Parkour

First off let me thank you for reading my post.
When shtf you might not have your guns on your person, or your knives or your BOB. You may be at your cousin's house eating a thanksgiving dinner. The expression Situation X or Unknown means its hard to prepare for. Which is why I think everyone would agree that your first and most important defense is yourself. This is why I think everyone should take some kind of self defense course. It doesnt have to be karate or some complicated martial art a kick boxing class is just as good as any other kind of fighting.

Being in shape is key!

Parkour is a style of movement that is both tactical and efficient in moveing through obstacles in ones environment. Since BOB means mobility is key, I thought This would be a great thing to learn. But I'd like to hear your opinion on Parkour.

en.wikipedia.org...

Interesting.

I suppose I practice it constantly, but I call it hiking and common sense, plus leftover 'Nam. I can't look at terrain without automatically finding sniper spots, choke points, defensible positions and covered retreat routes. I keep up my rockclimbing skills (no tools other than hands and feet), tracking skills, and maintain an awareness of the local wildlife's normal patterns. I also never leave home without the ability to make fire and a small multifunction survival knife.

In Sit X, those and my wits are all I need to make it home to my BOB, or until I can re-equip in situ.

Parkour is about getting from point A to point B in a crowded area or in an area with many obstacles as quickly and efficiently as possible.

How do you consider parkour and hiking the same thing?
have you seen any, or did you just read the wiki article?
I suggest you go to youtube and type in parkour. it's different than what you are thinking.

reply to post by 2Resistance


I don't agree with this. The first thing you want to do in any survival setting is minimize the possibility of injury. Parkour has a very high probability of injury. Even a sprained ankle or broken foot spells the doom for many wild animals, let alone humans constantly "adapting."

I find free-running as entertaining as skate-boarding but I fear I am equally adept at both.

I suppose regarding urban structures with a strategic mind is an excellent way of keeping the mind trained. I would imagine rock-climbers view man-made structures with an certain bias.

Like a lot of things it'd be nice if I could, but a don't think I'm at a point in my life where it would be physically beneficial.

Maybe for the odd time that you are running from someone with a gun, and your only option is to jump over a wall in one bound or climb your way onto a roof... but for the rest of the time you are much better off with both feet on the ground, and no fancy stuff. As has already been said, you just put yourself at a higher risk for injury, which in a real survival situation means disaster. Keep these moves for times when you have no other option.

I think Parkour is amazing and Id love to get into it but theres no place around where I live to really do it.

I first heard about it playing Mirrors Edge (Awesome game btw)

Parkour does seem a good way to get fit, (see the film District 13- those guys are ripped!), but I'd like to see someone backflip while wearing a backpack!! Seriously though guys, what are you all doing to stay/get in shape?

Ignoring the flashy show off elements of Parkour, it is actually a decent thing to learn if you think you will need it.

Here is what early parkour was like.

www.youtube.com...

Notice the bit in the middle where he is climbing the wall with the kid on his back? replace kid with rucksack and you see what I mean.

I like my shape. Round IS a shape.

Until a few weeks ago (when I fell out with their locker policy) swimming about 6km a week.

Now, slowly building up walking with my backpack. 90 minutes yesterday was a bad idea as I'm supposed to be ill and it didn't do my recovery any favours. Still, when I'm working I have very little free time so I was grateful to grab it.

A few friends and I used to do something similar as bored teen lads, garden-hopping

Start at the top of a long row of terrace houses and make your way down the street through back-gardens without getting caught, breaking anything, bitten by housholders dogs, etc

A true urban 'sport'

Parkour has a very high probability of injury. Even a sprained ankle or broken foot spells the doom for many wild animals, let alone humans constantly "adapting."

Parkour is not being an idiot and jumping around on stuff cos it's fun, parkour is a philosphy of fluidity and efficiency of movement. If you're being chased by psycho's with swords, you'd want to be able to get as far away from them as possible, no? You wouldn't take the time to make yourself vulnerable by flipping and doing wall springs unless you absolutely needed to.
What I think you are referring to is 'freerunning', which includes tricking and flips.
Parkour is a philosphy as well as an activity, freerunning includes stuff from parkour, but in itself isn't parkour.

PK4LIFE!

Originally posted by Morning Revival
I think Parkour is amazing and Id love to get into it but theres no place around where I live to really do it.

You might think there's nowhere in your area to 'do parkour', but all you need is is to find an obstacle like a park bench, or the railing next to a walkway ramp, and you'll get to figure out the most efficient way past/through them... this is parkour.

