Speed vs. Power

Learning when to use speed and power is one of the most important fundamentals in Parkour. Appropriate use of these two elements can often mean the difference between success and failure, and safety and injury. Too often people use speed to compensate for lack of technique, when properly timed power would be more effective.

At one of the nationwide jams, a handful of talented traceurs were practicing a very long saut-du-chat to precision. They had set up a two-by-four several feet away from a wooden box, and were attempting to vault the box and land on the piece of wood. After several failed attempts, it seemed as though many of them had reached their limit of distance. On my first attempt I jogged up to the obstacle and added power to my stride in the last two steps. I landed a few feet short, but gained a good gauge of the proper amount of power to use. On my second attempt I jogged up to the obstacle again, but this time used more power in my last three strides. Some traceurs who had been trying for a while gave me accolades for actually landing past the set piece of wood.

Many of them could not make the distance, because their speed was hindering them rather than helping. They thought that the faster they ran at the obstacle, the further they would land from it. This is not necessarily true. Although the jump could be accomplished with just speed, the proper application of power is a much more effective technique. The faster someone runs at an object, the more difficult it becomes to gauge the timing of his jump. As he approaches with increasing speed, he decreases the amount of time he has to decide when to jump. Once that short window of opportunity is missed the traceur ends up jumping too close to the obstacle, and must slow himself down so that his speed does not carry him directly into it. All the power used in the approach was wasted, when it could have been applied to the jump.

The pure speed technique requires more distance for the take off of your jump. When using this technique, if you have a well timed jump, your body is merely passing over an object with no opportunity to push off and gain distance from it. When using the power technique you can jump closer to the obstacle and push off of it because you have less speed directed into it. This in turn allows you to push off the obstacle and increase your distance. When jogging up to an obstacle, you have long time to gauge the distance and the amount of power you want to use. You are only committed to the jump in the final steps when you apply most of your power. That commitment is essential. Once you have decided to put all your power into the jump, there is no turning back. Conversely, using the pure speed technique you are committed from the very beginning. When running full speed at an obstacle it is very difficult to stop yourself. Not allowing any room for error makes a jump very dangerous. If you do not have your timing down perfectly, you could easily clip the object or simply crash into it.

When used correctly, the pure speed technique can be very effective. However, it should only be applied by the most experienced traceurs; those who can time their jumps perfectly. It should be noted that various vaults and jumps lend themselves differently to each of these two techniques. For example, a speed vault is most effective while running fast, whereas a saut-du-chat most often requires a powerful jump. The majority of the time, even for those advanced traceurs, a properly timed power burst is the most effective technique in surmounting an obstacle.