Parkour/free running

[garcia1000]

Hey guys,

Anyone here do either of the above things? I have read up on them and watched some videos. I find it very interesting. Here's some questions for you guys:

Is the risk of injury high?

Will it cause long-term damage to joints, or will it improve the healthiness of joints?

Which is more important, strength or flexibility?

How difficult is it to pick up?

What would be "prerequisites" for this? For example, it would definitely be helpful if you knew gymnastics before picking this up. Any other things that would help?


I've been doing yoga exercise for half a year and I am increasing my joint and tendon flexibility. I don't think I am ready to take up parkour or free running yet, but you never know!

Would love to hear from people who do this.

[Noodles.]

Yes, damage, both, difficult, not really.

[cts]

the vids are pretty sweet

[plzleenowhammy]

assassin's creed

[Yeti]

garcia,

I think you would be better off exposing this thread to a wider audience in OOT, or finding a dedicated parkour forum somewhere. It seems too specific of a topic for EDF.

[El Diablo]

Yeti: However, one of the EDF mods is a super fan of parkour, so perhaps this thread will do OK!

garcia: I think this is one of the coolest sports around. Gymnastics is definitely a very helpful base skill to have. There are plenty of parkour clubs in tons of cities now where anyone can get started, but the more gymnastics training/experience you have before getting started, the better. In terms of being able to do stuff, strength is hugely critical (as is flexibility). But in terms of preventing injury, flexibility is probably more important. Wikipedia has a bunch of good background info, and there are tons of great videos on YouTube. David Belle and Sébastien Foucan are two prominent parkour guys who have tons of great videos up. I started a Parkour video thread in LOL a while back. This Russian video is one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxv8SS1XU_8