Speed vs. Power - Bay Area Parkour2024-03-29T10:42:16Zhttp://baparkour.ning.com/forum/topics/speed-vs-power?commentId=2070047%3AComment%3A64996&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noA more correct title might be…tag:baparkour.ning.com,2010-07-31:2070047:Comment:649962010-07-31T00:16:57.006ZNick Romerohttp://baparkour.ning.com/profile/Niko
A more correct title might be "Initial Speed vs. Acceleration" -- but not that any of us are physicists or anything.. Nevertheless I think the point is clear: The rate of a successful vault is higher using a moderate speed approach, followed with an explosive burst of acceleration directly into said vault. This is due to an inverse relationship between body control and body speed/velocity.<br />
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In practice Chris would instruct people to vault an obstacle, then repeat, starting a step closer to the…
A more correct title might be "Initial Speed vs. Acceleration" -- but not that any of us are physicists or anything.. Nevertheless I think the point is clear: The rate of a successful vault is higher using a moderate speed approach, followed with an explosive burst of acceleration directly into said vault. This is due to an inverse relationship between body control and body speed/velocity.<br />
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In practice Chris would instruct people to vault an obstacle, then repeat, starting a step closer to the obstacle after every successful attempt. This method really drives home the point by gradually forcing the practitioner to generate the technique's energy at the time of vault, rather than well before. yeha this makes alot of sense!tag:baparkour.ning.com,2010-07-10:2070047:Comment:642042010-07-10T02:22:49.650Zb2chttp://baparkour.ning.com/profile/b2c
yeha this makes alot of sense!
yeha this makes alot of sense! I think pitting speed v. powe…tag:baparkour.ning.com,2010-07-06:2070047:Comment:640822010-07-06T23:25:48.987ZSenghttp://baparkour.ning.com/profile/msgr33
I think pitting speed v. power is a bit of a false dichotomy. Chris's point seems to be that speed forces the tracers brain to process past its abilities, but I would say that mental processing so far into a move illustrates shortcomings in developing movement to begin with. I think what it really points out is that most tracers should spend more time nailing their footwork so that it becomes part of a vault and so that the running between obstacles (not speaking of open space as an obstacle…
I think pitting speed v. power is a bit of a false dichotomy. Chris's point seems to be that speed forces the tracers brain to process past its abilities, but I would say that mental processing so far into a move illustrates shortcomings in developing movement to begin with. I think what it really points out is that most tracers should spend more time nailing their footwork so that it becomes part of a vault and so that the running between obstacles (not speaking of open space as an obstacle for the purpose of this post) blends seamlessly with the passing an obstacle.<br />
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Any "move" has to be set up well before the wall, window, fallen tree, etc., and the continuation afterward must be accounted for. The approach includes but is not limited to footwork, body positioning and momentum control- the same is true of follow-through. To use an example from another sport, kicking a soccer ball isn't only the swing of the leg and contact of foot and ball, it also includes how the other foot is planted, how the body mass counterbalances during the kick and how much space there is after contact to stop the leg from moving (ie if there's another player in the way, you may risk injuring the other player or yourself during the follow-through); these are the same reasons why a movements may need to be modified over uneven terrain, narrowly defined spaces, with limited run-off room, etc.<br />
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Specifically about footwork- it's the foundation for both speed and power and it needs to be programmed into one's body. Despite platitudes claiming otherwise, parkour is <i>not</i> natural movement any more than any other sport or martial art because none of us- Danny Ilabaca, Ryan Doyle, Olag Vorslav, etc. included- are built like the gibbons and cats we hope to emulate. So to come anywhere close, we must be very repetitive in our training to reprogram our muscle patterns. As uncool as it may sound, this may mean measuring off a vault like a place kicker to make the approach footwork as much a part of a move as the last, powerful step, the placement of the hands and the movement of the body mass. Only after making those basic movements second nature can we start adding speed or significantly increasing power. This is certainly not a training method which serves "getting a move" today or in the short term, but I think building the foundation will improve adaptability as well as facilitating and expediting learning in the long term.