Leon, I can honestly say I've gone all out for (about) 90seconds. The only reason for that though is because I was somewhere I shouldnt have been and was trying to stay in motion avoiding the consequences that might have come if I stopped.

However, thats not the point of this post. I just wanted to say that, at first, I was disappointed with how the competition was run. I was expecting more fluidity in the runs where they were mostly just tricking and showing off. After reading both of Skip's posts Ive changed my opinion. As much as I may not have liked it who am I to say it was a poor competition? The people competing were clearly having fun and, apparently, they were also basically running the show. I have no idea what I would have done in such a position so I cant say what I wouldve done differently. That being said, I wouldnt have changed anything... except the layout, seemed kinda cluttered and not much space to move. Im also very happy that none of it was referred to as Parkour but strictly Free Running. To me this competition made the thin line between the two seem very broad.

I may be hypocritical when saying all this since before I didnt even like the idea of the competition, but after watching it and reading what Skipper had to say Ive changed my mind a little bit.

Animus, I was actually quite surprised at the amount of attention this thread got from the higher ups. I am quite in agreement with Leon in respect to the keeping the arguments civil and respectful. Low blows to another's opinions are just unnecessary. We all have opinions and we all want them heard. I won't post mine because I haven't developed it well enough, but I did enjoy much of what I saw of the Championship. Regardless of opinions, keep it civil. Savvy?

GOOD JOB SKIPPER

So... Sounds like Skipper won? If he was the only one who actually flowed, then I don't even think it was a competition. Maybe a slaughter, or a massacre, murder, annhilation, destruction, pwnage. I could go on and on. Basically I'm saying I would rather see a kong vault or an underbar followed by some flow, than, say, a Quintuple 720 gainer, but thats just me. 

Na sorry guys, I didnt win, but I did make it all the way to the top 5 finals! None of that mattered to anyone there really, just that we were all having a good time.

And there were a few more moments than I would have liked where it was one trick, pause, a few ground tricks, pause, etc. But after doing my first run I realized how tough it was to keep going and going. Thank god I did nothing but endurance training the week before! I felt very confident with my runs and how tight they felt. I can remember being very tired, but pushing through it to keep the run going. Hopefully the youtube clips will be out soon so you all can see!

So spinja, I think you'll like my runs

Parkour is not competitive. Period.

which means this can't be parkour, so stop worrying about it everyone who is worrying about it. This is free running, or tricking- people having a good time and making friends, performing for a crowd and making people glad that they saw something special.

I only have one small problem.
I have come to understand that-
- Free running is self expression through eye catching aesthetic movement
- Parkour is smooth, graceful, flowing movement overcoming obstacles efficiently
In all my time training, hardly anyone thinks that what I'm doing is parkour. they all think it's called free running, and when I try to correct them of what they see as a small error, they lose interest or ask me to do a flip.
now, I have no problem with free running. Each to their own, I guess. I know some people think parkour is silly and an unnecessarily dangerous art, so who am I to judge.
What I have a problem with is how much people make it it look and sound like parkour. If you are doing parkour, for goodness sake make it fast, make it smooth, make it flow with unstoppable grace. If you're free running, mess around lots and flip all over the place with uncontrollable, breath-taking orgasmic daring and when you're making a video or training or showing people what you can do say exactly what it is you're doing. Say 'ok, this is parkour' or have a little tag at the bottom of the vid, then do some insane rail tricks, run up a wall or two, do an incredibly impossible cat vault to precision. The only reason people think parkour is less eye-catching than free running is because it takes more training to make parkour kick ass. If you're about to run up a wall and flip, or palm spin, tell people that you're about to do some free running. Help those of us who care about the commercial and political future of parkour and better define the fuzzy line between pk and fr.

enough of the old bugger act, I'm off to terrorize the rest of the forums

I guess I'm going to have to get used to things around here! nztraceur.com is the purist of the pure

I understand you do parkour, and know a lot about parkour, but your ideas about freerunning are completely mistaken.... to a point that its condescending to actual freerunners. I can do a fast, smooth speedvault, right into a quick wall pass, right into a tic-tac to get over a slightly smaller wall. it will be graceful, it will be fast, it will be smooth. Does that make it parkour? Nope. Parkour is the Mindset of efficiency, you have to be moving for the purpose of achieving a goal that is only reached by the efficient movements you create. You can move a smooth and fast and graceful as you want, but until you have the purpose behind you, its still freerunning.
You seem to think a suitable difference between parkour and freerunning is: parkour is grace and fluidity, freerunning is clunky, has lots of flips and is only done to show off. You couldnt be more wrong, and its a good example of how misinformed people are when it comes to the differences. Freerunning is an expression of someone's mind and body, it can be ANYthing. A lot of people do flips, because thats the easiest way for them to express themselves in their movement. If you watch my training, you couldnt tell if it was freerunning or parkour, because a lot of time, I dont even train the flips if I want to train fluidity.... because thats how I express myself. It doesnt have to be eye catching, or "messing around with lots and flip all over the place with uncontrollable, breath-taking orgasmic daring"...... thats like saying all muslims are terrorists, it is offensive, its most definitely not true, and all it shows is a hint of ignorance on your side.


I fully agree that people need to know what they are doing, whether its parkour or freerunning, and I know that was your initial point, but you still seem to not understand what freerunning is, thats all. Im not asking you to try it, but you shouldnt try to try to make people think you have the correct definition of freerunning.... because you know, you saying freerunning is nothing but dangerous flips and eye catching stunts is just about as bad as me doing a flip and telling people its parkour