“Although the Olympic movement likes to present itself as inclusive and meritocratic, this was not always the case. The ‘father’ of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, had opposed the inclusion of females at the Games, stating ‘Olympics with women would be incorrect, unpractical, uninteresting, and unaesthetic.’. An early IOC statement on the question declared, ‘We feel that the Olympic Games must be reserved for the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with internationalism as a base, loyalty as a means, arts for its setting, and female applause as its reward.'”
“Play is a precursor to intellectual freedom, it empowers individuals with agency and voice. Play is a matter of human dignity.”
You are probably familiar with the term “word gap” – linking children’s vocabulary skills to their economic backgrounds. Well how about the ‘Play Gap?’
Access to opportunities, time, and safe spaces to play are influenced by socio-economic status (class) (as well as by race, gender, and ability (able-ism). Low income children are more likely to live in neighborhoods with limited designated play space, experience higher pressure than their affluent peers to perform academically (at the expense of their play), and have parental time, permission, and encouragement to play.
There are many reasons I think Parkour can uniquely address the major obstacles facing participation for low-income youth. The fact that a child can self-direct and self-challenge and explore in whatever spaces they are afforded, without need for equipment, fees, or team mates, is unlike any other sport.
Furthermore, Parkour breaks outside the rigidities of traditional ‘sport’, with fixtures of rules and competition as the driving force, and allows for actual PLAY–an experience often lost in most sports as participation advances with age.
There has been a national trend over the past decade of reducing playtime as an integral part of the school day. This trend is most easily observed in the reduction and, in some cases, elimination of recess; however, there are more subtle changes throughout the school day that reduce children’s opportunity to play. First, the approach to early education that naturally incorporated play into the school day is shifting toward a more academically oriented instructional approach as new standards for reading readiness have changed for even kindergarten students.9 Second, in many districts, there is less school time allocated to the creative arts and physical education.9,43,44 These subjects contribute to a well-rounded education for a variety of reasons but share some of the benefits of play. They allow for a break from the standard academic subjects, foster creative and physical expression, and teach relaxation and stress-reduction skills that will last a lifetime.9,13 Finally, even after-school activities have shifted away from play and physical activity and toward being an extension of academics and a space for homework completion.43 This report focuses on reduced recess for illustrative purposes.
Children cannot play safely outside of the home in many poor communities—urban, suburban, and rural—unless they are under close adult supervision and protection. This is particularly true in areas that are unsafe because of increased violence or where other environmental dangers exist.
Although lower-income parents have the same desires for their children to succeed and reach their full potential as do parents with greater economic and social assets, they must focus primarily on the family’s day-to-day survival. When food and shelter are at risk, ensuring time for the children to have free and creative playtime may not be a priority. Economic hardship is a major obstacle for these families, in which the parents are more likely to have a lower educational level or be single heads of households. Minority households (black and Hispanic) and immigrant parents are at increased risk of having children who live in poverty.
“The decline of youth sports participation is the sort of phenomenon that seems exquisitely tailored to exacerbate fears about the state of American childhood. One might suspect that the falloff is the result of children gravitating to video games, television, and other electronic distractions that don’t require an open field or a court. Perhaps athletics is just another legacy institution that can’t compete for attention anymore, like church, community centers, and bowling leagues.
But dig into the numbers, and a more complex, two-track story emerges. Among richer families, youth sports participation is actually rising. Among the poorest households, it’s trending down. Just 34 percent of children from families earning less than $25,000 played a team sport at least one day in 2017, versus 69 percent from homes earning more than $100,000. In 2011, those numbers were roughly 42 percent and 66 percent, respectively.
This isn’t a story about American childhood; it’s about American inequality.”
In short, the American system of youth sports—serving the talented, and often rich, individual at the expense of the collective—has taken a metal bat to the values of participation and universal development. Youth sports has become a pay-to-play machine.
(Reported 2012) Increasing the focus on academics and allotting less time for physical activity is a national trend. But the AAP report found that low-income school districts face greater cuts to recess and physical education because they are under pressure to reduce academic disparities. Nationwide, recess has been cut from one-third of schools with the highest poverty rates. Even after-school programs are shifting focus from creative and physical activities to homework help, often making them just an extension of the school day.
