Are people still arguing about useless stuff? Man, nothing ever changes. And here I thought we were moving past things.
PK Generations teaching kids for free is a great thing. They also helped people to realize the vast importance of conditioning for Parkour.
APK did something (in my opinion) even better: they helped people to realize the vast importance of strength training for Parkour.
Majestic Force (or whatever they're called now) managed to get the government to support ADD in Evry.
Every group out there has helped to foster more awareness, more knowledge, more and more an emphasis on safety.
And to all you nitpickers on Parkour "philosophy"... I was there, believe me. "Preserve Parkour in its original form, blah blah blah." I bet M2 can recall all the years I spent arguing against his philosophies, approaches, and ideas. Hell, we led a friggin separatist movement. Here's the big secret, though.. the one thing you start to figure out after years and years in the community, even as a separatist.. And I want you to really think about this:
1) Is there an "original" or "pure" Parkour? Go back to the very first media clips. What was Parkour back then? How has it changed since?
2) For all the arguing, debating, etc. over what is what, has it ever changed the way you train (Parkour itself, not the supplemental strength and conditioning)? Look at someone with a vastly different philosophy than you as to what Parkour is. How do they train? Is it, at all, any different from the way that you do?
I'm willing to bet quite a bit that there isn't a real difference between any two traceurs or freerunners out there. The methodologies are pretty much exact. Leon might bust some flips out more than I do (considering I don't/can't), and I might squat with a few hundred pounds on my back.. But when it comes to Parkour (or freerunnining), we pretty much do the same thing: jump, climb, vault, run... over and over again. Drill drill drill. Play around. Goof off. Have fun. Challenge each other.
Honestly, I was hoping that the days of animosity, of differing opinions somehow creating the illusion that they mattered, of separation over tiny little petty things.. was long past. Why not one community? Why not solidarity? Cause I guarantee you that it exists out there. We can all be together. We can all play nice. It really doesn't matter what we believe in or how we approach things. We're all doing the same thing, in the end.
Ugh.. sorry about the rant. This is why I've avoided General Parkour for so long.