Tag Archive for: Freerunning

Since I no longer am a leading part of the Austrian Federation of Parkour and Freerunning (OEPFV) which I have co founded, I am willing to voice my opinion so openly and very blunt.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on parkour related companies and organisations worldwide. While business had to stop entirely for months for some enterprises in the parkour world, this did not stop the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) to push through with their plans in making parkour an olympic (gymnastics) discipline.

(Check out my detailed report on the international survey on the impact of COVID-19 on parkour businesses).

The Olympic Games in Japan 2021 have been an ambitious goal for the FIG in displaying parkour as a new discipline under the banner of gymnastics. On the way to becoming olympic, a “sport” has to undergo a certain process in which it qualifies to be considered for inclusion in the olympics. A very simple flow of milestones would be:

  • Inclusion of the sport in one of the existing IOC recognised international federations (the FIG claims parkour to be an extension of gymnastics, making the fit “perfect” for the FIG)
  • Inclusion of parkour as a discipline in as many countries as possible under the legislation of national gymnastics federations (in Austria this is the ÖFT)
  • Organisation / establishment of international competition formats (tryout runs for World Cups)
  • Organisation / establishment of “Worldcups” and “World Champions”
  • Testrun in the frame of Tokyo Olympics (as a newcomer discipline – not yet olympic)
  • IOC approval (information from December 2020: the IOC voted against the inclusion in the 2024 Olympics)
  • Inclusion in Paris Olympics 2024 (as is planned for Skateboarding in the yet to come Tokyo Olympics)

All of these steps are major and most of them have already been accomplished. At this moment it is not clear if the Olympics, that have been postponed from 2020 to 2021 can even take place in Tokyo this year, due to the rising infection numbers in Japan. But let a global pandemic not fool you, FIG is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve the next milestone.

A totally intransparent online video competition dubbed “World Cup” is what the FIG came up with.

And the saddest part of it all, at least for me personally, is the involvment of Austria in the form of Lukas and Lorenz, who come from a parkour community in Austria and who have volunteered in behalf of the Austrian Federation of Gymnastics to “represent” the country in this event.

To someone not familiar with the whole topic I understand you have questions.

  • Why should parkour NOT become an olympic discipline? Wouldn´t it be great?
  • Whats wrong with teaming up with gymnastics for reaching this goal?
  • What about all the possible jobs and carreers if parkour became olympic? So many futures and possibilities for young athletes?

And many more.

 

I will not answer these questions in this article but I can suggest further reading:

New York Times article ->“Add Parkour to the Olympics? Purists Say ‘Nah’”

Inside the Games articles (check out the related articles too)

BBC story on the topic

 

In short my answer is: the olympics are old, parkour is young, gymnastics is old, parkour is young. Since parkour is young and unorganised, a takeover is possible making HUGE potential profits possible. Everything else is secondary.

A similar story has taken place with other sports as well, skateboarding for example: “…like NBC pays the IOC billions and billions in broadcast fees and I learned how much power and sway that they have. I’ve also learned that they’re going to do this whether we’re on board or not. We basically had the option to tell these guys to go F themselves, but they were going to go and do it anyway and it’s going to be really bad and skateboarding’s going to look crappy to a billion people. Or we could try to rally the troops and make it as good as possible…”, says Neal Hendrix, pro skater, in an interview with TheGoodProblem skate blog/magazine

Hi Seb. Thank you for the opportunity! I recently saw your FB post regarding your thoughts on your role in James Bond. Below is a short summary, please correct me if needed:

You view the role you played critically as it portraits a black terrorist who at the end of a long (and amazing) chase scene get´s shot by James Bond, the white main character.

James Bond is a great character but it just happened that my sequence particularly remind me the cliché of “the bad black guy who is running away from the good white cops!” And it is hard to unsee that for me.

What was the trigger that made you look back and question your role in James Bond?

After I watched on Netflix the documentary 13th and understood that there are people in this world who really want us to be seen as bad and want to portray the colour of my skin as a sign low value.  I realised it is important and crucial for black kids to get representatives and inspiring model who portray a positive image to break this deeply unbalanced narrative.

Would you go back and make something different if you could?

 

I wouldn’t change anything. What is done is done and I’m still proud of my work.

I can remember a situation in Austria. We picked you up from the Vienna airport and went by train to central Vienna. In the main hall of the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) we were controlled by 2 police men. This had never happened before and I did not see the police controlling anyone else. Sadly, that´s why I dare assume that you probably have had a variety of experiences of discrimination:

Have you ever experienced/witnessed discrimination from parkour/freerunning/add practicioners or in the parkour environment in general?

I remember this moment very well and this is exactly what people of my colour experience disproportionately. I’m glad you were there to experience it because it allows you to witness and feel first hand how having a different colour skin can make you a target. My way of practicing Parkour has always been influenced by that. I don’t do anything that can give an excuse for someone or any authorities to over exercise their power on me. It is almost a second nature. My rules: practice in public places with friends, don’t go on rooftops unless you are invited or unless it is a professional situation.

