Parkour and Freerunning Collaboration

Hi everyone, I am posting this instructable so that everyone can contribute their own parkour/freerunning moves.
As bballchamp kindly pointed out, there is a line between freerunning and parkour. Parkour is about being efficient and quick in what you do to reach your destination using the least energy yet quickest time possible. Freerunning however is using moves that are pointless other than to have fun, but look better. it uses moves from parkour, made to look better but harder to do, and other moves from gymnastics, eg. frontflips to enhance the aesthetic qualities of the sport.
I am in a group called High Vaultage, and anyone practicing should go around in groups for safety reasons. Enjoy doing Parkour and have fun!

Here is a link for another instructable on parkour

This is a standard jump for distance
You can practice on flat ground of off a ledge

Executing

1a.Put your arms behind you, lean a bit forward and bend your legs to about 90 degrees. This is starting position for standing.
1b.Take a run up, putting your arms behind you and taking smallish steps. This is for a running jump.
2a.Swing your arms forward whilst springing off both legs, try to take your arms behind your head and your legs behind your waist. Try to stay upright.
2b. Use your springing leg to push back and kick your trailing leg in front of you, whilst throwing your arms forward and back behind your head
3.When you feel like stopping, put your arms just in front of your waist, and put both legs in front of you.
4.When your legs hit the ground, crouch or roll to reduce the impact.

Troubleshooting

1.If you land not on your feet, try landing sooner

Variations

1.180/360 jump - throw your arms diaggonally

Here we are, the standard vault, the easiest way (in my oppinion) to get over railings, fences, benches, tables or walls.

Execution

Find a good railing. If you are just starting out, only use one below waist height.
1.Walk back a few meters, as much as you feel necessary
2.Take a good run up, not to fast, but fast enough to get momentum.
3.About 80cm(not quite 3 ft. for imperial users) from the railing, take a small hop
4.Only put your feet back on the floor for a fraction of a second. Too long and you will lose speed
5.Place both hands on the rail and spring up straight away, putting your legs to the side and tucking them in. As your legs are near to your inside arm, remove it to let the legs past.
6.After you are over the bar (assuming you are :P), begin to straighten your legs, and when they hit the floor, crouch down marginally, and get up.

Troubleshooting

1. Do not slow down towards the end of the run because of fear, if you do, you will not clear the bar.
2. Do not forget the hop!
3. Put your legs to whichever side you find natural - i go over to the left because i am right handed.

Variations

1. 180/360 vault - Assuming you put your legs to the left like i do, hold your right hand out in front of you, and rotate it 180 degrees clockwise (if it is your left hand, 180 degrees anticlockwise). This is the position that your hand will be in. Run up normally Then as you put your hands on the rail, put your rotated hand rotated on it, then as you spring up after the hop, try to get rotating 180 or 360. degrees in the same direction that you had to rotate your hand. This is a 180/360 vault.
2.One hander - only put your outer hand on the obstacle
3.Reverse Vault - Put your legs to the other side and remove the other hand.

A lazy vault is easier to do than a vault, and is more useful if you are running at a bar side on

execution

1.run paralel to a bar and put the closer hand on it
2.Immediately kick up with your closer foot and carry your other foot over after
3.Land paralel to the bar and carry on running

troubleshooting

1.If you can't kick over, try on a lower railing

variations

1.180/360 - Put your hand on rotated 180 degrees outwards and carry yourself over

Better for getting over thin obstacles than vaulting, but harder to do.

Execution

1.Run up and hop like in a vault
2.Put both hands on the bar, spring up and tuck your legs in like a tuck jump.
3. Keep your arms straight and thrust your shoulders down, keeping your arms vertical.
4.Once your feet are over, let go with both hands and straighten your legs for a landing

Troubleshooting

If you constantly hit your feet on the obstacle, try "jumping" a bit off your arms.

Kongs are basically wide-monks.

Execution

1.Run up and hop
2. throw your arms in front of you and dive forward.
3.At any point in the dive you feel like, put one hand on each side of the table, tuck your legs in and perform a monk.

Troubleshooting

If you can't get the monk in, try monking earlier

Variations

1.Double/tripple kong. Do a kong, then put your hands on again, and land it.

A Kash vault is a cross between a dash and a kong. you can get further with these than your average kong or dash.

Execution

1.Perform a kong, and as your feet near your hands, push off your fingers slightly and then assume dash position.
2.Carry it on

Troubleshooting

if you cant do it after 20 or so tries, keep practising kongs. that is all i can say.

Variations

1.Double/triple kash variation 1. After reaching dash position, push up really hard with your arms and throw your head forward, and also tuck up your legs. Then do the kash again, without your feet touching anything.
2. Double/tripple kash variation 2. This is like a multiple kong, but you just go to a dash afterwards.

Gate flips are easy to do but look even better
(nb - i couldn't find a picture but i found a video instead ;P)
One of them fails but look at the closer one to see what it looks like.

Execution

1.Take a run up but don't hop
2.Put one hand on the top bar rotated 180 degrees and the other on the bottom bar and kick up
3.Go over slightly to the side and don't let go until you land. You should naturally do a 180

Troubleshooting

If you can't get over, try going over nearly completely sideways to practice and move up each time.

Variations

1.Throw flip - Go over so you are upside down and then let go so you go over like a frontflip
2.360 - Rotate a bit more thoroughly.
3.Symmetrical flip - put both hands on the top and flip over with straight arms

A cat leap is an ideal balance on bars and walls alike

Execution

1.Run to a bar and jump at it about a meter and a half away
2.Plant your feet on the bottom bar and then put your hands on the top
3.This can also be done on walls!

