What Is Free Running?

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Tim Shieff, also known as "Livewire" is the world’s leading free runner from Derby, England. He is best known for his electrifying performance style and eye catching YouTube videos. He won 2009 Barclaycard World Free Run Championship and participated in MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge. He is currently one of the most successful free runners in the world, and has also won the Red Bull Art of Motion competition twice.

What Is Free Running?

Free running is an expansion of the holistic discipline of Parkour, which was developed from military obstacle training. The purpose of Parkour is to get from point A to B in the most efficient manner possible. Practitioners attempt to propel themselves through the environment using only their bodies and surroundings, and try to maintain as much momentum as they can. Parkour was developed in France in the late 1980s.

In Parkour, every movement is purposeful, but practitioners of free running prefer to use non-essential flourish to their moves. Free running encourages one to express himself in his environment without limiting any sort of movement. This version of Parkour includes movements that are purely aesthetic and acrobatic. It’s a martial discipline founded by Sebastien Foucan and made popular by the 2005 documentary Jump London.

Some common moves in free running are:

Running towards a high wall, jumping and pushing one foot off of it to reach the top
Vaulting over obstacles
Using a rolling or somersault type motion to absorb impact
Jumping and landing accurately on small or narrow surfaces
Handsprings
Aeriel/No Hand Cartwheels
Tim Shieff’s Early Moves

Born in Connecticut, Tim Shieff moved to England when he was three. He started taking break-dancing classes as a child. This is where...

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...n scored a part as a death eater in the final Harry Potter movie.

How He Trains

Tim Shieff attributes much of his strength to his strictly vegan diet. In an interview with Chennai Parkour he says that his training doesn't involve conditioning in the traditional sense, but that he just trains by doing movements that are beneficial to his body. He says that he has always been good at standing on his hands, even as a child, and much of his upper body strength comes from his enjoyment of this activity. He loves the creativity and fun of free running, and changing up his routines help him to never get bored. He also adds yoga into his routine.

In this interview he also reminds his fans who are interested in doing their own free running that they should listen to their fear, and not try and foolishly suppress it, as fear is a gift that stops us from killing ourselves.

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