Is there anything we as parkour practicioners could do or need to change in the discipline?

There is nothing to do really to be honest. The energy in the Parkour community is really good. It is a big, open minded place and really welcoming. It is just the case that Parkour is not really popular in the black community and it is understandable. When you are targeted, jumping over walls can be the reason that can lead you into trouble.

When looking at the history of parkour/freerunning/add diversity plays a huge role. The former Yamakasi (incl. you) and original practicioners came from so many different backgrounds.

When you all started what became this movement: how was the attitude from outsiders towards you and the group in the beginning? – In the recent podcast with John Hall you mentioned there was rarely to none interactions with outsiders in the beginning. Were you faced with difficulties in your practice due to the diversity of the group? How did the group approach diversity? How did it make you stronger?

First of all I started with David Belle, who was doing it before me. Our town Lisses is pretty small and almost everyone knew each other from children to parents. Only a handful of kids jumping around no one really cared. The Yamakasi story is a myth as far as it involves me. I was Yamakasi for the period of the creation of the group only. But I never really practice with most of them. This question is more to them as they really have a lot of shared experiences. I was lucky to grow up in a diverse environment where racism was not a daily issue.

Coming back to your achievements in the sector of performance and entertainment. When looking back at the collaboration with Madonna (music videos and live show tour): obviously it´s very different from what you did in James Bond: what do you think of it now? Are similar thoughts crossing your mind as with the movie?

The thoughts that crossing my mind are different in all the work I’ve done. Now I have to think positively and be constructive but always be aware and alert to what my skin colour can project and to make sure the message I send will educate and change the negative perceptions.

Thank you a lot for the time and openness!

Below you will find some links mentioned in the interview:

 

Simone Bicorgna is an italian practicioner who, after the events of the AOM 2019 in Matera released a statement openly discussing issues with the events surrounding the AOM that day. For Simone the AOM has raised questions on respecting spaces and on the ethics behind events like these. But it is not just Simones personal opinion. The AOM has caused an outcry from Matera locals and italian newspapers openly doubting the ethics of parkour/freerunning itself. Reason enough to take the initiative and ask Simone on his thoughts on it all.

At the end you will find many links to the articles, the actual AOM live stream, Storror and Storm coverage and other material related to the AOM in Matera.

Hi Simone. You recently released a statement (LINK!) in which you openly discussed your opinion on the Red Bull Art of Motion (AOM) that happened on October 5th in Matera Italy. Before diving into that:

  1. Who are you? What is your relation to Matera and the region?

I’m the director/president of ADD Academy Umbria, the first italian Art du Déplacement Academy directly recognized by the Yamakasi founders, that we opened in Italy in 2014. But first I’m a practictioner of Art Du Déplacement, I started to train in 2007 like many others, after many views of some parkour videos on youtube. Then in 2009 I met Laurent Piemontesi and after Chau Belle, Williams Belle and Yann Hnautra and I started training Art du Déplacement. I live in Terni, a small town in the centre of Italy, in the region Umbria, and I’m a full time coach in my association.

I was involved in a big project that ended in june 2019 in Matera and for this reason I have some good links, some friendships there, that is 500 km away from my place. I know the guys that live and train there, we worked together to make a big show and an International workshop supported by Fondazione Matera European Capital of Culture 2019.

  1. Can you quickly summarise what the key message of your statement was? What is it all about?

I noticed from the news that many accidents and disruption happened in Matera before, during and after the AOM, like damages to the Unesco heritage, and conflicts with the population, so I openly put the attention on it, because I think the most important values in the practice of ADD/parkour/freerunning are RESPECT and RESPONSABILITY. In my text I asked the readers some questions about that event: will there be any positive outputs for the local community? Which consequences for the town? Which for the RedBull brand? Who is going to pay for the damages? And, in the end, which kind of values are inspired by such events?

  1. Were you at the event yourself? How did you perceive the AOM?

No, I was not there, but I saw it on streaming.

  1. What are your main concerns in regards to the event?

I don’t like competitions but this is not the point. The main problem, as I see it, is the negative impact, caused by the event, on the inhabitants, and of course on the historical site. Matera is fragile and has to be protected. The organization of AOM didn’t pay any attention to that, but only on the show.

  1. Some time has already passed since the AOM took place. What is the feedback you have picked up so far?

a) What is the feedback from any officials and/or authorities? -> city administration for example

They didn’t say anything

b) What is the feedback from people living in Matera? How did they perceive the event.

I understood there is some disappointment, someone wrote about perceiving a sort of invasion by the freerunners, people jumping on the roofs of the houses at every hour for the whole weekend, annoying the owners of the houses, causing damages to walls and roofs and things like this. There were many calls to the police in those days by many inhabitants, and a journalist was beaten by a group of young freerunners because she was filming them while jumping on the roofs. I can’t say if in general people from Matera are happy about the AOM, but for sure someone is not. Recently the ADD/Parkour association of Matera “Muvt” realased a statement about that.

c) What was the feedback from the spectators from the event? Did they like the AOM?

