Parkour

Parkour, Art du Deplacement, Free Running

UNESCO’s best kept secret

April 26, 2015

I was recently made aware of a UNESCO document known as their “International Charter for Physical Education and Sport”. I’m quite sure not a lot of people even know of its existence (and most certainly not within our community). This document contains some of the most beautiful thoughts and ideas on physical education and sport that I have ever come across, and what is more interesting, a lot of them seems to be identical with what we believe is good, beautiful and right with our chosen discipline of parkour/freerunning/ADD.

~ Mikkel Rugaard from, http://www.streetmovement.dk/thoughts-from-our-crew/2014/10/15/protecting-our-heritage-and-fostering-creativity

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Parkour bones

April 15, 2015

When training Parkour we learn a lot of different movements, jumping, rolling, running, swinging, pushing, pulling and so on. Sometimes we also learn how to fall without getting injured.

This is a skill, really. A skill that consists of awareness, reaction ability and the understanding that you need to keep the momentum, distributing the force through out the body. This is somewhat amazing to look at. And people, who train bail-techniques often, can become extraordinary at falling.

~ Marcus Grandjean from, http://www.streetmovement.dk/thoughts-from-our-crew/2014/9/17/parkour-bones

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Lofty goals (part two)

April 7, 2015

The difficulty, for we who seek it, is that as an art does grow and change this jewel can become harder to find in the confusion, the noise and the bright lights. Indeed, it can become so buried that newer generations, new audiences, who never experienced the idea in its raw form, may not even know it exists. That, to me, seems a great shame as that rough-hewn gem at its heart is the real gift of parkour – or indeed of any good art-form.

~ Dan Edwardes from, http://danedwardes.com/2013/06/15/way-of-the-pathfinder-part-two/

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Being in balance

March 26, 2015

Being in balance is an amazingly complex process that our body handles at all times – sitting, standing, walking or simply moving. Without balance we would fall. And moving in diverse environments creates the need of very good balance. But as stated in the beginning, it is very complex. Because how do we even define balance? Is it the ability not to fall? Or is it the ability to react to falling – and adapt – in that specific moment?

~ Marcus Grandjean from, http://www.streetmovement.dk/thoughts-from-our-crew/2014/9/30/balance-the-edge

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Boards don’t hit back

March 16, 2015

Along with that, Bruce taught me to strive for reaching my potential. I might never get there, but the mere fact of trying, learning, and failing is what makes life worth it. I truly hope that when the credits roll on my movie (it’s an Adventure Superhero Comedy…a new genre), I can look back and say, “I did the best I could to fulfill my potential.”

~ Steve Kamb from, http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2014/04/17/boards-dont-hit-back-the-legend-of-bruce-lee/

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The War

March 14, 2015

Yet in the practice of parkour there is also a war being fought: a psychological battle that we are presented with every time we step up to a jump or a movement we have not yet mastered, every time the fear of failure or falling rests its dark gaze upon us and tells us to give up, to go home, to try it another day, to excuse ourselves into accepting defeat.

~ Dan Edwardes from, http://danedwardes.com/2013/06/15/the-war/

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Communities versus networks

March 8, 2015

Unfortunately, true community in our modern world is hard to find for soldiers and civilians alike. Instead, we increasingly live out our lives as members of networks. This transition from community to network life is truly at the heart of the increasing feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and anomie that many people experience in the modern age. We’ve never been so “connected” — and yet so isolated at the same time.

~ Brett McKay from, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/07/01/communities-vs-networks-to-which-do-you-belong/

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Fit for purpose

February 26, 2015

For me, fitness and health are just a means to a larger end – something to enable me to live as I wish, to accomplish what I want, to face any challenge and adversity that may come my way and do my best to overcome it. Fitness isn’t the goal in and of itself; it’s just a tool, a part of my training which in itself is simply to allow me to follow my path for as long as I desire. It’s a by-product of living my life to the fullest, nothing more.

~ Dan Edwardes from, http://danedwardes.com/2013/06/15/fit-for-purpose-2/

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