#71Excerpt 2...
By Dan | posted on 3 July 2009 | 0 comments
Following the recent pubication of our Handbook of Parkour and Freerunning, here is an extended version of one of the early sections of the book for those who can't access a copy.
Transformative Practice
The art of displacement is an art based on the refinement of one’s movement, in all areas. This ranges from gross movements such as jumps, drops, and passing obstacles, down to the fine movements within one’s anatomy, such as joint mobility, muscle-chain connections and even to training the neuromuscular pathways that underpin all motion. It is an art that aims to enhance one’s natural abilities and gifts, helping us to return to our more primal talents, to the essence of what are bodies have evolved to be able to do. It is a true transformative practice, which is loosely defined as the regular practice of particular physical movements with the intent to improve them and, concurrently, to improve the self as well.
However, while these abilities are latent and stored within all of us, it is clear that a disciplined approach to developing them is what enables us to unlock our potential fully: parkour offers methods and approaches to this practice that have been pressure-tested and refined over many years to create an optimal way of training both body and mind for the improvement of one’s movement.
It is a truth that in modern industrialized societies rarely do we need to push our bodies to their limits, which in turn precludes most of us from ever coming anywhere near to our full potential. Our bodies are therefore usually not ready for the strains and pressures of practicing such explosive movement, especially on the concrete and metal surfaces of the urban jungle, and to attempt to copy the high-powered actions performed by seasoned practitioners without the necessary training and physical preparation is to invite almost certain injury and damage. Good parkour training will remove that risk, and in fact reveal to the practitioner that his or her limits are far beyond what they could ever have imagined.
Conditioning: Forging the Body
A large proportion of training in parkour is what is loosely termed ‘conditioning’ - this is the process of preparing the muscles, joints, connective tissue and bones of the body for the demands of practicing the art. To be able to practice this and indeed any physical discipline safely and for as long as one wishes it is absolutely vital that one first develops the necessary physical attributes that underlie the movements.
The physical aim of parkour is to be as functionally fit and strong and capable for as long as possible in life - to become the best version of yourself that you can - not to explode out of the blocks, have a few years of energetic practice and then stop because of injury or overstraining of the body. Parkour is an art of living, a way of approaching not only your environment but also your life - for as long as you are living it.
This conditioning process is a way of forging your body to prepare it for the rigours of training. It creates a kind of ‘body armour’ of muscle and toughened tissue that not only protects your whole anatomy from harm through repeated impacts but also shields you if and when you fall or strike a surface unintentionally. This armour protects you not only in your parkour practice but also of course in any other activity, making you less susceptible to injury from everyday accidents and strains.
It is vital to understand that even in conditioning one must not rush or push too hard, too fast. Connective tissue such as tendons and ligaments take much longer to strengthen than muscles and to over-develop muscles without giving thought to the increased strain on the connective tissues will invariably lead to repetitive strain injuries such as tendonitis. Always seek proper instruction from experienced and qualified teachers before embarking on a physical conditioning regime, to ensure optimal development.
The Physical Benefits of Parkour
“The joy of surpassing the limits of the body is open to all.” Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
Practitioners have long been aware that good parkour training brings about incredibly positive physical changes as it requires us to use our bodies as they were meant to be used; functionally and holistically. This training is far removed from linear isolations of muscles on a weights machine - freerunning tests all of the body all of the time, and almost every movement requires most of the major muscle groups to work together and coordinate their efforts. As we have seen, however, attempting these movements without proper understanding of the art can lead to negative results for the body and less functionality - the reverse of our intention!
This fine line between positive development and pushing the body too far is best walked under guidance from those who have navigated it before, until one becomes sensitive enough to one’s own body to be able to manage this balancing act alone.
While practicing the freerunner is never attempting to work any part of his body in isolation, nor is he ever developing anything other than the most functional attributes and skills. A practitioner of parkour rarely brings weights or specialised equipment to his sessions: his body is his one and only tool. The principal practice for parkour is to repeat and refine the movements of parkour, improving tensile strength, flexibility, and coordination as you go, creating kinetic chains between the muscle groups while increasing neuromuscular efficiency. The importance of proprioception (the constant, accurate assessment of the body’s position in space, facilitated by the contraction of numerous small stabiliser muscles) cannot be overstated, and is constantly improved through balance exercises, night-training, and spatial awareness drills.
This ‘natural’ approach to training in some ways parallels the lifestyles of ancient tribal cultures, perhaps first properly researched from a fitness perspective by Frenchman Georges Hebert (1875-1957), a pivotal figure in the history of physical education in the West who was struck by the natural attributes of the indigenous peoples of Africa – Hebert noted that merely leading their natural lives of physicality and dynamism produced incredible specimens possessed of exceptional functional strength and agility. His ‘Natural Method’, which many regard as one of the forerunners of parkour, was a means by which to reproduce these effects in industrialised societies by “promoting the qualities of organic resistance, muscularity and speed, towards being able to walk, run, jump, move quadrupedally, to climb, to walk in balance, to throw, lift, defend yourself and to swim.”
Just as with Hebert’s method, the art of displacement focuses on enhancing one’s natural movement capabilities, which means every individual who practices it will see physical improvements perfectly in line with how his or her body is designed to work. These benefits can last a lifetime.
Extraordinary Living
The art of displacement encourages a gradual sophistication of attributes, through detailed specification as the practitioner goes deeply into the intricacy of his movement, towards an unconscious mastery of his own abilities. To achieve ‘flow’ in movement is one of the holy grails of parkour: to link skills together into a seamless, dynamic whole facilitating instinctual movement over any terrain. Acquiring this sense of fluidity in movement carries over positively into all one’s activities, and aligns us with the enormous potential that is latent within us all. We will look into this ‘flow’ phenomenon in more detail in Part Three of this book.
When practiced correctly and safely parkour will transform the individual in a radical fashion: taking one’s functional strength, fitness, endurance, confidence, agility and balance to incredible new heights. You will feel more wholly ‘yourself’ in a very visceral sense, with a new and fuller picture of how you connect with your environment and also a new understanding of what you can achieve in that environment.
We all contain immense potential for amazing activity. We all possess the innate ability to move with the seemingly superhuman attributes that parkour develops. The truth is, of course, that there is nothing superhuman about these activities – and there are no secrets either. Diligent, intelligent practise and focused, regular training will bring about the realisation of this potential. Let this training take you to the peak of your abilities and you may discover that rare but undeniable sense that all humans harbour vast capacities for extraordinary living.
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