novel {
I often train at a park/playground near a fairly busy shopping centre, so it constantly has people moving around and through it. It is one of my favourite places to train due to its variety of different obstacles and surfaces to train on. During my time here I have had many people approach me and tell me how they thought what I was doing 'was awesome' or 'cool'. This has always helped me to be able to train in public places, as the majority of people will take an interest in what you are doing because it is different; and often something out of their physical ability to do. Such an example is doing a planche on top of the chin up bar at the playground. The only time I feel uncomfortable in what I am doing is when small children are watching me, as I do not want them to try to copy any moves I am doing and hurt themselves. For this reason whenever I think I am being watched by young children I do the most basic and safe moves or activities I can.
During my training I get people from all walks of life coming up to me and expressing their amazement at what I am doing; from kids, hot girls who sat and watched me for about half an hour drill the same jumps and strength exercises (always fun), parents, people in suits, skaters or the neighbourhood 'roughs'. I can be using the playground and have parents talking to me about what I am doing (in a good way) while their children are playing next door to me. Try to use situations like this to your advantage to spread a good word about parkour.
The other week I was training around sunset and a group of kids about 16/17 were mouthing off to me, obviously trying to bait me into saying something to which they could use as provocation to get into a fight or whatever. I ignored them and after about 5 minutes of watching me they came over and told me how what I was doing was cool, how they had seen in somewhere else and if I could do a back flip for them.
One thing I will say is even if you do feel uncomfortable training in public, remember someone will always find what you are doing as interesting or exciting; so try to use this to your mental advantage. If someone does approach you be a positive ambassador for parkour, and take your time to explain what you are doing and perhaps why you are doing it. I spent about 45 minutes talking to a couple of skaters (probably around 25yrs old) one day about parkour. While it was frustrating they chewed into my training time the outcome was a positive one. If try to turn times like these to your advantage maybe training in public will seem a little less daunting...
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edit: Probably what alot of people think when they see you
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1W9pss5q6t8
