Sebastien Foucan in Jump London
The First rule of Parkour is LEARN HOW TO PARKOUR ROLL.
The Second rule of Parkour is LEARN HOW TO PARKOUR ROLL.
Actually there are no real rules in how to Parkour as its all about freedom and expression. However the Parkour roll is the number one essential move to learn if you’d enjoy using your legs for the rest of your life.
For those who wonder what the Parkour roll is all about I’d like to point out that concrete is a hard substance and if you wish to navigate the urban landscape you are likely to encounter much of it.
Landing on concrete sends shock waves through the legs creating micro traumas to the knee joint. If landing is not handled correctly – over time these micro traumas will create a failure in your knee activity. Not good for general life usage and of course detrimental to the continuation of your Parkour fun.
Now, the Parkour Roll alone will not wholly prevent damage to the legs. For this you will require good practice in landing techniques to adequately absorb the impact of the concrete shock and also, most crucially, you need to be patient and allow time for your body to adapt and grow to handle your new sport i.e. what is known as conditioning. These aspects I will cover in later articles.
What the Parkour roll does offer is to absorb the impact of fast, forward moving jumps and allows you to transfer the energy to smoothly move on from a jump into your next obstacle. It’s all about the flow and continuation of movement.
If pictures are worth a thousand words then this awesome video will go a long long way in showing you how to correctly perform a Parkour roll. There are many video tutorials out there but this guy really breaks down the roll and the main trouble spots many people encounter.
Now get out there and practice the roll to perfection. Yes perfection! As Sebastian Foucan once told me, the roll needs to be perfect. When you land at high speed you don’t have time to think.
A few tips to get you going:
- Start low and slow. If you value your life and bodily functions I’d strongly advise against doing running jumps off 12ft high walls on your first tries.
- When I first learnt to roll I did it inside on carpeted floor. No great leaping jumps. Just simple hops into the roll. Trust me, even carpeted floor boards will point out weaknesses in your Parkour Roll.
- Once you have smoothed out your jump into roll inside on carpeted flooring i.e. you no longer smash your knee, hip bone or ankle as you come out of the roll – then move outside to concrete and practice low level, no more than the height of a hop and this will refine your roll technique. Concrete is a harsh teacher but you’ll quickly advance.
- Once you have the low level roll down smooth then you can slowly build up the height. Parkour is about self awareness. Slowly building up the difficult allows you time to get to know what your body is capable of and serves to better condition your body over time.
Have fun!
