Movement discipline focused on efficient navigation through environments
Forward Roll
A safety roll that one performs to distribute the impact of from drop. A proper parkour roll can prevent injuries and allow an athlete to jump from very high distances. Safety rolls should be used when a landing is too dangerous to attempt with simply bending the legs.
Movement on all fours. A bear crawl.
just a way of keeping your body stable (usually on a bar/rail)
A precision jump, also called a pre, is a jump where you land on a pre determined spot almost always on the balls if your feet. If the obstacle has an edge, such as a curb, you want about half of your foot on the obstacle, so that your heels are hanging off, and the same goes for landing on a rail or bar.
The Cat Leap (aka Cat Hang) is one of the most fundamental parkour moves for both climbing and descending.
A two footed jump that is taken directly after a landing.
The Safety Vault is a vault used in parkour that us much easier variation of the side vault, except the the outside foot is placed on top of the obstacle and the inside arm is then released, while the outside foot pushes the practitioner off the obstacle. This vault can also be called a step vault.
A one footed jump taken directly after landing on that same foot. Very similar to stepping, but with more distance.
Roundoff
Merge a Cat Leap with a Tic Tac and voila! You have a 180 Cat Leap. Useful for where you want to be is behind where you're doing the Cat Leap to, doing Cat to Cat, or for a nice turn-around, landing back where you started.
Two steps on the wall horizontally
The Lache is parkour or freerunning move used to swing off of a bar or branch. After swinging the traceur can grab onto another bar or branch, or land in a precision, crane or cat.
Jumping into a roll. This is not a gymnastics roll. You must go over your shoulder.
It's the parkour roll done backwards. Mastering it can prevent a lot of injuries when falling backwards.
The Monkey Vault is a vault used in parkour which involves planting two hands side-by-side on an obstacle and bringing both legs in-between, shortly after pushing off with the hands. When the hands are placed on the object before the feet leave the ground, it is known as a monkey vault, however if the feet leave the ground before the hands reach the object, it is referred to as a kong vault. The vault is designed to mimick the way a monkey walks, with their hands on the outside and then bringing their feet in-between their arms.
Useful for where a Gate Vault wouldn't work, or where you want to get into a Cat Leap postion to climb down an obstacle. The vault involves going up to a obstacle, putting your hands on in a switch-grip (one hand gripping inside one hand gripping outside), jumping your hips and feet over the obstacle, rotating on the hand that has it's knuckles pointed away from you, grabbing, and ending in a Cat Leap postion.
The Speed Vault is a vault used in Parkour. A Traceur or Traceuses will use this vault to quickly overpass an obstacle, such as a low wall, railing or barrier, while preserving forward momentum for additional movements such as a roll or underbar. It is used frequently in all types of urban environments. It is performed by: - Running up to the obstacle. - Pushing off of one foot. - Placing one hand on the obstacle (if you jumped off of your right foot use your right hand and vice versa). - Swinging both legs over the obstacle to one side. - Landing on the ground and continuing running. It can be turned into a safety vault, the most basic vault in parkour, by placing the outside leg on the obstacle as you pass (to maintain height) and then swinging the inside leg through. It can also be turned into a Two-handed vault by placing the outside hand next to the inside hand on the obstacle.
A wall run in parkour is a technique where a practitioner runs toward a wall at an angle, using momentum to propel themselves upward and forward along the wall's surface for a few steps. This move allows them to scale obstacles, reach higher ledges, or transition to other movements like jumps or flips. It requires precise timing, speed, and coordination to execute effectively.
The Gate Vault is a vault used to lower oneself over a fence, gate or wall, allowing one to quickly move over the obstacle and retain most of their forward momentum. Think of it as a Parkour Roll, but right after your roll starts you fall to the side in a cartwheel.
A bar movement in which the traceur swings forward, releases their grip on the bar, completes a half twist (180 degrees rotation), and re-grabs the same bar they swung from.
The macaco is a trick that resembles an off axis, one handed back handspring or backflip that is usually initiated from a squat. It is commonly used as a transitioning move or a progression towards back handsprings or backflips.
The Thief Vault is a slightly modified or hybrid movement of the Lazy Vault and the Dash Vault. It is less well-known and is considered by some to not be a useful technique or even a proper movement. It is used as a slightly faster alternative to the Lazy Vault, and the exit is more perpendicular to the obstacle as in a Dash Vault, rather than being parallel to the obstacle as in a Lazy Vault.
The Lazy Vault is a vault used for moving over an obstacle sideways or diagonally while still running or moving forwards. It is also sometimes confused with a Thief Vault; however, the thief vault is a hybrid vault consisting of elements of the Dash Vault and the lazy vault.
