A few questions.

[whisperdale]

1. I live in a boring little village nobody's ever heard of in Ayrshire and I can't for the life of me find a decent place to practice parkour. I've been up pissing about on the roof of the local Asda a few times with my mates, but understandably I can't see that working out in the long term and I'm really not skilled enough to feel confident properly roof-hopping yet.

Being very green, I'm not too sure what to look for in a great training area. The architecture in my village seems to be designed to discourage free runners, there's a few slippery metal benches on ground level and that's it. I've considered hanging about the school at night, but I get funny looks and chased off by the janitor and/or police whenever I do so. *headdesk*

I'd really rather not fire straight in about the streets right away.

2. Are there any groups in Ayshire, preferably in the vicinity of Irvine that would take on a female 14-year old noob? Physically, I'm strong, and I'm quick-thinking, but so far I've only really put my strength to use in fights and brawls and nuts like that. I plan on working out a bit to make sure I can keep up, but stamina could be a problem, I got ill a while back and my endurance isn't too great. I'm working on it though.

3. Rolls. Lacking anybody with half a clue to pull up and ask about this, do you roll from one shoulder to the opposite hip, or just down one side or sideways or whatever? I'm sure it's shoulder-hip, but I wanted to check due to conflicting sources.

4. How would one go about increasing jump distance? What muscles do you train for that sort of thing?



- A clueless but eager newbie. Sorry if some of my questions seem stupid or whatever, 4am isn't really my prime time. xD

[ANTISFIT]

hii
sorry, i can't really help location wise,

but rolls, its from one shoulder to the opposite hip :]

and precisions are mainly your glutes, so yeah work on those

but also calf's for absorbance and control :]

[Lukman]

1) I'm pretty sure that there is terrain in your area that can be used for parkour. Unfortunately, the ability to see it requires some level of training... Anyway, while it may not look so impressive, the ground is a good place to start. Trees, benches and cinder / breeze blocks are your friends. Safe, precision jumping is a good thing to get the hang of. If all you have is a pavement and chalk, you have enough for some very challenging hopscotch...

The better you understand your abilities, the more you will see. What you really need, is to train with somebody who has had a load more experience than you, and understands the art. Which brings me to my next point:

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2) I'm not so hot on Geography, but as far as I know, the nearest major city to you is Glasgow, so you ought to try Glasgow Parkour. Even if you can't visit those guys, they may be willing to visit / know someone who trains closer to you.

Check the regional forums at the bottom of the main page of these forums. Even if you can't find an active user, you may be able to find the email of one, or a link to a parkour site or forum for people nearer you.

There are other websites which have links to local forums. I'm not going to give you links here, because, to be honest, I don't trust the users of some popular websites and forums to give you good advice. It stinks, I know, but a lot of people get involved in parkour because it looks cool, or because they can make money by selling stuff to teenagers.

In short, use your eyes and use your head.

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3) There are several answers. All of them are correct:

Seek help. An experienced traceur will be the most useful. If not, try a skilled practitioner of a martial art that involves throws, e.g. aikido, judo, han mu do. Breakrolls are different to parkour rolls; the aim of a breakroll can be to kill momentum while a parkour roll is for redirecting and recycling it, but they have similar start points.

Try to understand the move. There are hundreds of tutorials out there, about a dozen of which are good. Look for them, watch videos of experienced traceurs rolling. There is a lot of variation due to style / preference / environmental conditions, but see what you understand. If you have questions, ask me.

Practice. You need to repeat it until it feels perfect, then repeat it until you don't need to think. Start slow and from low, on a soft surface. If, and only if, it feels right, step it up to a faster movement from higher up and on harder surfaces. Use your arms. Press your chin to your chest. Go gently over one shoulder, across the muscle of the back, onto the opposite hip, and onto that foot. Look through your armpit at where you are going. Practice both ways. And don't wear white. I made that mistake when I tried to teach rolls to several people in one day.

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4) I'd love to give you the correct answer for you, but I've never seen you jump...

You can increase the power of a jump by increasing muscular strength. You'll want to look into plyometrics for that. Squats, lunges, calf raises... All these come into it. I'd recommend getting started on calf raises immediately, but mainly because I see an awful lot of people spraining their ankles because they try things they don't have the strength and control for.

However, power and distance aren't the same thing. You'll want good technique. The best thing to do is train with somebody more experienced, and they can tell you what to do. Besides, I mean no offense by this, but I wouldn't want a 14 year old girl damaging herself by trying a plyometric program designed for a 20 year old man.

If you can't find someone like that, or if you want to read some stuff I wrote years ago, click on this link. Otherwise, ask questions.

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5) You don't seem clueless. You had the sense to come here and ask, which is an awful lot better than most of the kids I see on youtube. I hope parkour goes well for you.