Topic: The Mission

[Mark Toorock]

It seems people are already looking to see where APK stands on the scale of "purist" to "FSPK". The simple answer is, we don't. That doesn't mean by a long shot that we're not opinionated or that we won't be sharing those opinions, but it detracts from the purpose of this site. This is a community. It is not here to be a governing board that states rules and definitions. It is a community to discuss those things, and to share differing opinions in a respectful collective way. You will find over time that the moderators, administrators, and members of this community will have widely varied views, and that's OK. If you feel strongly that one view is right and another wrong, the best thing you can do is participate in the community. Speak up, share your views, and back it with as much fact and evidence as you can. Most of all do it in a considerate manner, and have fun while you're at it.

[Nem]

Well stated M2.  UF really got "annoying" with how that seemed the constant issue at hand.  I would really like to see this community strive to become what UF was before the Purist/Freestyle movement.  That which we call pk would still be as fun by any other name.

[Mark Toorock]

Nice to see you on Nem!!
The other thing I'll mention is that I think we'll do better the more we look forward and not back. Let's not try to be like or unlike anything, let's be ourselves, be cool to others, and have fun talkin' PK.

[Matthew Lee Willis]

Thats very nice to hear M2.  I often hear a lot of "lets keep parkour what it is now"  Instead of "what can we do to make Parkour more awesome"

[Altimot]

THANK YOU M2!!    I hated that "civil war".  people were getting banned left and right.

[Leon Mederos]

M2 is the MAN!!! He knows what to do and how to do it.

...But you guys forgot yourselves!! Remember that the community is only as good as your members, so applauding yourselves for keeping this board FUN is definetely needed. So, LETS GO AMERICAN PARKOUR!!! WOOOO!

[Nem]

LeoNn is right.  The community is only as good as those who are in it.  I say we should strive to be examples of excellence for not only other members, but for the site as well.  Now that this is the "official" American site, we have to be good Representatives to other sites.  This can seem like a great responsibility, but really if everybody does their part to keep the forum clean (clutter and vulgarity) this could be the best site out there.

PK4LIFE

[willgrind747]

like moses leading his people to the land of milk and honey, so has M2 brought us to a place where there is nobody officially endorsing freestyle or purist, and where we can all agree to disagree. If we ever need a reason as to why we shouldn't go insane over the style debate, we can just go look at the UF forums.

[gmpianoman]

you just compared moses to m2.................................................................................................................................WHAT AN UNFAIR COMPARISON!  WE ALL KNOW M2 IS > MOSES!  GEEZ TRYING TO RAISE MOSES' ACOMPLISHMENTS LIKE THAT!  SHEESH...........

[Rafe]

M2 you should include 3run, and freerunning I assume we are open to people who use those names to describe their practice.

[Skipper]

I think its fairly clear that we will adapt to anyone's likings without having to make a constantly upgraded list everytime someone thinks of a new name to call "moving"

[Nom]

What's moving? Oh, you mean Groflausing? Yeah.

Anyway, well said everyone.

[Michael Zernow]

A long time ago peopel were still making the same arguments that they are making now, which is jsut proof that they are pointless and aren't going to go any where, but either way they made the critisisms about what could and couldn't be done and i for the most part stayed out and i still do today because when i go out and put on my shoes, anythign i do is ok. Say i want to do a flip, no one is jumping out halfway through my rotation and knocking me out of the air. It may or may not be parkour but i did it and it's done so really i don't think any difference was made whether i did it or not, except to myself, and you know what that did for me? It made me happy, i did what i felt like doing and i really think that parkour isn't a life or death thing, it's something we do because we choose to do it, and so if i'm not enjoying it i'm not going to do i and that's prety much it. When i started the Movement, my old krew in Michigan i made a post about what i thought our team would embody:

too often now do we find people complaining about what is and isn't parkour, what is pure pk, what is true and what is not. People saying that my flip is not flowing enough to be parkour, that my climbing this building is too slow to be parkour, that my handstand isn't moving so it isn't parkour. But it is my art, and art is about expression, this is my expression of how i want to move, of how i will stop, turn, jump, roll. But most of all it's how i will enjoy myself. Too often do we forget that this parkour which we love, is something we do because we love it, not because we have to. By putting so many dampeners and restrictions on what is true and what isn't we are only taking away from the enjoyment which we do this sport to find.

And that's what we did, and what i continue to do anywhere i go. I could argue about the ramifications of my statements but i'd rather just go out and do what i love to do, from my time spent with the VA-Parkour guys i picked up one valuable lesson, something i always knew but never could put into such elegant words, i'm not sure if i've got the verbatim quote but i beleive it's something along the lines of:

STFU & Run!

And whenever these questions come up those words tend to sound more and more appealing.

[Flippusmn]

Another ^W_O^W
Well put, if there were a sticky this should be there.






Are there?

[SovXietday]

Are there stickies? Yep. They have the little shadow.

I totally agree with Frosti. I'm going to use the www.americanparkour.com thread on parkour.net. Does anyone else see what I see? Why in the world is there an arguement over a domain name?

Let's face it everyone. This website, heck, any website, is at most a central virtual communications hub for people around the world. In other words, I can talk to Jesse in Virginia without picking my lazy ass up and driving down there. What does this mean? It means that whatever I do will not be affected by Jesse in any way shape or form. The only thing he can do is give me his opinion on a subject, I have to interpret his opinion, calculate it's usefulness, and then and only then will it affect me. In other words, like Frosti said, he doesn't get tackled by David Belle midflip because he's not practicing parkour.

So if you're getting upset by someone disagreeing with you, just remember... this is the internet. It's VERY easy to get away from it.  The only thing you have to do is step back, and walk away from your computer. After that, YOU can do what YOU want to do, and no one is to say different.