The basics of Parkour movement

Parkour is extremely versatile in terms of its movement material. It includes athletic, acrobatic, dance, martial arts and other sports movements. Each parkour has its own style, its own movement types that it prefers. Of course, like all sports, parkour has a basic repertoire of technical movements that all parkourists, regardless of their individual style, know. These basic movement forms are primarily the “vault”. In everyday terms, vault means to pass through. Any movement that allows the athlete to get through a smaller wall with his hands or hands and feet is called a vault. Some of these are very simple, like jumping off a locker, but of course there are also more difficult elements that take time to master. Athletes who already play the sport at a higher level improve these vaults with somersaults, twists, etc. The next very important basis of parkour is the arrivals, which in parkour are called precise or precc for short. The idea of the precc is that only the first third of the foot touches the ground on arrival, thus absorbing the resulting forces and preventing injuries, slips or other undesirable consequences. Of course, these can also be practised at a high level, not only by increasing the distance, but also by using twists or somersaults. (With this technique, some people are now able to somersault on a pipe while staying on the pipe.) Of course, the third basic part of parkour is acrobatics. In this part, the somersaults used in gymnastics are also used, although the technical execution often differs. There are three basic flips in parkour: forward, backward and side. The acrobatics of parkour differ most from gymnastics in that, in addition to these three basic somersaults, there are also oblique somersaults, of which there are numerous combinations.

The usefulness of Parkour

The biggest reason for the boom in parkour is freedom. There are no rules about what you are allowed to do, no rules about what equipment you have to wear, so everyone can do it regardless of their sport, their financial situation or even their background. If a parkour athlete eventually decides to compete in another sport, they can certainly build a very good foundation in both coordination and physical skills with parkour. In addition, parkour can also be an excellent tool for a team-building or recreational programme. More and more places abroad are doing parent-child and even senior parkour, for example, which is a lot of fun and has a lot of potential. In such cases, you don’t have to teach parkour moves, but just build a course with the objects you have and the only instruction is to get through it without touching the ground (Floor is Lava). This can be a very fun task and can help to get those who are basically not easy to get physically active.