Improve Your Parkour Balancing Skills

Balance is an important part of parkour and an element that needs to be incorporated into your parkour training from the outset. Balance can be improved by the means suggested in this article.

Steps

  1. Dress properly. Wear running shoes, trainers or other supple, Get a Better Grip on Your Basketball Shoes suitable for parkour. Wear loose, comfortable clothing and nothing too tight. And don't overdress, in case you get too hot.
  2. Stretch. Before you train in any part of parkour, ensure that your muscles have been properly warmed up through stretching.
    • Some people also like to spend time clearing their mind of concerns and worries, so that they can fully focus on the parkour training. Perhaps a short meditation, a mantra, a positive visualization, etc.
  3. Find a suitable place to practice your balancing. As a beginner, choose a place that isn't too high from the ground, where a fall is only a matter of a few inches or centimeters. The practice of balancing doesn't need height to begin with, just find suitable places that can enable balancing. Some suggestions for getting started include:
    • Railing placed at a low level is ideal, such as railing in gardens or used as traffic or parking barriers
    • Slim poles or pipes that can take your weight
    • The gutter at the edge of the sidewalk
    • Other low items you can walk on and balance.
  4. Improve your strength. Balance is a lot about strength as well as balancing and this can be improved with gym or exercise Have a Simple Workout Plan and Stick to It, even before you train in parkour. Find a gym or a fitness studio, or use your own equipment. Use apparatus that increases your ability to balance. One really good exercise is to stand on a half dome ball. These are exercise/gym balls cut in half and placed on a base. They often have cords attached to the sides for arm strengthening training:
    • Practice standing on this with your arms out to the sides. How long can you go?
    • Now switch it up and do squats without losing your balance. How many can you do?
    • Now shut your eyes and see how long you can stay there. You'll find it gets much harder as your sight is one aspect of good balance. Keep practicing remaining on the half ball with your eyes closed as long as possible. In the process, you will be strengthening your ankle region, which will greatly improve your sense of balance.
  5. Practice walking up and down a low, flat narrow surface to begin with, over grass or another soft surface. The flat surface will give you the safety of keeping your feet flat but the narrowness should be enough to cause you to have to balance. For example, a narrow street gutter can be ideal because you have to place one foot in front of the other to stay on it. Each time you practice, make the distance you manage it longer and longer. Even though there isn't far to fall, the mental discipline in telling yourself that you are doing fine is a big part of this; the moment you start to tell yourself "I'm going to fall", you will, so use this easy training time to overcome these thoughts as well.
    • Use thin small garden walls to walk on. Just be sure the wall owner doesn't mind, and don't fall on their prize roses!
    • A think wooden rail, tree logs, or 2 by 4s in the backyard work fine too. Use whatever you have around the house and yard.
    • Check out the local Create a Water Playground for Small Children. There is often a balancing bar or low balancing play equipment you can use. Just don't push away the kids; go after they've finished playing for the day.
  6. Proceed to something harder to balance on once you're confident on the lower items. Look for a rounded rail. Rounded rails are great because you can't naturally stand on them without falling off and you have to use your sense of balance to remain on it.
    • If the rail is higher and over Decorate Concrete, be sure that you're ready for this step. Have a spotter nearby to catch you in case, or to help you out if you do get into difficulties. And always wear gripping shoes!
  7. Try walking forwards and backwards. You need to feel comfortable balancing in any direction and the rhythm will change depending on the direction in which you're walking.
  8. Close your eyes on the higher rail. Once you're feeling confident enough, try walking with closed eyes. Have your spotter walk alongside you in case you misstep or suddenly need support. With enough practice though, you'll soon get the hang of this.
  9. Turn and balance on the balls of your feet. Do squats while in this position on the railing. It's a tough one to do but will increase both your strength and balance intensely.
    • This is a great muscle improving workout!
  10. Keep practicing. With regular, consistent balancing practice, your confidence will grow, as will your strength. Don't neglect the related but different balancing exercises in the gym or at home; keep doing these to help keep your balancing skills sharp.



Tips

  • Always be mindful of your surroundings and ensure safety while performing these moves. The more you learn, the better you get so study this art and perfect it.
  • Remember to go slowly and don't do anything stupid while training, that mistake you could cost you!

Warnings

  • Don't push yourself beyond what you're comfortable with. If you're not ready to balance on something higher yet, then you're not ready. This is no reflection on you personally, it simply means you need more training.

Things You'll Need

  • Running shoes, trainers (with excellent, non-worn grip)
  • Safe objects to practice on
  • Stretchable clothing (no tight clothing)
  • Wisdom and patience

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