Parkour Nomenclature

From Minecraft Parkour Wiki

Ticks and Controls

Term Alias Definition
Tick t The standard unit of time in Minecraft, equal to 50ms.

Minecraft's physics and inputs are updated once every tick.

WASD The default movement controls (W=Forward, A=Left, S=Backward, D=Right)
Sprint ctrl An action that makes the player move 30% faster.

Activated by pressing the Sprint key (default: Ctrl), or by double-tapping W.

Sneak shift An action that makes the player move 70% slower, and prevents the player from falling off.

Activated by pressing the Sneak key (default: Shift).

Strafe The action of moving sideways (with A or D), which can be combined with W or S.
Timing A simple sequence of inputs used to gain momentum.

Basic timings include jam (0t), headhitter (1t)... See Timings for a list.

Tap Technique which involves moving in small intervals (1 or 2 ticks, usually while sneaking).

Used to set the player in an optimal position.


Position, Facing, and Measurements

Term Alias Definition
Coordinates coords The player's coordinates, which can be seen using F3.

This term usually refers to a set of coordinates used to setup for a jump.

Facing The angle the player is looking at, in degrees.

In contrast, Direction is the angle the player is moving towards.

X Facing x Refers to an object facing towards the X axis (East / West).

X-facing Obstacles are harder to avoid. (X Facing can be seen with F3)

Z Facing z Refers to an object facing towards the Z axis (North / South).

Z-facing Obstacles are easier to avoid. (Z Facing can be seen with F3)

Block b The standard unit of distance in Minecraft.

This unit represents visual distance (in terms of blocks) but not necessarily the physical distance.

Pixel px A sub-unit of distance.

A pixel is 1/16th of a block, which is equal to 0.0625b

Meter m A meta-unit of distance, that represents distances more accurately.
  • The player's bounding box is 1.8 × 0.6 × 0.6 m³
  • Accounting for the player's bounding box, a 4 block jump is actually 3.4 meters long


Jump Distance

Term Alias Definition
Distance The distance of a jump, which is either given in...
  • Blocks (b), for a more visual, standard representation of jumps.
  • Meters (m), for a more accurate representation of jump distance (accounting for the player's width of 0.6m).
Length # b The length of a jump (i.e. the longest side), in blocks.
Width x # The width of a jump (i.e. the shortest side), in blocks.
Height + # The height of a jump, in blocks.

In 1.8, the player can jump up at most 1.249b. In 1.9+, it's increased to 1.252b.

Jump format # x # + # The conventional notation for simple jumps. In order:
  1. The Length
  2. The Width (if nonzero)
  3. The Height (if nonzero)

If the width and height are both zero, the convention is to add "b" after the length.

Examples: 3b , 4x1 , 5-1 , 4+0.5 , 3x3+0.4375


Ceilings

# Block Ceiling # bc Designates the height of a ceiling (in blocks).
  • 2bc designated a ceiling that is 2 blocks high.
  • 3bc still affects the Player's movement.
  • 4bc is the same as no ceiling at all (doesn't affect jump height)

The player is 1.8m tall.

Headhitter hh A synonym for 2bc.
Trapdoor Headhitter tdhh A 2bc which is further lowered with a trapdoor (1.8125bc)

This ceiling height only leaves 0.0125b of room for the player to fit under,

which makes it the lowest ceiling a player can walk through in 1.8.


Momentum

Momentum mm 1) The speed gained and conserved by moving.

2) The space given to gain enough speed for a jump.

# Block Momentum # bm Designates the distance given to gain momentum.
  • 1bm is simply 1 block (1.6m of momentum).
  • 2bm is 2 consecutive blocks (2.6m of momentum).
Flat Momentum flat mm The "standard" momentum setup, where the momentum space is flat ground (12 tick cycle).
Elevation Momentum A more efficient momentum setup, where the momentum space is elevated at each step.
  • +0.125 is the lowest elevation momentum (11 tick cycle).
  • +1 is the "default" elevation momentum (9 tick cycle).
  • +1.1875 is the "maximum" elevation momentum (7 tick cycle).
Headhitter Momentum hh mm A very efficient momentum setup (3 tick cycle).
Trapdoor-Headhitter Momentum tdhh mm The most efficient momentum setup (2 tick cycle).
Backwalled An adjective which indicates that a momentum has a wall at its back, which reduces the momentum space.
Sidestep Technique which involves jumping sideways when gaining momentum.

