Tag: parkour

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Pay to Play: Do you want to only be changing the lives of those who can afford it?

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.

So join forces with me.

Build alliances with others.

Share challenge because we’re stronger together 🙂

🤟

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Change-making

“The biggest challenge is getting people to accept there is value in risk-taking. I think people today are afraid of risk (in its many forms) due to fear of the unknowns, lack of self-trust… but inherent, if not fundamental, to meaningful physical play is risk-taking.

So I argue: It’s actually more dangerous to NOT have spaces where you can take risks (safely) because then you’re never really going to be able to learn how to deftly navigate those complex emotions (fear, doubt, anxiety, etc) that you experience when facing something that really challenges you.”

I was invited to participate in Change Makers, an initiative lead by the director of Lean In NYC, and speak on parkour, play, design, and the importance of risk. I hope it inspires at least a few people to take the leap, try parkour, and find a way to add play into their everyday lives.

Check out the whole interview here.

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Parkour and Your Personal Power

Most people go through life feeling powerless.

We feel marginalized, unimportant, defeated by our circumstances. There is a constant sense of being ‘less than’ and not good enough, and an even stronger story that suggests we have no power in this world to meaningfully create the change we want to see. Our personal success is measured only against the success of others, and there is always someone more powerful than them, exerting, controlling.
We are victims or failures, always falling short.

We can see this mindset manifested in our lives every day as we cautiously navigate harsh office politics, struggle quietly through school, work, & test anxiety, burn out in unforgiving sporting competitions, and ruthlessly pick apart our imperfect social lives & families.

It’s a mindset that is unforgiving, and leads to a sense of depression, insecurity, and powerlessness.

We need a way to break free.

Cue: Parkour

This is why parkour has resonated deeply with so many people, especially those who regularly face stress and externally-driven competition in their lives. When you confront and overcome a particularly difficult mental or physical challenge in parkour, when you lift something very heavy, when you send a problem you’ve been working towards for hours: you feel powerful. You have a deep, direct, embodied experience of that shows you to yourself that yes, you can.

Can you recall that exuberance, that exhilaration of achievement that expands in your chest when you overcome a physical or mental challenge encountered in your practice—your jumps, climbs, and lifts? And how you are not only ready but eager for the next?

You feel strong, capable, and satisfied. You feel a sense of fulfillment and hunger. Joy.

And through parkour you can go out and feel that any time you want.

You Have The Tools

Through the practice of parkour, you begin to deeply understand that YOU have the tools and the power to overcome your obstacles & challenges by

  1. The consistent training of your body and mind,
  2.  Embracing failure as a healthy part of the process of growth (and subsequent patience in those failures)
  3. Seeking reconciliation with yourself & others in those shortcomings, and
  4. Creatively and openly seeking new paths to old problems.

…And that power you feel? It is gold. It is clean and honest. It is not the power you find through the domination and control of others, but rather the mastery and control of yourself. This personal power is more than an attitude or state of mind; it is a sense of vision, of personal generosity, creativity, and self-assertion.

These critical skills, this positive mindset: This is where the magic of parkour really happens.

Through the emergence and nurturing of your personal power and your practice of parkour, you will eventually also start to realize you have the power and ability to face any of the obstacles in your life with a similar mindset. The skills and sense of power developed originally by jumping on things can spill over into other areas of your life: work, love, family, finances, etc. If you can learn to channel that power and repurpose those lessons from parkour, you will be unstoppable.

…Ok ok. So let’s just be real here for a second.

No, the world will not change because you are doing parkour, climbing, or lifting, or whatever it is you do to get to this place. The obstacles you will face will still be real, painful, ugly, brutal, and sometimes unjust. Your boss might fire you, your work might be unfulfilling, a coworker might take advantage of you. .Your exams may overwhelm, your student debt might feel crushing, your peers will still compete against and compare you. Your family may fall apart, your lover may cheat, and your health may end up failing.  The people in your life, including those that you love and trust, may end up judging you, belittling and marginalizing you, betraying and abandoning you.

So don’t get carried away. Parkour cannot change the world.

But it can change your world.

Parkour can give you a new mindset, a deep, personal sense of power to overcome obstacles in your world—where you will be able to approach those obstacles not as fearsome walls blocking your way but rather opportunities for growth and learning. You will be prepared to face a challenge from a place of patience, calculation, self-honesty, and love: and a knowing that you willsucceed—even if it is not how you expected.