I think that people who like AOM and went there to see the show, they liked it.

d) What is the feedback from the parkour communities who travelled to the event to see it live? (Have you heard anything?)

Same as before, I think the AOM has its audience, and these people love it, of course.

e) What is the feedback from the participating athletes? (Storror for example released a video -> LINK).

I don’t really much care about their opinion about that because, in some ways, they are part of the same business. Unfortunately Storror are already responsible for a sad accident that happened in Rome last year, filming themselves jumping on a police car. Because of that no one is anymore allowed to train where it happened and the local parkour associations had serious problems with their work on that area. Storror didn’t pay any consequences or apologize either.

  1. If we look at the relation between the AOM and the Greek island of Santorini for example. As much as I can´t relate to the AOM itself I still think the image of the island as a touristic location has benefitted from hosting the event since 2012. I don´t say the image of parkour has benefitted from the event but for the island and it´s public image it was probably a good thing. –  Do you think Matera is different from Santorini in this matter? – Why?

I don’t really think that places like Santorini or Matera need any help from the parkour community in order to grow their tourism; what I mean is that we are talking about people (ADD/parkour/freerunning practitioners) who, usually, don’t spend so much money while travelling, to let me think about them as an economic benefit for the city; in the particular case of Matera, they can cost a lot instead, causing damages to the ancient sites and roofs of the town.

  1. You mentioned the damages to the UNESCO world heritage: How serious is this damage we are speaking of?

I saw from facebook several walls cracked down and many damages on the roofs, so many that the President of “Fondazione Sassi” (the institution who works to promote and preserve the Unesco heritage in Matera) released an official disapproval statement that echoed through local and national newspapers.

a) Who do you think is to be held responsible for these damages?

First the Red Bull company that benefits from the event, then the ones who directly damaged the stuff, but also the Municipality for giving the authorization for the event.

b) What could have been done to avoid the damage?

I sincerely think Matera is not the place where an event like the AOM can be made without bad consequences, Matera is not Santorini, it is very old and fragile. Anyway the organization did not involved people from the town, or give any advice to the guys, there was not any security service. They came and went back home taking what they wanted, leaving damages.

  1. Do you fear long term consequences for your work in the region because of the AOM 2019? If yes: What kind of consequences? What are your thoughts?

Yes, of course. We did an amazing job in june working with Fondazione Matera European Capital of Culture 2019, but now I feel people in general will not understand the difference, also the municipality could ban future events.

  1. Do you think the AOM 2019 in Matera has helped spread parkour to a greater audience in Italy? Making it more accessible to an audience that had no idea of parkour yet for example?

For sure AOM it’s not promoting parkour, but parkour based competitions instead, that is very different.  I really can’t say if some people heard for the first time about parkour thanks to the AOM in Matera, probably it happened, but I think the great majority of the people who heard about this (understanding what parkour really is) already knew parkour. The real aim of Red Bull is promoting the energy drink in all the action sports and extreme sports in order to reach all the different markets. The marketing strategy is easy and probably the best in the world actually: to persuade all kind of people (mostly the youngers) to buy the Red Bull energy drink, because it helps you to overcome your limits and reach your goals. In order to achieve this goal, Red Bull has occupied every kind of sport, sponsoring (and owning) athletes, teams and of course events. Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz said: “We don’t bring the product to the consumer, we bring consumers to the product.” They associate the energy drink to the best athletes and the most extreme and spectacular sports to spread the energy drink to all the audiences who like these sports. Of course the athletes involved in the Red Bull Circus gain in terms of popularity and fame mostly inside the community, but I don’t think it helps so much to spread the parkour outside the community. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my opinion.

  1. Do you have anything else you want to mention? – Anything else to say?

I think Red Bull can easily pay for the damages and apologize for what occurred. I’m not against events like that, but what about ethics and responsibility? It seems to me that many teams and events are pushing on the marketing strategy to appear as outlaw, over any rules, spreading the message to the younger generations that they can do whatever they want and that it is just fun (escaping from police, invading private property, pushing the adrenaline on the maximum to reach the podium, the likes, the success). I want to say that this is all fake and very risky. The original spirit of the founders/pioneers is very different instead: intimate, respectful and responsible, very linked to the habitat and to the people and yet powerfully revolutionary. The new generations should have the opportunity to know and understand this primarily and fundamental approach based on positive values. Keep your Ego aside, put community first.

We don’t need to build anything fake to move freely, and I also think there is no evolution in the practice of parkour/freerun through competitions, because competitions and competitors are the orthodoxy in sport, it is a very conservative way to look on the physical activity, so, in my opinion, they are not pushing forward, but backward the movement, building themselves their own cage, with the audience screaming out to see them pushing over the limits like any other sport. And what happen if  anyone injuries oneself? They just cut him/her off from the competition and pick someone else up to occupy the empty seat, the show must go on. I still think the best and real competition is with yourself, with your own limits and fears, not with others.

