#46Fear
By Chris | posted on 9 May 2009 | 3 comments
The following are my thoughts on the nature, and usefulness of fear in parkour. My thanks to Nick Kelly for originally probing my mind for this!
How do you work through fears you encounter when practicing parkour?
What purpose do you think fear serves, and do you think fear has any positive qualities?
Fear can be both friend and foe. It can be a blockade to progress, yet also be an invaluable guide. The important distinction to realise (whether in parkour or any other time), is what is legitmate fear, and what is not. For example; not walking the streets of the safest streets at night because you're scared of being mugged is an illegitmate fear and one you shouldn't give in to. Not going out after dark walking through a park where there are regular assaults is a wise one. The exact same thing applies to parkour.
When you are scared in parkour it is because you do not feel confident. It may be the move, the height, some other factor you feel is dangerous, or simply your body doesn't feel up to it either through tiredness or injury.
The first thing is to identify what it is you're afraid of. The two fears you should most listen to are if you feel too tired/injured to perform the move safely, or if you are genuinely not sure if you can complete it (make the distance, etc). Fortunately, these are easy to overcome. In the case of the former, rest, or rehabilitation exercises for the more serious injury, will prove adequate. When unsure if you can actually physically make the distance, maintain grip, be accurate enough or whichever fear is holding you back, a period of practise on similar but smaller problems, or conditioning a certain part of the body, will remove tnis fear once you know you are physically able.
Where the problem is the height, or some other "dangerous" factor, it is often a little harder to pigeonhole what your fear is. In most cases, your fear is of injury, of "what if I don't make it". But in the majority of these circumstances, you are not genuinely afraid of falling short, because you know if the height/stairs/sharp railing/whatever wasn't there, you'd have completed the move successfully, and repeated it many times without messing up once. No. Here it is merely the fear of the danger, even if the risk is infinitisimally small.
Now again, sometimes you are scared because you haven't done moves with this kind of danger before, in which case practise over a smaller drop, or find a similar move where the danger is still there, but the gap/cat leap/etc is smaller so you feel more confident. This fear is easier to combat through repetition, much like making yourself stronger.
However, sometimes, and by far the hardest, you are simply scared of the stairs, height whatever the dangerous element may be, even though you know you can repeat the move hundreds, thousands of times without ever coming to harm. While to a certain extent this can be also be combatted like above, this is more of a mental block than just being inexperienced to the danger. This is the toughest to deal with mentally, because you have to let go with your mind. But this should still be rooted in your practise. Wen you let go in your head, it should NEVER just be a case of becoming oblivious to the danger. It should always be rooted in a fundamental belief and confidence in your training and abilities, and you are merely pushing any danger to one side and focussing just on the move.
It is of paramount importance in the the last case, that it is not something you *think* you can make and you go for it anyway. You KNOW in your self, that you will make it every time, you just recognise that it is fear alone that is holding you back.
Fear is the subconcious's way of telling the mind of danger. It makes you realise you are not comfortable with a situation. In parkour, this can be a beneficial tool because on a very simple level, it will highlight areas of your training that need more practise. If you are scared, it is because you do not feel confident with either the movement or the situation. In either case, this will be remedied through repetition of what you are scared of, but on a smaller scale.
Fear is also useful for keeping you alert. Ever noticed how most injuries occur on small things, jus swinging around, often tripping on kerbs etc? Because when there is no fear, it is easier for the body to lose focus. In this sense, fear is vital to help keep you in a safe context if there is danger around. It helps keep you alert to even small risks, because of the consequences.
Labels: Psychology
About the Author : Chris3 Comments:
Wise words. As someone once said (and I paraphrase!) - 'Fear is like a flame inside you: kept under control it can be used to fuel and nourish you - but allow it to grow too much and it becomes an inferno that will consume you'.
By 
Dan, at
1:00 pm, May 09, 2009
Thanks for the response yet again Chris! The paper I used those answers in was one of my favorite papers I've written for a class in college. I actually recently used it on a job application as a writing sample.
By 
Nick, at
5:30 am, May 12, 2009
No problem at all man, glad to have been of some help! I hope the job hunting is going well :D
By Chris, at
10:26 am, May 12, 2009
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