Hey APK, read the following article and then let's discuss.

http://www.blane-parkour.blogspot.com/2007/04/dilution.html

Will

I don't find anything new in there for me, meaning things I have felt about parkour.

People shouldn't compare themselves to others. I thought all tracuers knew and understood this. This is the way of parkour, to not compete and to not compare.
I didn't know this was such a big problem.

Regardless, he is quite right of the "by the book" notion he was talking about. I have been practicing for 2 years, known of parkour for 3, and my friend always tells me that I do my movements "weird" as if it's my own little twist. He says I need to read more.

A. I realized immediately he was not a tracuer, not full in spirit, body, mind....not yet. Why?

B. Weird....compared to who? Clearly comparison was/is in him.

C. Read more. That affirms Blanes saying others have more info. these days. That's not exactly a good thing.

D. I was training for years without ever knowing about the APK site. I didn't know Parkour was popular enough to have a site. I learned parkour by watching the vids on the internet, and because there were so many different styles and people training parkour, my style was a combination of everyone I saw on the internet. Hundreds interpreted into my own personal style.

E. Merely by saying to read more, that implied I needed to correct something, as if my way was wrong.

It really irks me, actually I find it quite disgusting and ignorant, when he tells me to read more becuase my movement is weird. I move
my way, we all do. This knowledge separates the tracuers from the ones who "do" parkour.

Sometimes this is the way. But to play a little devil's advocate, personal flair in parkour is very similar to personal flair in my major course study, Fine Art.

If I were to make a parallel between your argument and fine art, then it would say that those who study art history and still produce art are not truly artists. Now we know that this is not the case and almost any worthwhile arts institution will require you to study some form of art history.

These aren't the best examples, but they're both contemporaries. Here's Richard MacDonald: http://www.richardmacdonald.com/ On his about me you can see he underwent a very traditional learning process.

This is a bust from John B. Andelin: He's self taught.

Now is Richard MacDonald not an artist because he was required to read, study, and likely (from my own personal experience) asked to replicate some of the great masters works?

So we come to a crossroads. Is it necessary for you to read more to become a more accomplished traceur? I'd suggest probably not. But when you consider that it can only help, then you have to ask whether or not you're mitigating your progression by refusing to read.

Am I not an artist because I too have taken a fascination with gymnastics and reproduce it in my sculpture such as Richard MacDonald did? I'd sure hope not.

We also come to another issue. Is your friend truly not a traceur? Or is he simply not a traceur in your eyes? We find yet another parallel to the artistic world; where everyone's own interpretations about what art "is" defines how they view the professionalism of different artists. They may jump at the chance to label the great Michelangelo as one of the defining artists of all time, based on personal preference. And with that same preference, scowl at Duchamp's "fountain" for being completely absurd.

While knowledge about art can be defined formally and be achieved through a master's degree, it still remains something that most everyone defines for themselves, regardless of proper training or study.

Parkour is an art, therefore giving it essence. In parkour, almost every traceur trains and practices the kong. But there are many ways a kong can be done and although I could ask Tyson and Jereme to demonstrate a kong, both demonstrations would be slightly different. Is this because Jereme and Tyson holed themselves up from the internet? Nope. Quite the opposite I believe. So both kongs were performed differently, yet both were kongs, and both were considered an act of parkour.

So are your movements weird? Perhaps. I haven't seen them. The point is you don't have to be so hostile or peeved at the notion of your friend not agreeing with your personal style, because it's still parkour (art) and to like minded people, still makes you a traceur (artist).

Is Duchamp's fountain art? Absolutely. But does it make you feel guilty or make you feel strange to be viewing something so mundane and ordinary in a professional and highly respectable gallery? Absolutely. In my eyes as an artist this doesn't mean he is not an artist, however to some other artists, it does. Does this mean those who disagree with me are not artists? Nope.

The interpretation and the way people personally define that which is abstract is necessary to understand. Otherwise mentalities such as the quoted form and potential friendships could be ruined. I have many close friends who truly don't enjoy some of my art. This is okay due to an understanding that there is a difference in definition of what art is to every single person.