Because you are powerful. You are strong, capable, focused, in control of your emotions, and creative. Powerful is not a state of being but a way of living and thinking.

So there it is.  Finally, I understand. This is why I want to share parkour with others. This is why I took up the helm at Parkour Visions, and continue to run the Women’s Gathering and The Art of Retreat, why I helped found The Movement Creative, the Movement Game Library, and the Movement Snacks initiative. Why I run around like a crazy person, working 80, 90, 100+ hour weeks trying to increase access to opportunities for parkour and play.

I’m not here competing with anyone. I’m here living my vision for a better world, trying to give to others a taste of their own personal power.

Because everyone should have a way of living that empowers them.I want to help them find their power.

This is my calling.

This article was updated December 2018, and originally published in 2017.

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The Inaugural Art of Retreat

When I first devised the Art of Retreat, I hoped not only to provide a much needed platform for educational exchange in the parkour community but also to help heal and forge bonds of friendship between leaders across the country. The push to get it going came out of a conversation with Adam McClellan and Andy Keller during American Rendezvous, who both expressed excitement at the idea of a space where coaches could come together to share best practices, and the initial support came from the Movement Creative and my two partners Nikkie and Jesse.

A lot was working against us that first year. As a brand new event, it was hard to get buy in– I remember telling people if they could get themselves out to New Jersey, I would take care of everything else–food, housing, local transportation. We didn’t have any dedicated funding so I personally boot-strapped the event, renting out four airbnbs within a few minutes walk of my familys shore house in a sleepy little town. I researched and invited people I thought were engage in interesting research or ‘doing it best’ when it came to business. I purchased food and snacks and prepped large meal plans (and planned to play chef). Above all, I spent weeks crafting the programme, spaces, and experience.

When the weekend finally arrived almost 60 people from all over the continent flew into Newark just as Hurricane Joaquin descended upon the Jersey shore. I feared for the worst, having planned so many of the activities to be outdoors but, being forced inside, that major storm actually helped create an intimate, cozy, and community-growing experience.

The talks were hosted around kitchen tables, in living rooms and bedrooms. Hammocks were hung from rafters as people piled into the main house, pop-up playgrounds were built and rebuilt in the yard, fires were made in the garage. The step vault pledge was declared, there were lively debates around kitchen and coffee tables, people were thrown from the deck, strummed guitars, and danced in the rain.

The weekend was chaotic– and it was alive.

I look back to this first year as one of my absolute favorite versions of this event. Maybe it was the moody weather forcing us all to confront one another and connect, maybe it was the co-creative attitude people brought to the spaces they held, or maybe it was simply realizing that so many incredible things can be created when we find ways to come together and play.

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M: On Measuring Athletic Success

Success is not measured in terms of team, or wins. Success is measured by how much the individual enjoys the experience.

  • In the football model the individual trains diligently and receives instructions from the coaches, and the reward is in the teams victory, if it should have one, and in the discipline the individual receives.
  • In parkour, skateboarding, or rollerblading the focus is not on competition, so the goal is not to win, and the concept of training becomes obsolete. The reward is in the enjoyment the individual derives from the act of skating and in the camaraderie of the lifestyle.
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Adults, Playgrounds, and The City: Where can we play?

I think we all agree when it comes to the importance of play and movement, especially for children. However, it frequently seems that children are the only ones allowed to indulge, and that as a society we not only have forgotten its value to teens, adults, and seniors but resist it. We verbally dismiss and label it as unproductive, self-indulgent, and immature, tell others to ‘quit playing around and get back to work, to ‘grow up’, and communicate a story that play is inappropriate.

Yet for those of us who dare to play, we are rewarded with some incredible benefits.  Beyond the obvious increase in physical fitness & health, you also will find that stress levels drop, our learning and memory is more complete, social interactions become easier, and our ability grows to see opportunities in places we would otherwise have overlooked. 

Play contributes deeply to our development as individuals, regardless of what age.

While we could deeply examine ways our resistance to play manifest in societal behaviors, I’d like to just scrape the surface of the story being told by the built world.

New York City alone is home to hundreds of children’s playgrounds–adventure and imagination playgrounds, modern designs, interactive sculptures, nature inspired, wood constructions, loose parts, prefab structures, and more.

