American Parkour

Oh, I understand that there are ways to avoid violence. Just something as simple as walking away can avoid violence most of the time. The thing is, if someone is trying to harm me either directly or indirectly, even with a clear head my decision is to step on them rather than around them. Honestly if people were held accountable for their actions a little more often, I wouldn't have to worry about this kind of crap. And on the count asking them to join/learn, in my experiance this is met with ridicule and insult.

I could care less if they want to poke fun or mock me, so long as it's not risking my well being. But the next time someone attempts to get me hurt, I'll show them what it's like when someone really good at hurting gives it a shot. If you guys want to simply turn the other cheek, I'll respect your decision and your resolve for your beliefs, but I'm going to solve the problem they only way that works for me. If you're worried about what image I'm giving the sport, don't be, I clean peoples litter while I'm out practicing and catch lost dogs with my talents, so please take that into account before you pass judgement.

On a seperate note: I can't imagine why it bothers you that someone who broke into your house and attacked you can't walk. Sounds to me like you made the world a safer place.

Ever notice that every super hero that doesn't have powers is good at freerunning? Does that mean that freerunners would make good super heros?

I guess what I'm getting at here is this:
Who else wants to start The Avengers?
/nerd

I'm going to go ahead and start this by avoiding being chastised by saying I understand most of where I practice is not my property and that people have to right to not let me use it.

Now if you haven't guessed what's bothering me, I'll go ahead and spill the beans. I'm tired of people banning me from everywhere in this city. I've only got one training ground where someone hasn't come out and stopped me and it's because it's an empty building. But it's not just that they kick me out, it's that they're really nasty about it. They don't listen to me try to appeal to them, they won't even look at the zero liability forms I've made, they just say "That's dangerous" and blow me off. IT'S MADDENING! I've got enough problems from all the on-lookers who take it upon themselves to try and scare me by honking the horns of their cars so I'll trip, or throwing sh!t, or just jump in front of me while I'm sprinting full F#cking tilt and when I crash into them they act like I'm the one being an a$$hole. I've gotten kicked out of my favorite park by the cops because some nimrod pushed me, that's right, HE pushed ME while I was running and when I got up and tossed him into the stream for it they called the cops and I'M the one they treat like a crook while they interrogate me about some thefts that happened down town. It took all of my willpower not to just dare them to try and catch me and bolt, but then they'd treat me like a murderer because the fatties would have heart attacks before we reached the end of the block. But I digress.

Everyone with any decent property thinks that I'm some suicidal hooligan that they need to stop for my own protection. If I get "You're lucky you didn't break your neck before I got here" one more time I'm gonna explode. I'm not "lucky," I know how to take a fall when I screw up. Honestly, I've had people ask me to leave property that's not even theirs! Who does that? I just want to go out there and run about to my hearts content, and if anyone tries to stop me, I'll just watch them try to keep up.

 *sigh* Anyway, go ahead and post a rant if you're as disturbed by people as I am. And don't bother crucifying me about keeping a good clean name for parkour. Why do you think I haven't done anything like what I've said yet?

Lucy's Incredible Edible Egg commecrial.  I thought it would inspire my girlfriend...   I was wrong 

My GF's been flip-flopping about whether or not she'll practice with me. Her and a few friends have come with me to practice my vaults and were all "Isn't that dangerous? What if you hooked your feet on the bar? I guess I'll try ... I can't do it! I don't want to try anymore!"
Ten Minutes Later: "Wow, that was a pretty good workout, I guess we *might* do it again."
I love them and all, but they drive me kind of nuts. ...

Oddly enough, the right music always motivates me when I'm feeling too lazy to go out and practice (happens a lot considering I live at least 3 miles from any good training ground and don't have a car). It just gets me revved up to jump over some stuff  .

Also ditto on the yoga, my flexibility is lacking. I can't even touch my toes without bending my knees a good bit.

I got started by actually training to go to Ninja Warrior (someday, I still want to), and while I was a park practicing, someone asked me if I was training for free running. I asked what it was and one thing lead to another and I spent the whole night watching youtube videos. Now here I am.

Were I'm at people don't know what Parkour is and think I'm just some fancy looter/graffiti artist/kidnapper; so I've been coming up with public service kind of stuff while I'm practicing. For example: yesterday I was going up and down a strip-mall showing off to the crowd with some simple stuff while I was picking up trash. I didn't really want to be showy, but it got their attention on what I was doing the area rather than to it.

On another note: I've also made it a practice to carry around a few zero-liability contracts for property owners to make them a little more welcoming. I figure if I can keep up with stuff like this and keep getting people to feel like I'm good for the area, it will be less distressing to see me working out.

I always hate my nicknames. Most of them don't make sense. I'm cool with entering the Real Zone as boring as my name may be.

Hi, my name's Jeff, but a lot of my friends call me Fleet because I'm a pretty avid runner. I've only started training/practicing parkour about a month ago, but I'm pretty motivated to get better. As far as I can tell, I'm the only traceur in the village, which is Knoxville, TN. It's hard to practice out here because as soon as you even vault a fence everybody starts breaking out their shotguns. Anyway, I'm happy to be a part of this new community and hope to be talented enough to show my face at a jam or something soon.
A pleasure to meet you!