Early Stages
When we first start practicing in parkour we see many videos and want to be like that person straight away. We see a good stunt and most of the time try some kind of imitation, this is often helpful for physical improvement but isn’t always the right way. For tracers now we have so many online resources that teach ‘the basics’, so new freerunners are often led into a specific pattern: ticking off their latest moves as it were.
Many interpret parkour as their way of expressing freedom, but freedom of what? For beginners this is usually freedom of movement and they are definitely right in this sense. But for me and many long term practitioners it is a freedom of the mind in priority. Freerunning is about taking your own personal path so in thought of imitations: is following someone else’s path really freedom of mind?
Breaking society’s boundaries does not have to end with trespassing and vandalism, it does not even have to be a physical motion. Freedom is in the mind so if parkour is part of your life the point is not how you express it, it’s why you express it.
This thought approached me as I was watching the work of the Yamakasi and David Belle they are at the standard they are because they chose their own path, they expressed their view of freedom therefore nothing in their movement is provoked or forced. David Belle, Sebastien Foucan, and all other early practitioners of the sport never had access to these resources and this is why their freerunning journey became so pure. Obviously as parkour progresses this will be harder and harder to accomplish because more help and information is always being published. This does not mean parkour in the future has to be judged by what movements a man can do and what he can’t. I think parkour should remain a personal discipline and we should look upon these resources as more of an inspiration rather than a template.
Many interpret parkour as their way of expressing freedom, but freedom of what? For beginners this is usually freedom of movement and they are definitely right in this sense. But for me and many long term practitioners it is a freedom of the mind in priority. Freerunning is about taking your own personal path so in thought of imitations: is following someone else’s path really freedom of mind?
Breaking society’s boundaries does not have to end with trespassing and vandalism, it does not even have to be a physical motion. Freedom is in the mind so if parkour is part of your life the point is not how you express it, it’s why you express it.
This thought approached me as I was watching the work of the Yamakasi and David Belle they are at the standard they are because they chose their own path, they expressed their view of freedom therefore nothing in their movement is provoked or forced. David Belle, Sebastien Foucan, and all other early practitioners of the sport never had access to these resources and this is why their freerunning journey became so pure. Obviously as parkour progresses this will be harder and harder to accomplish because more help and information is always being published. This does not mean parkour in the future has to be judged by what movements a man can do and what he can’t. I think parkour should remain a personal discipline and we should look upon these resources as more of an inspiration rather than a template.