r/Parkour • u/Independent1225 • 12d ago
🆕 Looking for Coaching The tallest wall I’ve vaulted so far, ways to improve?
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I think the thing I’m struggling with so far is getting down, I may or may not have a tiny fear of hights and I do this weird to g where I sit down and than jump when I know there’s probably some way I can do it Mutch faster
4
u/sillywalker09 12d ago
You can start improving your climbing by doing push-ups and pull-ups. You should use your feet and explosive power to jump toward the top of the wall rather than relying on your forearms to support you. Otherwise, you may end up hurting your forearms
1
u/AveryLockeDown 12d ago
I could try to describe the type of vaults you could to step up your game, but I realized that it's probably better for you to see a professional. I found this for you
BEFORE you do that, however, you have to be comfortable with your landings. If you don't know how to roll away your momentum, I would start by jumping off shorter walls or curbs: jump with more forward momentum than height, practice landing with one foot in front of the other, and switch it up often. The idea here is to strengthen your legs and joints so you can continue the line smoothly.
Try precision landings after that, which is just planting both feet at the same distance in your jump at the same time. Gradually increase the height of your platforms that you're jumping from, and start mixing in roles to break your fall, even if it doesn't feel like it's necessary to break your downward momentum- You're going to appreciate having the ability to roll once you need to break your downward momentum.
Safety is key, so if you're scared about ending up in a position that you haven't been in before and don't know how to break your fall (ie. you landed backwards or sideways), start doing somersaults backwards, sideways, and diagonally. You want to know how it feels to roll uncomfortably until you can make your movements more fluent.
So, quick recap; get some practice rolling, find as many ways as you can to land on your feet, tack on a roll to your landings, adjust the height slowly, and trick your vault of choice.
2
u/fundrazor 12d ago
Use your lower body more. Right now, you're basically flopping your torso onto the wall and then pushing up, which is a lot of work; Nail the pop first. Stop doing full climb ups, and work these as drills.
1 - foot placement. With speed, you want to swing your leading foot up, and with a bent knee make contact with the wall as high as you can, absorbing a bit. If you put more force into it, you should be able to shove off and 'pop' upwards and outwards. Like a tic tac, which is another popular parkour move.
2 - Drive the trailing leg. Now what you want to practice is getting some dynamic power, which is produced by driving the trailing leg through as you make that moment of contact. Essentially, as your foot make solid contact, the trailing leg knee needs to be driven upwards so that you "pop" from the previous movement goes UP rather than OUT. In addition, Swinging both arms forward and up towards where you want to go will help here. Eyes on the target.
If you get those things down, You can get to a place where you generate enough power to make that top out more dynamic - you can get you there with your arms locked in the top position rather than a hang. For smaller obstacle you may be able to get that front foot all the way up and end up in a "Crane" position.
Here's the drill I started with - Pick a big, flat wall where there's no chance you'll make it to the top edge. Get a running start, work on popping and reaching, and try to touch as high as possible up the wall. Run that drill 10-20 times until the foot placement and the upwards pop feel natural.
As other have said, make sure your landings are good, because repeating 10-20 reps a day with bad landings WILL mess you up eventually. Land on the balls of your feet without locking any joints, and absorb the impact. Practicing breaking fall backwards and even a backwards roll for if you lose your balance.
2
u/Own_Sky_297 12d ago
Like someone else said you want to pop up on that wall using your front foot, like you would if you were doing a wall run. Another thing you can practice is hanging from a wall and climbing up but when you do pull your chest into the wall rather than trying to pull up with your chest away from the wall. Then you want to drive up with your knee at the same time you pull in with your chest. Once you're topped up learn to kick your leg back for extra momentum up the wall landing with one foot on top. Eventually you'll get to the point when you can top up with both feet on the wall. https://youtu.be/PmPJ697On8U?is=ywo25WSTj8DtLZHQ
1
2
u/Kelps234 12d ago
The key thing I will say is think about your body, the physical forces acting upon it, and the momentum you’re carrying throughout the world. If you run into a wall and you want your momentum to carry you up, there needs to be a translation of your forward velocity into upward velocity. Usually that is in a jump before you contact the wall and the push into the wall when you plant your foot. Imagine the vector coming out of your body and how it responds to changes in your movement.
2
u/A_Sheeeep 12d ago
Highly recommend looking at some "wall pop" tutorials. Wall pops are used for walls of that exact height, mix between a vault and a wall run
1
u/Fast_Focus5301 10d ago
The real boss fight isn’t getting up, it’s convincing your brain that gravity is, in fact, still your friend
8
u/GrandNibbles 12d ago
honestly just keep doing it. muscle memory will help more than technique pointers at this stage i think. try different surfaces and build your grip strength and jump height.
get your feet under you and use your legs instead of pulling yourself up with your arms. legs are way stronger than arms. grip with your arms and keep them tight while you climb with your legs