Vaulting parkour, a discipline in parkour, focuses on making efficient and fluid movements over obstacles using vaults and jumps. Vaulting parkour requires strength, speed, agility, flexibility, air awareness, coordination, and a lot of coordination skills.

What is Vaulting Parkour exactly?

Vaulting parkour, also called freerunning, is a movement-based discipline that focuses on the core parkour techniques. Vaulting parkour requires a variety of movements to overcome or climb over obstacles.

Parkour can be described as a way to get from A to B as efficiently and quickly as possible. However, freerunning is a different kind of parkour, attempting to transform obstacles into an artful, seamless dance of movement.

History of Vaulting Parkour

Parkour’s roots can be traced back at Georges Hebert, a French naval officer. Hebert believed that physical prowess was essential to naval personnel and created a training program that focused on natural movement patterns.

David Belle and a group from Paris’s suburbs developed Hebert’s training to create parkour in the 1990s. They combined the grace, agility, and functional movements of Hebert’s natural training to create a new discipline that allows for efficient movement over obstacles.

Parkour has enjoyed a huge following since its inception. There are traceurs and freerunners all over the world, from London to New York to Tokyo.

Vaulting Parkour Techniques

Vaulting parkour is about efficient movement over obstacles. There are many techniques that freerunners can use to overcome these barriers. Here are some common vaulting parkour techniques.

Lazy Vault

Because it is one of the easiest vaults to master, the lazy vault is a popular vault in freerunning. To perform a lazy vault successfully, you must run to start, place one leg on the obstacle, and then reach the other side.

Kong Vault

The kong vault is one the most impressive parkour vaults. A freerunner starts running, jumps up in the air, and then extends their arms to place them on a surface. The freerunner then jumps over the obstacle and kicks their legs to complete the vault in one swift motion.

Dive Roll

A dive roll is an advanced maneuver that can be used to clear large obstacles. To minimize impact, the freerunner jumps over obstacles and performs a shoulder roll upon landing.

Wall Spin

Wall spin is when you run up the wall and use the momentum to turn your body in mid-air before landing. This is a more difficult technique that requires a lot of practice.

Vaulting Parkour Training

Before you can start vaulting parkour, it is important to master the basics of parkour. This includes improving your strength, agility and balance as well as coordination. You should also be familiar with basic techniques such as running, jumping, landing.

Once you are comfortable with the basics of freerunning, you can move on to more advanced techniques such as vaults, wall spins, or dive rolls. Freerunning can be made more effective by working with a coach or joining a group of traceurs.

Vaulting Parkour: The Risks

Vaulting parkour is like any other sport or activity. Parkour is known for its most common injuries, which include falls. However, it is possible to sustain fractures, muscle strains and other injuries.

Overuse, poor technique, and pushing yourself too hard in training can all lead to injury. It is important to slow down, warm up before starting and to focus on the basics before moving onto more advanced techniques.

Vaulting Parkour: The Benefits

Freerunning is not only an exciting sport, it’s also a great way to exercise your body and mind. Here are some benefits of vaulting parkour.

Improved Cardiovascular Fitness

Vaulting parkour is a continuous, intense movement that improves your heart and lung health.

Increased Flexibility

To be able to do many different techniques with ease, freerunning requires flexibility. Regular training can help you increase your flexibility. This is a benefit that goes beyond parkour.

Strengthening

Parkour vaulting requires strength, especially in the legs, core and upper body. These are all necessary for successful movements over obstacles.

Mental Focus Enhancement

Freerunning requires total focus and concentration. This discipline can help you improve your mental clarity as well as your ability to focus on other areas of life.

Conclusion

Vaulting parkour can be an exciting, challenging, and very unique discipline. It combines functional movement with fluid, artistic movement. It is important to begin with the basics, then move on to more advanced techniques. Anyone can excel in vaulting parkour if they have the right training, technique and dedication.