Yet, it can be done.

Many months ago, I received a copy of the 2^nd edition of “The Ultimate Parkour and Freerunning Book”, by Jan Witfeld, Ilona E. Gerling, and Alexander Pach. Given the relatively recent release of Mad Skills, I had been more than busy with my own promotions, so I really didn’t have the time to do a proper review.

Things have finally slowed down a bit and I had a chance to pour through the book over one weekend.

The first thing you notice is its high production quality. From the foldout cover to the full-color interior photographs, the publishers put out an excellent product. The action shots are crisp and the sequences truly capture movements from start to finish.

Digging into the book, you’ll find a thorough history of parkour and freerunning. Georges Hébert, méthode naturelle, Raymond Belle, the Yamakasi, David Bell, Sébastien Foucan, and l’art du déplacement — you’ll gain a nice understanding of parkour’s development to the present day.

There is even a long passage directly from Tim Shieff, one of my favorite athletes!

The authors then delve into muscle fiber function, energy sources utilized in training, and general strength and conditioning. If you’ve never taken a physiology course, it is a nice primer on how your body works under athletic loading. 

Tied into the initial section are a few pages devoted to training principles that beginners should observe. Footwear, clothes, safety awareness and general behavior — it’s a nice refresher.

After that, the book dives into specific skills. By my count, there are about three-dozen movements described. Given the breadth of moves used by traceurs and freerunners, one might argue that it is a shallow account of potential skills. However, for the individual getting started, it is more than enough to get you going down the right track.

One of the neat things that the authors do is to include illustrated diagrams of how instructors might set-up obstacles to assist with teaching their students. They also cover how to “spot” someone for safety and how to provide cues for error correction.

It bears mentioning that this book is an excellent resource for aspiring coaches. Aside from offering ways to help students at a one-on-one level, the book goes into how to bring parkour and freerunning into schools and classroom settings. There are even 6 distinct lesson plans for how one might structure a series of classes. 

In summary, you can think about this book as a general textbook on parkour and freerunning. It’s enough to get beginning students familiar with concepts, movements, and philosophy. And then it has the depth to inform aspiring coaches on some of the basic science and teaching techniques needed to help athletes develop.

Give it a peek. If you don’t already have a book on parkour and freerunning in your library, then fill the void with this worthy addition!

From the origins of parkour with Georges Herbert, Raymond Belle, and the Yamakasi, to movement philosophy and modern strength and conditioning principles, the course is designed to make sure that you are well versed in both the background of parkour and how to help beginners learn the basics. Personally, I learned a favorite new movement mantra to help stay focused during strenuous challenges: Posture, Rhythm, Relaxation. Learning that one mantra has been a huge blessing, and it’s something that I now share routinely with all athletes.

The course progresses in a developmental sequence, giving you the skills to teach those new to parkour how to roll, jump, vault, and climb safely. Aside from learning how to detect positional flaws and provide effective cues, the certification actually lays out how to provide a 10-class introduction to parkour. This is an awesome benefit and really sets you up to go out and start teaching in your community. In fact, shortly after receiving our certifications, another coach and I began teaching a 10-session course at a local CrossFit affiliate.

Next to gaining the skills and confidence to teach beginners parkour, the other benefit of the program is just the opportunity to hang out and learn from Ryan Ford and Amos Rendao, two major leaders in the parkour community. They had awesome anecdotes to share about their own experiences with coaching, and having them critique your rolling and climb-up skills is basically worth the entire cost of the certification.

Overall, whether you have aspirations of coaching parkour in your community or you just want to learn from some of the best out there, I would definitely recommend that you make the plunge to attend an APEX Movement certification.

However, beware that the APEX crew is extremely busy (competing, expanding their gym, instructing), and unless you are on top of your responsibilities within the program, your certificate will not just be handed out to you. You have to uphold your end of the bargain, fulfilling the required video analysis and responding to critique on time. If you’re not a self-starter, it’s likely that the certification process could drag on longer than you expected.

In fairness, I would like to compare the APEX Movement certification with the other programs out there, like the APK instructor certification or the WFPF certification. If you’ve attended either of those programs, I’d love to hear your feedback.  Or… if you want to sponsor me, I’d gladly go check it out for you!