There are fewer playgrounds in low-income, urban communities, or they may be underused because of a fear of violence Cities have less green space than the suburbs, so playgrounds are one of the only places where children can roam around freely and play. Obviously, if there aren’t many around, you don’t have as many chances to play.
Making sure your kids get outdoor playtime may not be your priority if you’re working multiple jobs or constantly stressed about bills, housing and food.
“For children facing the challenges of poverty, play is such an important tool to help them build the resilience that they need,” said lead author Regina Milteer, MD, FAAP. “Using their imaginations, fantasizing, and trying on grown-up roles helps them to take on their fears and create a world they can master.”
Socioeconomic challenges can keep children from enjoying these important benefits for three main reasons:
Cuts to recess and other school-based play or creative programs affect schools in lower-income communities disproportionately.
In low-income neighborhoods, parks and play spaces may be lacking, and those that do exist often are unsafe due to violence or environmental dangers.
Parents who need to focus primarily on their family’s day-to-day survival often do not have the time, energy or resources to spend on play.
All children deserve a place to play, without fear, ridicule or frustration. Children with disabilities are often denied this pleasure.
FROM: Social Class & Sports by Taylor Hall
In America, we like to think that sports transcends social class, but that is all too naive. Research has shown social class to have a direct relationship to sports involvement. Social class largely defines the types sports individuals choose participate in, their level of involvement, and affects their chances of success in the sport. Often times, sports are a reflection of social class. Despite the ubiquitous role class plays in sports, it is full of complexities and a difficult concept to explore.
FROM: The Paradox of Social Class and Sports Involvement: The Roles of Cultural and Economic Capital by Thomas Wilson
Studies in the sociology of sport have found that the higher one’s social class, the greater is one’s overall involvement in sports, but the less likely is one’s involvement in what have come to be called `prole’ sports.
FROM: Classism in Sport: The Powerless Bear the Burden by D. Stanley Eitzen
In reality, sports, just as the other instuttions of society, provdie a setting where the “poor pay more.”
“Hell, we know there is no way she can beat me,” Riggs remarked, despite being almost 30 years older than King, “She’s a stronger athlete than me and she can execute various shots better than me, but when the pressure mounts and she thinks about 50 million people watching on TV, she’ll fold. That’s the way women are.”
The physical and emotional inferiority of women was a publicly held and promoted belief, “I’m not only interested in [winning for the] glory for my sex,” Riggs continued, “but …to set women’s lib back twenty years, to get women back into the home, where they belong.”
What happened?
King beat Riggs, sweeping the match in three sets, and it became one of the most impactful moments for women in sports and society. It drew massive attention to the issue of equity and gender in sports and inspired a generation to take action.
Your Mom Was Told She Couldn’t.
For many people reading this, 1973 is 50-something years ago and no more than a line in history. For my mother, 1973 was her senior year in high school and an incredibly defining time in her life.
Theresa Shank, Number 12, goes up for a shot in a 1975 game against Towson State. Shank played for the Mighty Macs of Immaculata College, a tiny women-only school in Pennsylvania. The team won the first three women’s college basketball national titles, beginning in 1972. (Immaculata University for AP)
She was a self-proclaimed tomboy who balanced basketball with ballet. She loved science, astronomy, and the outdoors, and planned to go into forestry and the natural sciences. While she was strong, intelligent, beautiful, she did not believe it. Her childhood experiences taught her that she was viewed as having ‘less value’ as a woman and human—all because she was engaged in non-gender-conforming activities (sports and sciences).
If you’re missing context: Only 7% of students participating in high school sports in the 1970s were women; Only 2% in college. The cultural climate, as the Kings-Riggs match reflects, discouraged women enjoying sports and sent a clear message that participation in sports would result in public shaming, humiliation and emotional abuse, and being considered less valuable as a woman, mate, and human.
My other still got on the court and played, despite the her family, friends, coaches, and community telling her she didn’t have the strength, ability, intelligence, and value because she was a woman. She applied to college and earned a degree in education, dove into astronomy, and picked up computers and video games for fun. She didn’t let a backwards societal expectation stop her from pursuing her interests and dreams, or define her worth.
Unfortunately my mothers experiences aren’t unique to her generation. In 2020 our government, major companies, organizations, and communities are often led by people who grew up in a time where women were viewed as less than men; our parents, teachers, mentors, bosses, and friends all have been apart of this experience, and often knowingly or unknowingly, pass their biases along.
