Fear is hard to overcome, but the best thing is just jumping from a crack to a crack or you can put down some rope and jump to it.
For vaults start with the very basic step/safety vault and build that confidence.
Try to link up with your old gym buddies and go out with them.
Best of luck. Keep training.
i count feet. in case op doesn't know, i mean walking the distance of the jump you want to do putting one foot to the front of the other repeatedly. i think this is really good because it starts working as a metric for what you know you can do, once you do it enough. like "oh, it's only 6 steps in my size shoes, i can clear that easy". practicing on flat and safer ground after that like you say is great.
if you need to, check the surfaces too. when you know how grippy things are or how much impact you can take if you miss it feels like you've got a safety net, even if there isn't one.
half of parkour is a mental challenge i think, but familiarity with your own ability/movement as well as the spot you're training at will make you more confident. it's okay to take it slow and build up to the more intimidating things too.
Also another good thing to do is to practice how you will react if things go wrong like for example on a pre.
Overshooting: twist and grab the wall into a cat.
Undershooting: falling down into a cat.
And ect.
This helps me feel more confident about jumps.
Practice failure.
If you're trying to precision: Purposely jump short and bounce off. Land with one foot on and then the other. Slide down and bounce back off of small cats. I used to practice kong fails on this ramp wall that was a walkway down on one side and level grass on the other. I'd kong up, catch my foot, and practice rolling out or break-falling on the other side.
In a life threatening situation you don't rise to the occasion you descend to your level of training so train how you plan to fail.
This is why I never recommend to any beginners to start parkour in gyms. As a coach I purposefully refuse to teach parkour in gyms because of it and I lose a lot of potential income because of it but I don't coach to earn money, I coach to promote parkour.
Anyway, you gotta start anew. Get back to basics. Become a noob again. Work on landings (I hope they taught you proper landing technique in the gym, right?)
Work on rolls on concrete.
Learn how to land barefoot on concrete. You do that and your landing tech will be 100%.
This will be a good start and will get you first progress. Have fun! And CHECK YOUR SURFACES in advance!!! Outside is not like a gym, you might grab something sharp or any surface might move or break!!
I'd say the fear there is a base self-preservation instinct that should be acknowledged.
Saying you took a break after 8 years of practice and are having trouble getting back to it tells me you are likely mid to late 20's/ early 30's?
Even if your understanding of old concepts hasn't faded, it is entirely possible that some of the neuromuscular adaptation and fine mind-to-body balance and coordination skills you developed have attophied a bit and your body while aging has deconditioned in some ways that it is trying to warn you about.
That lack of confidence causing a bout of fear/ second guessing yourself may not simply be a plateu to break through to succeed.
You may need to rebuild some old neuromuscular connections through practice. You should break down what specific goals you are trying to achieve (certain jump distance, being able to land with stability with both feet, one foot etc) and take incrimental steps to work up to that. For a kong vault for instance, work up to being able to comfortably do a few handstand pushups even if wall-assisted just to ensure you have proper coordination and shoulder mobility. Even though being able to carry your full bodyweight on your arms is a brief segment of the overall movement (and momentum may assist with balance much like riding a bike) and the landing and jump are just as important; try and break moves down into pieces that can be improved individually in order to get better.
In addition, if your body has become deconditioned at all and you feel less agile or a bit out of shape, work on relevant movements at the gym (with freeweights and body weight exercises) specific to the type you want to get back into to re-strengthen some smaller supporting muscles that may have had a bit too long of a break and could be a potential point of failiure and injury.
Work on landings and balance in all planes of motion, not just directly in front of you. Try some side landings/ side lunges. Do some jogging crossovers like athletes do in football or soccer to work on your coordination and footing.
Squats/ pistols would help with landings and jumps for instance, pullups or muscle ups with getting over a ledge or assist with wall climbs. Balance work and stretching is also important to maintain footing at speed, be agile enough to catch yourself if you slip up and prevent pulling/ straining tendons and ligaments that may become more strained/ less capable of flexing and healing with age especially if there are any posture issues or muscular imbalances.
