Topic: I feel embarrassed practicing in public...

[king_of_rooftops]

It was bad enough when i started out with the basics on the play structure, but I feel embarrassed when I go into the city and everyone is watching me training and giving me weird and sometimes dirty looks. This forces me to train at night, or spend a heck of a time looking for a place without any people in it. And when I train at night i have no depth perception and I almost broke my leg last night when I jumped off a rooftop and landed on a flight of stairs! Help! what do i do?

[Cody Beltramo]

Try getting a group together.  I haven't had this problem, but I would assume if you have a group of friends training with you, it would be a lot easier to train in very public places. 

[Nick Mavis]

I always get weird looks from time to time when out training, but most tend to be people who are interested in what I'm doing and think its pretty cool. You shouldn't really be embarrassed about going out in public your going to be doing it a lot ha. You shouldn't have to give up training in a safe environment to feel comfortable its a free country. And if your going to train at night honestly you shouldn't be doing something dangerous like being on a rooftop. Your experience from the other night can justify that. Just be cool about it, be respectful to people around you and continue what you do in the day time man.

[king_of_rooftops]

Alright well it kind of sucks but nobody else is as interested in it and it would be way to hard to hook up with someone. Parkour is is not a very big sport at all. And what would you think if two 14 year old kids are running through san fransisco jumping over fences and climbing up on rooftops. If its not the people I am worried about, it is the cops! I want to keep my record clean...

[Muse_of_Fire]

Um... if you're in San Francisco, there is already an established PK community. Try training with these folks:

http://www.sfparkour.com/

Hope that helps!

[king_of_rooftops]

Ya well I am only 14 and just starting out, it seems like that is a big group of really good guys.

[Muhammad]

Don't worry, once you get good at parkour and you can flow smoothly over obstacles, you won't feel so embarrassed anymore. You'll feel more like RAAAR!

[Muse_of_Fire]

Ya well I am only 14 and just starting out, it seems like that is a big group of really good guys.

And they are a group of really good guys. If it were me, and I had the opportunity to practice/train with a group of really good/experienced guys, I'd take it.

Otherwise, it sounds to me like what you're saying is, "I don't feel comfortable training in public, but it's not a good idea to train at night, and I don't feel comfortable training with an established group, but there's no one else around to train with." If all of this is true, maybe you should just give up and quit parkour now. I mean, it's really too hard, right?

Okay okay, I'm kidding. But the point is, it's unlikely that you'll find the ideal training situation ever. So do the best you can with what you have to work with. I used to feel silly training in public too, when I first started out. In a lot of ways I still do! I worked hard to find a group and that is moving along slowly, but surely. But to me parkour is important enough that it's worth the difficulties that come with training alone, or trying to get a group organized. After all, feeling silly training in public is just another obstacle, right?

I suspect, although I'm not familiar at all with the scene in SF, that if you joined and asked those guys for help with training, they'd be pretty friendly and supportive. You don't lose anything by trying, do you?

As a side note, I don't think you should be monkeying around on rooftops at all, but that's just me. I'm kind of a "den mother" type.

In any case, I hope you come up with a workable solution for your dilemma soon!

Good luck!

[king_of_rooftops]

Ya well I am only 14 and just starting out, it seems like that is a big group of really good guys.

And they are a group of really good guys. If it were me, and I had the opportunity to practice/train with a group of really good/experienced guys, I'd take it.

Otherwise, it sounds to me like what you're saying is, "I don't feel comfortable training in public, but it's not a good idea to train at night, and I don't feel comfortable training with an established group, but there's no one else around to train with." If all of this is true, maybe you should just give up and quit parkour now. I mean, it's really too hard, right?

Okay okay, I'm kidding. But the point is, it's unlikely that you'll find the ideal training situation ever. So do the best you can with what you have to work with. I used to feel silly training in public too, when I first started out. In a lot of ways I still do! I worked hard to find a group and that is moving along slowly, but surely. But to me parkour is important enough that it's worth the difficulties that come with training alone, or trying to get a group organized. After all, feeling silly training in public is just another obstacle, right?

I suspect, although I'm not familiar at all with the scene in SF, that if you joined and asked those guys for help with training, they'd be pretty friendly and supportive. You don't lose anything by trying, do you?

