Parkour is traversing through your environment. GY parkour athletes will learn everything they need to thrive in parkour. Athletes will learn how to go over objects, under obstacles, up walls, down heights, swing on bars, basic flips and how to land and how to fall safely.
Going Over
The term for going over an object in parkour is vaulting. In the beginner class we learn the Safety, Speed, Cowboy, Thief, Pop and Kong vaults. A Kong vault involves running towards an object or wall and diving over the object while your chest is parallel to the ground as you push off the object with your hands. In the two hour class we take Kong vaults to the next level by adding flips, twists and combinations.
Climbing Up
Ever dream of running up a wall? Our athletes can climb up a wall 1.5x their height in under a second with only a single step! For the average adult, that means being able to climb on top of your ceiling. This involves sprinting at a wall and placing a foot at or above hip height to transform your running momentum into upwards momentum and propel you to the top of the wall.
Falling Safely
All levels of our program have dedicated time to practicing falling safely in every class. The primary way we fall in Parkour is through rolling. The average student coming once a week can expect to perform 1000 rolls every 2-3 months (which scales as they come in more days per week). Over months and years this transforms and overrides the body’s panic tendencies and rolling becomes part of their natural movement vocabulary. I believe rolls are the most transformative skill Parkour has to offer and exponentially multiplies the athleticism of anyone who trains them consistently. You can see my blog post teaching a basic roll here.
Swinging
Swinging, hanging and brachiating are a huge part of the sport of Parkour and tend to be underutilized and under-taught. I have been coaching Men’s gymnastics for a long time and hold my Parkour students to the same standard. My athletes learn to hang from a bar, kip on top of the bar, press into a handstand and swing around the bar several times before letting go and performing a backflip layout.
Flipping
Starting in the beginner class every student will begin the preparation for standing frontflip layouts (no tucking of the limbs). At an advanced level we learn skill combinations involving frontflip layouts, flipping onto things and even twisting. To learn even more flips (such as wall backflips and flips off of one leg) we offer the flipping class as a supplement to the parkour program.
In competition we combine these skills into a “line” or routine. Athletes can express their creativity and individuality by creating unique combinations of the skills they have learned. Be sure to subscribe for future blog posts on Parkour competitions!
