One of parkour's greatest aspects is its community. The parkour community fosters a safe and encouraging environment where progression is stressed and traceurs strive to improve themselves as both practitioners and humans. Sounds great right? So what happens when you don’t have a community to train with and you’re forced to train alone? I’d like to expand upon this common issue and help encourage those who struggle to keep training even if they’re alone.
Since being in college, I have been isolated from my familiar DC Metro community where I train regularly. I have trained alone before at home but campus feels different. There were unfamiliar spots on campus, which was exciting, but I needed to use my imagination more to move through this new environment, which is completely different than what I’m used to back home. Another drawback for me was the negativity from the public safety officers and student government who denied my request to form a parkour club. Despite these insecurities and drawbacks I soon realized the importance of training alone and the ways I can overcome the absence of the supportive community I had back home.
In this article, I’ll show you why training alone is important and provide some tips on how to overcome the downsides of training alone and come to recognize the strengths to produce productive training sessions and make them more enjoyable.
Training Alone is Important
One of the reasons training alone is important and should be done by every traceur stems from the purpose and definition of parkour and that is to overcome obstacles and adapt to your environment. This is a loose definition but when applied to our situation of training alone, it makes perfect sense. Training alone is an obstacle for most traceurs especially if you’re starting out or like me, that are used to a supportive and active community. Whatever your situation, you must approach this insecurity with time and training. The more you train alone, the more you will value your time alone and appreciate your own movement.
Although parkour is not meant to be competitive, it is all about progressing as a practitioner and a human, when people train together the inevitable gauging of skills comes into play. This can benefit your training or it can be detrimental to your training goals and methods. If your sole motivation for hitting a certain kong to cat or kong to precision because someone else did it and they’re more skilled than you, or if that’s your whole motivation to train then you are doing it wrong. Everyone’s movement varies and is a personal connection when someone is training. Obviously, mimicking runs with friends and attempting the same challenges are fine as long as you also come up with your own runs and combinations of movement. Training alone helps you step back from your friends and other practitioners especially in new environments where nobody else has ever done anything. Training alone helps you connect with yourself and assess your own skills as well as appreciate your own movement.
The mental barriers and physical challenges that I have broken alone are far more important to me than things I have done with my friends. My movement is a very sacred and personal thing for me and when I triumph and progress alone then I know that I am training correctly. Training alone has also proved to me that it is more productive in terms of how long I am actually training. When I am with other people we end up taking a lot of breaks and end up talking a lot as well as moving to different spots more frequently. When I am alone, I end up training with minimal breaks, and I end up drilling and drilling and drilling fundamentals and certain runs over and over until they’re perfect, concentrating on technique and flow as well as power and control. At the end of my recent training session, I realize that I have done a precision continuously for 30 repetitions for example or climb ups for like an hour and my first climb up of the day ends up being completely different from my last climb up of the day. This method of training works best for me when I am alone and not comparing myself to anyone.
Of course some people will say that training alone can be dangerous because there is no one else around with them and if an injury were to happen no one could help. This is another aspect of training alone that I will address. When you train alone, you are away from the influence of a video camera, or others watching you or even doing what you are attempting to do. When you are away from these factors, your training will reveal your comfort with certain movements and will allow you to address your weaknesses and what you need to work on. Confidence is a big deal when training. If you are not comfortable with a jump or a run or even a vault, then you would not attempt it alone thereby reducing your chance of injury.
At the end of the day, training with friends is fun but so is training alone. I encourage all traceurs to step out of their community and comfort zone and start progressing alone from time to time to reflect on your movement and target your weaknesses in a safe and responsible manner.
Music is a great way to motivate your movement and will help your mood if you’re having an off day. Either headphones or speakers can work but from my experiences, I have learned that when I train alone, I always wear headphones and I always listen to music that will push me to keep moving whether it be upbeat music or songs that I can potentially use for future videos.
If you’re like me and you’re stuck somewhere where nobody has ever heard of parkour before and you’d like to get others involved, try to get out there and talk to people about it. Inform the public and train safely in places where people that may be interested will see you.
Challenges are a great way to keep training alone fun and exciting. For example, not drinking any water until you stick a certain running precision 10 times in a row.
If you’re like me and unfortunately phone dependent where you constantly check your phone and text friends or check your social networks then you should put it on airplane mode and stash it in your bag. It has worked well for me and has offered me a very clear minded and pure training session almost like an escape from my current stress and responsibilities like schoolwork and assignments.
One last tip for training alone is to set goals. Goals are what drives my movement personally and has helped me progress alone. I usually set a goal and then set a time frame for said goal. For example if I see a big running precision or kong to precision that seems reasonable and I’d like to hit it then I set a week or two time frame for me to do it. This pushes me to train for this goal and my overall movement improves as a result.
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