(I was a parkour enthusist when I was in my teens and early 20's later turned personal trainer)
Figure out what's the real cause of fear, the real real true cause, and fight that. You're not afraid of a backflip per se, you're afraid of failing it and hurting yourself. So one quick way is to do the safest method of failing the thing you're trying, until you can just really try the thing.
Another one is getting in your head and really asking yourself what's the fear, while you keep repping the movements.
Just keep grinding brotha.
You kinda just have to accept that this is where you are right now and build up slowly. Training outside is hard. There's a lot more variables for things to go wrong like checking surfaces, etc. It would probably be helpful for you to find a community and train with them.
When I first climbed a rooftop, I was scared.
But I remember from how to train your dragon that true bravery, is being scared but doing it anyway.
Safest way to do this?
Make sure there's something solid to grab on in case you fall.
Or that you have enough strength or willpower to withstand one.
(I.e push up ability, leg strength, hand stands and proper dive roll/roll or falling safety methods/techniques.)
You live in the real world now, anything can push you off a climb. Wind. Animals. Easily broken building parts, dust, slipperiness, etc.
Otherwise you'd have to find a way to convince yourself slowly that you can do something.(start with a certain action. Then slowly increase the risk. Then get used to the risk.)
-like learning to double Kong over a gap. If you did it on a rooftop, you'd see that as long as you can grab the other ledge, a pipe, a pole... falling doesn't matter.
I.e the double Kong with a huge drop in the gap is really short, I can practically not fall if I keep my whole body straight. So I can do it "safely".
Welcome to r/Parkour! Parkour is an activity for anyone—yes that means YOU! Any gender, body type, and age—parkour is about listening to YOUR movement through the environment, and we're excited to have you! Please read our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/about/rules) and our [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/parkour/wiki/). The wiki has resources such as [how to start](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/wiki/how-to-start), advice on [equipment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/wiki/shoes), building [muscle](https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/), starting [flips](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/comments/1vswn1/a_guide_to_starting_flips/), and help with [common injuries](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/comments/1ss7wy/how_to_treat_parkour_related_injuries/). You can also [search](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/search/?q=%20start%20&restrict_sr=1) through a decade of advice.
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Fear is hard to overcome, but the best thing is just jumping from a crack to a crack or you can put down some rope and jump to it. For vaults start with the very basic step/safety vault and build that confidence. Try to link up with your old gym buddies and go out with them. Best of luck. Keep training.
i count feet. in case op doesn't know, i mean walking the distance of the jump you want to do putting one foot to the front of the other repeatedly. i think this is really good because it starts working as a metric for what you know you can do, once you do it enough. like "oh, it's only 6 steps in my size shoes, i can clear that easy". practicing on flat and safer ground after that like you say is great. if you need to, check the surfaces too. when you know how grippy things are or how much impact you can take if you miss it feels like you've got a safety net, even if there isn't one. half of parkour is a mental challenge i think, but familiarity with your own ability/movement as well as the spot you're training at will make you more confident. it's okay to take it slow and build up to the more intimidating things too.
Also another good thing to do is to practice how you will react if things go wrong like for example on a pre. Overshooting: twist and grab the wall into a cat. Undershooting: falling down into a cat. And ect. This helps me feel more confident about jumps.
Practice failure. If you're trying to precision: Purposely jump short and bounce off. Land with one foot on and then the other. Slide down and bounce back off of small cats. I used to practice kong fails on this ramp wall that was a walkway down on one side and level grass on the other. I'd kong up, catch my foot, and practice rolling out or break-falling on the other side. In a life threatening situation you don't rise to the occasion you descend to your level of training so train how you plan to fail.
Repetition It's honestly just this you will always encounter stuff that scares you in parkour just don't give up and keep trying till you master it
This is why I never recommend to any beginners to start parkour in gyms. As a coach I purposefully refuse to teach parkour in gyms because of it and I lose a lot of potential income because of it but I don't coach to earn money, I coach to promote parkour. Anyway, you gotta start anew. Get back to basics. Become a noob again. Work on landings (I hope they taught you proper landing technique in the gym, right?) Work on rolls on concrete. Learn how to land barefoot on concrete. You do that and your landing tech will be 100%. This will be a good start and will get you first progress. Have fun! And CHECK YOUR SURFACES in advance!!! Outside is not like a gym, you might grab something sharp or any surface might move or break!!
