This is what I’m talking about

A while back I put up a few posts talking about common misconceptions about parkour and its usefulness in the event of a zombie apocalypse. I brought up a lot of points, and I feel like I illustrated them all pretty well.

I just saw a great parkour video that shows a lot of what I’m talking about in action. I’ll go into more detail down below, but watch this first:

Imagine those guys going through the same movements while being chased by zombies. Even the fast kind wouldn’t stand a chance. Here are some reasons why:

They’re not trying to be flashy. I stressed the difference between parkour and freerunning in my article, and this are pure parkour: There are no flips, no flourishes, no wasted movements.

They’re using the fastest, most efficient method possible for each situation. These guys are doing a lot of straight-up running in this video. They’re not jumping over cars when it’s faster to run around them, nor are they vaulting over a rail when the stairs are right there.

They’re always cautious and alert. You don’t see any huge roof jumps here, or unnecessarily high drops. In most cases, they’ll drop over the ledge quickly instead of leaping straight off (the exception being around 3:30, but in that case it’s onto a loose, relatively soft surface). They’re always looking around for the next place to go, always surveying their surroundings. When Anthow is on the roof, notice he never steps in any of the puddles, instead skirting around them. Akmao’s spider-slide thing cuts his drop distance in half. They’re putting safety first, and still managing to be extremely fast.

They’re highly specialized. If you pay close attention, you don’t actually see a whole lot of variety in the techniques each traceur utilizes. They found a suite of three or for moves that work in multiple situations and got really  good at those moves. If you aren’t going to devote a huge portion of your life to parkour training but still want to be able to use it to survive post-Zday, this is going to be crucial.

This video highlights what’s really great about parkour, and how utilitarian it can be. Applying these lessons to a survival situation is straightforward, and highly illuminating. Well done, gentlemen.

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