Following is an article recently published yesterday in the L.A. Times discussing Parkour and its expected growth in the U.S.  Take Flight founder Adam Dunlap was interviewed for the article and is quoted in the piece.

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Will the acrobatic street sport follow skateboarding’s trajectory and find its legs in the popular culture? Parkour fans and athletes say it’s just a matter of time.

June 20, 2010|By Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times

For a glimpse at one potential growth area in the action sports arena, look no further than the Westfield Culver City mall on a recent June afternoon, where a handful of young men clad in baggy sweat pants, slim-fitting T-shirts and ultra-lightweight sneakers take turns flinging themselves off the shopping center’s third-story mezzanine, leaping from level to level, before back-flipping, belly-sliding and bouncing to a stop on the ground floor of the atrium, to the cheers and wild applause of some 100 spectators.

It’s the taping of the June 11 season finale of MTV’s “Ultimate Parkour Challenge,” a six-episode series showcasing the practitioners of parkour, a street sport that’s part gymnastics, part stunt work, and all about moving from point A to point B by any means necessary even if that means careening over a coffee kiosk, piloting a Segway scooter while doing a handstand or propelling yourself through (yes, through) the back of a mall shopping cart.

If you’re unfamiliar with the name (which has its roots in the French word parcours, meaning “route”), you may have seen the human pinball effect in the opening chase scene of the 2006 James Bond film “Casino Royale,” in which parkour legend Sébastien Foucan plays a baddie who leaps over, under and through every imaginable obstacle in his path, before scampering up a construction crane and through the scaffolding of a building like Spider-Man to do battle with Daniel Craig.

More recently, Disney’s “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” featured acrobatic fight scenes that had the cast careening off walls and leaping off roofs in parkour-style moves. (David Belle, the Frenchman considered the founder of the sport, worked on that film as parkour stunt coordinator.)

At its most basic, parkour, which Belle developed in France in the late 1990s, consists of running along a route and negotiating any and every obstacle as efficiently as possible. Some purists argue that the phrase “freerunning” should be used when referring to the iteration of the discipline that incorporates theatrical flourishes such as flips and spins, but used here, parkour refers to both. From France, the sport spread to the U.K. and then to the U.S. in the early years of the new millennium.

Despite being a below-the-radar discipline with a community that ranges from an estimated couple of thousand hard-core practitioners nationwide to maybe 10 times that number who’ve tried it at least once, some involved in the sport think it’s headed from a niche physical fitness subculture into mass consciousness — and that it will happen this year or next.

“I think parkour is going to be twice as big as skateboarding — it’s going to be huge,” says Mark Toorock, a Washington, D.C., fitness trainer and parkour practitioner who founded an online community called American Parkour (APK) in 2005.

“Skateboarding is the $4 1/2- to $5-billion industry it is because it’s not just [for] people who skate,” Toorock notes, “but people like my uncle who’ve never gotten on a skateboard but still own a pair of Vans [skate shoes].”

Toorock uses the skate industry to explain why he’s not just making a leap worthy of a traceur (as parkour athletes are sometimes called) when he forecasts freerunning is about to become a major force in the action sports arena.

“Skateboarding first came out of surfing in the late ’60s,” he said, “but took until the late ’80s and ’90s to become what we know it as today. It took snowboarding about half that time to become an Olympic sport, and the next thing you have that’s similar to that is parkour — which has been out of France for about eight years — so it’s close to that point.

“Just search for ‘parkour’ on YouTube versus ‘snowboarding’ or ‘skateboarding’ and you’ll be surprised. That’s what makes me think things are ready to pop,” he said. (As of June 16, a “parkour” search returned 351,000 hits, “snowboarding” 245,000, and “skateboarding” 684,000.)

Victor Bevine, an executive producer of “Ultimate Parkour Challenge” and a co-founder (with David Thompson, also an executive producer on the show) of the recently created World Freerunning & Parkour Federation, shares that view of the future. “I actually think it can be twice as big,” Bevine said. “Everybody under the age of 18 knows what this is.”

