#SmashMonday – Parkour / ADD Training Philosophy

 

We’re starting off this year with a talk about our training approach, the mindset and overall goals.

Parkour/ADD includes a huge variety of activities, and that’s what is making it interesting.

Whole approach to parkour training depends on your goals and your understanding of the discipline. We’re not going to discuss different viewpoints on parkour’s current and future positions in the world of sports, but rather focus on our own example which you may take something from.

We endorse to be and to last philosophy. Where training is not just the journey, it’s a destination as well. Without an actual goal to pursue like in a recognized sport, we’re left with an option to choose a goal for ourselves.
Well, since training is something we enjoy so much, being able to vault and jump when you’re in your 60s is something quite satisfying to look forward to.

So the obvious question rises, how to achieve that?
It’s essentially all about minimizing the risk of injury.

But what about the challenges? How does one challenge him/herself without compromising the safety?

Well….it’s all about balance. 

Not challenging yourself will stall your progression, and challenging yourself too much is a highway to injury.

 

A lot is depending on your own risk assessment, and on an area you want to challenge yourself in. Huge jumps on height, sketchy bar work or increase in physical attributes, these are some examples with some hopefully obvious different risks.
There are plenty of ways to challenge oneself, and we are kinda biased towards physical skills because we like to enjoy those benefits later in the technical training. Not only does an increase in power and strength help with technical challenges we place upon ourselves, it is also in line with to be and to last philosophy that we use as a guide. 

 

Our body is our engine, and if it’s poorly built it won’t last us very long. 

Of course, that all depends on your goals, and if you have different ones that is totally fine but it’s still important to have them, both short term and long term.

 

Becoming good at something requires a lot of years of hard training, planning ahead and thinking about the big picture. It’s not something that happens over night. That is why taking time to work on a skill that is your weakest link is a smart move.

If you think you’re not powerful enough, take your time and prioritise it. Sure, you will not see progress tomorrow, but it will come eventually and then other skills will benefit from it as well.

You may feel like you’re missing out, but a few months or a year of training is nothing compared to the years after where you’ll reap those benefits.

That is why it’s important to think further like 2,3, or 10 years down the line, rather than focusing only on a near future like the few days after.

If it’s a technique of some sort you’re lacking, again, prioritise it. Mind the word “prioritise” here, as training a single skill while neglecting the rest could hinder your overall performance basically setting you back.

Now, I want to say something maybe controversial here.
Training for muscle endurance doesn’t really fit into this narrative.
I know many like to do quadrupedal until they drop, or climb ups in huge quantity, but, while it has its benefits, it is not very productive.

You need to take a look at the stress we have in our everyday training. All the landings, drops, swings, arm jumps, dynos…
They are all around mid section of force>velocity curve, so this is where most of your training should take place, for both performance, and injury prevention.

If you’re interested more about how and why we think that, feel free to tell us and we can maybe have an episode just for that.

We’re wrapping it up here even though we can talk about any of these topics for hours.
And unlike in other episodes, we’re ending this one with another unpopular but very true statement:

“Jumping barefoot or in shoes with thin sole is bad for you”.

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