Philly Parkour

I was thinking about what parkour techniques a beginner should start with. Precision jumps, landings, and parkour rolls would definitely be among the first techniques to work with. But is there a certain order that the techniques should be worked with, so that one builds into another?

I know this is the case of the monkey vault, because if you can do that, then you can add some intensity and do a kong. But as a beginner, I'm not sure if there are only certain techniques I should really concern myself with right now, and save other techniques for another time. Or, maybe it's all fair game right now, and I just do all the techniques in baby steps, as my ability grows.

I feel that there is no real order that you should go by, although fundamentals like the roll and other basic movements like that are best to start with. As you said, some movements are prerequisite to another, more advanced move. Once you get the basic (and most important) movements down, it's really up to you. Every person is different, so whatever feels comfortable to you is best.

Here are a few things that I suggest:

1. Don't immediately start doing drops from too high (Your not new to Parkour so I'm sure you got this one). Really take time with building up on this, David Belle has been practicing Parkour since 1985, so there is a lot of training behind some of the drops he takes.

2. Practice practice practice! Especially movements that you are already familiar with. There are always flaws that can be improved and it is a priority to be as efficient and safe as possible. It is one thing to be able to do something and another to do something and not get hurt.

3. Don't get your mind stuck on specific movements. I do this myself, and I find it nearly impossible to not give names to distinct "movements" within Parkour. Every environment is going to need different techniques, and I think we should also build on improvisation because we aren't always going to be able to look at the obstacles ahead of us in case of a real life situation... Getting back on topic, we should only look at it like this: Bipedal movements, Quadrupedal movements, jumping, and climbing. Those four basic movement encompass all moves within Parkour. This mindset will help us be more creative and give the ability to learn more. Still, as I said that is a little to vague when explaining certain movements to one another.

Hope my ranting helps out a little,

David.

I definitely agree with David. One should try to avoid thinking in terms of "moves" as often as possible.

My take is, learn to roll. Learn to keep your balance. Then the rest is simply looking at an obstacle and saying "What can I do with this? Can I go over it? Under it? How fast? How smooth? How efficiently?" and go from there.