Tricking Tutorials (or: How to fight like Daredevil and Nightwing)

Cornelius, isen't it a bit on the reverse? The guy who taught me freerunning back in college told me that parkour was the one with the tricks and what I was learning - whose only trick was to do a grounf front flip to break a fall - was freerunning.

Either way, it's a great tool to allow you to pick your own fights.....that stuff you see on Mirror's Edge is farfetched, at best.

Parkour is the original art, with the philosophy of flowing around your environment with economy of motion. Freerunning is generally held to be the commercial derivative, with more showing off, IIRC.
But there is a lot of crossover. It's like Gracie and Machado jujitsu, sometimes you can't say it's two separate arts.

So Freerunning is the showy off, then. Thanks! Going from A to B by the shortest route. 

Or Capoeira da Bahia and Capoeira do Sertão XD

How did you get into parkour? I'm interested in it, but the best I've been able to find is a couple of freerunning 'gyms' with high rates.

I'm with Cornelius and Silver Sentinel on this one; tricking is completely un-necessary and a waste of precious time and energy. In all things, be simple, fast, and smooth. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated or anything requiring years of training; just short and to the point. Blunt even. Perhaps even a little boring. 

Parkour could be a good skill to have, but if it's only to be used in a defensive capacity, I'd just get in my car and drive away; that's a lot faster and a lot safer. I probably won't be chasing anyone in a city anyway; any criminals on the street that might confront me are free to leave at any time if you ask me; if they try to run, let them, lol. Look out for yourself first. Others second. Property third.

Well, Blue Stranger, I got into it at College as a freshmen. My University sits across one of the most burstling streets of the capital and every week someone got hit by a car there. Now, I have my number of hits and near hits and would rather get home withought any more scratches so when a classmate offered the chance to teach me so I'd avoid getting hit by cars, lose the train [it meant arriving home six hours late] and possibly evade muggers, I took it in a heartbeat.

In my opinion, Parkour is great for evasion and cutting path from A to B. In combat? Solid two feet on the ground is more effective.

It's great for that if you're great at Parkour...if you're not, there's a significant chance of getting yourself hurt. 

It only takes a six foot fall to break bones; people have broken bones from falling from even lower heights. One wrong step, one little distraction and you could mess you're whole life up forever......yeah, forget about Parkour. Don't jump off of stuff if the situation doesn't demand it; get a rope and climb down it if you need to get down something that's of a questionable height. Don't try to jump between rooftops; get a plank or make a rope bridge. A good rule of thumb in safety is to not leave things to chance and to not take unnecessary risks. 

An armored car will aid you in escape and evasion far more than you're legs ever will; any car would, really, but especially one that's designed to take punishment and keep on rolling. For tight spaces though a bicycle or a motorcycle would be a good option; the latter providing you with the means of inconspicuous identity concealment via a motorcycle helmet. 

Also, don't run further than you need to. Run until you're out of view of your pursuers, but then stop, and disappear into your environment through theatricality and deception. This way you can walk right past your opponent with them unawares, as well as preserve your stamina. 

....I guess my conclusion on the subject is that Parkour is a very impressive skill set; I admire and respect the physical prowess required for the activity, but I don't feel it has much of a place in RLSH work. People rarely chase us, if ever. (I've never heard of one of us actually getting chased by criminals or cops), so we don't have any genuine need for Parkour in the evasion department. We don't have much place to be chasing anyone ourselves either; if you step in to protect a third party from a violent individual, and the perp decides to make a run for it when you show up, then you have done what you have most likely set out as a superhero to do: You've saved someone. Why chase after the perp? We don't need Parkour for pursuing criminals; it's not what we do generally speaking, and I suggest if you want to pursue and/or punish criminals, you should become a Bounty Hunter or a Police Officer; much less hit or miss. But you probably won't have much use for Parkour in those professions; like me they're pretty big on safety rules and regulations, and physical "tricking" of any kind would likely be frowned upon; they'll probably have you pursuing the bad guys using an arsenal of vehicles and technology. Not usually as exciting as the action movies make it look sadly. 


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