Headway PArkour Blog
There are numerous ways to train Parkour. Solo training is great but training with others can sometimes bring a much richer experience. However, before you can train in a group, you must find people to train with; This shouldn't be too hard, there are people everywhere! The difficult part is convincing them to train with you, many of them don’t even know what Parkour is. Today I will be explaining which people you should attempt to train with, what characteristics to look for in them, and how to convince them to train with you. Special thanks to Kevin Munoz for requesting this article. Who To Train With Who you will be content training with will depend heavily on how comfortable you are with people. Some Traceurs are comfortable training with complete strangers, others like to get to know someone before jamming with them. Before reading on determine who you are comfortable training with. Did you come to a conclusion? Good, now that you know your target audience we can continue. Take Into Consideration Before training with someone be sure to uncover the answers the following questions: How fit are they? Have they ever trained Parkour before? What values do they hold as a person? You should dig for these answers as you talk to them; Due to the fact that these questions all correlate to training. Traits Not everyone is cut out to be a Traceur, that's the cold hard truth. There are many traits to look for in a could be Traceur. Here are a few that stand out as essential: Positive Willing Responsible Persistent Determined Someone who posses all of these traits will probably thrive in Parkour, they just need a little bit of guidance from you. Now let’s get into the nitty gritty: Convincing someone to train with you. Strangers Persuading a complete stranger to train with you is a matter of being a good conversationalist. You need to be convincing in your approach. Be friendly and act like a well mannered citizen, not a delinquent. Ask them if they know what Parkour is, if they throw out the generic answer of: “Jumping from building to building” you must correct them. Refer to the public perception article for more info on correcting someone's conception of our discipline. If necessary, get to know the stranger and move them into the friend category, it would then be easier to train with them. Friends Your compadres most likely possess an idea of what you do, often times this idea is erroneous, so once again it is up to you to correct them (link). Believe it or not most of your friends want to try Parkour themselves, they just don’t believe they are capable of it. It is your responsibility to show them that becoming skilled in Parkour is possible. We all start as beginners and many of the greatest Traceurs started as chubby gamers. This next part is important; Be sure not to show off once you start training with your buddies, doing so will discourage them and make them feel inferior. Train on their level, not yours. If they can only perform precisons, practice those. They may feel belittled if they catch you doing lunar eclipse to cork combos while they are working on the safety vault. Traceur If you're a Traceur I consider you part of the Parkour family. It is not a laborious task convincing a Traceur to train with you. Generally, Traceurs are looking for someone who can help them to hone their skills, while at the same time having some fun. Sometimes the Traceur you are training with is more skilled than you, that’s fine. Just be careful not to push yourself farther than you're capable of. And now for a tip that can be applied to anyone you are training with: Align your intentions, be clear in stating what you want from the training session. Examples of training session desires: to learn a new move, to film, to explore, to climb, to trick, to teach, the list goes on and on… Conclusion That’s all folks, I hope your garden of knowledge was tended to today, may the information I have provided you with help you in one way or another.
4 Comments
Dan Micek
10/13/2013 01:28:59 am
Great article and f I could do a lunar eclipse to a cork combo, don't think my friends would feel belittled considering I'd be amazed at me being able to do it lol
Dameon Byker
10/13/2013 03:23:02 am
Haha if you practice hard enough, you'll get it.
Reshi Raj Tamang Jr.
3/2/2014 12:11:44 am
You have so many words of wisdom about parkour for all the beginners, intermediate's and professionals. My friend have learned a lot by just reading this whole blog. They didn't leave a single word out. Keep it up! The Parkour community really appreciates all this support!
Dameon Byker
3/10/2014 05:18:00 pm
Thank you! :) Leave a Reply. |