10 basic parkour moves you can learn to help build strength and confidence

Sport360 staff 12:12 05/07/2018
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  • Dubai is seeing growing popularity of parkour – a training discipline developed from military. Far from just jumping from obstacle to obstacle, parkour, a non-competitive sport, is a discipline that enables you to travel freely through any terrain while developing balance, strength, dynamism, endurance, and precision.

    If you’ve never tried it, here are ten basic moves you can learn to get you up and running.

    The roll

    This is what you’ll need to master if you’re going to take up parkour. When you’re jumping between objects you need to know how to land safely. The roll helps to disperse the impact. You should aim to roll diagonally using your shoulder so that you’re not rolling on your spine.

    Quadrupedal movement

    You basic motion is running on all fours, which helps with coordination and conditioning. What’s good about it is you can practise pretty much anywhere, on flat ground or on a ledge. It’s about getting your body low to the ground and using both hands and feet.

    Balance

    Freerunners need to have good balance to do parkour moves successfully. Balance is as much about concentration as it is your body movement. The best way to improve is to start small, like walking along a curb and building up confidence to walk along a railing or ledge.

    Precision jumping

    Parkour involves a lot of jumping between objects, which means you’ve got to master the technique of landing in the right spot. If you’re jumping between two rails any slip and you’ll be off balance. Practice with two cracks in the pavement and landing in the right spot on the balls of your feet, to give yourself most control.

    Vault: One hand and one leg on the object

    Vault: One hand and one leg on the object

    Safety vault

    This is using one hand and one leg on an object. It’s simple and anyone can do it. Find a ledge that’s low enough for you to put a single hand on and jump up onto it with one leg, usually the opposite leg to arm. Practising that motion will build your coordination.

    Wall running

    This is very easy and you don’t have to pretending to be a superhero to practise. Run towards a wall and put your foot up on the wall and push off. You can do this in all different directions to get you into the next move. As you get more confident you can add in two or three steps along the wall before you land back on the ground.

    Turn vault

    The basic move is doing the vault over a handrail, usually in a situation to get down off a drop, and turning yourself as you do it. You don’t want to put too much weight on the centre of the turn, reach your arms out so you’re spreading your bodyweight and not putting it all on one area.

    Jump spin

    If you get dizzy easily you should start by practising jumping on flat ground with a 90-degree turn. In the air, turn your arms and hips and the rest of the body will follow as you land. Build up from 90 to 720-degree.

    Bar swing

    For this exercise you need to be able to hold your own bodyweight on a bar or ledge. You want to build momentum by swinging your feet out and then bringing your knees up as you’re about to swing away from the bar. The more you do this the further you can swing and jump from the bar.

    Once you’ve got the basics down you can combine them all to get a parkour sequence under your belt.

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