Parkouring 101

Hahaha. Random cat.

What is up people, I have decided to do a complete beginners and somewhat advanced parkour lesson :)

So without further a do, let's get started.

The best place to practice is your couch (unless you actually super-duper care about the health of your couch). You can also practice using rails, mats, large soft snow piles, your roof, a trampoline, concrete walls, all that stuff.

Now if your gonna be good at parkour, then you need to know how and be able to do it. To do it, bend your knees and swing your arms back, then using your momentum, swing the forward with power, then leap. Your arms should be reaching for the stars when you do it. See above.

Okay now the first thing I know you guys are going to want to know is "How do I overcome my fear of doing this?" Well that's why I'm here. Go up to something that's about as high as your waist and about 12 inches long. Go up to it and put your hands down on top as if your about to parkour it and then jump with your weight on your hands, keeping them on the object (see photos above).

Now do the same thing except this time jump and land on your knees.

Know do the same thing you just did except now let your knees go through your legs like above. Congrats! Not only have you learned how to get over your fear, you have also learned kong vault (also known as a monkey vault)! We'll get on to doing a kong vault better later, but right now we're going to look at more tips.

Okay now your probably asking, "Reflecting, what?". Think of it like this when you jump to swing on a bar, if you want release yourself to go farther, do you jump further or closer to the bar (see photos above)? Further, right! So you're reflecting sort of. If your looking at the photos above, after one jump, i keep moving back two steps, and when I reflect back, i move even farther than the last time.

That example was like how you want to vault. Normally you would want to travel farther, especially if your about to go into a cat (not literally. If you don't know what it is, look it up. Your obviously in front of a computer or internet-using mobile). So if you did a kong vault over a couch, would you travel farther if you jumped further or closer to the couch? Further.

Now one of the most important things you can learn is rolling to catch a fall. Now unless you haven't noticed you probably know that a gymnastics roll will hurt your shoulders and spine on cement or any hardwood floor. So they invented the parkour roll. It's almost a shoulder roll, but not quite. The only difference about is that you roll forward, twisting your body at a 45‘ roll, rolling over the hard part of your shoulder (not on top of it). See pics above.

You already learned one vault so now we're gonna teach you a basic that will send you to another era: the bar jump. If you tested out the example from last lesson, then you're ahead. To do it, start from a good distance (farther then your arms can reach) then leap, stretching your arms straight out, grasp the bar amd swing, moving your momentum further so you can jump off and still travel a great distance. If you did not get this, view photos above.

This ones more for when your going up to an obstacle sideways. Run up, jump off your undominent leg then vault over. Its very easy learn it first.

Okay, now we get to the good stuff :). If you have followed this instructable, then you have probably already learned this. But now we're going to make this a lot cooler. Go to your couch and stand on the part where you sit, facing the back rest. Do a kong vault over it (if your scared then bail, then go to a smaller obstacle and start practicing there, until you can do it like a pro). Keep practicing there until you've got it all figured out, then go to the opposite side of the couch and do it there. When you have done five times without any failure at all, you know you can do it.

Now let's get on to something more complicated: the reverse vault. It's twisting in mid air with help from your arms. The initial move is this: crouch low and put your left hand on the floor in front of you. Put your weight on it and jump and rotate around it, putting your right hand in front of your left facing backwards. Using your right hand, finish your rotation landing forward.
When you've got the flow of that you will be doing that over obstacles really. Just get the hang of it and try running and punching into it (the term punching means jumping off two feet). When you can punch into it try split stepping in to it (just walk into it, no punching).

Now you're going to learn something super challenging. The reason I'm doing it before the frontflip is because backflipping is easier than frontflipping. To do it, first do one on a trampoline. Then do it off of something on to a mat. Then do it on a mat. Then be courageous and do it on ground. The trick to it is do a jump (properly) then tuck. Now a lot of guys will throw there heads back. NO. Look forward at something while doing it and try to look at it as long as possible.

Now here is the same thing as the backflip process: trampoline, off bed, mat, ground.

These are for obstacles higher than you can kong. Take a step up it then put your legs over it so u can pop over. I practiced this on the back of trucks, taking a step on the wheel.

Now this type of vault is different the the normal vaults you'd expect to see. Your legs will jump over and then you will but your hands down. Tip keep your head back that your legs can go higher so you can clear an obstacle. And bend your legs at the start. Dont start out with straight legs.

These are for obstacles that are longer than ones you'd single kong. Just put your hands down at the start of the obstacle to give you a push towards the end. Then kong at the end and youve cleared it.

You need to be able to double kong so good that you can single kong a jump that you'd normally double kong.

Triple kongs are for obstacles so long you can't even do it with a double kong. Same process as a double kong. Just add another pull in the middle.

These are easy to pull my sister can even do it. Just roll overtop an obstacle.

Arabian flips are a little complicated. Start by jumping and in the same jump sart a backflip but then turn around 180 and frontflip. Practice on a trampoline first please.

Just do a frontflip then when your halfway done then turn 180 degrees. Do this on a tramp first.

Very difficult. Just start by jumping 180 degrees then backflip off that rotation keeping the rotation going.

You should know how to backflip first. Just do a backflip then put your hands down then move from that until u got it.

Front handsprings are pretty challenging if your like me. Do this on a trampoline before hand. Jump then put your hands down. Then flip your legs over.

Aerials are round offs that are non-handed. They are super hard i can only pull it off on a trampoline. Learn how to cartwheel, one-handed cartwheel, roundoff, one-handed round off first though. You can even try to learn how to sideflip before this.

Gainers are backflips moving forwards. Tips on doing that is when you do it, don't throw your head back look forward as long as you can. And be sure to tuck.

Jump tumbling is your running and then flipping off a ledge. (Or in this case, a balance beam). Definetly know how to frontflip first.

Railflips are practically a front handspring over an obstacle. You should probably be able to do a front handspring first.

Obstacle frontflips are when you jump off an obstacle and flip. You should be able to do a frontflip and land it.

This one is a bit hard to pull off. You need to be able to roll properly or this can go very bad. Just jump down head first and roll.

This one is super easy its practically a bar jump but for something lower than your head. Tip though go feet first and not hands first.

PS Im being nice to my camera man who has worked so hard.

This one is for people who've mastered a lazy vault and want to add some show to it. Just go over and split your legs (i know u people are concerned and im going to say this right here: no, u don't need to do the splits :) )

This one is for people that are obese and cant do practically any parkour (u know who you are). Anyway, like in the pics, just go up and straddle over.

Go up to your obstacle and put your left hand down while doing a proper sideflip over your obstacle. Its important that on your first attempt to do this on a soft surface so if your bail you wont kill yourself.

Okay now this looks tuff but its actually super simple as soon as u know what to do. Your left hand should point down while your right hand points in the direction you're going. Jump and try to get your legs above your right hand. Tip you need to always be looking at the wall. Dont look behind you or up or down. That helps you spin.

This is said to be a technic but honestly i have no clue why you'd use it. Just as in the pics, just spread your legs while doing it.
Well then.

Okay well i hope you guys use this to the best of your abilities. This was a begginers lesson so if youve mastered this now you can move on to more advanced stuff like wall flips. I hope you also learn even more stuff. I'd like to thank Christ for giving me (and hopefully you) this incredible ability. I'd also like to thank Jesse LaFlair. Without him, i'd have no clue what i was doing.
I'd like to make a shout out to my friends sev_scorch and jackson k. Check them out they are very good.
Thanks so much.
BK12