The frontflip, hard to do but great fun

Executing

1. Take a good long run up, quite fast
2.Take a small hop like in the vault
3.Spring up, curl up and throw your arms forward at the same time, and lay them to rest clutching your knees.
4. When you see the sky, begin to uncurl and when you land, roll, don't crouch.

Troubleshooting

1. Do not slow down, or chicken out at the last minute, this could result in serious injury

Variations

1.180/360 flip - Do the same as above, except throwing your arms down diagonally, and do not curl up.
2.Doubleflip - jump high after the run and hop, and curl up really tight. Uncurl the second time you see the sky.
3. Highflip - run up to a low bar to start with, then a meter away, do a small hop, then flip over. Try to reach upside-down stage just as you go over the bar so if you do go too little a distance, you will land with it behind your knee

A backflip is actually easier than a frontflip physically, but requires more mental determination.

1) Stand with arms above the head
2) swing arms down and back, while crouching, ready to spring up
3) Jump straight up, at the peak of the jump, bring knees into your armpits The other way around will result in a faceplant, and that's not recommended.
4) While you're upside down, spot the landing, and punch feet towards the ground HARD to stick the landing, finish with a backroll.

Ideally, you're learning this in a controlled environment such as a gymnastics gym, but if you aren't, please be careful, and be on something soft. I personally suggest a grassy hill, and flip down the hill.

The picture below demonstrates how to do a backflip off of something almost as tall as yourself, it requires less of a tuck, and more of a "throw yourself backwards and put your feet over your head" motion.

To twist, wait until you are almost upside-down, then move like you're elbowing something behind you, and look that direction.

Pictures soon-ish.

A gainer is a running backward kick flip type thing

Execution

1.Run up
2.Kick forward and up with your trailing foot
3.Throw your arms back and spring with your foot that diidn't kick

Rolls are good for long distance drops or gaps

Execution

1.Jump and plant both feet on the ground
2.fall over and put your hands on the ground, then roll over one shoulder
3.Get up and keep running!

Under bars are literally, going under bars.

Execution

Watch the video

troubleshooting

1.if you hit your feet on the floor or the mid height bar, find some wider space

This can be used like the kong and vault to get over most obstacles, except this cannot be used on bars

execution

1.Run up to your obstacle, and do a sort of 2 legged hurdle with both legs in front.
2.When your feet cross the line of the edge of the obstacle, put your hands on the obstacle and carry yourself over.

troubleshooting

If you can't do the 2 leg hurdle without hitting it, try and find a lower obstacle

Variations

1.180/360 - put one hand on rotated round 180 degrees outwards, and kick slightly to the side

A wall spin is basically an aesthetic move

execution

1.Run not quite paralel to a wall, hop, and plant both hands on it, the inner arm above the lower
2.Spring up, keeping your knees slightly bent.
3.When you are upside-down, take your top hand off and land facing the opposite way to the way you started at

Troubleshooting

Just be confident!

How to run up a wall

execution

1.run head on to a wall
2.when you reach it, plant your foot and the opposite hand(ie.left leg, right hand) on the wall
3.Channel the force to your toes and fingers and push yourself upwards
4.If you feel like it, put the other hand and other foot on the wall and push up
5.When you reach the top of the wall, put one hand on the top then the other, then your feet, you should be in the cat balance position. From here, you should be able to shimmy sideways or vault up over the wall, i even did a wall spin and landed it a few times!

troubleshooting

if you find yourself traveling away from the wall, lean forward, and put the weight on your toes.

variations

1.wallflip - run up the wal without your hands, still leaning forward, then push off from the wall, and throw your arms behind your head, then land the backflip. You could incorporate a twist as well.

This can be used to cross gaps in floor or to get over bars and other obstacles

executing

1.Run paralel to a wall and plant your outer foot and your inner hand on the wall
2.push forwards and then place your inner foot on the wall, keeping your hand bobbing on the wall
3.Keep stepping untill you begin to fall down, then land on the floor

troubleshooting

If you push off the wall, lean even further in

These are just quicker 1 handed vaults without the hop and performed differently

execution

1.Run up to the obstacle
2.When you reach about 2 ft in front of it stick your hand out (the one that stays on the bar in vaults) and just swing over it to the side.
3.Land it in the right direction and keep running.

troubleshooting

If you can't get over, use a different obstacle.

I will start with aesthetic moves for now. These are only needed for free running, but can be used in chases to enhance the excitement.
1.Wall spins, flips, gate flips, gainers have been mentioned previously.
2.Wall twist-run: To do this, run parallel to a wall, then place your outer hand/foot on the wall and spin round, placing your inner hand/foot on the wall on the way back. if you want to descend down a wall with a long fall, you could do this whilst pushing up to descend down. I haven't tried this yet, but maybe I will...
3.Wall flip: Run up a wall and flip off it.
4.Dive rolls: instead of vaulting a 3 ft bench, try dive rolling it! simply run up to it, hop, dive over, then plant your hands on the floor, and perform a parkour roll. keep running!
5.Hand springs: Same as flips, but you put your hands on the floor and kick your feet in the direction you're going.

Chase scenes
This is the really fun part! Basically, a group of people chase after a person in the group, and perform tricks on the way. You can make a scenario, say the chasers are ninjas, the police, gangsters looking for meat etc. Look at the chase scene below from the movie District B13 starring david belle - the creator of parkour!


Man I wish i was that good.

You could put together a collaboration of tricks with your friends, or make a 5 minute long chase scene. remember b13?

I will add more moves, but if you want to as well, ask me and i will make you a collaborator!

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any injuries, pains or death sustained by practicing Parkour and Freerunning.