IF YOU LET ME PLAY
“I will learn what it means to be strong if you let me play sports.”
Participation in sports has numerous benefits. Through games and training, we learn about human nature and how to navigate social relationships. We practice dealing with conflict, designing solutions, and taking risks. Identity is formed, as well as friendships. Women in particular also benefit from higher levels of confidence and the likelihood of earning better grades as well as lower levels of depression and being less likely to be involved in an unintended pregnancy.
Despite this, American society has continued to resist women’s participation in sports. It is easy to write off a sexist tennis match from 50 years ago as ancient history, but between 1990-today, we have numerous examples of how far we have not progressed.
IF YOU LET ME PLAY | NIKE | 1995 In 1995 Nike aired a landmark commercial called “If you let me play,” highlighting benefits to participation in sports for women. In its language though it reflected the attitude persisting in society.“If” you let me play’ was an acknowledgement of the gendered gatekeeping that existed. Fathers, coaches, commentators–there was still the question of if women should even be allowed to play.
‘Sports and strength were designated as male arenas.’ If you let me play recognized that any woman who dared to venture in was risking a lot more than just winning and losing a game—she was challenging a social construct.
LIKE A GIRL | ALWAYS | 2004
Twenty years later in 2014 Always releases their #LikeAGirl campaign in an effort to reclaim the phrase. The video opens with adult women as well as adult and youth men demonstrating what it meant to run, throw, and fight ‘like a girl.’ Their demonstrations reflect the story we hold and often pass on as a society–that sports and strength aren’t for girls.Like A Girl revealed the persisting unspoken belief of women being weaker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
It was an advertisement I also deeply related to. To this day, every major academic, athletic, and professional accomplishment has been subtly undercut by the addition of three small words: “You’re smart, good, strong… for a girl.”
Women still experience in sports that their status is secondary to men and that their participation ‘doesn’t really matter.’ according to a 2002 study by McClung and Blinde. There is also fear of social ostrasiation—with many girls facing name calling and belittling for being seen as too strong “butch,” “masculine,” “dyke,” etc.
While there have been many organizations and movements dedicated to including women in sports, there is still a great deal of cultural de-conditioning that has to occur today.
Women in Parkour
The North American Womens Parkour Gathering in Toronto. 2013. Anya Chibis
When I found Parkour in 2007, I was concluding a successful high school athletic career. I lettered in all my sports, participated in national competitions, broke records, and was coaching younger students. I was fortunate to have supportive coaches that never made me feel inferior due to being a woman. I was treated, most of the time, as an equal by my male team-mates and respected as a leader in the larger community. My parents also gave me an empowered (and priveledged) childhood—reminding me that I was strong, smart, and beautiful.
At the same time I knew women on teams in other towns, in other eras, who were put down, treated as second-tier, under- or un-funded, ignored, and so forth, sometimes not just for their gender but their race and orientation as well.
Having played in whole, healthy, and empowering spaces, my early experiences in parkour stand out in painful, stark contrast.
In 2007 the discipline was still new in the States. The sport was loosely held together and defined, with culture varying vastly depending on where and with whom you were training. In-person communities were primarily established in major cities, with limited access to coaches and leadership.
Back then I frequently found myself outnumbered at events, often being the only woman amongst 50-60 participants. I navigated cat-calling and sexual harassment. I was treated differently, being regularly reminded that as a woman I was weaker and less capable.
There was a New York Times article around 2009 or 2010 interviewing a female practitioner at the time who reiterated herself that girls couldn’t cat pass. I remember (and still to this day sill see) video commentary online that praise girls looks over their abilities. At one point became the target of negative, aggressive commentary (name calling, threats of sexual assault) when I had an article posted on American Parkour in an effort to speak up and out about some of the cultural issues needing to be addressed in regards to gender.
In 2011 I attended a national jam on the east coast when, walking down the street in a large group of male practitioners, a couple of them began catcalling random female passerbys. “Hey yo ma, wanna come on over here? Wanna get pregnant?” I remember watching the two girls across the street pick up their pace and walk faster, knowing just how scary and uncomfortable it probably was. I was one of three girls there that weekend, and it was such a jarring, ugly experience that I never went back to that community and still remember it to this day.
After a while, I started to pull back. I stopped showing up to jams and large group training and opted to work on my movement solo. I refused to share videos and didn’t participate in online discussions. I wanted to play, the same way my mom wanted to play, but didn’t know how to get onto the ’court’ and not feel defeated before the game began.
