Free Running 101

[Davidvaini]

From the conversation that some of us had in the topic "funny internet story", I felt like I should start a free running discussion.

So if you are into free running or always wanted to get into it then feel free to post helpful tips, questions, or videos/images of you free running.

I will start out the discussion with a few links that are extremely helpful to beginner and expert free runner's alike.

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/fundamenta ... entals.htm

[potatoflinger]

Pretty sweet, I love watching videos of people doing that stuff on youtube, it's pretty crazy. I can jump pretty far/high, but I'm too scared to do a lot of that stuff.

[Davidvaini]

I would say 70% of it is mental. Overcomming your fears is a huge step for beginners. but once you get out there and doing it, you will have sooo much fun.

I actually cant wait to get out there but its raining right now and my thighs are a little sore from yesterday.

[mega_swordman]

What sort of skills or abilities should one have before attempting to learn freerunning?

[SEAKING9006]

Ability to find shoes with sticky rubber soles.

[Davidvaini]

to be honest... nothing... Im actually doing free running as an exercise. I am 5' 6" and before free running i weighed 175 lbs. lets just say too many video games and never exercising at all.

I now weight 160ish and I havent changed my food diet.

I am a pretty decent jumper and I am quick on my feet but I have minimal arm strength. I have been able to do cartwheels, handsprings and round offs before I started free running but you actually dont use those skills in the beginning of free running.

Find some good shoes and a pair of golfing gloves or batting gloves or some other thing glove. A lot of people say you don't need them but for my area I do. The cement retaining walls etc in my area are extremely rough and If you dont get gloves your hands will get torn to shreds.

[frankrede]

I think I just found my exercise.
That looks like so much fun. I think I will start tommorow!

[Davidvaini]

cool!

yeah it is a lot of fun... here I am really sore and tired and i cant wait to get out again and do this trick I've been thinking of.

There is this ledge downtown that will be perfect to do a front handspring off of.

Next time im out I will try to get a video of it.

[brplatz]

i think i found a sweet outlet now! my cousin has been doing it for years and is really amazing but i really am pumped to start and kinda have a personal teacher

[hi]

alot of this stuff is stuff we did as a warm up in wrestling. hand springs, cart weals, front rolls, back rolls, standing on your hands, granby roll, all that good stuff. you gotta know how to control you're body when you wrestling and know how to break you're falls and thats a good way to do it. i really can't see myself doing this sort of thing, but its impressive stuff.

for football my school has a nifty machine that determines how high you can jump and i managed to get about 28 inches, which was better than everyone else.

I think I just found my exercise.
That looks like so much fun. I think I will start tommorow!

dont do to much to fast, you have to get you're body used to it. if you do to much to fast you will be rather sore and bruised in the morning and also discouraged.

this reminds me of how skateboarders grind hand rails on staircases, then the board snaps and they take a really hard hit to the, well, you know... any guy who can take a hit like that and get up and say it doesnt hurt can rightfully be called a man, although i dont know how much of a man he is after he get hit that hard in a rather soft area.

edit- i'll bet alot of this stuff came from running from the cops.

[frankrede]

alot of this stuff is stuff we did as a warm up in wrestling. hand springs, cart weals, front rolls, back rolls, standing on your hands, granby roll, all that good stuff. you gotta know how to control you're body when you wrestling and know how to break you're falls and thats a good way to do it. i really can't see myself doing this sort of thing, but its impressive stuff.

for football my school has a nifty machine that determines how high you can jump and i managed to get about 28 inches, which was better than everyone else.

I think I just found my exercise.
That looks like so much fun. I think I will start tommorow!

dont do to much to fast, you have to get you're body used to it. if you do to much to fast you will be rather sore and bruised in the morning and also discouraged.

this reminds me of how skateboarders grind hand rails on staircases, then the board snaps and they take a really hard hit to the, well, you know... any guy who can take a hit like that and get up and say it doesnt hurt can rightfully be called a man, although i dont know how much of a man he is after he get hit that hard in a rather soft area.

edit- i'll bet alot of this stuff came from running from the cops.

I'm quite physical-baseball, taekwondo, juijitsu

[hi]

you still dont want to do too much to fast because its different.

[Pyro Ninja]

edit- i'll bet alot of this stuff came from running from the cops.

Now that would be a misuse of Parkour and freerunning.

In some sense, Parkour has been around as long as man's need to hunt and avoid being hunted. Humans naturally have an astounding range of motion and range of options for how to move through a given set of obstacles. Further, children naturally move about with grace and ease, we only start to lose this later in life as we start to move with conscience. There have been several people throughout history to work on concepts of human movement and development, however, to look specifically at Parkour, we need to look at Raymond Belle, a French soldier in the Vietnam war. He and his companions worked to develop efficient methods "to reach or escape". These were then handed down to David Belle, who has spent a majority of his young (34) life working on these principles specifically as Parkour. There were some others who worked with him in the developing stages of Parkour in Lisses, Sebastien Foucan is probably the most well known.

_______________________________________________________

Parkour and free running have their slight differences, but generally revolve around the same thing- self improvement, gaining/keeping fitness and having fun.

Parkour is the art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation.

Parkour is not acrobatics, tricking, stunts, recklessness, or jumping off high objects for no reason.

Free running was meant to start out an anglicized term for Parkour. It was first suggested to Sebastien Foucan during the filming of Jump London. Free Running has grown to be descriptive of a sort of "cousin" activity to Parkour - Free Running is more expressive and creative in nature, with moves such as acrobatics, flips, and spins added for flair, creativity, or just because someone wants to. The main difference then between Parkour and Free Running is that Parkour is defined by purpose "get somewhere quickly and efficiently using the human body", and Free Running is defined by the activity or art of moving through your environment however you want, moving your way, following your own path.

If you want anymore information go to americanparkour.com its full of friendly and helpful people.
http://www.americanparkour.com/componen ... /Itemid,1/

[scianiac]

My friend and I have gone to a park close to his house to practice a couple of times. I hope to start practicing a lot more but I don't live within easy walking distance of many good places to practice. Personally I'm more into parkour. Too many flips make my sick. I like the jumping, running and climbing.

[fatcat]

Me and a couple of friends go free running once a week. Having a gym to train in is very helpful for learning new things in a safe environment.