The city seems to be devoted to designing, building, and renovating places to play… for children. In every city there are hundreds of playgrounds and public spaces, but how many are open to adult and teen play? 

In Central Park alone there are 21 designated playgrounds.  Of those 21, a grand total of 0 are designed for teenagers or adults, and most go a step further to display signage barring use.  (There is ‘fitness equipment’ available for use, but we’ll get into that in a second.)

Teens and adults could try to creatively re-purpose these youth playgrounds for their own purpose and play, but at their own risk–social and civil.  Considered a nuisance to parents-they’ll be met with dirty looks and an of concerns for the safety of the children.  Considered a danger by the city, they will be ushered out by rangers and possibly even ticketed. Signs are posted, fences are built. Boundaries pop up around play.

The built world is literally telling us that play is not for the rest of us.

Did you know that most of the playgrounds citywide allow adults only when accompanied by a child under the age of 12. (1).   Thus get caught trespassing sans-children and risk getting a citation. (Re: Women ticketed for eating donuts, Men ticketed for playing chess) 

Of course, we are living today in what could be considered the renaissance of Play. And the City has taken notice of the importance of getting up and out on your feet (2).  There are a growing number of campaigns, programs, and facilities to assist adults in cultivating an active, healthy lifestyle. 

However, a gym is not the same thing as a public playground, and does not offer the same set of complex benefits. Those four walls keep a lot of people and experiences out of the equation, and unable to participate.

Outdoor Gym ≠ Playground

In 2012 NYC opened its first official ‘adult playground’ and has plans to build two dozen more by the end of 2014 (3).  This is a great start.

However, calling these spaces playgrounds is a gross exaggeration.  Playgrounds are spaces that require creativity and imagination, storytelling and social negotiation, problem solving and exploration – and these ‘adult playgrounds’ lack all of that… because they are just outdoor gyms. Gyms come complete with rules and regulations, signs and directions, notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, expectations around achievement and behaviors. There is little creative thinking required and social interaction is avoidable.

While there is the benefit of improving economic access to a socially permissive space for physical activity (and that it smells significantly better than a box gym), so much is still lost and missing. Not to mention that the story being told about movement for adults is one of prescription and conformity.

(I will note that there has been some effort made to provide spaces for teens, but mostly in the realm of skateboarding-contingent upon the signature of a waiver and specific equipment requirements.  There also was a recent project to build a playground for teens in Hudson Yards, but no others that I could find slated for construction. )

All spaces considered, there is no deny the unacceptable and near complete lack of opportunity for teenagers and adults to engage in free, unstructured, social, creative movement play.

What Next?

Now, I know here many will say that NYC has so much open park space. But in reality, in a Park your options are to walk on this path or that one, or to sit on a bench, in the shade or the sun, or to buy a vendor hot dog & people watch.  There are tons of bike paths if you’re able to afford a bike, or you could throw a ball in the field, if you’re allowed on the grass, and only as long as you don’t disturb your neighbors. Any deviation from ‘normWhat next?al’ behavior will still be met with the social kickback we talked about above.

We need physical spaces complete with policy and permissions that permit play.

Thus with the lack of options it should be no surprise to hear that in NYC more than 1/2 the adult population is either overweight or obese(4)(5), especially when compounded with the fact that many of the opportunities that are available to get moving are too expensive, difficult, competitive, or, to put it plainly, not a whole lot of fun. 

A sustainable, healthy lifestyle needs to be more than gym workouts, expensive specialty classes, and competitive team sports. We don’t need more gyms and classes in our city; we need more playful infrastructure and community spaces to support play across all ages.  We need spaces that are complex, inter-generational, and flexible, that allow adults & teenagers to develop and explore their own open-ended challenges. Colorful. Social. Open to chaos, exploration, creation.  A place that is safe, welcoming, accessible, and fun.

We need to stop looking at play as a distraction or diversion from reality, but rather as an integral element of our continual, healthful development. We need to design the places we live to support living a life in play.

