Table of Contents
In Parkour there is an ‘art of falling’ if someone learns that then they will always land on their feet. Let’s learn more about the art of falling in detail below.
Slips and fails are a major part of almost every workout practice including parkour training and natural movement practice. The key to minimizing the risk of dangerous injuries and shocks while practicing the art of natural movement is learning the technique of break-fall.
Your interaction with the ground in case of parkour or natural movement practice should be really gentle.
There are certain parkour techniques and progressions that can help you polish your landing skills so you will have a safe and stable landing on the ground.
Get Started With Parkour: Rolling to Break Your Fall
Some of the principles are mentioned in this article that you can follow to learn smooth break-falls while doing parkour, limiting injuries.
Parkour ‘The Art Of Falling’: Crucial Points To Consider During Break-falls
- Try not to expose the vital organs of your central nervous system (brain, head, spine) while landing, to minimize the risk of trauma or injury to these organs. For a safer break-fall, achieve the soft tissue pathway and avoid vital organ frontage.
- Try not to land sharply on your joints. The arms, knees, elbow, wrist or shoulder joints are prone to get a lot of pressure while falling which can lead to serious injuries.
Source: YouTube – Parkour Fails
- Try to disperse the effect of force over a greater area and time. Using a larger surface area of the body to absorb the force, while falling, will result in lesser chances of injury or damage.
- Keeping yourself calm and collected while falling is the key to avoid major traumas. Falling is frightening for sure but if you know the right technique you don’t have to be so tense during the break-falls.
- To master the art of smooth landing and relaxed falls, all you have to do is keep practicing consistently. With time and constant training, you will learn the basic principles of break-falls and then falling will be as easy as anything.
- In fact, once you take your ground engagement training to a higher level, you will start enjoying the natural movement practices.
Source: YouTube – Parkour Fails
Break-fall practices have different levels. From lower to higher stances, you can practice whatever fall and roll you want but the best approach is to get comfortable with lower positions first.
Afterwards, you can practice falling safely from higher positions and complex postures. Obviously, the falls and rolls are pretty unexpected and you can’t predict how you’re going to fall on the ground, so the best way is to practice the falling drills again and again.
This will lead to a better understanding of ground engagement in a more organic and natural manner.
Practicing Break-falls In Parkour With Roll Exercise
On one hand, the practice of smooth and safe falling and natural movement helps you avoid traumas and severe injuries. And on the other hand, it combats the fear of falling and gives a sense of confidence to face such situations that we generally ignore due to the fear of failure.
So to say that learning physical techniques of falling has multiple benefits wouldn’t be an understatement. It evokes a sense of confidence and minimizes the fear of failure and defeat.
The practice of parkour break-falls is like a contemplation, the more you practice the more you get stronger. As you move out from your comfort zone and try out difficult things, you start to see that success is not always the only important thing, failure is also an essential part of life.
To Learn Parkour: Practice Falling First
Failing, again and again, is a sign that you’re attempting to make efforts in your life and gaining the experience that will eventually lead you towards the road of success.
You’re open to embracing your failures as your strength and you will come out stronger than ever before.
You will see your will power getting robust and your determination rock solid. All this can only be achieved with consistency and self-trust that you can achieve your goal ultimately so keep believing in yourself and keep the practice going.
Stay tuned for more parkour tutorials and techniques for real world scenarios.