[edit on 19/2/2009 by nrky]

I guess if you are stuck downtown and zombies are chasing you, it might come in handy, other than that, not so much, as the 'sport' seems to have quite a high rate of injury.

Originally posted by stevegmu
I guess if you are stuck downtown and zombies are chasing you, it might come in handy, other than that, not so much, as the 'sport' seems to have quite a high rate of injury.

That's because people try to do tricks that they aren't skilled enough to do, same as in gymnastics. Any extreme sport that involves obstacles will have a high rate of injury.

Originally posted by nrky

Parkour has a very high probability of injury. Even a sprained ankle or broken foot spells the doom for many wild animals, let alone humans constantly "adapting."

Parkour is not being an idiot and jumping around on stuff cos it's fun, parkour is a philosphy of fluidity and efficiency of movement. If you're being chased by psycho's with swords, you'd want to be able to get as far away from them as possible, no? You wouldn't take the time to make yourself vulnerable by flipping and doing wall springs unless you absolutely needed to.
What I think you are referring to is 'freerunning', which includes tricking and flips.
Parkour is a philosphy as well as an activity, freerunning includes stuff from parkour, but in itself isn't parkour.

PK4LIFE!

L0lZZZ4LiF3

Call me old school at 23, but I could give a # less about how anybody can consider parkour a philosophy. But then again, I guess you can derive anything out of anything if you try hard enough. Let's be realistic. In a survival situation, nobody is going to be running you down with swords, as you suggest because not only is life not a movie, it's not that exciting. Survivalism and dumb # like parkour do not go hand in hand, no matter how bad people want it to. If you're worried about a threat, and you have "surviving" in the bag (which you should never think) then people would be the the last of your issues.

Key to survival:

Get out of highly populated places, including the suburbs. Pack heavy, take it slow, be smart about your decisions including water/food usage/shelter and keep all your bases covered. That is how you survive in any high stress situation. Jumping, running, or twisting around objects, in the city or otherwise is dumb in many ways.

The more movement and the technical difficulty of movements the higher probability of an injury, major or minor. In nature, it doesn't take much for a human being to end up dead. Climbers have died from mere ankle sprains. Especially when you're in an expedition, you risk hemming up an entire people reliant on true fluidity.

I don't see "parkour' replacing any decent regimen of cardio. I recommend hiking and biking first. Even out of shape folks can hike and bike 20-30 miles per day without undue physical exertion. A person in good physical shape can travel 40-50 miles per day by hike and bike even on dirt roads and 50-60 or more on paved roads, day in/day out.

Ideally you should have already setup at least 2 or more bugout locations with a cache of supplies. A cache should be off the beaten path but within a short walking distance from it. Modern humans really depend on each other for survival, so even if you're living well away from the mass of humanity, you should be a good neighbor.

Originally posted by citizen smith
A few friends and I used to do something similar as bored teen lads, garden-hopping

Start at the top of a long row of terrace houses and make your way down the street through back-gardens without getting caught, breaking anything, bitten by housholders dogs, etc

A true urban 'sport'

Hahaha, when I first read the first couple of posts, I thought the exact same thing as you, except, where I live we called it ''Hedge-hopping''. It was even more refined whilst under the influence of alcohol. Oh, to be young again!

Originally posted by Wotan

Originally posted by citizen smith
A few friends and I used to do something similar as bored teen lads, garden-hopping

Start at the top of a long row of terrace houses and make your way down the street through back-gardens without getting caught, breaking anything, bitten by housholders dogs, etc

A true urban 'sport'

Hahaha, when I first read the first couple of posts, I thought the exact same thing as you, except, where I live we called it ''Hedge-hopping''. It was even more refined whilst under the influence of alcohol. Oh, to be young again!

I was a good boy.

Too sad for a second line....

Free running post sit-x? No thanks.

Want to get in shape and learn how to defend yourselves check out Krav Maga

from my understanding free running was originally developed for emergency medical services. the concept was so they could move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible. That said as a form of movement yes you can ravel quickly, but it has always been my understanding that unless you are being directly targeted by pursuers (wich in a situation x most likely wouldn't happen) you want to move slow and steadily. That way you burn less calories, drink less water and have time to take in your surroundings. time to observe things you may be able to use. Free running is an efficient form of movement but I don't think it would be practical for a true escape and evasion situation simply because and E&E could be long and drug out, you can only physically move your body at that intense pace for so long.