The hardcore science of parkour. And how to use physics principles to improve your skills.

Pedro_P

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Flexed joints can help dissipate some of the forces when landing a parkour jump.
Sascha Steinbach/AAP
▼ People climbing up walls and jumping off buildings in films such as Brick Mansions, Assassin’s Creed, and Casino Royal aren’t tricks of cinema.
The athletes that perform these stunts are part of a global community that practise parkour – a gymnastics-like activity that developed from military obstacle courses. The objective of parkour is to move rapidly and effectively through a complex physical environment.
Our research shows that science can help you practise better parkour – through running up walls more efficiently, and expanding your landing options.
Even if you don’t plan to take up the sport, it’s an incredible thing to watch.
Traceurs and traceuses
Although parkour has been recognised as an official sport in some countries, it’s impossible to determine how many people are involved worldwide. It’s an activity that is generally unorganised, which may be part of its sub-culture appeal.
To a casual observer, parkour athletes may appear reckless – but most train very hard, practising a broad set of individual skills that they use as they run through the environment. Men and women in the sport are referred to as “traceurs” and “traceuses” respectively.
Some of the individual movements in parkour parallel those of other sports, such as gymnastics, athletics, and trail running.
But much less research has been done on parkour than on more mainstream sports. This is unfortunate because they shared fundamental principles of generating and redirecting momentum. A better understanding of these can benefit all of these activities.
Running up walls
One impressive feat that catches the eye of many parkour observers is the way traceurs run up high walls to get onto buildings.
To climb high structures, parkour athletes run toward the wall and then kick off it with one (or more) contacts. This technique allows them to reach much higher than using a standing vertical jump, and also allows them to keep moving efficiently through the urban environment.
To investigate how athletes  accomplish this wall run efficientlywe embedded a force plate in the ground and a second force plate in the wall. We then filmed study participants as they approached the wall.
We watched how the athletes redirected their body by using a consistent transition strategy that depended on specific actions of the legs on the floor and wall.
Although some parkour guides recommend athletes straddle the floor and wall simultaneously, we did not observe this – the traceurs always left the floor before they contacted the wall.

Testing the launching capability of a traceur performing parkour.
James Croft, Author provided
Redirecting momentum
We wanted to better understand the most efficient foot placement on the ground and the wall, and the effect of different approach speeds. So we built a computer simulation that could optimise each.
The model corresponded well with what we observed – an intermediate run-up speed is best – and allowed us to understand why.
During the run up you create horizontal momentum (the product of speed and body weight). (▪ ▪ ▪)

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