Breaking Barriers Together
“Breaking down barriers… is a part of who a female athlete is.”
It is so valuable to have female role models of a wide range of body types, abilities, colors, ages, and backgrounds. We also shouldn’t underestimate the power of having spaces where women and girls can get onto the playing field more easily, that feel safe and welcoming, and have quality leadership.
I think back to my early experiences in parkour and how invaluable it would have been to have female mentors and role models to look up to as I struggled with my movement, body image, and self within the sport. I think about how powerful and enriching those experiences in high school were, and with my family, where I got to be apart of an inclusive and respectful community. It was easy for me to show up and focus on overcoming the other obstacles of my physical and mental training when I knew I would be met kindness, support, and equality.
A lot has changed over the last decade in the Parkour community. Today many communities in the United States run regular womens meetups and have female coaches. There are thousands of videos online of women running, jumping, and climbing, with both men and women giving praise and critique on the skills. Major events have popped up worldwide, including the North American Womens Gathering, which runs every July and draws in women from 25+ different states, of all ages and abilities, as well as She Can Trace and Wam Jam and the Copenhagen Girls Gathering. Conversations, presentations, posts, and articles are being written and discussed on how to build more inclusive experiences and involve more women. There is a persistent interest among leadership in doing and being better as a sporting community.
However, there is still a lot to be done. Many gyms lack female leadership and fail to connect and retain girl students. The majority of all jams worldwide are organized by men without significant input from women, and I’ve seen far too many educational events in recent years fail with no excuse to bring in female coaches. There is an unresolved debate of equal prize money for emergent competitions and experiences with sexism and harassment are still being reported by female practitioners.
An Inclusive Community
I want to zoom out here and somehow bring this to a close for now. I’ve focused deeply on my and the female experience within sports and parkour, but what women experience is not unique. I have always held to be true that Parkour, and sports in general, should be a celebration of all human beings and abilities, but I also recognize we do not live in a world or hold experiences that reflect that.
As I said earlier, It’s important to recognize that we unknowingly inherit so many of our biases and ideas of self from our parents, role models, communities, and media. Our generation today has been raised and formed by mothers and fathers, teachers and mentors, public figures and personalities that were taught the inferiority of the female sex, as well as the inferiority of people of color, people of older age, and people with disabilities.
While we have come far, we can not deny there is still racism, sexism, ableism, and ageism in sports, and massive barriers to participation for these populations. Some of these barriers we can see but many more are embedded in the way our cities, systems, and communities think and function–often operating well beyond the bounds of the sporting activity itself.
We need to work together as a community to unpack and address the biases and assumptions that all of us hold around practice and performance. We need to make adjustments to the spaces we play in, when we play, how we play, and how much it costs to play–not just financially but emotionally as well.
It’s not quick or overnight. For those oppressed, underserved, or under-resourced communities, trauma runs deep and is daily felt. I don’t have an immediate solution. There is no ‘do these 10 things’. On a large scale we need acknowledgement and allyship, as well as awareness and education.
However, I do want to offer a few things that individuals and small organizations can start doing today in an effort to invite more people into our community.
Using and share more diverse images and videos
Storytelling and storysharing experiences, and seeking out stories from those who might be withholding their stories due to being silenced in the past. Listening and validating stories that are reported.
Establishing new community agreements in partnership with all community members (all genders, color, able-bodyness, age). Make sure there are people at the decision making table that are the same as those being impacted by those decisions.
Self educating and facilitating conversations around anti-sexism, anti-racism, anti-ageism, and anti-ableism in your networks.
Cultivating diverse leadership, especially among coaches and mentors. Specifically reaching out and encouraging participation and engagement. Ensuring that diverse leadership is actually teaching diverse groups.
Inviting diverse coaches to events.
These are small things you can start doing today, and there is a great deal of work that really needs to be done. But, big or small, we can all contribute to creating a community that respects and celebrates people of all dimensions of diversity.
Whats Being Done?
You can also support organizations and events that have emerged to support moving towards a more inclusive community.There has been some amazing efforts (and always happy to add to this list if you are running a program or offering resources!).
Parkour Visions (PKV) has its annual Movement For All fund, coming up this December 1, supporting regional and national programs for under-served populations including an Adaptive Parkour Program, Fearless Parkour for Seniors, Free classes in communities, and youth programming targetting low income and at risk populations. Monthly donors support these and other programs on the rise.