Adam Dunlap, who started a parkour-inspired clothing line based in Beaverton, Ore., called Take Flight Apparel, is more naunced: “Can this be as big as skateboarding? The simple answer is yes. But the people in the parkour community have been saying that this is going to be the next big action sport for years. But it’s taking a lot longer than I thought.”

Parkour as a launchpad for soon-to-be popular lifestyle brands is far from a universal opinion, especially since no specialized equipment or clothing is actually needed. While many consider sturdy, lightweight running shoes a basic necessity ( K-Swiss launched the first parkour-specific shoe in 2007), some think barefoot is best. Pants are usually loose-fitting enough to allow unhindered movement and offer some protection from abrasion, although here personal choices include running shorts, baggy sweats modified to mid-calf and cargo pants (so maps and other gear can be stowed in the pockets). Tops are soft, lightweight T-shirts.

“As a subculture I don’t think it will go too far past rock climbing,” says Cliff Kravit, the founder of a California parkour community called PKCali. “I doubt it will even reach the popularity level of yoga.”

But, as anyone who has ever heard the words “downward dog” can tell you, yoga begat yoga mats and drawstring pants, yoga-centric sweat towels and even yoga-appropriate tank tops with built-in sports bras. Now, just imagine the potential for the yoga community if MTV had decided to run six episodes of something called “Ultimate Yoga Challenge.” Kravit, who teaches a weekly class locally, said he notices a surge in popularity every time there’s media focus on parkour. “After ‘ Prince of Persia,’ the class was overflowing,” he said.

That brings us back around to the boys — and it is mostly, though not exclusively, a male sport — literally bouncing off the walls of Westfield Culver City on a Wednesday afternoon, a nine-pack of the sport’s best and brightest stars: Daniel Ilibaca, Ryan Doyle, Tim “Livewire” Shieff, Pip Andersen, Michael Turner, Ben Jenkin, King David, Daniel Arroyo and Oleg Vorslav, wrangled together by the WFPF to introduce the discipline (or a version of it, anyway) to the MTV generation.

MTV first aired “UPC” as a one-hour special in October, then picked it up for the six-episode run, which started airing in May. The show tries to balance the philosophy of parkour (which eschews the notion of competition) with the flash of extreme sports and graft it onto the story arc of an elimination-based reality show by pitting six of a rotating cast of nine against one another in each episode for a panel of judges.

While Bevine and Thompson have earned detractors within the community for giving parkour a competitive element, they’ve also managed to expose it to 1 million impressionable eyeballs. Which makes the zip-front hoodies, T-shirts and long-sleeve T’s emblazoned with the WFPF shield and the mantra “Know Obstacles, Know Freedom” noteworthy. Some are worn by the show’s crew, some by the athletes themselves.

“The shirts are mostly giveaways,” Bevine said during a break in the Culver City taping on June 9. “But this is what we’re really excited about.” With that, he bent down, pulled off his right shoe and brandished it for inspection.

Weighing in at 9.4 ounces each, the KO (“Know Obstacles”) Parkour Shoe feels like holding a piece of balsa wood (“It literally floats on water,” Bevine says). He points to the single piece of leather around the toe box that he says makes the shoe more durable, a sole that supposedly provides just the right amount of traction for the traceur, and a retail price of $39.95, an important factor, since shoes engaged in hard-core parkour get so much wear and tear, they need to be replaced every month and a half. (A fact acknowledged in the slogan: “the best shoe you will ever destroy.”)

The WFPF website includes glowing testimonials from the star athletes (“Perfect grip … the lightest freerunning shoes I’ve ever worn,” Shieff is quoted as saying). Bevine said the shoe was off to a good start. “We started selling them a few days ago and sold 400 pairs in the first three days.”

