Expanding Practice

   Gymnastics has a very nuanced and technical judging system for its routines. As complicated and interesting as their system is, it all boils down to how they define difficulty. Difficulty in gymnastics means adding in an extra rotation or twist, the bigger the better. For more strength oriented events like the rings, the more physically demanding feats rate the highest. My point here is that the smaller "easier" movements fall to the wayside in gymnastics while the more basic stuff gets left behind, mere stepping stones to the bigger stuff. I've seen this in the parkour community a bit and fallen prey to it myself, not realizing that there are other variables to tinker with to get 'better' at parkour.

    The idea is to expand parkour practice rather than just raise the level. Instead of learning a backflip, then a double, then a triple, then a quadruple, one could just take the backflip by itself and work through a bunch of variations. Pike, layout, flashkick, onto things, off of things, and out of an infinite variation of other movements. The same thing works with a location. I've been with a lot of parkour guys who train in a new area for five minutes, do the biggest jump they can find, then move on. They miss out on some of the more rewarding non obvious routes in favor of a superficial adrenaline rush. I've been a fan of lists lately because it's such a quick way to disseminate information. So, ways to expand practice rather than just getting bigger and better:

• New combinations of movements already known
• Variations on single movements
• Slowing or speeding up rate of movement
• Adding increasing complexity to a sequence or route (layering)
• Increasing difficulty by decreasing efficiency/leverage (ex. cat leaps to one arm cat leaps)

The biggest insight for me with expanding my training is all about having a long term perspective. I still want to be a competent practitioner as the years pass by and it would be impossible to do so if I have that bigger is better mentality. Also, expanding training means there is always something to work on and progress with. I'll never get stuck without something to train when I go out there.