ALL BODIES AND MINDS: I also have seen organizations such as Move to Inspire and Urban Movement launching Adaptive Programs for individuals with disabilities. PKV will be also releasing an open-source curriculum and teaching resources for people interested in starting their own program in early 2020! Espirit Concrete is bringing together mental health with movement through their program development. In 2017 I worked with the Movement Creative to design and build an Adaptive Parkour Obstacle Course with the NYC Department of Transportation.
ALL AGES: PK Move is pushing research and programming for seniors in parkour. Parkour over 40 is an online group sharing videos and content for those pushing the practice into older ages. Forever Young, a program of Parkour Dance Company, also helped lay some incredible groundwork for seniors in parkour. Parkour Generations Americas ran an 8-day course focused on improving body awareness and increasing fall prevention.
ALL GENDERS: There is the See & Do Movement started by Julie Angel to capture and normalize women in parkour in the media, as well as her larger body of photo, video, and written work addressing ageism and diversity. The North American Womens Gathering will be hosted in San Francisco in 2020, and initiatives like She Can Trace from Parkour Generations, WamJam in Australia, and Girls Gathering in Denmark all strive to increase female and gender diverse participation in parkour.
ALL COLORS: Obsidian Gathering was a black pride jam that ran in 2017 to celebrate black practitioners and encourage civic engagement–with hopefully another running soon!
ALL BACKGROUNDS: There are also online groups such as Parkour Instructors for Underprivileged Youth. Parkour Visions was awarded a $50,000 grant to run free and lowcost parkour programming for at-risk youth between 2018-2019 in Seattle. Similarly, they run donation based classes, as does The Movement Creative in NYC, with commitments to ensuring no one is denied access and opportunity to move due to financial restraints.
MORE RESOURCES: Platforms like Art of Retreat have presentations every year dealing with some aspect of sexism, racism, ableism, or ageism–Alice Popejoy, Chrischelle Borhani, Julie Angel, Natalia Boltukhova, Kasturi Torchia, Nancy Lorentz all delivered incredible presentations and facilitated dialogues around some element of inclusivity (and I’m sure I’m missing several). The facebook group Parkour Research is a place where you can engage in dialogue with the community and access a list of research as well.
As David Zirin wrote in a Peoples History of Sports – “If we challenge sports to be as good as they can be–a force to break down walls that divide us, a motor for inclusion–they can propel us toward a better world, a world worth play in–and worth fighting for’.”
❗️62% of kids quit organized team sports by age 11 according to a recent study conducted by the Aspen Institute Project Play with the Utah State University Families in Sports Lab.
The Aspen Institute Project Play is running a new campaign called Don’t Retire, Kid. On their launch page they wonder aloud as to why kids are really leaving sports.
Maybe we need to start looking at alternatives to traditional competitive team sports? Maybe we need to start calling out the toxic competitive environments, overemphasis on athletic elitism, and soaring costs for participating? Maybe we need to value more highly healthy self expression, civic participation, and community engagement in our practice?
This is just one reason I love Parkour and play. They are fundamentally non competitive, focused on the development of individual identity and community relationship. There is a low barrier to access–financially, physically, personally. In our programs at Parkour Visions we encourage students to develop their own style and pursue movement that feels healthy, we support collaborative learning and gameplay, and encourage leadership, responsibility, and environmental stewardship. Children or adults–there is another way.
Sports can be more than besting your opponent, earning a college scholarship, or losing that next 10 pounds. If you want to see more people (of ALL AGES) stay and play, we need to be looking to play an infinite game–one where ‘winning’ is being healthy, happy, and engaged.
For too long, we have treated play as a luxury that kids, as well as adults, could do without. But the time has come for us to recognize why play is worth defending: It is essential to leading a happy and healthy life.
— David Elkind
Did you know that the average american is most physically active at age 6, and by 19, about as sedentary as a 60 year old? Over the last ten years there has been a steady decline in participation in sports and physical activity among youth as well as the rise of obesity among teens and adults. Add to that — National data reveals a startling 30% of adults do not engage in any leisure time physical activity , with less than half meeting or exceeding recommendations.
To sum it up: As most people grow up they are either losing or leaving behind play and physical activity.
