Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Have you ever wanted to jump off a roof? You’re not alone. During parkour training, they teach you how to do it and successfully.
What is Parkour?
According to Wikipedia, Parkour is the non-competitive sport of traversing mainly urban landscapes by running, climbing and jumping. Participants run along a route, attempting to navigate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas.
Parkour Basics
Watch this video to understand so basic positions and moves:
Mark Toorock from American Parkour show basic moves
Now, while using these basic principles, here is guide on how to jump off a roof:
1. Cue Motivation Music: Before you begin, get your ass-kicking soundtrack in place. Here are a few crowd sourced ideas:
Meron Langsner’s pick:
Emily Torres’ pick:
Naomi Pierce’s pick:
And of course, who could forget the song during the Ocean’s Twelve “Laser Dance”.
2. Run: In order to gain speed to leverage later, give yourself enough runway to get a running start.
3. Jump Forward: When jumping, jump forward. This will allow you to attain momentum horizontally and further your reach.
4. Leg Extensions: As you’re approaching the ground, extend your legs forward. The objective is to land on the balls of your feet in order to maximize the impact.
5. Roll: As you land, roll from one shoulder to the opposite hip.
NOTE: I am absolutely not responsible for you if get injured. So, please train and practice with caution.
How to Practice:
1. Reverse Engineer: Practice each move in reverse order, adding an additional step once mastery has been completed.
2. Video Tape: Video tape yourself doing each individual step. This will help you to ensure accurate form.
3. Parkour Buddy: Practice with someone, so that they can spot you or give you a high-five when you succeed.
How you done Parkour before? What tips do you have for first timers? What is the best way that you’ve found to practice? We’d love to hear from you.
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2 Comments
I would probably work on that disclaimer a little more – and explicitly discourage your readers from watching a DIY video and then trying to jump off a roof. This really does take some serious physical conditioning, some well-practiced technique and a whole lot of luck to avoid doing serious harm to yourself.
I’m actually an old Parkour veteran and I can tell you that injury is common and death is just one small step (or slip) away if you are unprepared or reckless. I’ve done a lot of free climbing (cliffs and small mountains in the country and lots of different sized and shaped buildings in the city) and free jumping (my highest attempt was from a 35 foot rooftop) and I can attest first hand how bad it hurts when you take a 30 foot fall and don’t land properly.
Also, something I wish I knew 25 years ago – your knees and your back, even with the best possible form, will certainly suffer serious deterioration from repeated jumping (talk to any vet who spent more than a few years in an Airborne unit about their knees).
Scrambling over organic urban obstacle courses and doing relatively low jumps is one thing (bumps, bruises, sprains and a broken bone or two may still be expected) but hurling yourself from a rooftopo isn’t really child’s play.
I have to admit, I find climbing and jumping to be one of the most exhilarating feelings in the world, but it is probably not for the average amateur to just run out and try… Much better suited for hard core adrenaline junkies who are fully aware of the risk and comfortable with the possibility of serious injury or even death. No joke.
I just started parkour and as I’m doing the roll it sort of makes my shoulder sore. Is this normal and just takes time to get used to it, like how after you work out for the first time you are sore. Or am I doing it wrong?
Thanks.