A lot of people who do Parkour are sometimes overly obsessed at “Leveling Up”. They try to be better and better and they aim to do crazy things they see on youtube or from other people. So much so that people tend to forget the most essential part of Parkour, the “Journey” itself.
Essentially, one should focus on him/her self when practising Parkour. It ain’t so much about what movements or skills you can do, or how far or how high you can jump or launch, or how many rotations you can do, but really more about how much you actually understand about your body and your movement. About how you are able to apply the ideas and concepts of Parkour in your everyday life. Do live Parkour.
So in my opinion, how do you know that you have “Leveled Up”?
- The Parkour Aspect/Physical: When you are smoother, softer and more in control of a movement that you have done a thousand times as compared to yesterday.
- The Parkour Aspect/Abstract: When you are able to control your fears, coordinate your body and break a jump that you have already broken better than yesterday.
- The Life Aspect: Being able to understand that Parkour is not just about movement, but the idea of being able to overcome all challenges with creative thinking and being able to perceive any situation from a different angle through critical thinking
And if you can achieve these three items everyday, you are already “Leveling Up”.
Notice that it is all about you, and nothing about others;
its all about your perception, and nothing about what others think;
and its all about improving your techniques, and nothing about improving on other people’s techniques.
This is the Parkour Method of Training.
Parkour, at the basic level, is originality, because everyone has their own techniques and styles.
In this article I will also just list down a few type of high achievers, who usually do not use the Parkour Method of Training. See, if applicable, which type are you, and reflect on your journey as a traceur.
1. The Checklist.
I was once in this category.
Traceurs who do this generally have a checklist of all the things s/he want to do. So they will have hundreds of skills, and will attempt all of them. Problem is, they can do all, but all at a basic level. They’re landing will be loud, constantly getting injured, hands flailing all over the place and has no aesthetic value at all.
2. The Youtubers
These are type of people who you see putting up all the videos on facebook and sharing them…. Okay fine, not ALL, but majority of them. They will watch all these cool stuff and attempt them. What they forget is that the people on youtube has had years of training before attempting those movements. These people tend to try it on their 2nd week of training. Sometimes they succeed, but most of the time these people end up with permanent injuries. Either a strained hamstring, or sprained ankles, to dislocated elbows, torn knee ligaments, broken bones. But they’re stubborn, they continue without conditioning and without proper experience. Dangerous people.
3. The Idolers
These are the type who has a few idols in mind, and their goal is to be better than them. Now, dont get me wrong, it is good to have an idol, it motivates you to be better. But it becomes bad when you are are RUSHING to be better than your idol. Your idol may have years of training, and s/he probably understands the concepts of Parkour, thts why s/he is so much better than most. But if you rush into it, you will never get there. Because unlike you, that idol knows that s/he always has to improve everyday based on their own body and mind, not someone else.
4. The Distancers
These are the type of people who only focuses on how far or how high they can jump. Its a really stupid thing to do, I feel, because thats probably all they can do. Far precisions, far strides, far catleaps, far kongs.. Looks impressive, but when asked to combine these moves together, normally they have trouble because they focus on training these moves separately. They got no flow. They need to stop, get ready, and go. No efficiency of movement at all. For you idolers or youtubers, go watch some videos, these professionals can do distance jumps in a flow/circuit. How? By using the Parkour method of training.
Also, if you need so much energy to clear a gap, I am sure there are simpler ways using less energy to do it.
Its simple math, the lesser energy you use to clear a gap, the more efficient you are.
Efficiency: Less Input, More Output
Again, do I claim that all my thoughts are true? Nope. These are just my thoughts. It is up to you to think about it, and evaluate it, and decide if it is for you as well. But, it is, nonetheless, Food for Thought.
Cheers!
Marcus Lim
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The reason it took so long for us to start this new channel is because we wanted to focus all our efforts on rebuilding/revamping the Parkour Malaysia online presence first before dealing with our personal stuff. Now that we have most of the things taken care of on that side we can start spending some time on our own stuff.
