Opposite Day

I am guilty, and assume many other traceurs are as well, of disregarding the training of non-dominant movements. To those who regularly train their non-dominant side, you have my respect. To those in the same boat as me, who ignore one of the most fundamentally important aspects of basic training, join me in turning over a new leaf and giving our non-dominant movements the training they deserve. I am ashamed of the countless times I have done the following in past training:

• Stutter stepped after a movement to initiate a second movement on my dominant side - sacrificing momentum and efficiency
• Counted my steps before an obstacle to make sure I end up taking off my dominant foot
• Torqued my body in mid-air to avoid a non-dominant roll
• Completely avoid the obviously more efficient path, in order to avoid using non-dominant movements

I find these aspects of my past training extremely hypocritical according to my philosophy on parkour. How can I consider myself prepared for the emergency situation if I am uncomfortable with pretty much half the movements that could be useful. Thus I have started to introduce "opposite day" training into my routine.

Opposite day training is as straightforward as it sounds - train completely with non-dominante movements. I hope that "opposite day" will only be a temporary component in my training. My goal with these training days is to allow my non-dominant movements to catch up with my dominant movements so that I can be ambidextrous with my future training. Eventually, I want to never have to think about my footing and take off when approaching obstacles.

Below is a video of my first day of non-dominant training. The movements I focused on are very basic and are those I find to be the most necessary when it comes to ambidexterity in parkour.

I was somewhat surprised at how quickly I began to catch on to some of the non-dominant movements. Safety vault, tic-tac, and turn vaults in particular. I also attempted some moves that I did not document with video. These moves include non-dominant lazy turn vault, strides, and cranes. I felt much less comfortable with these movements, which will require more attention in the future. I attempted to do most of this training without breaks (consistently running between reps). This incorporated a fair amount of cardio, as well as fatigue, throughout the reps. I found the later reps to feel more comfortable as a movement, but required a higher amount of focus due to fatigue.