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Assaultman67 wrote:

Jacktheawesome wrote:Hm...well you might be mixing it up with Freerunning a bit there... Parkour's only purpose is to be useful. It is used to train soldiers and firefighters. If a building was on fire, or you were running from something, or you needed to get to someplace high, it would help you do that. It's not necessarily something where once you learn it you just do it all the time (although why not, fuck stairs). Also, the philosophy of overcoming obstacles is as much mental as physical. It's a lot deeper than most people think.

I call bullshit.

In either case (firefighter or soldier) you're gonna be carrying at least 40 to 50 lbs of gear with you. even in action scenarios your rifle alone weighs roughly 20lbs.

Medics and artillerymen will actually carry around over 100 lbs of equipment.

You wont be very light on your feet.

Your in an alley way, and 250 guys with knives step out of the shadows. What do you do? RUN!
Unfortunately, they have blocked off both exits. What do you do? PARKOUR! up the dumpster, run up the wall, kick off and grab the balcony of the apartment building, pull yourself up, yell FUCK YOU BITCHES!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! and then call the cops to clear them out.

or, if you don't know parkour, and are the best martial artist in the world, dodge most of their attacks at first, knock out like 25 of them, get overwhelmed when you don't have space to move, and get stabbed, kidnapped, repeatedly raped, tortured, publicly humiliated, then killed.

I'd stick with option 1(what kind of sick bastards publicly humiliate guys)

in a more realistic situation(1 or 2 guys) either way would work, but it's much easier to learn parkour then to be that awesome at martial arts(you don't have to be that amazing to escape with parkour if there is only 1 or 2 guys), and with martial arts it's still pretty likely you get stabbed. Also, if they have a gun, parkour gives you a better chance of survival(even if you also have a gun, there is a good chance you get shot, but it is hard to hit a moving target(it's also hard to shoot while moving, but if you confuse them enough you could shoot them))

or if you missed the bus to school, taking the rooftops is more direct and much quicker.

Assaultman67 wrote:

Jacktheawesome wrote:Hm...well you might be mixing it up with Freerunning a bit there... Parkour's only purpose is to be useful. It is used to train soldiers and firefighters. If a building was on fire, or you were running from something, or you needed to get to someplace high, it would help you do that. It's not necessarily something where once you learn it you just do it all the time (although why not, fuck stairs). Also, the philosophy of overcoming obstacles is as much mental as physical. It's a lot deeper than most people think.

I call bullshit.

In either case (firefighter or soldier) you're gonna be carrying at least 40 to 50 lbs of gear with you. even in action scenarios your rifle alone weighs roughly 20lbs.

Medics and artillerymen will actually carry around over 100 lbs of equipment.

You wont be very light on your feet.

Maybe if someone was carrying 100 lbs they wouldn't be, but the Marine Corps has been slowly integrating parkour into basic training. If you aren't strong or fast enough to parkour with gear, they make you get faster and stronger. I can't speak for firefighters or foreign militaries, but the Marines don't fuck around with training. You are trained to do everything you have to in full gear, and if you have adrenaline pumping through your veins faster than booze through a rowdy college kid, you're going to do what you have to. Although a bunch of gear is a hindrance and hazard with parkour, it isn't anything that will completely rule it out in a tight bind.

The Navy Seals Parkour train. The also have to be drown-proof.(its the third one in the first section)

I'm pretty sure these guys can parkour with 1000 pounds added weight.

Actually, that table didn't look too bad for me. Except the swimming. I'm a terrible swimmer.

Stamina running at medium high speeds in boots is really hard. 4 miles in boots at an average of less than 8 minutes per mile would be impossible for me, and I can't imagine what those obstacle courses are. And this is just their workout, not actual training. The craziest one to me is 50 meters underwater swim(without fins), since i can only hold my breath for about 10 seconds. they are drown proof though...

If you guys find a video of a fat guy doing parkour i'll believe a marine could do it with gear

That is in unfair comparison, since while a marine in gear and a fat guy weigh the same, but the marine is much stronger and more coordinated, and can fit through tighter spaces

however, here is a dog doing parkour.

Exactly. The Marine is a highly functioning body, slightly hindered by the gear he trains in everyday to move efficiently and well. The fat person can't take off his gear. He's never trained without it, so he doesn't even have the experience necessary to attempt something like that. He's out of his element, in his own native element. It's just not a very good comparison. For the record though. I've done the exact same thing as that kid in the video, for the exact same reason, and I weigh 130 lbs, perhaps 5 lbs of which is made up of fat. The surface was slippery. You fall on your ass, it hurts, you get back up. There was an overweight old guy in my Parkour class about a year ago, and he didn't do exactly well, but he did it.

Yeah, but comparing anyone but Marines to the Seals is unfair, and Marine Recon is about equal to the Seals. The Seals are freakin' nuts.
As for parkour, I can't imagine that if you train with a high load consistently that you wouldn't be able to move effectively with a high load. The whole point of recruit training is to make sure marines are mobile. Soldiers who move get shot at; soldiers who don't get shot.

Where did the Seals come in? Yeah those guys are badass though.

The thing is, Parkour is not really "trying stuff." This is not Parkour:

It's epic, and awesome, but not Parkour.
This is Parkour:

Should marines be able to move like this? Of course not, at least not with gear on. That's not my point. The point I'm trying to make is that Parkour is about adapting to your environment. If part of your environment is the 100 lbs you carry into battle, so be it. So no, a marine might not do flawless, fluid Parkour in his gear. But Parkour might help him vault quickly over a low obstacle that he would've been clumsily struggling over otherwise.

I think the problem is we aren't really seeing eye to eye of what parkour is.

Like the stuff the fat kid was doing in the video, that isn't even parkour to me.

I've done more exciting stuff in high school gym classes.

I could see how a marine could crawl over a low wall or through a small space, but hes not going to scale up or down several stories without stairs or climbing equipment while carrying his gear.

...would've been clumsily struggling over otherwise.

Enter the Army I wouldn't expect a Marine to do that stuff with 100 lbs either, but 100 lbs isn't standard ruck weight. 65-80 lbs is closer for ruck and if he's got flak, well just tack that on It can add up, but I would definately want to know how the hell to navigate the environment, gear or not. Also, if you get stuck in a situation where you're isolated, have lost your gear and are likely presumed dead, parkour could save your life.
Adwuga brought up that Seals do parkour training too. I really don't think that being weighed down with gear would kill the ability to do parkour. Shit, Marines and Seals repel out of fucking helicopters, run and fight with full gear, flak vests, rifles, and in boots. Running is pretty basic, and 5 miles under full load isn't entirely unreasonable. Vaulting over four to four and a half foot walls is one of the early things is basic and with gear, it isn't beyond a Marine and definately not a Seal.
I suppose the really amazing stuff like scaling the front of a building barehanded would be rather difficult, but that's why you have one Marine leave his gear with his buddies and climb the building. Drops a rope to haul his stuff up and then the rest can use that to climb without dumping gear as long as the rope is properly anchored or the guy who went up first is a beast

Assaultman67 wrote:I think the problem is we aren't really seeing eye to eye of what parkour is.

Yes. That's the problem with a lot of people. There isn't a level at which you are moving that I can point and say "There! You are now doing Parkour!" It's not that if you do a simple turn vault over a railing it's just dicking around, but if you kong it from a run it's Parkour. If you are moving in such a way that is more efficient and quicker than the normal path, you are doing Parkour.