As a side note, I don't think you should be monkeying around on rooftops at all, but that's just me. I'm kind of a "den mother" type.

In any case, I hope you come up with a workable solution for your dilemma soon!

Good luck!

Wow, thanks for your input. But to be brutaly honnest, the reasen I hate trainin in public is becuse I am not good at all, I can barrely get down any of the harder moves and I fall a lot so all people see is so kid falling over stuff and jumping over picnic benches... aw well... Anyway, my parents are so protective of me, I havent even told them about what I am doing, I just say i am going out on my bike and then ditch it when i am out of sight of the house and start running though a course. I dought they would let me train with an bunch of other guys jumping around and stuff. So that makes my situation even harder!

But I did find a school very close to my house and in the hours between 4:30 and 8:20 (to dark to do anything) I can train. But still, What else am i going to do?

[schuby]

Ok well I am not from San Fransisco. And I understand that you are just starting. But I met a bunch of the SFPK guys, and BELIEVE ME, they are there if you need them. I had only just met a few of them and they were giving me tips on my kong vaults, and my rail-to-rail precision jumps. They are incredibly friendly, and they will help you.

As to the parents thing, the best way to do it is to just tell them what you are doing. I had the same problem, where I didn't think my parents would be too happy about me running around and jumping on stuff. But they didn't seem to mind after a while, and I showed them videos and stuff and told them how I'm being safe. Also, for safety purposes, even if you lie and say you are biking, TELL THEM WHERE YOU ARE GOING!!! If you get hurt, and they don't know where you are, they'll be a lot more pissed off than if you got found pretty quick and prevented more serious consequences. And back to the overprotective thing (I know I'm jumping around quite a bit), ask the San Fransisco Parkour guys to talk to your parents. They are all mature people, some of whom are adults. I'm sure they will be able to get your parents to let you off the leash and go train.

And to the first thing, getting embarrassed in public, just don't think about the people watching you. Focus on the task at hand. Just today I jumped on a shed that was already occupied by a couple people. At first I wasn't gonna do it, but then I figured "What's the worst that could happen?" I'll embarrass myself and walk away, that's the worst. I knew I could jump on the shed, so I knew I wouldn't get hurt. And what did happen? I jumped up, jumped down, and they asked where I had come from. So I said the other side of the shed. That was it. I kept walking. Also don't let screwing up in public get you down. People might laugh, but probably not. They don't know what you're doing (for the most part), so they won't really know if you screwed it up, and if they did they'd prolly help you out. I know I would if I saw someone trying Parkour in my area.

Unless you faceplant. Then you look stupid no matter what sport or activity you're doing. 

[king_of_rooftops]

Ok well I am not from San Fransisco. And I understand that you are just starting. But I met a bunch of the SFPK guys, and BELIEVE ME, they are there if you need them. I had only just met a few of them and they were giving me tips on my kong vaults, and my rail-to-rail precision jumps. They are incredibly friendly, and they will help you.

As to the parents thing, the best way to do it is to just tell them what you are doing. I had the same problem, where I didn't think my parents would be too happy about me running around and jumping on stuff. But they didn't seem to mind after a while, and I showed them videos and stuff and told them how I'm being safe. Also, for safety purposes, even if you lie and say you are biking, TELL THEM WHERE YOU ARE GOING!!! If you get hurt, and they don't know where you are, they'll be a lot more pissed off than if you got found pretty quick and prevented more serious consequences. And back to the overprotective thing (I know I'm jumping around quite a bit), ask the San Fransisco Parkour guys to talk to your parents. They are all mature people, some of whom are adults. I'm sure they will be able to get your parents to let you off the leash and go train.

And to the first thing, getting embarrassed in public, just don't think about the people watching you. Focus on the task at hand. Just today I jumped on a shed that was already occupied by a couple people. At first I wasn't gonna do it, but then I figured "What's the worst that could happen?" I'll embarrass myself and walk away, that's the worst. I knew I could jump on the shed, so I knew I wouldn't get hurt. And what did happen? I jumped up, jumped down, and they asked where I had come from. So I said the other side of the shed. That was it. I kept walking. Also don't let screwing up in public get you down. People might laugh, but probably not. They don't know what you're doing (for the most part), so they won't really know if you screwed it up, and if they did they'd prolly help you out. I know I would if I saw someone trying Parkour in my area.