 

Simone Bicorgna

 

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on this!

 

To finish this up here are some useful links if you want to know more:

AOM 2019 live stream – LINK

Simone Bicorgna statement – LINK

Newspaper article on the AOM in the local Matera newspaper – LINK

Newspaper article 2 on the AOM – LINK

Neswspaper article 3 on the AOM – LINK

ADD Academy Umbria – LINK

MUVT: local Matera Parkour group – LINK

Workshop video with Laurent Piemontesi and Marcello Pallozzo in Matera – LINK

Storror video of the AOM 2019 – LINK

Storm Freerun documentary on Ed Scott and his participation in the AOM 2019 – LINK

Source of pictures: unsplash.com, Simone Bicorgna

 

 

In October 2019 I had the chance to lead a session for the Parkour „Übungsleiter“ education, a preliminary step for the state recognized instructor certificate in Austria.

For the past years I have reflected on my style of teaching parkour and what values I want to transport. And to me it comes down to 3 major things:

  • Outdoor Training
  • Exploration
  • The use and creation of challenges

Before heading on here is a quick overview /table of contents of the article

Table of contents

Background

Outdoor training
Exploration
The use and creation of challenges

Designing challenges

Categories of challenges
The nature of a challenge
The context of a challenge or – the setting

Summary

Planning your students effort / performance
Conclusion

Outdoor training

Parkour is an outdoor activity.  It was born on the streets of Paris, Evry, Lisses and in the woods of Sarcelles. Parkour is Parkour because of the way people trained and developed it. Training outdoor, amongst other factors is what separates us from other disciplines like gymnastics for example. Sadly training outdoors is not something I can expect and take for granted in every practitioner I meet. Even when I look upon the next generation of coaches I don´t see this. And that´s a shame. It indicate the parkour culture is losing its touch with being outdoor, with being in the city, with shaping our spaces. I see people who openly admit not wanting to teach outdoors because of safety issues or because of fear. I see people who have rarely trained outdoors themselves in their years of practice. In my own session at the “Übungsleiter” I have heard the words (more or less like this): “I am too tired to train on concrete” – This still sticks to my head and I find it sad.

To cut the story short. I expect a good coach to focus his/her sessions outdoors. AND I expect a good coach to be able to deliver a beneficial session anywhere, geographically speaking. It should not matter if you are in a small town close to the alps in Austria or doing a session in a neighborhood of a big city you have not been before. Be there, do it, and do it outdoor. Sure there are occasions where indoor is better, but I am speaking on a  general basis here.

Exploration

I have a natural curiosity that is also reflected in my practice and in my teaching. I love looking for and discovering new spots AND making a different use of already known spots. If my character would not have this feature I would have stopped parkour very early on as at the times I had started there was nothing! We discovered the spots people train on right now. We saw the chances a place had to offer. We created movement where other people saw nothing. If you don´t like exploring you will always train in other peoples shadows. Every spot you go will have the stigma that someone else already did this or that, and you will feel either a need to achieve something similar OR a feeling of “oh alright” I can do this too. But when is the last time you were 100% certain that no one else has done this or that ever. Or that YOU must be the first person to train here? This is what parkour is about, because like this you take temporary ownership of a spot and forge a deep connection with the spot but also your own movement. So when I look at a coach I expect him or her to have made experiences like that.  These are the experiences we want to foster when coaching. These are the experiences that are valueable to practicioners. Exploration is key to these experiences and also key to making use of the outdoor environment. Especially when having to deal with unknown territory.  Exploration to me is a skill. One of many I want a coach to own.

The use and creation of challenges

The former attributes I described would be nothing without the knowledge and tools of creating a beneficial learning experience.  “Exploration” and “being outdoor” directly transfer into the skill of creating challenges to achieve our goals when coaching. Every session should have an underlying goal, something  a coach wishes to achieve for/ or transport to his/her participants. The “challenge” is a tool of doing this.

Why don´t I say exercise? A challenge is a type of exercise. Its outcome is not sure because it would not be a challenge if it is 100% sure you can do it. On the other hand something  physically impossible can never be a challenge. Let´s go with the Cambridge dictionary definition of a challenge: “(the situation of being faced with) something that needs great mental or physical effort in order to be done successfully and therefore tests a person’s ability.” Creating challenges in parkour sessions IS a challenge itself. It is a skill. It serves a coaching goal. It is done with responsibility for the health and safety of the people we teach. We should create meaningful challenges. 1000 push ups is in most of the cases not meaningful.  A challenge is foremost a test of ones abilities.

What I want to discuss further and what I have actually never written down yet is my own method of creating challenges, probably a big part of my own teaching. I want to do this because I hope other people can benefit from my approach. Use it to their liking and adapt it to their coaching. I don´t expect anyone to copy it. This approach has served me well over the years. Be it in designing the infamous Night Missions (the most extreme form of this approach so far). Be it when I was teaching my weekly classes on a regular basis or when teaching private sessions for people with specific needs.