This has two advantages: it utilises 45° strafe, and makes the turning more consistent.

It is commonly used for 1bm butterfly neos, but it can be useful for any kind of neo.

Backward Momentum bwmm Technique which involves moving backward to "increase momentum space" before jumping.

This is useful on a short momentum, and is even necessary for some jumps (e.g., 2bm triple neo).


Jump names

Term Alias Definition
Linear Jump A jump with no obstacles, that can be completed without turning (apart from using 45° Strafe).
Neo #b neo A jump that involves jumping around a wall.

"#" is the length of the wall

Example: 2b neo (commonly referred to as "double neo")

Winged Neo A neo that has its wall extended outwards.
Nix Neo A neo which has its wall and landing extended outwards.
Reverse Nix Neo A neo which has its wall and momentum extended outwards.
Butterfly Neo A neo with panes on its side.
Cross Neo A jump that involves jumping around a corner.
Squeeze Jump A jump that involves jumping through a small gap.


Movement mechanics and glitches

Term Alias Definition
Strafe A | D The action of "strafing" left or right while moving forward.

This changes the player's direction without turning the mouse.

45° Strafe 45° The action of turning 45°, while strafing accordingly.

This technique allows the player to move further (up to 2%) but is hard to do consistently.

Stepping step-assist A mechanic that assists the player in stepping up low obstacles (slabs, stairs...).

The player can step up at most 0.6b without jumping.

Blip A glitch which involves landing between two blocks of different height. Caused by stepping.

This can result in the player "landing mid-air", making them able to jump with initial height.

Jump Cancel A mechanic/glitch that involves jumping into a ceiling or step. Caused by stepping.

This can cancel the player's upward momentum, making them able to jump again sooner.

Grinding The process of chaining multiple Jump Cancels to gain momentum.

There are two types:

  • "Stair grinding" (called Slab Boost), often used on stairs.
  • "Ceiling grinding" (often just Grinding), which is a lot harder to perform.


Technical parkour terms

Term Alias Definition
Duration The duration of a jump is the number of ticks between jumping and landing.

The duration depends on the jump's height.

For example: A flat jump has a duration of 12 ticks, a +1 jump is 9 ticks, and a 2bc jump is 3 ticks.

Tier A more intuitive representation of jump duration
  • Tier 0 corresponds to flat jumps, by convention.
  • Positive tiers correspond to jumps with positive height.
  • Negative tiers correspond to jumps with negative height.
Bounding Box An axis-aligned cuboid, represented by a minimum and maximum value for the X, Y, and Z axes.

Most blocks are simple enough that they consist of a single bounding box, but they might use more (e.g., stairs).

Entities have a single bounding box (the player's bounding box is 0.6×1.8×0.6).

Collision Box A volume of space that the player can physically collide with, specific to blocks though some entities also have one (e.g., boats).

A collision box consists of one or multiple bounding boxes; The player's bounding box is not meant to intersect those.

Significant angle Minecraft works with a limited number of angles for calculations. There are precisely 65536 significant angles.

The player's rotation is stored as floats (of which there are much more than 65536).

A significant angle covers approximately 0.0055°.

Half angle An extremely precise glitch that exploits the trigonometric functions as defined in Minecraft.

Involves looking at a precise angle between two significant angles (e.g. 135.0055°) to (very slightly) increase movement speed.


Parkour map terminology

Term Alias Definition
Checkpoint cp A position the player can teleport back to.
Failsafe fs A loose type of checkpoint, which only allows partial recovery.
Life or Death l/d Decribes a section that is not failsafed.

If the player fails it, they will lose some progress.

Room # r # A common term for referring to a specific subsection in a course.
Transition # - # t #-# A transition between two rooms, which is sometimes l/d.