Freestyle-methodology of learning

Why freestyle sports are the perfect teacher to show you how to learn things efficiently

Often you hear the question: how can I learn parkour the fastest way possible? And it's a big question because parkour has many, many aspects. But for now, we're going to look at the coordinational part, so the `learning moves` part.

A common mistake

In terms of speed of learning there´s definitely better or worse ways to train. And one common mistake is to learn one move after the other – to first perfect one technique, before you move on to the next one. This seems kind of logical, but it's just not how we learn things. To illustrate a learning process in general, I want to make an example from mathematics because I think this will make it very clear:

Example 1:

So let's say you want to learn addition. For that it's not enough to calculate 2 + 2 = 4 over and over again. Even if you do it 1000 times, you will not understand addition. But instead you need to look at different examples of addition. And by that you will see the common rule behind all of them, which is the principle of addition. And that's what you want. Because with that principle you can calculate now any addition.

Example 2:

Let's make a different example. Suppose I would show you these three pictures and ask you what is the common denominator?

You would not be able to tell me because they're all the same. Identical.

But if I would show you these three pictures and ask you what the common denominator is?

It's pretty easy to point out.

How does this translate to movement?

This sounds very theoretical. So how does this translate to movement? It's pretty much the same here. If you want to learn a trick, you should not want to learn the trick, but you should want to learn the principle behind the trick, which constitutes the trick. Incidentally, a trick is just a word for a series of movements that are put together - and we then name this package of movements somehow. But every trick is based on one or more core principles, without which it would not work at all, and then there are movements that are not actually essential for a trick.

A movement example

So let's look, for example, at a tucked backflip. There might be 1000 variations of a tucked backflip, but the principle behind all of them is the exact same. You don't necessarily have to hold on to your legs during the tuck, it's enough if you simply make yourself smaller in the air, because the rotation principle is not interested in the exact placement of your hands. So that is the thing, that is the core of the backflip, which you want to acquire. And to get to the core, you need to look at different variations so that you get common denominator – just as in the mathematics example.

Doing different variations of the same kind of move is kind of like making a 3D scan of the principle behind it. Imagine you are looking at an object. If you are always looking from the same static perspective, you will only see one side of it. But if you're freely moving around it, you get a more comprehensive understanding of that thing. That's what we want with movement, too. So what happens if you train the backflip in the same exact setting and the same exact variation over and over again? Well, it's kind of like looking at an object from the same perspective, or looking at identical pictures as in the example before. What you're doing is: you're memorizing one static block of movement called „backflip“, and you cannot differentiate within that block, because you don´t understand the core of it. And that is a problem because then you have the movement block “backflip” and you can just press play and the whole block plays – you cannot play around within it. But if you get to the core - the principles involved - you can start playing around with the move since now there is within that „block“ a core-principle and the less important details around it. It is now not one dead block, it is a flexible, differentiated unit.

What you need for a trick is that without which the trick no longer works. Everything else is details. That's why moves become physically easier and easier, because the more you understand the essence of a move, the less energy you waste and the more you put it precisely where it's needed.

Variety in training

So instead of having a static approach to learning any new thing, you should bring in variety right away in your practice. So for example you should not just start with the b-twist. You can right away do b-twist variations: land on one foot, two feet, with more and less drop, do it a little bit to the side, do it forward, cover distance, do it on the spot, take off with two legs, take off with one leg. Try all of these variations and maybe that's not even enough. You can start with cork and backfull at the same time, depending on how much time you practice in general.

And this might seem overwhelming because all of a sudden you have ten construction sites at the same time instead of one after another, but actually you just have one construction site, since all ten moves involve the same core movement principle. And the good thing is, while you're working on ten „different“ things at the same time, each move is basically improving all the other moves because they involve the same problem. Now, of course, you can't learn all techniques right away with variations, since just one version of them is already challenging (cast gainer as an example). But there's many tricks which are totally non-dangerous and you can start experimenting with them right away.

Methodology of freestyle

Now, this might sound theoretical and obviously it's Parkour theory, so it is a theory and I can't really prove it, but I think this method of training is exactly what we can see with athletes that have a particularly broad understanding of movement and can do seemingly any trick. If you look at, for example, old videos of Pasha or Shade, that's exactly what you're going to see. They find one „thing“ (one movement principle) and then they try all kinds of variations of it in the same session. Also you can see it today with especially versatile athletes: it seems like they're going through phases - they are finding a new movement principle and then they are trying all kinds of variations of it in the next couple of weeks. Now, obviously, they probably do it unconsciously, but that doesn't change the fact that that's how they train.

And in some ways, freestyle sports kind of pushes you to train that way naturally because in freestyle sports you have the spot factor and in this way you're kind of doing slightly different versions of the same tricks all the time, since no spot is as another. And through this you get a more and more precise understanding of the principles involved without you even knowing it. And I think nowhere will you find athletes with such depth of movement understanding and such adaptability to new circumstances as in freestyle disciplines. It is kind of a miracle that you can perfectly do a jump which you have never done in such a specific setting.

Summary

To summarize this topic:

We do not want to memorize moves, we want to understand movement principles. And for that we need the contrast of different examples involving the same principle, and by the contrast of these differences, we are enabled to see that which is identical in all of them – the principle.

And this doesn't just apply to parkour or freestyle sports in general - I'm convinced it applies to any field.

One last example:

Suppose you're talking to someone who wants to convince you of something but can't say how they came to their opinion, or who can't freely address your questions or translate the topic into your “language” - isn't that simply a sign that they've never looked at the topic themselves from different angles and never really understood the core of it - and therefore can't speak flexibly about their topic, but have to rely on static sentences that they have memorized but never really understood.