Categories of challenges

When exploring my environment in the process of planning a session and developing challenges I often find myself in what I perceive as a complex environment. If the spot/area of your session is not well known to you or if you don´t know exactly how your group will be for the session (in terms of skill, in terms of size, etc.) then it becomes gradually harder in planning the right session. The more you as a coach don´t know about your session and everything that comes with it the higher I would say is the complexity of the task of creating a good session! Simplification is ONE means of dealing with a high grade of complexity, and the way I tend to think about challenges poses such a way of simplification. At least for a first step of planning a session.

Using categories of challenges for designing a session!

Imagine you are planning a session at a spot. You know what coaching goals you want to deliver and what the rough content of your session should be. The only thing you don´t know yet is what to do where exactly. What movement do you want to see where. What type of challenge do you incorporate?

The nature of a challenges

I for my part have come to think of challenges in certain categories. These are so far:

  • Balance

    There are a thousand ways of balancing. The simplest way might be standing upright on a bar. But balancing can be made impossibly hard. QM on a rail. Balancing on a chain? Doing other tasks while balancing? It is a basic skill in parkour that you simply can´t be good enough at. A good balance is the key to successful movement and successful bailing.

  • Climbing

    I often use climbing challenges at the beginning of a session as a means of getting to know my students and their skills. A technical climb on low level might show the level of strength they possess, their coordination, their recklessness or their thoughtfulness. It sometimes serves me as a diagnostic tool on the one hand but as a challenge in itself on the other hand. A technically easy climbing route up to a few meters height might be the sort of test for a student’s self estimation and mental strength.

  • Strength

    How do people get stronger? One way is doing strength and conditioning. Packing strength and conditioning in a challenge makes it more fun. But strength challenges can be a test of ones ability or a good way to get people out of their comfort zone. However you do it, always ask the question why you are doing a strength challenge. And: what type of strength are we training? (explosiveness, strength endurance, power?)

  • Offgroundchallenge

    Moving over an area without touching the floor. – I often combine this with teamwork. Presenting the problem in terms of a certain route for example, and then making a group of people help each other along the way. To me this serves as a way of developing communicational skills as well as problem solving.

  • Breaking jumps

    Breaking jumps might be one of the most important processes a parkour practicioner can go through. I always tend to present levels of difficulty for challenges like these if I am not sure how capable people are.

  • Movement at height / dealing with real fear

    Usually there is no big consequence in messing up a jump. So for some people it is tempting to throw themselves into a move without thinking too much. Introducing height to a challenge is something I like to do on a regular basis as it is an aspect of training I have neglected myself for a long time. The result was that I froze up as soon as I had to move on higher ground. Training dealing with height  and/or fear benefits the overall parkour training in my opinion and liberates a persons movement. This has to be done with great care though, always.

  • Endurance

    …is something a lot of parkour practicioners lack. A lot of people focus on single jumps instead of whole lines. Endurance might be the biggest neglected aspect of peoples parkour training. Don´t be that person. And don´t let endurance slip when you teach. An endurance challenge could be repeating a fixed line 10 times in 10 minutes. Or 20 times in 15 minutes. Depends on the line. Depends on the physicality.

  • Urban exploration

    I have shown people secret spots of their cities. For example an underground tunnel passing through the city center or abandoned bridges that lie in the dark. To me this is a category that is not really a stand alone category with a well defined aim. Urban exploration to me is a way of appreciating your environment. A way of forging a connection with city space. This is so related to my idea of parkour that I tend to incorporate this into my sessions sometimes. As a personal experience rather than a means of progressing a persons parkour skills.

  • …and many more

These are some of the categories when I think of challenges. And each type of challenge may serve a certain goal in my session as you can check out in the descriptions and examples above. But if you think of the categories of challenges as the CONTENT / NATURE of a challenge there is yet another aspect of a challenge that you can and should have in mind when designing it. This aspect can be adjusted and can be designed too.

The context of a challenge or – the setting

The setting can be worked with and changed and every setting can serve its own goal.

  • Teamchallenge or working alone

    Training alone has benefits. Achieving something alone has benefits too. For example breaking a jump. On the other hand solving problems together or sticking together in training when things get hard is something to consider when designing challenges. The question to answer for yourself when considering if a participant of your session should move on their own or in a team is: what do I want my students to learn from this? No promises it will work out BUT having this thought process dialed in is important.

