Instead of railing this towards and off topic discussion on how Phelps smoked pot and how it does/doesn't affect the rest of the world, let's go back to the topic at hand: competition.
Over the past 5 years I've heard pretty much every argument for competition and against competition. I've witnessed some blind people following either side simply because someone they look up to holds beliefs on either side. What people have to realize is that there will never be an absolute of either side, it will always be a blend and it will always sway from one side to another. There will never be a a time when parkour is dominated by competition and there will never be a time when parkour is competition free.
I used the word "belief" because that's simply all it is - you guys are treating this like it's a religion, God exists vs god doesn't exist is the same as Parkour is competitive bs parkour is not competitive. Parkour is still in its' infancy because it will always be in it's infancy, the very act of restricting parkour to certain movements instantly turns that into NOT parkour. It's a difficult thing to explain because it's subjective.
If David Belle were to come out and say Parkour is jumping rooftops, what would your reactions be? "He's crazy, thats not parkour, WTF!!, Oooo I always thought it was building jumping, NO WAY PARKOUR IS SAFETY!" etc etc. But he has the authority, no? What if all the Yamakasi, Sebastien, UF, Tribe, PKGen, etc were all to say the same thing? Outrageous huh? How many of you would be content walking away and doing your own movement, and how many of you would be pissed that Parkour is defiled and try very hard to get the name back to it's "prestige"? Who would be rightfully practicing "Parkour", the masses of traceurs or the 'authority figures'?
What I'm getting at is that parkour is a fluid construct. You can only partially define it on a large scale. The other part is free to move around and change, and it WILL move around and change, especially within the individual. So instead of creating this artificial barrier in the community, why not bond together and try to make both work? Why can't the competitive side create a competition based on traceur vs nature instead of traceur vs traceur? Why can't the non-competitive side acknowledge that there is always a slight form of competition and instead of disregarding it all, help to create a competition that doesn't break any of the defined parts of the parkour they practice?
....Oh wait, it is happening. There are people from both "sides" who are working together to make sure that when it happens, it happens correctly. There are traceurs who believe whole heartedly that their parkour contains pieces of competition and there are traceurs that believe parkour is non-competitive.
Because of my personal beliefs, I take my parkour on a more spiritual level, so I lean towards the non-competitive side. I think parkour is pushing your body and mind to reach it's fullest. But I'm not so naive as to discard the fact that parkour in it's pure form is the definition of competition - it's a fight for survival, where the strongest, fittest, most in control live.
(WARNING: PERSONAL BELIEF)I know there are two sides to parkour, a mental and physical, just as there are those two same sides in life. So I work with other traceurs from the other side of the spectrum so we can come up with a competition that is a happy medium.
I think a competition that challenges the mind, tests the body, and connects you with other traceurs is possible. A competition where those who physically train hard are rewarded, but so are those who train equally as hard mentally to overcome themselves. A competition where traceurs work WITH each other to break these barriers, not against each other to tear us apart. So help me out guys, give some good ideas, feedback, constructive criticism, and your opinions in a respectful fashion and keep both sides in mind. Thanks
Sat, I love your points. Daniel, I agree, sport would dilute so lets change it from a competitive sport to a cooperative experience.
Everyone else, keep in mind that when most of us use the word competition, we do NOT mean a head to head competition where it's two traceurs racing to beat each other in the same arena (like American Gladiators) instead we mean a competition like Ninja Warrior where there are a bunch of traceurs pushing to beat nature.
