I just saw a video of some guys jumping off extremely tall buildings onto concrete, no rolling afterwards. How do their ankles not just snap?
In: 30
They are young, flexible, and lucky.
There are some ways to fall more gracefully than others, but at the end of day, you have to remember you’re watching an edited video that was chosen to be posted.
Those people may have broken bones many, many times and not bother to post those videos.
As a former parkourist (fun fact: the official name is ‘traceur’), it’s likely the video is edited or the building isn’t as tall as it seems (wide angle lenses can add to the appearance of distance). If that isn’t the case, then “luck and youth” is likely correct.
That said, you would be surprised at how high someone can fall from safely so long as momentum is converted forward, usually by rolling. I was a poorly conditioned 20-something who managed to jump off many high places without injury thanks to rolling. Of course nothing good last forever and I eventually did break a bone in my foot, though weirdly it wasn’t from a big fall – rather from a move I had done a dozen times, and I landed on a gym mat. Just goes to show that it’s not what you do but how you do it.
Conditioning and knowing good technique. Both are important. They’ve been doing it for a while and their joints, tendons and ligaments are prepared for that impact. If they take a long break and come back to it they probably would risk injury. I used to jump onto hard surface a lot. Not super high but anything repetitive from above head height could easily injure if you are untrained.
Just seen some parkour. My thought was how many people are parkours’ for just one trick because the fuck their body. And give up the hobby before starting
Less scientific answer.
It’s not speed that hurts or kills you.
It’s the sudden deceleration.
If you can decelerate slowly and extend that by rolling and dissipating that energy, you’ll get less of an injury.
Practice. The guys you have seen who are doing this, have probably been doing it for 10+ years. Like a martial arts master who can punch through bricks, repeated mild trauma to body parts can strengthen them in the long run. There’s a lot of technique to it too.
I believe this is compounded by the fact that many parkour runners start when they’re pre-teens so their body literally grows with the repeated mild trauma. (I am not sure about this science though, if you have anything other than your own opinion here, please correct me)
If you’re talking about the trending video I just saw, those dudes were using awful form. Used to be a traceur/traceuse instructor, and my crew would have made them do a dozen jump drills for “slapping out” instead of rolling from those heights.
If you train real hard, your legs can take a lot of force and lengthen the time your body has to absorb it, but in the long term, it WILL destroy your joints to do it improperly
It’s a matter of time before they do. A someone who has had a job that requires work with older people, all those people doing amazing physical feats now, are gonna have consistent issues with their joints when they pass 45.
Stick and roll. You alleviate the pressure in your joints but going into a roll rather than impacting your joints. That’s why you see every parkour athlete do that little tumble roll after a big jump. If you become stiff, that’s when you get injured
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