  • Moving with a backpack as added weight vs. no added weight

    A lot of times people feel comfortable with just moving. Add their backpack into the game and their hard acquired skills become useless. Adding the backpack is a simpleand effective means of scaling exercises. I don´t say you have to have the same moves under your belt with or without backpack. All I say is you still should be able to do a climb up, a wallrun and some basic moves even with your backpack on. If you can´t move with your backpack on what would you do in a situation where you HAVE to? Being an emergency situation or trying to keep up with the Storrors on one of their roof missions? The sad answer to this question was presented to me back in 2009 when we got robbed in London – ever since I run, jump and climb even with 10kg on my back. – Sometimes…- https://www.we-trace.at/2016/01/15/the-vauxhall-robbery/

  • Timed challenges and added stress

    Adding time to a challenge can switch it up and make something totally different of it. In the “Übungsleiter” I had a simple offgroundchallenge with a degree of height in there. It was technically easy. I introduced timed laps and wanted to encourage the teams to go as fast as possible. I hoped this would force the group into a more uncomfortable situation as the challenge itself was not (yet) demanding. As I did not check up on every team I don´t know if it worked in the situation but I hope you get the idea.

  • Height and fear

    I have already introduced this as a type of challenge but to me this is a type of setting as well.

  • Competitive vs. non-competitive

    Introducing time restrictions for example is a way of making a challenge competitive. If you compared the times between groups it would make the challenge even more competitive. But beware competition bears the risk of injury and short sighted decisions. As with working with heights, introducing competition should be done with great care. As a coach you want to know your group and how they might react to competition.

  • …and many more

By adjusting the NATURE of a challenge as well as its CONTEXT I dare say it is possible to cater to most of the coaching goals you want to transport. Of course it needs a lot of preparation. It needs a lot of planning. It needs the willingness to try new things as a coach and a certain extent of creativity. The categories I have listed above are just examples of my own coaching practice. You will have other categories in mind or maybe you have already developed other ideas. Maybe you can think of a dozen different settings to use in a challenge. That would be awesome! Because that is exactly what I am aiming for with this approach.

Planning your students effort / performance

Challenges should be scaleable to cater to every skill level and to the whole group. If you think of a session as a chain of challenges, thinking in the proposed categories allows to judge the type of exhaustion, the type of effort your group will be faced with. It also allows for a well balanced planning of the type of effort you will demand of your students. Climbing might demand strength in the arms but balancing might relax the arms and demand concentration. Endurance might be hard on, well, endurance, but working on height might allow for some rest endurance wise. Chain your challenges together wisely and you can achieve quite a high performance output of your students without killing them physically. That´s the main concept behind the Night Mission where we cover a distance of up to 25km in 9hrs of constant movment! (The distance is not the aim of the Night Mission it is merely a result of transporting oneself from one spot to the other).

Conclusion

My categorization of the nature and the context of challenges is neither whole nor is it 100% defined. Sometimes categories may overlap, be a subset of a different category, whatever. I realize this. BUT remember that this system shall help reduce complexity not serve as a definition.

If this system helps any coach to bring more structure into his/her session I dare say mission accomplished. Especially to new coaches or coaches from a way different background I assumed this way of thinking can be of benefit. That´s why delivering this approach was my main aim at the “Übungsleiter” in October 2019 but also at a session in New York earlier this year.  If you have any questions or if you want to discuss this further you can reach me at alex(at)we-trace.at

When someone asks me if he or she or if this or that person can do parkour I usually instantly reply “yes” – “of course”. Usually with no further explanation except that it´s all about the way you approach parkour and that you should not compare yourself to others. Stephane Vigroux´s post on Instagram is more on point though.

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Anyone can do parkour but parkour is not for everyone

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Suppose you hate challenging yourself, you are afraid of even looking out of your very narrow comfort zone. Suppose you really do not like to interact with your environment or face your weaknesses and/or are mainly motivated extrinsically. Well I guess there might be better practices to pick up than parkour. It is still my deepest believe, and of many others, that any person regardless sex, age, gender, heritage, ethnicity, religion or any other social demographic variable, can practice parkour. Practicing parkour and progressing in parkour are not bound by these variables. What the real problem is, is the persons attitude toward him/herself, their expectations on what they have to achieve or deliver and especially their own fear on how they score in relation to what they see on social media and/or from others. For me there is only ONE single constant that I aim on scoring myself on. Do I progress in my training and my parkour practice? Progress can mean physical progress, technical progress or maybe mental progress, maybe even all of the above at once or maybe rehabing out of an injury, slowly and steadily.

So when someone asks me in the future if he/she can do parkour my answer is still “yes” – “of course” but I might think to myself – “do you think you have what it takes?” and I might make them ask themselves what they expect from practicing parkour.

I am well aware though that the realisation that stands behind these thoughts is nothing we can just tell someone or something we can teach solely by talking about it. I guess people have to make their own experiences and somewhere along the way honestly review themselves.

Thanks to Stephane for being so on point.

Find Stephane on [icon icon=icon-instagram size=16px color=#000 ] here: https://www.instagram.com/stephane_vigroux

 

As you know I am a great fan of interviews and in the past I dedicated a lot of resources towards conducting a variety of interviews with parkour-related people. Recently Skochymag lead by the awesome Andy Day has released interviews with Blane, Boki and Thomas Couetic.