Unless you faceplant. Then you look stupid no matter what sport or activity you're doing. 

Thanks, I think i might have to tell them in the future but it can wait, and I DO tell them where I am going and I have a cell phone and they call me all the time.

But I have one more question. When you ARE ou there practicing and training do you run around looking for things and just do them really quickly like I see in the videos a lot, or do you stay in one place for hours prefecting a move? Also, should I focus more on speed or getting it dialed and learning new things?

[Patrick Holten (Denver Family) Flux Freerunning]

Whenever I am out in public, and I become embarrassed because of what people might think, I just say to myself, "I am a traceur and this is what I do." So then I go and do it even sometimes doing it better when they watch just to prove to them that I am serious. Just say it next time, " I am a traceur, and this is what I do".

[schuby]

When I am training, I will maybe stay in one spot for...I don't know, like 30-40 minutes? Mind you, these are spots that have a few varieties of things to do, but they are not the best in the world. As to speed, I would say no. Focus on technique first, as you said, "getting it dialed". Speed is not really that important, as one of the guys from SFPK told me. It's all about technique, and once you have that, speed can come into play. Also, Parkour is really not about sprinting from move to move or anything, or at least that's not what it's like to me. The only running I do is when I need to run up to do a vault or wall run.

[Jordan "Sirlig" Nelson]

Here's my solution:  Ignore them ["them" being others, the public, etc.].

I used to be very conscientious about what others would think about me jumping around on stuff, vaulting over things, etc.  But then I realized:  Chances are, I'll never see these strangers ever again.  So why should I care if they think it's weird for me to run around vaulting things?.  That's why the quote in my signature block is what it is:

"Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-consciousness.  Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make."  --Bruce Lee

I realized that I was literally losing focus on the flow of movement every time I was worrying about if someone was watching, etc.  So I consciously decided to simply ignore the fact that some people might think what I was doing was odd.

And if you're worried about what people you do know might think, just think about this:  "Yeah, I might not be that great right now, but I will see these people again and when I do, I'll be even better than I am now and they'll get to see me improve so much!

Just remember: worrying, or not even to the point of worrying but just even thinking, about what others might think of you doing parkour, in my opinion, instantly breaks the focus you have on mastering your own movement, which is bad.  So just ignore it.  Don't care.  Forget them.  Then, you will be free to move as you wish....

[Muhammad]

Overprotective Parents: This obstacle can be overcome smoothly and efficiently by presenting the art of parkour to them in a positive light, simplified by use of the professional parkour documentary by film-maker Julie Angel, titled Jump Westminster

Show this to you mom: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4001097277208720031

[gearsighted]

You have to have a sincere desire to improve yourself, this makes the opinion of others relatively worthless, just another *small* obstacle to overcome in effective training. Keep your eye on a concrete goal and you  have little to worry about!

[TheWallabee123]

Haha, I have the same issue. All of my friends have been away at camp all summer, so I've needed to find practicing places for myself. Problem is, the ONLY available places around this small town are the inhabited areas.

[Aperion89]

Who the hell cares what people think? you're not there to amuse them you are there to train (unless of course you are there to amuse them). but put yourselves in their perspectives they see you moving that way wouldn't you have some sort of reaction?
hopefully their's will be one of interest and not one that is simply annoying.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to go somewhere to practice and have someone either call me spiderman or urban ninja
or the allways popular "Hey! do a flip!" which trust me even if you do one they will still won't stop asking.

[king_of_rooftops]

Thanks guys.

Just yesterday I was practicing at the school near my house, and they have this huge base ball batter area fence thing with a bar across the top of it. I always like to do stuff on it. But when I got there there was a TON of people on the field, like around 300 people just sitting on the lawn having a pic-nic or something. So I just decided to do it anyway. SO I climbed all the way to the top of it (around 40 feet high) using just my arms and when I looked back every single person was looking at me, so I did one of the upside down hanging things in the very middle of it, and then climbed back down. When my feet touched the ground everbody started clapping. It was kind of inspiring...

[Jim "Monkey" Parker]

....And I bet every single one of them was thinking...

"I wish I could do that"