However, evidence clearly supports that movement and play are critical to life long, whole human health… not just for children, but teens, adults, and seniors as well. Beyond the physical benefits of strength, mobility, and dexterity, participation supports overall mental health. It has been shown to improve cognitive performance and learning, reduce the impact of stress, and support social and emotional development. It nurtures our confidence, curiosity, creativity, and sense of control. It brings us joy.
So if play is so important — why do we stop? The answer to that question is complex, and presents the problem we, as a community, need to solve together.
The Problem: Barriers to Play
There are major barriers to accessing and participating in physical activity and play. These include issues related to time, cost, location, and an individual social, emotional, and cultural context. To summarize a few of the largest, most robust issues:
COST Inactivity has been shown to be directly linked to household income. Rising costs of equipment, league fees, gym memberships, and the costs associated with accessingquality coaching and learning tools all threaten participation.
TIME We live in a non-stop world. Juggling work, school, and social schedules alongside long commuting times and other obligations often prevents us from fitting in time for play. Whats worse, we keep finding ways to cut play out. By 2017, over 30,000 schools in America eliminated recess to make more time for academics.
PHYSICAL ACCESS Even if we have the money and time, physical access is the final hurdle.As the distance required to access play resources increases (fields, equipment, gyms, parks), participation declines — transportation is directly linked back to time and money. Additionally, many schools and cities have limited programs and services, making them fewer and farther in between.
SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL, CULTURAL ISSUES Every individual brings a complex landscape of social, emotional, and cultural experiences that block participation. Having negative experiences with sports and PE in youth, limiting stereotypes around gender, race, and status, fear of discrimination, competition, and self-consciousness are just a few.
…And The Seriousness of Life
In additional to all these barriers, the largest obstacle that we all face and must overcome is that as a society we are quick to devalue play. We hold this idea that life is serious, and that we need to prepare ourselves to deal with the seriousness of life. We must work and produce and constantly improve upon our human capital potential — which seemingly leaves no room for ‘unproductive’ pursuits.
How many of you have heard discouraging little phrases such as “quit playing around and get back to work?” Employees are constantly guilted into working late hours, students wear their lack of sleep like a badge of honor, and (financial, social) rewards are granted to those who work at the expense of all else.
This perception that play has limited value, combined with any of the barriers above, is a perfect recipe for a sedentary body and sick mind. As Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, expressed: the opposite of play isn’t work, it’s depression.
Our Pledge: Movement For All
Brene Brown wrote, “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.”
#MovementForAll is a declaration that play is a human right, necessary for whole health — both for the individual and the collective.
It is a commitment to everyone having access to lifelong, playful movement and community.
It is a call to courageous action, and a promise we make together: to teach, build, and share an integrated path we discovered that fulfills this commitment — that path being parkour.
Depending on who you asked, Parkour is a sport, an art, a discipline. Practice involves running, climbing, jumping, swinging, crawling, rolling. Players create challenges for themselves in the environments they find using nothing more than their bodies, their imaginations, and, if available, their friends. It involves facing fears and learning to take intelligent risks, as well as building resiliency through physical and mental training.
Parkour is play grown-up.
And, when compared to conventional sports and outlets for play, parkour culture and philosophy can provide the necessary elements for life-long participation: Radical Inclusion, Resourceful Generosity, and Evolving Practice.
Radical Inclusion. Every ‘body’ is not only invited to participate but celebrated — any ability, size, color, age. Our community strives for a space of progressive practice, respectful language, and accountability. We reject gate-keeping and body-shaming. We use movement to create unity among diverging perspectives, for movement is a language we all speak.
Resourceful Generosity. We crowd-source solutions and educational tools, organize free classes and events, and foster leadership among all students. We are Go Getters and Go Givers, creating and sharing so that the collective can get stronger. Together we support one another in overcoming the financial, physical, and cultural obstacles that so commonly prevent access to other activities.
Evolving Practice.Our play needs to grow up with us if we are to play for life. Parkour ensures lifelong participation and community by giving people permission to change their practice as they grow. From exploration to competition to maintenance and back, from strength to mobility to balance and beyond. There is no fixed set of movements that must be achieved. There is no ageing out.
Move Your Way, Move With Us
So this is my call to action. I’m giving you a path to a life in play. Stand up and move. Move your way, move with us, and help us bring movement to all.
