In the morning when I train to become stronger I use Parkour.
While I'm out training I practice Parkour.
In the afternoon when I experiment with different training methods to discover which works best I train Parkour.
At night when I sit down and try and understand the discipline better I improve my Parkour.
At the weekend when I coach others I use skills I've developed to teach Parkour.
In the holidays when I put together information to help practitioners and coaches I improve Parkour.
Patrick:
Yes, I am indeed saying that you can catpass, tictac and gate vault without practicing Parkour. To me that's as obvious as the fact that you can run without being a track athlete and hit someone without being a martial artist.
"Be strong to be useful" is not the definition of Parkour, I agree. However, that phrase does express a sentiment that exists in Parkour, which is why it gets repeated here in the Parkour community so often. It's important to recognize that for me the 'spirit' of Parkour is simply a part of the core definition of Parkour.
Joel:
To use the word 'Parkour' correctly I think you're better off not thinking of Parkour as the end result, for the reasons I explained earlier.
You do Parkour in order to do other things. Whether you choose to say "I train Parkour" or "I practice Parkour" or "I use Parkour" or "I do Parkour" or any other word, it doesn't really matter. However you phrase it, Parkour should clearly be the method you use to achieve other things.
Jordan:
While David, Sebastien and some of the rest have since become experienced and knowledgeable practitioners, they too started out as beginners. They started without any understanding the same as the rest of us, and have had to develop that understanding over time.
I think it's important to listen closely to the accounts of people like David Belle and Sebastien Foucan in their interviews. They say that Parkour developed from their childhood games, not that Parkour
was their childhood games. Although they were moving around their environment as kids, thinking of it as a discipline came later (as it does with us all). For some of them it was not much later, but it was still later.
For me, Parkour definitely IS a skill that you can learn and improve with time. I know that there are people who do not know how to use movement to help themselves develop (most non-practitioners). I know that there are some people who know the basic principles (most practitioners) and I know that there are some people who understand those principles in detail (some experienced Parkour coaches). None of these people acquired this knowledge by magic! This is something we can all improve!
It's always hard to judge people's tone from short written messages, but I think we should all try not to assume the worst about other people.
You're right, I am generally confident in a lot of what I say.
I write in a confident tone confidently partly because there are a lot of people confidently presenting inaccurate or misleading information. I think accurate information is under-represented in the Parkour community in general, and I want people to be aware that there are people that strongly disagree with some of the bigger misconceptions that are widely accepted.
I also do it partly because I am fairly confident what I say is correct. I've been practicing long enough that I have experienced these things and tested them myself, and furthermore my life as a Parkour practitioner, coach and teacher of coaches involves testing them on a daily basis. I don't know, maybe this sounds arrogant too, but it really does seem as though the basic description of training
is basic understanding when you compare it to other aspects like adapting training to individuals and especially motivation.
Mostly I do it because the principles of Parkour work in all areas of life. You improve in response to being challenged, so I challenge other people and try and encourage them to challenge me.