As with other issues, the parkour community has a difference of opinion on the idea of using the discipline to move merchandise and make money. Kravit thinks it runs completely counter to everything the sport stands for (“Telling you what clothes are right for parkour is putting you in a box,” he says), while Bevine and company see themselves as providing an environment and an infrastructure for the emerging sport as it finds its legs in the popular culture. “We’re helping them with the storytelling part,” said Francis Lyons, an executive producer of “UPC.” “But those guys are the stars. It’s going to go wherever they want it to.”

The crowd gathered at the Westfield Culver City shopping center for the taping doesn’t seem to suffer from the same conflicts. Several of the tweens and teens watching with slack-jawed awe are already sporting parkour-related T-shirts.

Three of them, friends Matt Leonoudakis, 16, of Northridge, Kenji Kang, 15, of Canoga Park, and Cameron Cudiamat, 16, of Grenada Hills, take parkour classes at White Lotus Martial Arts Center in Northridge. Leonoudakis wears a red T-shirt, with the word parkour in white letters across the chest, and several tiny men in silhouette vaulting over the letters. “I made it myself on the Internet,” he said.

Cudiamat’s white T-shirt depicts a man back-flipping over a city skyline that spells out the phrase “I’d rather be freerunning.” His was a gift made by a friend.

When asked if they’d buy parkour-related gear, Leonoudakis bobbed his head enthusiastically. “I already ordered a pair of those new KOs,” he said. “Have you seen those? They’re going to be here in 12 weeks. I can’t wait.”

Asked about the appeal of parkour, Leonoudakis didn’t hesitate a second.

“It’s like skateboarding,” he said. “Only without the skateboard.”

Grappling with gravity

Revolution Parkour turns urban architecture into playground and offers enthusiasts an extreme challenge

By Ed Johnson – The Beaverton Valley Times,

You’ve probably seen parkour, but didn’t know what to call it.

The French sport jams breathtaking athleticism into the urban environment; its practitioners sprinting, jumping and weaving in and around the things we normally take for granted. That railing on the stairs may look like a good place for your hand, but in parkour, it’s also a good place for a foot-launching jump.

The parkour-thinking mind sees urban architecture as, literally, a playground.

Adam Dunlap is a 23-year-old, life-long Beaverton resident who runs Revolution Parkour and teaches a twice-weekly class in the discipline. He wants the public to know that the sport is not just insane stunts like those seen at the beginning of the James Bond film “Casino Royale” — it’s a serious training method.

“I think a lot of people see parkour incorrectly,” Dunlap says. “They haven’t made the connection that this is something people do.”

Dunlap admits that what first interested him in parkour were the incredible YouTube videos of elite practitioners like parkour-founder David Belle. But, as he focused his craft, his insight into the sport changed.

“The ideas of movement and how to move quickly are built into us,” Dunlap says. “You take from parkour what you want.”

Craziest thing you’ve ever seen

Parkour can best be described as an outgrowth of a particular French philosophy, which is built on the fluid movement of the physical body through urban spaces. It’s about encountering obstacles and overcoming them using both your wits and your physical prowess. If you look up videos online, it will also seem like the craziest thing you’ve ever seen.

Right after graduating from Oregon State University, Dunlap got a temporary job at Nike, but quickly grew restless. The office environment wasn’t for him. He decided to take his long-brewing interest in parkour and turn it into a business.

Revolution Parkour was intended first as a parkour-instruction program, then as a TV and film consulting firm. For the last year and a half, Dunlap has been teaching twice-weekly classes at ADAPT Training, and seen a steady increase in participation. Tuesday night, 25 students, from pre-teens to people in their 20s, attended the class to get a dose of Dunlap’s expert instruction.

And while the consulting side of the business has been slow going, with only a few projects here and there, Dunlap says that a potential deal with a new major-network television show is in the works.

