Mini Rant: Parkour Martial Arts

I'm not sure if I can call this a rant as much as a spewing of some of my opinions.  I'm not angry in this situation, I just have some thoughts.  Be forewarned, this post is for my Traceur following (Traceur: one who practices Parkour & Freerunning) & will make little sense if you are not part of the Parkour world.  Please feel free to read on any way though. 

I've heard many an aspiring Traceur say "What if we made a Parkour Martial Art?!" thinking that combining two of the coolest things they know into one couldn't get any better.  I admit I've wondered the same, having study Martial Arts through out my life & Parkour actively for about 6 to 7 years.  Also, when I talk about martial arts with this blog post I am assuming that the theoretical Parkour Martial Art in question is a "standard self defense" martial art & not a "I'm a homicidal maniac, interested in killing random people" martial art.

I believe I understand the desire to combine martial arts with Parkour, at least some of the desire.  Parkour is a very focused discipline with a need to train in it daily, much like a martial art.  Parkour also gets Traceurs to move with intention as well as gain a heightened control over their body, much like martial arts.  However their are a few issues with designing a Parkour-Fu.  

Parkour is about efficiency of motion, finding the most direct route over obstacles & using only your body & the environment to do so.  At its basest form, Parkour could be considered evasion (or pursuit) & is thus engaging a different skill set & mindset than martial arts.  If nothing else Parkour takes up a different need for space (the average fist fight might cover as much as a 15-foot square area where as the average Ninja Warrior course is quite a bit larger & some would call American Ninja Warrior a short course). 

I've heard some people say that Parkour is using the flight instinct & thus could not be combined with the fight instinct.  From what I've seen of Parkour practice, no one ever engages the flight instinct in Parkour.  We are not animals who operate only on instinct.  We are cognizant beings who think through situations.  No Traceurs I've met train by slapping a police officer & seeing if they can out run the officer.  Traceurs (should) train like any high-level athlete. The idea of fight vs. flight instincts making a Parkour Martial Art impossible are unfounded. 

More logical than instinct is the practical side of the motions.  Unless you are planning on jumping over or down on to an unsuspecting enemy, the motions of Parkour are not useful in a fight.  There's just too much movement required & too much lead up to any Parkour move for it to be effective in a fight.  If somehow your enemy does not know you are coming & does not hear you run up toward them, jump off of the wall next to them, then of course a crazy Tic-Tac jump kick to the face could work!  But there's a lot that could go wrong with that plan.  Also I would not call this move (even if it worked) an effective move for a fight situation.  For a sneak attack maybe. Not a move for a fight.  (Like I said early, we're assuming this is a martial art of self defense & you're not running around murdering people.)

That all being said, the two can benefit each other remarkably.  Since I've been training Parkour I've noticed an improvement in my speed & endurance in martial arts.  If I had not trained martial arts I'm not sure I would have picked up some of the Parkour techniques as quickly.  Parkour is a great way to condition your body in ways I find lacking in the modern martial arts dojo. Martial arts is a great way to cross-train & work on some stabilizer muscles.  Generally I've found that the more you study motion, in it's various forms, the better at motion you get.  Kind of like the more you study different subjects, the broader & sharper your mind can get.  The two can work together in harmony (as the below YouTube Vid will show you).  

(Notice he is not fighting he's running away & people keeping getting in the way of his feet.) I have no rights to the above clip so thank you to the YouTube subscriber 'movieclips' for supplying this clip from the movie "District B13".

Please stop trying to create a new thing & just get good at both Parkour & martial arts separately.  Simply put Parkour is Parkour, fighting is fighting.  The two are similar but not the same.  Let them be that way.

Distractions

Ah distractions.  Our world is full of them; let me rephrase: our modern world is full of them.  I understand now the appeal of typewriters to some writers, they're very NOT connected to the internet and email; and Facebook; and Facebook's myriad games.  And I seem to be a junkie to such distractions, despite my best efforts.  

But isn't that how life is?  We have these well meaning intentions & masterful plans of great deeds we mean to accomplish. Then life drops a fat distraction on us like a dive bombing pigeon.  I've heard it said: we are our own worst enemies when it comes to accomplishing our goals.  But it's not entirely our fault.  I mean, a recovering alcoholic knows to stay away from a Bar.  Our problem is distractions litter the virtual walls of the internet like water in a hurricane.  They're a little hard to get away from.  

Well here's me hoping I can get back to consistently writing, sans distractions.  I've got a lot of good stuff in me just waiting to come out!  So many ideas to talk about!  In fact I'm sure you'll see some of that in my next blog post.  Let me just. . .  go check on this one game . . . I'll be right back . . .

 . . . honestly, just take me a sec. . . .

Good Morning Blogosphere!!!

Hello Interwebs & Interwebs readers!  Happy (belated) Veteran's Day!  After a 3-month writing vacation I figure it's time to return to the keys.  My last 3-months have been fraught with unemployment & job seeking; joy of joys. That's one thing you never seem to see in the heroic movies: the hero's life stopping cause they're out of money.  Granted, people go to such movies to get away from the pains of reality so I know why such struggles are not included.  Reality kinda sucks.Any who, I am not dead, I've just been dead in the water with writing.  But I am back now.  Thank you for your patience :-) 

Yesterday was Veteran's Day as it is observed by the Banks & Government Institutions and so this last weekend I've seen a number of the "thank a Vet" posts across Facebook & the internet. This one, however, stuck out to me:  

                 

Adrian Cronauer, the actual radio DJ from "Good Morning Vietnam" said: "It was not unknown when I yelled 'Good morning Vietnam!' for some of the troops to turn to their radios and yell the GI equivalent of 'Get stuffed, Cronauer!' and on one occasion a guy picked up his M-16 and blew away his radio."

This Veteran's Day please thank the veterans you know for their sacrifices.  Also thank the veteran supporters: the family & helpers of the veterans you hold dear.  These supporters may have been one of the few things keeping your cherished veteran alive (or sane) so you could thank them.