CITATIONS

1 “§1-05 Regulated Uses.”New York Parks & Recreation. NYCDPR. Web. 20 Mar 2014. <http://www.nycgovparks.org/rules/section-1-05&gt;.
2 “Priority Area: Physical Activity and Nutrition.”New York State Department of Health. Web. 20 Mar 2014. https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/prevention_agenda/physical_activity_and_nutrition/
3 “New York Introduces Its First Adult Playground.”New York Times. Winnie Hu. Web. 20 Mar 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/nyregion/new-york-introduces-its-first-adult-playground.html?pagewanted=all
4 “Obesity.”New York City Department of Health. Web. 20 Mar 2014. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/living/obesity.shtml
5 “BRFSS Brief: Overweight and Obesity, NYS Adults 2011.”New York State Department of Health. Web. 20 Mar 2014.http://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/brfss/reports/docs/1304_overweight_and_obesity.pdf

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Rethinking Exercise: From Work to Play Through Parkour→

Below is the a rough transcription of a talk delivered at The Feast in 2013.

Can we have a heart to heart for a second? Exercise can suck!  I’m sure many of you agree that getting fit and staying there can be a pretty tedious task. Running on the treadmill for hours can be mind-numbing, as can strapping into exercise machines, and lifting weights…over and over, day in and day out, all in the name of meeting some unrealistic standard of beauty…

When approached like that, yes, fitness is absurd.   When we are forced to do such repetitive and simple movements, that sometimes are so physically enjoyable, of course we just  zone out, stop paying attention, and try to just get through it.  We find ourselves counting down the minutes, the seconds, until we can leave the gym and just go home!

We miss out on all the joy movement has to offer. and to me–that’s whats absurd.

The human body was designed to move, and designed to enjoy movement. Our ancestors ran through trees, climbed over rocks, and play games. Movement was a defining part of life. And somehow over the last century we’ve redefined it as a chore–no more important than doing the dishes or taking out the trash or mowing the lawn, if you’re lucky enough to have one!

So I’m here today to change the way you think about exercise–to give you an alternative to the fancy gym memberships, expensive equipment, and ultra competitive team sports. I’m here to give you a tool that can turn the hard work of exercise in to play… and that tool is Parkour.

Parkour is a discipline focused on natural human movements.  Movements such as crawling [action] balancing [action] jumping [action] swinging [action] and vaulting [action] Beyond the movement, Parkour is a discipline of overcoming obstacles, both mental and physical.   You can be both creative and critical. You learn the difference between good risk and bad, and how to cope with the uncertainties in your life. You can begin to understand your capabilities and where your limits lie.

Lessons from Parkour

I’m sure at least a few of you are wondering–How can the practice of Parkour teach you these things? Well–lets take a closer look:

1. You can first practice Parkour in its safest form–by staying low to the ground and focusing on control, patience, and building an understanding of your body in space.

2.  With time, you can advance and begin setting yourself isolated challenges that are either more physically demanding, which requires a deeper understanding of your abilities, or more mentally demanding, forcing you to face fear and trust in yourself

3. Alternatively you can utilize dynamic movements and focus either on: (a) building greater efficiency, which forces you to problem solve and quickly resolve a path over under through or (b) fluidity, which gives you space to be creative and innovative with your body.

4. You can even just opt to practice Parkour through games, which lets you to think less on the technique and focus more on just enjoying movement.

The list goes on.  There is no right or wrong in Parkour, for utlimately you set the rules.  We have no standards of success or gold medals to win. You need only to come out and try your hardest.  Because in Parkour we celebrate effort over achievement.  It doesnt matter if you cant balance your first day or jump.  Maybe you wont be able to get up and over your second try or third.  Inevitably you will fall but you will also learn to get back up and to try again.  This is because you are not working to be better than everyone else but better than yourself.

And therein lies the first, and most important thing you need to know about Parkour, and movement in general, and that is–that there is no barrier of entry.  There is no such thing as being too old, or too weak, being too busy or not good enough!

But I dont expect you to completely believe me when I say fitness can be fun, especially after 5 short minutes. As Buckminster Fuller once said that “If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them.  Instead, give them a tool the use of which will lead them to new ways of thinking.”

So, after a short demonstration by members of our community, I’d like to invite you all over to play, and, perhaps, pick up that tool that will change the way you think about fitness and yourself.

WANT MORE?

Learn Parkour – Parkour Visions
Why Parkour?

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The Language of Movement

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

Language is one of the most important components of civilization. It allows us to express our thoughts, to explore our ideas, and to overcome our problems. And, even though there are thousands of languages, it is hard to find one that is truly universal, one without a huge learning curve, one that speaks across any juncture of age, place, and intelligence.