To develop his training program, Dunlap took the effusive parkour technique videos that were available online and broke them down into step-by-step methodology. He stresses that while these techniques are tried and true, there isn’t necessarily one single way to do parkour. It’s always about doing what comes natural.

‘No parkour on the furniture’

Besides technique training, the class also gives its students extensive physical conditioning, focusing on lean-muscle, body-weight exercises rather than free weights.

“A lot of people just want to find a unique way to workout,” Dunlap says. “As far as I’m concerned, parkour is the best there is.”

Students at the class seem to agree. Brandon Latocki, a 21-year-old Beaverton resident who’s been going to the class since it started, seems to echo the obsession of a lot of dedicated parkour enthusiasts.

“I’ve been looking for my entire life for something to do,” he says, “and this is it.”

Another student, Rick King, 25, says he first saw parkour when he saw the videogame Mirror’s Edge, about a dystopian future where revolutionaries use parkour-like methods to combat an all-knowing, all-seeing government.

“I didn’t know it was an actual thing,” King says. “I showed up (to class) one day and have been hooked ever since.”

Gerald Wright, of Tigard, was watching his 12-year-old son take part in the class on Tuesday night. He says that he’s been impressed by the rigorous and professional nature of the class since his son started it a few weeks ago.

“How can you say no to a kid who wants to do something different?” Wright says. “We do have one rule though: no parkour on the furniture.”

An adrenaline rush

Dunlap says that most students interested in parkour are exactly who you’d expect: young men looking for an adrenaline rush. He’s quick to point out, however, that as parkour grows in recognition — and there’s every indication that it will — the people who participate will likely diversify. Just like how other extreme sports became mainstream in the ’90s, Dunlap expects parkour to do the same.

Dunlap says the local parkour community is small but passionate, and often gets together to take advantage of downtown Portland’s diverse architecture. He says that, unfortunately, the suburbs like Beaverton don’t offer the same obstacle-rich environment as urban areas.

In the end, Dunlap stresses the simple joys of the sport he loves and the independence of its movement. He also stresses that watching the elite athletes shouldn’t scare people off. Most people will never leap from such great heights.

“Just because you train,” he says, “doesn’t mean you can jump off a building.”

For more information, visit www.revolutionparkour.com.

Since the discipline of Parkour began to spread beyond the borders of France almost a decade ago, there has always been uneasiness in the community towards media outsiders and corporations. The anxiety stems from the worry that groups motivated solely by profit will exploit Parkour while also perverting it into something contrary to its purpose.

Because of this concern, we at Take Flight are proud that we can call ourselves a Parkour clothing company that is truly For Traceurs by Tracuers. In addition to our website, slogan, mission and products all of which testify to this fact, we say this confidently because even our founder Adam Dunlap has been a dedicated Parkour practitioner for years. Below we have embedded a video made in 2007 of him doing Parkour:

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For Traceurs by Tracuers is an accurate description of who we are and who we serve. The authenticity of our brand and our dedication to Parkour is exhibited in all aspect of our organization including our founder’s dedication to the discipline.

Daniel Ilabaca, MisterParkour.com was granted exclusive interviews with both Lee and Daniel. The interviews were recorded with permission from the artists, and the interview between Daniel Ilabaca and MisterParkour.com founder Adam Dunlap is featured below.

In this insightful interview Daniel first speaks about his involvement in the Beyond Human project. After this, Daniel goes in depth and discusses many facets of his training, focus, and athletic achievement. He speaks about his biggest inspiration, he explains what Parkour means to him and why he does it, and he even tells stories and responds to questions that have never been asked of him before in internet featured interviews.

Whether you are new to Parkour or a seasoned practitioner this extensive interview is a must hear. Daniel’s openness and passion for Parkour is constantly present in his speech, and the prevalence of these attributes are only superseded by his humility and kindheartedness towards others. Daniel’s viewpoints, insight, and experiences are as exciting as they are thought provoking. If you have never been challenged to think about what Parkour really is and why you do it, this interview will surly raise the questions that will give you an opportunity to discover those answers for yourself.

