I am not going to go into the movements that are what "PARKOUR" should be. Weather a Kong was first derived in Gymnastics years ago or if it is an Original PK Movement doesn't really matter. We are talking about Qualities, Elements, Mindsets, and Cultures that are the building blocks of Parkour, not some quarrel over what movements define a sport.
1. Adventure:
A sense of adventure starts you on a journey as a journey progresses you have challenges to face in order to continue your journey. Weather or not you succeed or fail you still have to decide if you want to continue your journey. The journey is what matters.
2. Curiosity:
Without curiosity how can we get that initial push to see what's around that next corner, up in that tree, at the bottom of that cliff. Curiosity might lead us into troubled situations, but it is a driving force behind taking another step forward. The curiosity of developing your body to do great tasks of physical strength and precise movements with care. What is it going to take to do that? And what is it going to take to be able to do that for a very long time? How are you going to sustain yourself?
3.Vision:
Parkour requires you to open your mind and see the opportunities. It was no mistake in "Mirrors Edge" why they allowed for you to see what you could interact with in the game by highlighting them in red. It was a way for you to see where your current skills could be utilized. If you are more then a Gym Rat then you know damn well what I am talking about, a tire becomes a trampoline, a tree is the ultimate jungle gym, the rocks and logs and just about anything you can lift is the best Olympic Weight Set you could ever have asked for, you can duck under and crawl under low branches and irrigation tunnels or into the shadows, a grassy field is your gymnastics floor, lakes and rivers and oceans are your swimming pools and terrain changers, buildings are boldering walls, etc, etc, etc. Your skills will open up your vision, but if you have not developed the open mind skill your skills will hold your mind hostage in a gym.
4. The Nature of a Challenge (look it up it's a great video series):
Being sore and injured is a trait of training poorly or because you have not understood the consequence of your actions. I mean who the hell wants to be sore all the time, or tight in ways that make skill development difficult thing, who wants to fry their CNS (central nervous system) or drain their adrenals on a daily bases.
Only in a few cases are the above a good thing. However, without the soreness or discomfort as an indicator of working beyond your current capacity you would never be able to see that you have accomplished a personally difficult task. You can grin on the day after you were able to traverse that long crack in the wall, or when you crawled through that ridiculously long tunnel, maybe it was a massive roof gap (yes that's right I said it, a stupid roof gap) You got sore, you strained a muscle, your rolled bad, your rotators are tight, your adrenals are dead, your CNS fried, and you won't train for a few days, weeks, or months. But you accomplished it and you will be back.
5. Personal Reflection:
Critical thinking and care about your skills are essential. In sports that are personal such as Parkour, Tricking, Martial Arts or Breaking there is a lot of personal reflection of your art. We want to get better right and we are always looking at our technique, form, and function. Personal reflection such as looking at your own movement you have recorded to see if you are making the changes you want to your skills, writing down what is working for you to complete skills more easily, or just having a personal conversation with yourself about what it is your are doing or needing to do to get better at this moment or at least in your next session is all about a meditative process on what you just did. Reflection is better then prediction. Why? Because unless you're a psychic or an equation master predicting the future is only going to bring you worry. However, when you reflect on the current past you can bask in the moment of what it was you just did. It is like your first kiss, there are things you liked about it will do next time as well and some things that you didn't like and will never do again. Personal reflection is one of the few times you get to actually ask yourself what YOU are feeling and what YOU did that made the last session successful.
6. A Sense of Play:
Why are kids so full of energy? It's a natural part of their development so that they will move around A LOT and use their muscles to get strong along with being in a constant growth spurt. You will see the kids with the most energy show some crazy strength at a young age. They run, jump, crawl, wrestle, scream, climb, throw, roll and they do it just because. The best thing about them is that they get strong, nimble, fast, and creative without feeling like they are working. I am all for having to sacrifice in order to make gains in training and their are somethings I do not enjoy doing, but because I do them I am able to have more fun as an active individual. So if you can find a way to make what you want to accomplish just complex or structured playing then you will get strong, fast, and flexible and have fun doing it.
7. Never Being Satisfied:
The never ending cycle of wanting to improve yourself. You can get stronger, faster, develop mental strength, have better technique, jump further, develop more complex skills. You are never going to be satisfied. It's odd because there is no end goal in this, you just keep going. In my mind this is the ultimate sport. There is no Medal, no grand competition, no Ninja Warrior. You are the competition, you compete with yourself every session.
8. Expression:
Jumping, rolling, swinging, crawling, breathing. It is in a way self expression. It may not be a dance technically, but it in a simple sense it is. You see a route and you go that way, if that is not expressing your intentions then I don't know what is. There are many levels of expression as well.
9. Purity:
The idea of what is and what is not. Quite frankly it doesn't matter if you do tricking, flipping, dance, weight training, or just the stereotypical run, jump, climb. Is not floor movement in Breaking a different facet of Quadrapedal Movement? Is not Tricking just another variation of jumping? Is not Dance a grand understanding of flow? Is not Weight Training just another way for you to challenge your muscles outside of normal calisthenics? Think about that phrase "Be Strong to be Useful" Our physical capacity is never going to reach its limit. And if Parkour is about seizing the opportunities when an obstacle hinders you, if it is about exploring new methods to accomplish a goal, if it is about opening your mind, if it is about seeing an obstacle in your life that you may fear to overcome, but train to do so any way, because you must, then screw the definition of purity. One thing is certain, you have a body and you need to take care of it and develop it in many ways...NOT JUST ONE. Purity can only be determined by you.
10. Drown in the Now (great song):
Without a doubt the amount of mental clarity that the movement arts bring allows you to be fully immersed in this moment. You don't think about the future and you can't do anything about the past. You can only work on now. To quote a Sadhguru "If your fear is about the non existent, your fear is 100% imaginary. If you are suffering the non existential, We call that insanity." Your able to completely free your mind to focus on the immediate task. This is the same thing as meditation just in a more physical way.
The list goes on, but I am running out of thoughts, it is in fact infinite in nature based on individual experience.
With the deliverance of Parkour to the masses it is quite improbable to be able to deliver these elements to everybody. As class sizes grow and there is less development outside more and more elements are going to fall through the cracks. More gym rats will be developed. Parkour can only done in a nice safe gym. Any look at elite Athletes (Elite being they out perform most other practitioners, they train sustainable, and set the standard for good form) like Dylan Baker, Amos, Knox, Ryan Ford, Ozzi, Kie Willis, and many others in the world and you're going to see that the idea of safety is all about how confidant you are in a skill. Even when they mess up they mess up with conscious decisions, they make experienced choices based on their situations. Parkour has become slightly watered down. I am a Parkour Gym Director and I confess to this. But not everyone is meant for that type of real training and quite frankly unless you already have a job that keeps you alive, it is difficult to have a profitable business based on that. But that is why we have level systems, people have to work for that experience. They need to work for your experience. Those of you that started outside and have had the bulk of your training experience out doors understand this. A gym does allow you some very specific things that you can do in a controlled environment, but you must not become a slave to the gym. I know some practitioners are working on this and when it is finally here in the states and it is a legit thing (meaning we don't have to call it something else) then we will really be able to go to work.
- GO OUTSIDE
- LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
- TAKE IN THE ELEMENTS
- REFLECT ON YOUR EXPERIENCE
- BE MINDFUL
- GET OUT OF THE GYM...AT LEAST SOMETIMES
- DROWN IN THE NOW
When I step barefoot on to the grass and I look around me, I see nothing and everything, I am here and there, my mind stops and I breath, the air feels my lungs and I begin to move.
Francesco Caban
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