But it exists.

Movement is that universal language and is, above all, the most accessible form of communication.  Each and every person can both observe and participate in the dialogue with little to no training.  We can express emotion, reflect thought, and expose the complex characteristics that make us each uniquely ourselves.

And though there are many dialects of this Movement language, such as dance, gymnastics, and martial arts, the dialect that stands out, above them all, is Parkour.

Dialect of Parkour

Parkour is a unique physical discipline in that practitioners, known as Traceurs, have complete control over their practice. They choose their environments, they set their own challenges, they make their own rules. The purpose of practice is left to the individual to define. Thus you can step back and really examine–Are their rules non-negotiable or loose guidelines? Do they train in the heart of the public or in the quiet alley behind their home? Are their challenges primarily of the physical nature or the mental?  Complex or simple?  Inspired or out-of-the-pack?

And with these choices, Traceurs weave their amazing stories–stories of who they are, what they believe, and what they want.  With every movement, they clearly reflect their values, personality, and temperament.

A Single Jump

In a single jump, for example, you can read about the characteristics and personality of the Traceur. There will be practitioners who jump with cold, calculating certainty.  Their jumps speak a story of maturity, of discipline and self-knowing. Some jump with violence, revealing a story from their depths–a buried rage to give them a final push.  Others jump with fear, unsure of the end result, unsure of their own selves.

Clumsy jumps, creative jumps, passive jumps, the list can go on, each one uniquely reflecting the jumper, each uniquely telling a story.  Some jumps reveal hesitation and self-consciousness whereas some reveal overwhelming pride and ego, some speak to the degree of creativity and others to a meticulous planning nature.

Don’t understand?  Well then, I ask–go find a jump, whether it is two curbs or two cliffs, and observe how you feel.  Did you pick a jump that scares you or did you play it safe? Is your heart pounding in your chest?  Is the jump a strange one–requiring you to duck when you land so as not to bump your head or relatively simple?  Are you safely out of sight, so no one will see you if you fail or are you in public, hoping everyone will stop to watch?  The more jumps you take, the clearer the pattern emerges.

A Half Hour of Play

So, you can only imagine then, if a single jump can say all that, what can it say in an half hour of play?

Well, look around, look at the people you choose to train with:

  • What challenges do they choose for themselves? 
  • How do they prepare to confront them?
  • Do they seek critique and collaboration or are they isolated in their practice?
  • Are they first to volunteer an activity or do they follow along? 
  • Are they passive observers or active participants? 
  • How do they deal with failure?  Success?

A few years back I attended a Parkour gathering in San Antonio Texas. We had 75+ practitioners, Some as young as 10 and those well in to their 50s, some with years of play under their belt and some new to the experience. And this group, flush with variety, took a trip to a wonderful wooden playground in the suburbs to train.

The group dispersed, each individual finding challenges unique to their interests or skillsets. When walking around, the personalities of each Traceur slowly came out.  One group immediately sought out the largest jumps in the park–ambitious, courageous, reckless, all these personalities followed.  Another group went to the fence line, carefully hopped up on to the rail, and attempted to balance without fail, reflecting different degrees of discipline and patience. And yet another group stood around watching the others move, nervous to join in, unsure of their skills, curiously observing.

And the variations go on. I watched people tremble before jumps, psych themselves up, cool themselves off. Some only worked on challenges found by others, whereas there were those who were only interested in the challenges they could set for themselves. A few played games while others designed obstacle courses.  Some were arrogantly playing to the passerby public, and others were cautiously staying out of sight.

The permutations of personality present there that day were infinite.

Who Are You?

In a half hour of play one can speak volumes, reflecting varying degrees of virtue.  Through a half hour, you can reflect on personal creativity, respect, efficiency, temperance, ambition, curiosity, courage, patience, perseverance, honesty, and so on.  And it is this kind of conversation I value the most, for movement is the language of honesty. Your actions do not lie.

So, next time you step out and seek a challenge, next time you set a jump, ask yourself who you are. 

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2013.06.19 On Parkour

While Parkour can improve physical fitness and overall coordination, (and provide many other benefits), one of its main intents is to teach people how to avoid, manage, and overcome both fear and conflict.