Over the last year I have been working closely with Parkour Visions, a non-profit with national initiatives to combine those values above with programs and services designed to break barriers of time, cost, and physical access. We are trying to get play back into the every day by:
Teaching free & affordable classes for all ages, as well as afterschool programs.
These are just a few ways we have dreamed up getting more play into the everyday. However this change needs us working together if we are to create large scale cultural and societal impact. It needs new ideas, enthusiasm, and time… And, most of all, it needs you — you, choosing to show up and and be a stand for a world that embraces play as a positive, integral element of leading a whole, human life.
In 2019, Parkour Visions established the Movement For All Fund, dedicated to supporting programs and services that are breaking barriers and building bridges to play through parkour. In February, every donation is being matched up to $25,000 — that means whatever you give will be doubled! You can make a difference, and it can start here.
(PS. Always looking for collaborators — reach out!)
On top of all these, there is the largest obstacle that we all face and must overcome: We as adults, and a society, are quick to devalue play. We hold this idea that life is serious, and that we need to prepare ourselves to deal with the seriousness of life. We must work and produce and constantly improve upon our human capital potential — which seemingly leaves no room for ‘unproductive’ play past childhood.
How many of you have heard or have been guilty of uttering discouraging little phrases such as “quit playing around,” or “get back to work”? It’s deeply embedded in our culture.
…And this perception combined with any of the barriers above is a perfect recipe for a sedentary and less fulfilling life. As Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, expressed: the opposite of play isn’t work, it’s depression.
The Pledge: Movement For All
Brene Brown wrote, “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a culture where exhaustion is seen as a status symbol.”
#MovementForAll is a declaration that play is a human right, necessary for whole health — both for the individual and the collective.
It is a commitment to everyone having access to lifelong, playful movement and community.
It is a call to courageous action, and a promise we make together: to teach, build, and share the path we discovered to fulfilling this commitment — that path being parkour.
For those of you unfamiliar, Parkour is a sport, …an art, …a discipline. Practice involves running, climbing, jumping, swinging, crawling, rolling. Practitioners create challenges for themselves, in the environments they find, using nothing more than their bodies and their imaginations. It involves facing fears and learning to take intelligent risks, as well as building resiliency through physical and mental training.
When compared to conventional sports, parkour culture also uniquely offers the potential for Radical Inclusion, Resourceful Generosity, and Evolving Practice.
Radical Inclusion. Every ‘body’ is not only invited to participate but celebrated — any ability, size, color, age. Come as you are. We offer a space of progressive practice, respectful language, and accountability. We reject gate-keeping and body-shaming. We believe in using movement to create unity among diverging perspectives, because movement is a language we all speak.
Resourceful Generosity. We crowd-source solutions and educational tools, organize free classes and events, and foster new leaders. We are Go Getters and Go Givers, creating and sharing so that the collective can get stronger. Together we support one another in overcoming the financial, physical, and cultural obstacles that so commonly prevent access to other activities.
Evolving Practice. Our play needs to grow up with us if we are to play for life. We ensure lifelong participation and community by giving people permission to change their practice as they grow. From exploration to competition to maintenance and back. There is no ageing out.
To that end, I believe in combining these values with programs and approaches focused on breaking barriers and increasing access to parkour and play for all.
So this my call to you, to take action, to create for yourself and others a space where we can play for now and for life. How will you help create #MovementForAll in your city?
Join my tribe dedicated to #MovementForAll: Parkour Visions.
PKV is a non-profit focused on ensuring everyone has a path to playful movement and community through parkour! Donate to our #MovementForAll Fund to support free and affordable programs and support services promoting play, parkour, coaching, and leadership.
Recently the Atlantic there was an article released on
“One very thorough study of “children’s independent mobility,” conducted in urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods in the U.K., shows that in 1971, 80 percent of third-graders walked to school alone. By 1990, that measure had dropped to 9 percent, and now it’s even lower.
When you ask parents why they are more protective than their parents were, they might answer that the world is more dangerous than it was when they were growing up. But this isn’t true, or at least not in the way that we think. For example, parents now routinely tell their children never to talk to strangers, even though all available evidence suggests that children have about the same (very slim) chance of being abducted by a stranger as they did a generation ago.”
⭐Maybe the real question is, how did these fears come to have such a hold over us? And what have our children lost—and gained—as we’ve succumbed to them?⭐
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 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.
