????????????

Been thinking.

Conditioning, even though it seems very good for helping things like flexibility etc, would I not get the necessary flexibility from constant training?

To be honest, having only done like 3 conditioning sessions ever, I'm very pleased with my performance in Parkour as a whole..
Obviously, my flexibility has gotten better naturally from training and my strength and endurance has also gotten better.

So do i REALLY need conditioning?

I'm thinking not.
Of course, I'm not telling everyone to STOP conditioning, but just remembering back to the "behind Waitrose" days, whenever I missed a conditioning session which was often, I felt like I was missing out on a big part of my training. But i didn't. So is conditioning a necessity?
During the last few months, i can pretty much say that no one has done conditioning on a regular basis.
But how much would it have improved your Parkour?
I may be getting the wrong end of the stick, but I don't feel like we need conditioning on a regular basis, for healthy guys, who just want to train. I think we should just train.
Obviously, if we get an injury, we should condition through the injury, strengthening it and making it more flexible and all that jabber.
But if you are perfectly healthy, and training fine, why condition? Does it REALLY make a difference?

But if you are perfectly healthy, and training fine, why condition?

lol - so, you are perfectly healthy? And your training is fine?

Does it REALLY make a difference?

- find out??? Make your body stronger for what 3 months consistently and see what the results are... what's the harm? Can you do 3 months of consistent conditioning might be a more fitting question?

I can genuinely only see positive benefits to doing conditioning - more strength, more fitness.
It's the question of whether doing Parkour is enough to sustain Parkour or whether conditioning is needed to supplement Parkour... you decide

Well said Scott :]

It's just as when I used to swim, I could swim fine, the training itself gave me a pretty good physique but we still did land conditioning, because it helped to supliment the training well. The only reason I don't condition much at the moment is I have the problem of needing structure and a group to so it :/

I can relate to the swimming stuff you mentioned because even though when I did trampolining the sport itself gave fitness and whatnot, conditioning was still vital to building core strength for supporting your back from landing etc leg muscles strength, extra flexibility training to make movement more efficient i.e. somersaults etc

Okay, no need to have a go at me, i was simply making a discussion.

Yes, conditioning is important is you want to build core strength but what i want to know is ...
What if we just trained? And didn't do conditioning.
Yes, perhaps we would improve at a slightly slower pace, but skill-wise, would it make a difference.

I never said i would try and put it into practice... I was just interested.

Oh and in response to Scotts first comment,
I never said I was perfectly healthy or my training was fine, i said "if you are perfectly healthy and your training is fine, why condition?".. i never said "my health is perfect and my training is fine, so why should i condition?" lol.

And I never said i could consistently condition for 3 months, because i wouldn't stick to it.
I was simply asking a question for the group to discuss.

it depends whether you would be training instead of conditioning, as in using the time you would be conditioning to train, or just training as normal.

If I where to condition properly it wouldn't influence how much I train, it would be slotted in as an extra session which I can do at home or somewhere close.

yeah, so say if you usually would train every other day and condition on the days you dont train, but then you changed to training every day, would it make a difference?

Would your skill increase if you increased in training but did not condition at all?
OR would you need a bit of conditioning in there, like a weekly session?

Would conditioning along with training improve your skill better than doing pure training (instead of conditioning) and no conditioning?

Do some skills need conditioning to be accomplished?

hmmm im not sure really.

Do they?
Maybe a move that needs bending in some way... or strength that cant be built through constant attempting of the move.

Example - static symmetrical muscle up. I couldn't do it due to lack of strength, but i kept repeating the move and now i can.

????????????

hmm, well, although no, i dont think conditioning is neccessary for training, i do think it helps stop injuries, with the increase of flexibility and strength, but skill-wise, im not sure it makes that much of a difference, and by skill, im talking about actual new skills, like learning a new somersault, vault etc...
imporving on old skills, either in distance or proficiency an the smaller sense, i think that conditioning is a key part in achieving it, duer to the obvious benefits that proper conditioning should give

i dont think conditioning is neccessary for training, i do think it helps stop injuries...

Is being injury-free helpful/necessary to proper training?

and by skill, im talking about actual new skills...

Do you think it is possible to acheive a Manna without conditioning?

If i am correct, Scott, a Manna needs a lot of flexibility and strength, and if i can quote lands here:

...increase of flexibility and strength...

So yes, to do a Manna you would need a lot of conditioning.
But what about say, getting the kick off the tree, to the wall at the cinema huts?
Would this need conditioning?
Or how about a somersault off the top of the cinema huts?

personally, I think if you want to be doing the more advanced body control such as the Manna you NEED to condition. There are no negative effects of conditioning skill wise, it's just a faster way to gain strength and flexibility than just trying it over and over again. To rely on training to build that much strength or to wait for it to just build through training would take a very very long time and no particularly be productive when conditioning is an option.

Manna is easy,err cough.

Another valid question I feel is:
Have we actually seen a top level (I'm talking skilllz here) freefunner who actually 'conditions' in the most productive way for their sport?

Also in response to:

Andy wrote:
But what about say, getting the kick off the tree, to the wall at the cinema huts?
Would this need conditioning?
Or how about a somersault off the top of the cinema huts?

of course your questions are rhetorical: you do not need to do 'conditioning' to do these things-the videos of people 'falling' backwards off high shit into 'flips' on youtube prove this. However conditioning may well improve them/make them better when you actually do it, e.g. having gained the veery basic level of strength that your climbup isn't appalling and time consuming or so that your landing is not a horrible mess of limbs going various way/or momentum spitting you in an unknown direction.

I just realised the last paragraph is merely repeating what others have said, oops.

Is being injury-free helpful/necessary to proper training?

who knows, it could be for some, but maybe more than others, it depends how the person takes the injury, or what kind of injury, but i think that if it can be avioded, it is best done so