Charles Moreland

Hmmm....I am not hostile at my friend, no, and my comment about what he said was aimed at the comment, not him. I think I didn't word myself properly here. I meant: would someone else appreciate it if I told them they are doing something wrong. Then again....that comment never said anything about me being "wrong", and implication is just that, not fact.

I was agreeing on the point that reading is a good thing to a point, and not reading is a good thing to a point. I don't think that every word should be soaked in as  dogma. Rather, let the tracuer say "hey, whats he talking about?" then go and do it the same way AND another in order to find his personal desire.
EX: I showed Ozzi how I was trying to learn the sit-turn, and after I had leanred it he watched a little vid of me, and told me it was easier to have my palm facing down when grabbing the bar, not up like i was doing. I thought to myself "Whoa, I didn't even realize that I was doing that in the 1st place" I went out and tried the sit turn but grabbing the bar differently. It worked as well. Now it's not too hard to do a sit-turn just by changing your hand direction, but this advice he gave me def. helped, however I continue to keep my palm up (grabbing the bar from below) just because it seems more natural. Theres nothing wrong with advice but I feel that when new tracuers are taking the advice, and not letting themselves discover their own method through their own personality, then rdeading becomes a neg. thing.

No one 

And no its not necessary to read more to be an accomplished tracuer. when you take vigroux and belle and the originals, they didnt have anything to refer to except eachother. Reading is a way to refer to the global community through reading and writing. But theres too much dependancy on reading, as in blanes article, i feel this is supported by: new tracuers do movements that more experienced ones cant, but they get injured and damaged faster as well. I'm assuming that because those new tracuers had material to refer to, such as tuts, they say ok i see how and go and do the biggest without starting from the beginnnig. Where as the more experienced tracuers might not have had those tuts, and even if they did, started small small small and slow. Which is the the way to go no doubt, if you feel like practicing movement for years to come.

Aladdin

I'm not sure I understand the left-brained/right-brained stuff there  I do see the difference in approach how you are describing, reading or just going out and trying it. If you do read an article a 1000 times, thats great! But I am saying: don't let it trap you in a cement box. Just because it says to do something, even if its "proper" you should still leave it and try your own way, and the compare yourself to yourself.  That's the key. Read read read read read....but then leave it and try the same thing in a new manner/fashion/style and see what you like best.

Not that you personally do that, im saying as new tracuers get more info. i hope they realize how personal a discipline this really is.

Don't shoot the messenger. I had these same thoughts but was never able to explain them until I read this article and had my group read it. He's doing what needs to be done, and I doubt he meant to elevate himself.

History has proven over and over again that we advance further as a whole when we learn from previous generations...

I've always known that Parkour is a lot about experience.

In sports you can practice for two hours a day and just have a natural talent for the sport and become an all-star with no problems. Your body was born for that sport.

With parkour, even if your are in the best physical shape and can achieve any physical movement without a problem, you still lack experience. Experience is the best thing you can have in Parkour, you learn, built off, correct, and much more from simple experience. You learn what is wrong, what is right, and how to perform something better and safer from experience.

 Lets say you're one of the country traceurs who only have one railing to train on. You've trained on it for 2 years over and over and over. You see other tracuers who can do much more than you who have been trainning for only a year, you think "why can't i do that? With all my training? Why?" Well guess what, maybe they can do more flashy and complicated things than you with other obstacles, and maybe railings, but you have experience. You know how to bail very well, you know form better, if not as fast as the other guys, you have strengthened your wrists, ankles, arms, legs, and everything else required in the movements on the rails much more so than the "better" traceurs. It's hard to explain perfectly, but hopefully you get the idea that with more experience, the better you are.

Yes. Ultimately, the thing we have to do, as traceurs and as inheritors of a legacy we (hopefully) want to grow beyond what anybody would have imagined in the beginning, is know ourselves. If I know how my body works, I can determine what I can and shouldn't do, and I can apply the distilled knowledge of experienced traceurs to my training in such a way where I advance faster than those that came before but do not overstep the boundaries of where my body should be.