On Castbox.fm — Don Beeson | Overlanding, Combatives, and Event Missions Recap

How can survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) skills intersect with and enhance the practice of Parkour?

Teaching Parkour athletes to slow down offers unexpected lessons in awareness and strategy.

The nice thing about teaching and in working with the Parkour community, when I noticed this last year, when I first came is that how enthusiastic everyone is to learn in general, everyone is very athletic, everyone’s very physically minded and very intelligent. A lot of the things that I teach people are picking up very quickly.

~ Don Beeson (1:12)

The conversation explores how military survival and resistance training techniques intersect with Parkour, revealing unexpected similarities between the two disciplines. Practical skills like navigation, situational awareness, and movement efficiency demonstrate significant overlap, and Parkour practitioners’ adaptability in both urban and wilderness environments is highlighted. The enthusiasm and curiosity of the Parkour community provide a rewarding teaching environment for instructors with military backgrounds.

Additionally, the discussion touches on night missions and team-building exercises at the Art of Retreat, showcasing how structured physical challenges reinforce leadership, communication, and problem-solving. The conversation goes into the value of slowing down and appreciating movement in new ways, emphasizing the mutual benefits that arise when different communities exchange knowledge and skills.

Takeaways

Crossovers between Parkour and SERE training — The overlap between survival training and Parkour skills provides valuable insight into movement and adaptability.

Navigation and map reading — Parkour practitioners gain new skills by learning topographic navigation techniques from survival experts.

Team-based challenges — Collaborative exercises during night missions foster leadership, communication, and teamwork.

Slowing down to learn — Moving slowly and deliberately enhances situational awareness and leads to better movement decisions.

Mutual learning — Survival instructors learn efficient movement techniques from Parkour athletes, enriching their own teaching methods.

Resources

Art of Retreat — Annual Parkour leadership and education retreat where the conversation takes place.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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