Parkour – More Than Just a Sport.

Ask someone whose experience and knowledge of Parkour is more limited and they may describe the movement as simply doing flips or jumping between buildings.

For anyone more closely involved in the world of Parkour however, the values, principles and experiences that practicing the movement brings is so much more than just that.

Training Parkour can bring skills such as coordination and balance but it’s also the benefits that training can have to your own self-respect, confidence and determination that often get overlooked. Ultimately to reach a certain level in Parkour requires discipline, consistency and determination, which are principles that can readily be applied to achieving our goals in other aspects of life too.

Such principles go back to one of the earliest Parkour groups and teams the Yamakasi. Part of the Yamakasi’s team’s philosophy was the idea that overcoming obstacles in Parkour can then be taken and applied to other problems in our lives and serve as a reference that overcoming these everyday challenges was therefore also possible.

With Parkour gyms proving a more structured training environment in which to develop one’s ability in the movement, the wider principles and philosophy that Parkour/Free Running also encompasses similarly becomes passed down to those newest to the sport. Particularly as experienced coaches who teach Parkour in this more structured environment are often the people who have been involved and following the sport since the philosophy of the movement was being developed within its earliest years.