To find out more about the Beyond Human collection please see our Beyond Human article or visit Daniel Ilabaca’s personal website at DanielIlabaca.co.uk.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7755605905804360786

In light of the exciting Beyond Human series by Lee Jones and featuring Daniel Ilabaca, MisterParkour.com was granted exclusive interviews with both Lee and Daniel. The interviews were both recorded with permission from the artists, and the dialogue with Lee Jones is featured below.

In the insightful interview, Lee speaks about his Beyond Human collection as well as his vision and inspiration for creating the paintings. In addition, Lee talks specifically about his draw to Parkour and how he first saw Daniel and decided to include him in the project.

To find out more about the Beyond Human collection please see our Beyond Human article or visit Lee Jones’ website at LeeJonesArt.co.uk.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7170213078201618309

The Efficiency Principle is a new training principle created by MisterParkour.com. It seeks to correct and replace the erroneous ideas put forward by the efficiency paradox in an effort to aid Tracers across the world in implementing proper training methods in their own progressions.

Parkour is a utility art based on overcoming obstacles quickly and efficiently. Much of the Parkour community has found it amusing that to become better at this you have to train “inefficient movements.” (a misconception in and of itself which we will address shortly.) This enthusiasm has recently led to the coining of the phrase the “efficiency paradox” defined as training inefficient movements to promote efficiency. Unfortunately the “efficiency paradox” is a physiologically misguiding principle, and it should be permanently discarded from Parkour terminology in favor of the physiological accurate training concept known as the Efficiency Principle.

To say that Tracers train inefficient movements to promote efficiency is physiologically inaccurate (we will explain this momentarily). However, because of the linguistic novelty of the purpose of Parkour (namely, efficiently overcoming obstacles) and many common methods of training which do not encompass this type of movement, it is logical to see how some could erroneously and inadvertently support the Efficiency Paradox. Nevertheless, this concept has no credence once one understands two basic, foundational training principles that blatantly contradict the Efficiency Paradox. These concepts are What is Training? and Training vs. Performance. Analyzing these two training concepts proves the Efficiency Paradox inaccurate and also simultaneously provides the basis to found the Efficiency Principle.

The concept of true and proper training discredits the Efficiency Paradox because it contradicts the definition of the Efficiency Paradox. Contrary to the definition, correct training always reinforces efficiency of movement to the point that saying one is training “inefficient movement” is kind of like saying the color blue smells like roses. Neither statement makes any sense. Of course the rebuttal is that one could “move faster” or “move more efficiently”, but one must realize that efficiency in movement has absolutely nothing to do with speed, and efficiency in training has nothing to do with performance value. Efficiency has to do with optimizing output and minimizing waste given a certain input. Suffice to say that just because someone is not running as fast as he/she can does not mean that he/she is not moving efficiently or training efficiency.

The definition of the Efficiency Paradox not only puts forth physiological misguiding training principles by erroneously telling people to train inefficient movement (something that can not be done in proper training), the term also erroneously unites the two independent concepts ideas of Training and Performance. In opposition to the Efficiency Paradox the concepts of Training and Performance are two distinctly different actions. We do not perform so that we can perform better, and training is not a part of performance. Rather we train (concept 1) so that we can improve our performance (concept 2). The Efficiency Paradox however, erroneously assimilates and unites these two ideas. By explaining that we train inefficiency, the concept directly correlates Training and Performance by implicitly defining training as a lesser level of performance (the inefficient performance to be exact). Some may see this as a linguistic formality but it is not. The Efficiency Paradox is therefore in contradiction to the Training vs. Performance principle, and in this it is further misguiding and flawed.

The efficiency paradox puts forth erroneous physiological principles that are exposed when analyzing the What is Training? and the Training vs. Performance concepts. When combined, these two concepts not only defeat the Efficiency Paradox, they also create the new Efficiency Principle:

The Efficiency Principle is the act of training efficiency so that one can perform efficiently.

