When many people begin parkour, they look at specific techniques and try and learn them. This is what I did, this is what most people do, this is how I have taught up until now.
Now when someone comes out to train and asks which technique we are going to learn first, my response will be:
none.
The way I and most learned parkour taught us bad habits, it taught us to rely on techniques and specific skills. Once you mastered all of the core “techniques” it becomes a matter of combining them in runs, which is good. But then it comes to a matter of creativity, and coming up with different movements and ways of moving. At this point we are free. Sometimes the most inspirational parkour comes from people incorporating movements from other disciplines into parkour. Take for instance, Oleg’s Out of Time. He incorporates breaking moves in there and it looks awesome!
But why should this be limited to those with other backgrounds and those who have been training a long time? Why shouldn’t everyone have this freedom from the onset? That is why I want to encourage new traceurs to just move. Whatever comes naturally. And as they begin to move, give them small tips on what might make a particular movement more fluid or quicker. In this way their mind will not be constrained to the movements defined by us. They will simply move from point A to point B in whatever way seems fit.
Overtime they will learn the central techniques as there is a reason they have been developed. But they will not be limited to them. Some will say this is dangerous, I don’t think so. As long as you start with simple, small, low obstacles, and move from there they will be fine.
It is one thing to tell someone that this is the proper way to do something, it is an entirely different thing to let that person discover why this is the way most people do something.
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A very good outlook Adam! A friend of mine teaches like you have described and the first time I saw him do it was when he was in the area 6 or 7 months ago. When he taught like that I noticed people don’t get frustrated because they are having trouble with a specific technique. Also the people got used to moving in various ways, rather than just the limited ones that I was taught.
Great text! I really enjoyed reading it! : D
i’ll just have to ask, I saw the quote you made (up in the shower xD) “With the body as paint, and the city as canvass, what will you create?”
And I’ll ask if I can use this as a print on a t-shirt? I’m not going to sell it, I’m going to have it personally : )
Feel free Dina!