Andy got a great sense for relevant and sharp questions and the three interviews you can find below are a great read. My last interview with Blane dates back to 200x, in the time between then and now Blane has totally changed his life to being a fulltime firefighter in London, leaving most of his coaching duties behind and living our well known motto “being strong to be usefull” to its fullest.

If you happen to don´t know Boki already, he is a Serbian traceur, Etre Fort sponsored athlete and one of the main influences of parkour in Eastern Europe.

Thomas is the second generation of traceurs originating from France and currently living in Fontainbleau. Along with others from his generation (Stephane Vigrourx, Kazuma, the Shintais and many more) he is a direkt link to the early phase of parkour, a still active practicioner and a soruce of parkour wisdom and philosophy, although he mostly keeps to staying in the background. Enjoy the interview.

The only thing I regret when reading the interviews is not having done them myself 🙂

The KRAP gym was one of the first of its kind and when earlier this year it was announced that KRAP will be undergoing fundamental structural changes the opportunity arose to get a glimpse behind the curtains of one of the biggest parkour and freerunning dedicated facilities out there.

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Below you will find a firsthand interview with the people behind the Krapannone gym. At this point a HUGE THANK YOU to the team for sharing all the details you will find below.

A – Opening question

Can you introduce yourselves? Who are the people behind KRAP and what´s your story? Who are we talking to right now? 🙂

is a result of the passion for freestyle sports and parkour in particular of three young athlets: Riccardo age 20, Valentino age 22, Giovanni age 20.

Krap came out from a group of friends passionate in freestyle disciplines, skate, parkour, snowboard and more, we funded in 2008 a sport association called KRAP A.S.D. and started teaching skate in the city skatepark and parkour in a small municipal gym. In those areas we were not allowed to carry vault boxes or other parkour equipment so, after the first year, together with a small group of 30 students, we decided to build our own facility to train and also plan all the other associative activities such as workshops, events and shows, that’s when Krapannone was born, in October 2010.

My name is Valentino Di Lauro, President of Krap A.S.D. and I am proud to say that we made the Krapannone for ourselves in the first place because it was our dream to train also when the weather was bad and to keep progressing in our disciplines.

B – Gym infrastructure and environment

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The KRAP gym is located in Santorso (Province of Vicenza) in the north of Italy. Santorso with its ~6000 inhabitants seems like a small village. The city of Vicenza (~120.000 inhabitants) being 25km away.

How well accessible was the gym in your view?

The gym location was due to a good (at the time) rental deal with the owner of the space which was not too far away from where we all lived.

How many classes did you run per week and how many people visited your regular classes (weekly)?

We have 15 different classes that people can attend 1 or 2 times a week, divided in 3 different level range and age from 4 years old up

Total number of participants per week:~200 of which 90 % are locals living within 10 km distance.

Could you characterise your main client groups for us? (In terms of age, where they came from geographically, level of experience in pk/fr, whatever helps to get a picture of who your regular visitors were)

As I think all gyms most of the people are kids approaching the discipline for the first time, from 8 to 14 years old.

How many events did you host / organise each year and what events were they? We know the famous Krapinvaders Jam, the KrapFreerunning competition, anything we missed?

Indoor main event is Krap Invaders Winter in Krapannone, that we did every January since 2011. We organize minor in-door events during winter mainly as guest in other structures. Main out-door event is Krap Invaders Summer + other minor events mostly in Italy as guests.
“Krap Challenge” Freerunning competition we organize only in case that we find proper sponsor, so it was done 2 times, 2013-2014

C – KRAP finances

On your website we found the statement that for financial reasons you have to move your gym to another, smaller location. A few questions that came to my mind were.

What were the overall monthly costs of maintaining the gym? [We provided various answer categories]

 1.>4000 Euros per month,

How big was the space?

1100 square meters

Did you have fixed employees / a staff of members or coaches that you were paying?

3 fixed employees, 7 teachers paid by teaching hours.

How much did building the whole gym cost? (Equipment, restoration of the building?, creating the foam pit?)

The gym is 100% DIY, that’s were we saved a lot of money, I think that building the actual setup would be over 80.000€, that we managed maybe to spend half thanks for all friends working for free and self-planning and constructing everything

How did you finance the gym in general? Did you take any loans from banks? Did you have savings before? Did you receive funding? What about sponsorship deals or cooperation with other parkour organisations?

I believe that our project is unique first of all because our investemet was maybe the lowest ever, 5.000€ from our saving, that were used for paying the first months, then we used some scaffolding brought in our last event in the cit..
As we didn’t have significant funds to start with, we had to begin early the activity to earn some money for the second month! So after 10 days of forced-labour camp with little the help we cleaned up the structure, layed down the parquet in the small gym for kids and started parkour lessons, with in empty warehouse with one scaffold, a decathlon trampoline, and a few wooden vaults… no mats, no tumbling, no foampit!

