think that this is beyond ability and coolness.

But it is also a lot of work associated with numerous injuries. Real professionals in this field have their own gyms. There they hone different techniques before going out into the city.

In this case, you will not become a super hero. In many films, parkour is embellished to make the movie spectacular.

Also this discipline has its own tricks that must be performed efficiently. If you just climb trees at random, this is not at all the same.

Like any sport, parkour has a beneficial effect on health and the physical state muscles. It can be practiced at any age. But you should take your training seriously. After all, the cinematic lightness of such an occupation is a simple invention.