Ace, I'm quoting you because obviously I have misunderstood or misinterpreted, or maybe even linked thoughts of yours incorrectly:
You said this:
I also believe that with sponsorship and competition and training specifically for these things will result in further fracturing of our communities. Rather than a vast majority of people who enjoy parkour with the random friends and sense of community gained from it, that will slip away, replaced with sentiments of competition and people feeling the need to prove themselves before they can hang. Locals only or king of the hill type of thing.
and then this:
The crumbling of the communities would also obviously contribute to a drop in the quality of overall attitude and jams/training sessions.
So, I guess what I felt was a really far-fetched statement is "The Crumbling of the communities" .. to draw a comparison, I have not said that "Parkour based competitions would unite the world" ... two extremes where neither outcome is particularly likely, although the effects could push the balance off center either way. To me it sounds like you are building a case that jams would go away because they wouldn't be fun, open, or inviting any more, or at least jams as we know them would go away. You say that people being introduced to Parkour "won't know what it was like back in the day when their were friendly meetups) or something like that, I don't think that HAS to be true at all.
I'm going to give examples (real world) to counter your fears, but first I have to say this, and it is a repeat -
The way Parkour goes is up to ALL of us, as individuals and collectively, it is not up to a televised event, or just the people who compete in that event, and we cannot leave it up to the people whose first exposure is a televised event, just as we can't leave it up to those people whose first example is a youtube video. The sense of community is driven by PEOPLE, not by intangibles such as the fact that a competition exists or by the fact that someone somewhere is making money from an event. I'll ask again for any real-world example where the sense of community has gone away from something and the blame didn't lie with the current practitioners. If WE stop acting like a community then communities crumble. If anyone shows up at a jam with a bad attitude now, how do you handle it? How does that change? We set the tone, both at competitions andat jams, don't put the blame on some external inanimate thing "competition"or "commercialism" ... when you alow these things to have their own voice, that's when WE all lose to them. When WE control the tone, when WE set the attitude, that's how we keep it (make it) the way we want it.
As for things that were "community based" - (although I disagree that "the community" is the important part of parkour, just as mentioned before, the benefit is to the individual, and Parkour is in fact an individual pursuit. I feel that the community aspect can help motivate and help others learn, but I see no evidence that those aspects would go away - and you can't provide any example to confirm that your fears are based on anything other than your fears!)
Surfing -now has competitions, people still surf recreationally and still meet up every morning to do it
Snowboarding - same thing, people were snowboarding and the community was pretty tight, with an "adversary" of skiers the boarders were sort of "banded together" to get rights to snowboard.
Martial Arts - again, the community aspect has grown because of competition, people now meet from all over the world in several leagues, and essentially have "sparring matches" and partners that they never would have before. Sparring did not become competitive because somebody put it on TV.
Bowling - yes, televised competitions, how the bowling world has crumbled (sorry, couldn't resist)
the list goes on and on and on - what activities don't have televised competitions?
Dog shows! – Yes.
Horse Shows! Yes.
do the dog and pony people hate each other now?
Obstacle coursing - Ninja Warrior! What Traceur wouldn't love to take a shot at that course???
I am asking sincerely, and I am listening earnestly for someone who can give a real-world example of the things that people against competition's fears are based on. If I can see an example that actually happend, then I can help to stop these things from happening in the competition that I am helping to create.
