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.

HERO MAINTENANCE: Fitness

One thing is certain with classic heroes, they are physically active, action stars in many cases.  But if you go out right now & try to perform a hero's feat, how likely are you to injure yourself?  Today's Hero Maintenance entry is aimed to help you answer the previous question with a confident "Not Likely."

I've said previously that a hero's modus operandi is a commitment to training themselves constantly, so they are ready for whatever life throws at them.  Physical Fitness, I believe, is an important part of hero training, but many people have a hard time sticking to it.  Why?  Because it's hard? or it's boring? or it's just too easy to get distracted?  Whatever your reason for not working out, the bottom line is you need to, unless the apex of your heroic deeds is slaying dragons in Skyrim.  

This post is about fitness more then skill set, so I'm not going to give my opinions on the best martial skills to acquire nor the benefits to improving your Parkour, combat driving, or goose juggling skills. (Some people juggle geese!) Specifically I'd like to encourage you to just move more, as a "step one" to heroic readiness.  You may already workout regularly or even be like me - addicted to it!  "Hi, my name is Logan. I am a Work-Out-Aholic." But keep reading, this concept might help give you a fresh perspective.

So how do you stay consistent & workout regularly?  One thought is make it fun.  If you're able to do something you love as a workout, you're likely to workout more often.  If you have a sport you used to do maybe see if you can get back into it.  If there's a sport you always wanted to do, see if you can get into it now.  You might not ever be an Olympian in it, but you will be healthier & happier.  

What if you don't give a rip about the workout games we call sports?  Try making your workout fun; no I am not insane.  One of the things that pulled me into Parkour was the way the Parkour mindset makes me look at simple things differently.  Instead of just running through the city streets, play a game as you run, like:

• Run the curb edges, trying to keep balance.
• Don't step on any cracks.
• Only step on asphalt.
• Only run on grass. 
• When running through a parking lot, only step on the paint lines that delineate parking spots (that will stretch you!)

Basically just think of ways to make a workout interesting & mentally engaging instead of torturous, long, boring, & horrid.  Perspective often determines reality.  Whatever you can do to help your self keep moving is better than "I'll do it tomorrow . . . "  You might regret the workout where something goes wrong but you ALWAYS regret the workout you don't do.