We never had sponsors because in this small city they’re hard to found, we’ve collaborated with a lot of parkour organizations or athletes that came here and helped us with promotion and activities.

What were your main sources of income? (Classes, Events, Merchandise,…?)

Classes, Events and membership fees for the use of the Gym. Merchandizing sales a bit inside the gym, but krapstore.com is international oriented.

D – The KRAP image and events

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How would you describe the KRAP image?

Since the beginning Krap mission was to spread the Parkour / Freerunning knowledge through events, courses in Krapannone and video activities in the web. Krap name and Logo has become synonymous of freestyle life. Sport garments and gadgets related with our name and logo has become the flag of a large community, I think our difference with the other teams/brands parkour related is that we embrace complete freedom, and we have space for every point of views or projects, Krap is a tool that everyone can use to build his dream!

What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of your image? Do you think KRAP had an image problem?

Strengths is the one I cited above, and sometimes that’s also our weakness, as we embrace a lot of views and different activities sometimens we can appear disordered or we lose some focus in some…
Since the foundation KRAP made something in these fields:

  • Classes in: Parkour, skate, bmx, breakdance, juggling
  • Exibitions in the above disciplines
  • Building parkour, skate, bmx structures
  • Renting a warehouse and building a gym (Krapannone – 2010)
  • Renting another warehouse and building a Skatepark (The Wall Skatekrap – 2014)
  • Building an outdoor bikepark (Nanto’s Park 2016)
  • Building structures and organizing contest and activities in big events (The Jambo 2013-2014 and more)
  • Organizing our events and inviting people from all over the world, most of the time giving good athletes found on the web the chance to travel and be noticed in the parkour community
  • Making HI quality parkour and events videos for Youtube and facebook (2009-now)
  • Creating a clothing brand and made an online store: krapstore.com
  • Sponsorship of famous or emerging athletswith our garments
  • Enjoyed ourselves with all these activities

Do you think KRAP has influenced the world wide parkour/freerunning scene?

I think we’ve influenced a lot this world, more internationally than in Italy.

We have been among the first to produce great videos and invite international people in parkour events, expecially the Russians, our gym was also the first in Europe and I think our structures are also more elaborated comparing on what you find on regular events.

Events like KRAP Invaders and your competition are well known and some of the first of their kind. What is / was the motivation behind these events and how big of a role did they play in the financial maintenance of KRAP as a whole?

Gathering the international community, spread the name and logo Krap, spread the knowledge of our garments and gadget line www.krapstore.com is our main motivation, make a good job with this stuff and give people a good environment to train and have fun! Unfortunately Krap Invaders as self-financed event is not profitable (despite the high price), most of the times it’s an investment and a lot of people including us are working for free or very low money to organize and set-up the event.

Competition can be a better business when you do it in the name and with a good deal with a main sponsor.

E – Running a parkour / freerunning gym

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The more people frequent a place like KRAP the more likely it seems injuries happen at some point. Did you have any serious injuries happening in the gym?

Injuries are part of the game in every form of sport activity. Our courses in krapannone teach to better understand the possibilities and the limits of our body, train mindfulness and movement creativity. I do not think that the rate of injuries in krapannone is an issue (we may count 4 or 5 minor accidents per year only one or two requiring hospitalization

What was your policy on handling the everyday dangers of providing a training space? Did you let people sign a waiver? Did you have a special insurance going? How did you manage people in classes vs. people who trained on their own? And especially: how did you manage underage kids and teenagers in that sense?

Everyone using the facility, either for the courses or free training, is requested to become member of a recognized sport association (KRAP) affiliated to a National Sport entity called UISP. Every athlete is covered by an insurance and for the events we ask the participants to sign a waiver both for adults and minors.

F – Closing questions

What are the the most important aspects of running a parkour-gym in your point of view? What are the main lessons learned?

  • Dedication, entrepreneur mind, a community and a lot of volunteers.
  • Lesson learned is common for every kind of social activity:
  • Work hard, be creative, and be humble as somebody is always better somewhere! Learn from them and from your mistake.

Do you feel like KRAP failed or is it more an adaptation, maybe a welcome adaptation and a chance for new ways?

We have worked hard, sustained lot of pressure and economical adversities, but learned a lot and exposed ourselves to the International community. By enlarging the base of practitioners there will be more opportunities in the future and Krap aim is to remain a main reference for the international community.

Do you have any special projects planned in the near future?

We are working a lot to expand the quality and distribution of garments and gadgets on krapstore.com. And this summer we’re coming with 3 KRAP INVADERS events, that will be a great chance for everyone to join!, check out dates and places in www.krapinvaders.com

How will KRAP continue now?

Krap activities will continue and improve.We found now a new place for classes in 2016/17 Season, and we’re scouting new locations for Krapannone 2.0 which may be operative in 2017/18 Season

Thank you for your time and the interview in general. Good luck!

For an action packed tour through the current gym setup featuring the incredibly talented Krystian Kowalewski check out the latest video.

More Info on the gym and upcoming events at