The largest barriers to life-long participation in a physical activity are:
- Lack of access
- Lack of affordability
- Lack of knowledge and
- Lack of an integrated and supportive community.
It is undeniable that movement essential to our physical, mental, and social health. It is shown to effectively treat depression, improve your ability to learn, protect your memory, grow your brain, normalize blood sugar, reduce inflammation, and stimulate cell growth. (1)
If we are to ensure whole community health, it is critical to create universal access to nourishing, sustainable, and FUN forms of recreation—because the ‘play’ factor keeps people engaged over the years.
Yet traditional sports and gym-going exercise—the most common forms of physical activity—have many of these barriers and more depending on age, gender, race, etc.
We need an option that effectively provides a path over, under, and through all those major barriers. And we have one: Parkour.
Parkour Breaks Barriers To Lifelong Physical Health
Parkour practice provides a path over those four major barriers mentioned:
- Access – do it any time, anywhere
- Affordability – no equipment needed, no coaches
- Knowledge – free online learning
- Community – diverse, inter-generational
Anyone who has tried parkour knows that you don’t need any special equipment or designated spaces. You can go out your front door–heck, you can stay in your living room if you really wanted–and have right there the means and methods of participating. There are so many styles, interpretations, and training approaches that you can find your fit.
Even more so, we have an incredible and supportive community that shares knowledge, tips, and tricks. There is a wealth of free online information, and groups dedicated to growing it. We couch surf, we work-swap, we bootstrap. We grow and come to know together.
❌❌ But wait. ❌❌
My question at the start wasn’t to talk about how parkour is a cure to traditional options, but actually a question to the Parkour community growing today. It is a question directed at leaders, business owners, coaches, and practitioners. It is a question to ensure we remain conscious.
Do you really want to only be changing the lives of those who can afford it?
Yes, Parkour is the path over many barriers, and people will continue to take advantage of it. But today more and more people are learning and engaging with parkour through classes and gyms and paid services. Less and less we don’t need to take parkour to people, because people come to us.
But the people coming to us are those who can afford to do so. And we can’t forget that.
As a community, we commodify and put up paywalls. We share our highest quality content less frequently and worry about protecting our ‘IP’ and ideas. As business and demand grows, there is less time to give to developing and running free events, free classes, free services. Less time to do outreach, figure out cultural dissonance. I get it. There are bills to pay, a gym to run, people to support.
I’m not writing this to make anyone feel bad. I too believe in charging what you’re worth, and making a living doing the thing you love. But we need to realize that access is declining, and the culture around practice is shifting, and we need to take active steps to ensure Parkour continues to reach the populations who need it most.
That also is not to minimize anyones experience with parkour.
I have no doubt of the positive and deep impact of parkour on the lives of those who can afford classes and their bus fare and the bottle of water. Who have the privileged and means to participate. But I worry about the populations we are not so readily serving anymore… those that CANT afford or access a gym or a community, who might not have internet at home, or a support network to help. Even those don’t know parkour is an option.
I often think about how in some ways it is almost MORE important than ever to give parkour to those populations (and find paths that are viable and sustainable.). I see it sort of as a responsibility, honoring the roots of where parkour came from, and its potential for impact.
Vision for the community
For me: I have a vision of society where people are able to live powerfully in the life they are given. I also believe in a society of humans who look after one another. Where we help others build the foundations they need so that they can grow and do the same.
💪We are stronger when those around us are strong too.
🔥We are more powerful when those around us are powerful too.
Parkour has a way of giving people a sense of personal power, a foundation to build upon, skills critical to being physically, emotionally, and socially fit. (Youve all probably seen my article on that subject.)
And while people of any walk of life and step of society feeling more powerful in their lives is important, I believe it is our responsibility as leaders and caretakers of the discipline to take the extra step to ensure we are giving power to the powerless, strength to the weak, mentorship to the lost, knowledge to the hungry, community to the unsupported.
Parkour… play. Our community, this movement. It has the power to rock the world, change peoples lives.
This is a call to be more conscious.
Mindful of the ways we grow
Aware of the roles we take on
Responsible with the businesses we build.
Do we want to only be changing the lives of those who pay for it?
Not sure where to start?
There are a few small things you can do today in your community to keep the spirit of access, affordability, and open education alive. Off the top of my head…
✴ Run a free monthly meetup (or even better, get volunteers to do it!). Did you know Parkour Visions offers grants to communities seeking to run free classes?
✴ Share your ideas –the beautiful thing is that when you give someone an idea, you don’t lose it. You now both share it and can find a way to make it more impactful!
✴ Share your expertise. Write a little. Write a lot. Ask questions, answer questions. Make yourself available. Do this freely.
✴ Support groups, events, projects that are engaging their communities with the resources you have –time, money, energy, love.
I try to take a stand every year, from sharing games to supporting experiences . I try to do probono design work whenever possible, direct the Art of Retreat to support the growth of healthy leadership. I support groups like Parkour Research and STURDYmade and Movement Games, and events like Winter Jam.
I run Parkour Visions, and as an organization we have taken a stand. As a non-profit, we are uniquely positioned to meaningfully catalyze donors, access grants, and work with local government around the country to see the development and growth of programs targeting underserved populations. We are seeking meaningful partnerships / projects with individuals and groups across the country to bring Parkour and play to people across all dimensions of diversity, but especially those who need parkour most.
Build alliances with others.
Share challenge because we’re stronger together 🙂
🤟