Parkour Holes: run, swim, climb

     So the terms "movement" and "movers" have taken the stage lately and people have really started to cross over into other disciplines to become more complete movers. My thoughts on this phenomenon are mixed only because from my perspective that's what parkour already is. People talk about movement and it seems so obvious to me that navigation of your environment is the most basic expression of this. My journey started with running and basic breakfalls. Over the years I layered on new skills that helped me to navigate most obstacles in the urban and natural environment. Most of my training would not look much like any of the parkour videos coming out today, nor would they be as exciting and dynamic. Perhaps that's another big reason I haven't filmed in awhile. Given what I've said, people should still be able to train any way that they want, these are just the holes from my perspective. And maybe it will inspire some pk practitioners who are just tired of mindlessly doing cast backflips off of stuff.

Holes:

• Running. When I first started years ago, it was understood in the pk community that running was the basis of everything we did. People recommended being able to run a mile or two before beginning parkour. Now there are all sorts of resources on form and training that people can read about. It has become a trend to only sprint to get the most power and leg strength but people often miss the beauty of going on a long run and taking the time to enjoy/interact with your environment in a unique way. Trail running is the best because one often has to vault, change directions and interact with nature. Running long distances also increases the scope of one's training, taking it beyond short furious jackie chan bursts. Also the better your cardiovascular endurance, the longer you can train. We all know those guys who come out to a jam, lay out their biggest tricks, then finish the day early because they're too tired. Don't be that guy, endure.
• Swimming. Another basic thing that gets completely ignored. Yes swimming is parkour. No, swimming is not just the freestyle stroke or back stroke or butterfly or whatever. There are so many ways to train your body and mind in the water beyond the traditional methods designed for a sports competition. Just like gymnastics, swimming has been taken apart, analyzed, reduced, and compartmentalized into something that no longer looks and feels natural. If we look to monkeys for our cues on dry land movement, we should look to seals for our underwater explorations. Literally dive down below the surface of a lake and swim as far down as you can. Grab a giant rock and sprint across the bottom, now swim the 30-40 feet back up without panicking. One has to learn apnea ( breath holding), ear equalization, overcome fear of the unknown, deal with cold water, learn different swimming techniques for acsending and descending. The difficulties can be layered on with depth, distance, and variety. If you have never swam a mile in feiyues, then you haven't used your feiyues. We don't just want to be competent in the water, we want to be comfortable, at home. Think about how comfortable your favorite urban training spot is to you. You know a billion routes to navigate the area, you are capable there. Now imagine having that with water. If your only experience with water is throwing back fulls off a diving board into a chlorinated pool, get some friends who are interested, read about freediving, go to the nearest lake, river, or swimming pool and start slow. Pay attention to the basics. Learn how to float indefinitely. Learn how to tread water for an hour without stopping. Get your breath holds past 2:00 minutes. Swimming is a brilliant complement to all of the impact in parkour. Most of all just explore swimming in a non traditional way. I've already witnessed and learned 2 or 3 swimming movements that just don't exist anywhere else and are super useful. Come up with something new. Innovate in this area.
• Climbing. Bouldering, buildering and tree climbing to be exact. I think some of us older folks still do this. When you get tired of kong pres and muscle ups, solving a buildering route can open up your training repertoire. You'll find yourself in awkward positions that you never thought you'd be using to get across, over, through etc. You'll find an actual use for a one arm pull up as unilateral strength is key in climbing. Rock climbing has become a pretty established discipline and buildering is a natural offshoot but don't forget about the trees. Trees can offer some of the most diverse climbing challenges out there. And how often do you get to climb sixty or seventy feet without anyone bothering you or telling you "you're not supposed to be up there." Or worse, "trees aren't for climbing." Then what the fuck are they for?!
• Exploration of the natural environment. I know this is highly location dependent but if you live anywhere near nature, find it and explore it. Everything we do in parkour can be found in nature in much more variety and complexity. If you go into nature, you have to do parkour to get everywhere. One of the best things about being in nature is you can pick a direction and go for miles without stopping, without worrying about being hit by a car, or told to leave for trespassing. There's much more to being out in nature than the training opportunities but if you've never practiced outside of the urban environment that's enough of a reason to get out there. There is no uniformity in nature so mountains, lakes, rivers, forests or even the beach near the ocean(if you're lucky) all offer their own unique challenges. Weather is another aspect, the variations are endless.

• Endurance. This does not mean I think one should neglect strength training at all. I've been harping on endurance throughout this whole post so far but I want to talk about it in terms of one's conditioning and skill training. It's not enough to do the short powerful burst runs. When you do a parkour run that is longer than 50 feet, you're in the realm of cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Once you have the strength for a particular skill, get it down to the point where you can do it again and again without fatigue, anywhere from 10 reps and up. The reps can be determined by what you think you'll need wherever you're training. In the areas that I like to train in, there are boulders the size of houses strewn along a river for long stretches so it takes a lot of climbing up and dropping down over and over again. So I have to prepare for it by doing higher rep conditioning. Some say you can just go train in those places to gain that level of endurance  but if you're like me, you're working and can't always just get outside to train in your favorite spots. If you're more acrobatically inclined, building your endurance can open up some possibilities. I remember one time playing a game of "stick" with some super strong gymnasts. Though they could do higher level skills, I would challenge them by doing the most basic flips but over and over again in sequence until finally sticking the landing. The gymnasts would be too tired to do a front tuck to roundoff to 5 back-handsprings with two consecutive back tucks at the end. I can't imagine why. 

Holes that have been filled already.
The parkour community has done a good job of talking about safety, weight training, calisthenics, and refining our most basic techniques. Levels for climb ups have been one the best fixes we've seen so far. I think that as we continue to grow our art, we'll find more holes to cover up. There are more than I have mentioned so far but this post is getting too long.