In the first person perspective one can explain the Efficiency Principle by saying, “We train efficiency so that we can perform efficiently.”

It is the linguistic novelty of the term Efficiency Paradox that has made it so widely publicized in the Parkour community. Unfortunately in spite of its originality, the Efficiency Paradox is an physiologically erroneous term, and its perpetuation is the direct result of a misunderstanding of the two principles What is Training? and Training vs. Performance. On the other hand, the Efficiency Principle is an accurate training guideline that succinctly explains the purpose and goal of training from a Parkour perspective through physiologically sound doctrine. Consider the Efficiency Paradox not only dead, but in the sentiment of Parkour, inefficient.

In the 5th behind the scenes episode of B13 – Ultimatum we said, “Pay special attention to David’s movements at :37 in the video… [it] is… an incredible testament to his athleticism.” We promised to explain this statement, and now we are keeping true to that promise.

Most people see David jump from buildings and awe at his athletic ability. In reality, even the simple things he does are awe inspiring from an athletic perspective. To this day no one has provided an accurate physiological explanation as to how David can do what he does, but simply enough it is through his seemingly inconsequential movements which we can understand and explain it.

What is so incredible about David’s movements at :54 of Episode 5 is his dexterity and range of motion (also shown in his window perched position in :58 of Episode 15). These are signs of the dynamic tension he has achieved in his muscles. Dynamic tension is the perfect state of muscular equilibrium, where every muscle is proportionally strong in correlation to every other muscle in the body. Not having dynamic tension (also known as having a lack of muscular integrity) creates unnecessary tension in the body, and pulls the joints into an improper alignment causing the body to move compensatively and inefficiently. One of the most obvious signs of a lack of muscular integrity is a lack of range of motion. A lack of integrity also commonly manifests itself in aching joints (forget all of the “itis” diagnosis’, it is caused by a lack of muscular integrity). Injuries in Parkour of every kind are almost always the result of a lack of muscular integrity as well.

David’s body has been trained into a perfect functional state characterized by this dynamic tension which is why he is able to do what he does. Most peoples see the big movements David performs, the man power gap at 1:44 in his Et Vous? video, or the massive building to building leap he did at 1:07 in the BBC commercial, and are in awe. But we would argue that far more inspiring are his subtle movements that clue to why he is so capable. You can see it in his abilities to immediately change direction as in his lateral jump at 2:53 in the French News Feature. You can see it in his explosion from a standing position at :47 in the Accrohes Toi video (notice there is absolutely no tension in his body when he jumps). You can see it in his leg movement at 30:19 during his interview at the New Yorker Festival. You can see it in his resilience to absorb shock in his jump over the railings at 1:43 in the Speed Air Man video and when he drops from the overpass later in the video at 2:21. And you can clear your mind of any confusion you have from David’s famous fall on the UCLA campus. The fact that he walked away uninjured was also the result of his perfect muscular integrity.

All of David’s abilities as well as his resistance to injury can be credited to the dynamic tension of his muscles. This analysis of course circles back to present day David where we can verify our claim. Many Tracers train for only a short time and begin suffering from physical aliments. Others train for a long time without aliments, but then are all of sudden seriously injured. Both instances are the result of a lack of muscular integrity. David on the other hand has never been seriously injured. Furthermore he is in his mid 30’s and he is stronger, faster, and more capable than ever. He has no joint pain, no shoulder, knee, or wrist issues, and he continues to perform feats of athleticism that a few decades before would have thought impossible by even the most capable humans. How can David perform such incredible feats of athleticism? Maybe we should not ask how David can do what he does, but rather how we can attain that same dynamic tension that will enable us to follow in his footsteps.

