Gymnastics/Tricking

Most people who participate in Parkour start meeting at gymnastics gyms during the winter months. Training outdoors becomes difficult and dangerous due to the snow. Obstacles become wet and slippery, shoes collect snow and become slippery, hands freeze and loose some tactile control. The chance of injury is much higher. The same is true of days when it rains and so a lot of the time meets are rained out or cut down to only a few very dedicated individuals who accept the risk of training in slippery conditions.

The local Waterloo traceurs started going to the gym on Monday of this week, this of course included me. The gym was much smaller than I expected but they had a lot of equipment including: in-ground trampoline, double sprung floor, vaults, balance beams, uneven bars, spring boards and spring trampolines, foam pit, rings, rope climb, carpeted wall area and plenty of mats. The gym has open periods twice a week where the gym is open to anyone for an hour and a half. The cost is $7 per time with a $16 insurance payment if you attend regularly. I found it was worth the cost (which is high if you consider going several times a month).

Practicing in the padded environment of a gym gives you a lot of confidence since you are able to really try to get a move without worry about injury. Once you get it you can train it outdoors on concrete obstacles because you know you can do it. In addition to this there is the potential to try things mostly impossible outdoors using the trampolines. My goals for the gym meet where to learn the dash vault, double kong vault, wallspin and to do at least one flip of any fashion. I succeeded at most of the goals. My dash vaults need a lot of work, I need to loose more weight since its blocking my knees from coming up to my chest tightly and my abs need more strength to whip my legs up and out (wha? click here). My double kongs are getting better I still need more spring in my leap so my legs stay up for a longer distance. I did my first wallspins and they felt great. I am still catching my toes on the wall when inverted and my landing is a little wild but I am up to a flat wall instead of using an inclined wall. Finally I was able to do several different flips. I did a hand spring over a vault, a running front flip and several spring trampoline front flips. It was an amazing experience and I look forward to the next time.

NOTE: Wallspins, wall flips and other showy moves are gymnastics or tricking not Parkour. This point is very important to the Parkour community since showy moves are not smooth and fast and thus impede the flow that is fundamental to Parkour. Tricking is certainly very fun though. :o)

Caution regarding flips. You are bound to get shin splints doing flips, let them heal or they can turn into stress fractures. Massage them with the heel of your hand and most sites recommend RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation). Before you exercise make sure you warm up your shins by rubbing them rapidly with the heel of your hand. This will loosen and prepare the tendons and muscles attached to the shin and help prevent the splints from occurring in the first place.