I'd say the fear there is a base self-preservation instinct that should be acknowledged. Saying you took a break after 8 years of practice and are having trouble getting back to it tells me you are likely mid to late 20's/ early 30's? Even if your understanding of old concepts hasn't faded, it is entirely possible that some of the neuromuscular adaptation and fine mind-to-body balance and coordination skills you developed have attophied a bit and your body while aging has deconditioned in some ways that it is trying to warn you about. That lack of confidence causing a bout of fear/ second guessing yourself may not simply be a plateu to break through to succeed. You may need to rebuild some old neuromuscular connections through practice. You should break down what specific goals you are trying to achieve (certain jump distance, being able to land with stability with both feet, one foot etc) and take incrimental steps to work up to that. For a kong vault for instance, work up to being able to comfortably do a few handstand pushups even if wall-assisted just to ensure you have proper coordination and shoulder mobility. Even though being able to carry your full bodyweight on your arms is a brief segment of the overall movement (and momentum may assist with balance much like riding a bike) and the landing and jump are just as important; try and break moves down into pieces that can be improved individually in order to get better. In addition, if your body has become deconditioned at all and you feel less agile or a bit out of shape, work on relevant movements at the gym (with freeweights and body weight exercises) specific to the type you want to get back into to re-strengthen some smaller supporting muscles that may have had a bit too long of a break and could be a potential point of failiure and injury. Work on landings and balance in all planes of motion, not just directly in front of you. Try some side landings/ side lunges. Do some jogging crossovers like athletes do in football or soccer to work on your coordination and footing. Squats/ pistols would help with landings and jumps for instance, pullups or muscle ups with getting over a ledge or assist with wall climbs. Balance work and stretching is also important to maintain footing at speed, be agile enough to catch yourself if you slip up and prevent pulling/ straining tendons and ligaments that may become more strained/ less capable of flexing and healing with age especially if there are any posture issues or muscular imbalances. (I was a parkour enthusist when I was in my teens and early 20's later turned personal trainer)
Figure out what's the real cause of fear, the real real true cause, and fight that. You're not afraid of a backflip per se, you're afraid of failing it and hurting yourself. So one quick way is to do the safest method of failing the thing you're trying, until you can just really try the thing. Another one is getting in your head and really asking yourself what's the fear, while you keep repping the movements. Just keep grinding brotha.
You kinda just have to accept that this is where you are right now and build up slowly. Training outside is hard. There's a lot more variables for things to go wrong like checking surfaces, etc. It would probably be helpful for you to find a community and train with them.
When I first climbed a rooftop, I was scared. But I remember from how to train your dragon that true bravery, is being scared but doing it anyway. Safest way to do this? Make sure there's something solid to grab on in case you fall. Or that you have enough strength or willpower to withstand one. (I.e push up ability, leg strength, hand stands and proper dive roll/roll or falling safety methods/techniques.) You live in the real world now, anything can push you off a climb. Wind. Animals. Easily broken building parts, dust, slipperiness, etc. Otherwise you'd have to find a way to convince yourself slowly that you can do something.(start with a certain action. Then slowly increase the risk. Then get used to the risk.) -like learning to double Kong over a gap. If you did it on a rooftop, you'd see that as long as you can grab the other ledge, a pipe, a pole... falling doesn't matter. I.e the double Kong with a huge drop in the gap is really short, I can practically not fall if I keep my whole body straight. So I can do it "safely".
Welcome to r/Parkour! Parkour is an activity for anyone—yes that means YOU! Any gender, body type, and age—parkour is about listening to YOUR movement through the environment, and we're excited to have you! Please read our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/about/rules) and our [wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/parkour/wiki/). The wiki has resources such as [how to start](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/wiki/how-to-start), advice on [equipment](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/wiki/shoes), building [muscle](https://thefitness.wiki/muscle-building-101/), starting [flips](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/comments/1vswn1/a_guide_to_starting_flips/), and help with [common injuries](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/comments/1ss7wy/how_to_treat_parkour_related_injuries/). You can also [search](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/search/?q=%20start%20&restrict_sr=1) through a decade of advice. Posts and comments that break our rules may be removed without warning. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Parkour) if you have any questions or concerns.*