Here is a recent nationally published Parkour article written by Sarah Skidmore of the associated press. The article is as accurate as it is simple which is good in both cases given its comparison to the flashy-Parkour-descriptive and often inaccurate pieces that still (in some way or another) dominate the majority of written and filmed media Parkour pieces. In this case the accurateness and overall message of the article has overcome the editorial simplicity, and the result is a piece that has resonated with news organizations across the U.S. This piece has already been featured in numerous newspaper publications across the country including the Oregonian and the Colorado Daily, as well as on countless national internet news sites including MSNBC.com. The article quotes Adam Dunlap of Revolution Parkour™ and Mark Toorock of American Parkour.

Parkour’s popularity taking off in U.S.

By Sarah Skidmore
The Associated Press

PORTLAND — At first glance, parkour practitioners look like modern dancers unleashed on an impromptu obstacle course.Usually seen in cities, parkour involves jumping, rolling and vaulting over, under and through the objects found in a typical urban setting. Traceurs, as parkour enthusiasts are called, strive to move as directly and fluidly as possible, using only their bodies and the objects they encounter to propel themselves forward.

Training vs. Performance

This paper is based on the foundational principles of the ADAPT Training System (www.adapttraining.com)

In the last paper we covered the definition of training and its implications in our Parkour workouts. This is the basis for all material we will cover in future papers so I will repeat the definition of training here once again:

“Training is the act of introducing and reinforcing the ideal function of a muscle or muscular system.” (Brian Cassidy, ADAPT Training)

By perfecting the ideal function of your body you are instilling muscular efficiency which is at the center of Parkour philosophy and technique. However, before we can begin to unpack the physiological explanations behind this, we have to differentiate training from its brother performance.

Performance is not the same as training. We train so that we can perform, or, in other words, performance is the ideal we strive towards in our training. In thinking about the best way to describe this principle I was reminded of a post in a forum, written by “Pkdanno” of Toronto, Canada, that I read a couple years back. Pkdanno was with David Belle in L.A. on top of about a 30 foot drop. There is a lot of context behind what was said, and I am going to take this quotation slightly out of context by not describing the circumstances. However, suffice to say that the purpose of the quotation brings my point across. David said, “If my family was over there and needed me, I wouldn’t even hesitate. I would [jump].” That move is performance. Training is what David did beforehand to give him the capabilities to jump from that height.

Although we have now covered the idea of performance, like training before I will present you with a definition:

“Performance is the recruitment of the necessary movement to accomplish a task.” (Brian Cassidy, ADAPT Training)

Notice the differences between training and performance. Training builds the tools that make performance possible.

The one caveat that I will emphasize before I wrap up this paper is that ideal performance mandates correct movement. Unfortunately performance with the human body is achievable even without the proper tools, because even if you do not have the capabilities to move correctly your body will most likely still find a way to move. But this is highly problematic and presents severe physical dangers especially in a Parkour context. It doesn’t matter whether you are walking, doing a full squat with only your body weight, landing an 8 foot drop, or jumping the Man Power gap in Lisses, in the right context these are all performance movements and there are ideal ways for your body to perform all of them. And although the Man Power gap does require a much higher level of performance, if you do not have the tools necessary to perform EITHER of these movements correctly, then performing them puts you at risk for injury (More on this in the “Demand vs. Function” article).

This week my assignment for everyone is to figure out what parts of your Parkour workouts are training and what parts are performance based. If you are not performing a movement correctly (Note: strength and endurance are both parts of movement) then this is dangerous and you should ask yourself what you are doing wrong and how you can correct it. If you are performing a movement that you are not physically capable of doing correctly, then this is even more dangerous and you need to take a step back and find a way to train for that movement. Ask yourself how you can break down the move so you can build the necessary physical characteristics. This is the only proper way to ensure safe progression.

When you train you are building the physical tools necessary to move correctly. Performance is utilizing those tools to accomplish the desired movement. By understanding this difference you will be able to begin structuring your training and progression in the safest and most effective way.

-MisterParkour