Certification Updates, Oh My!

Straight from Parkour Generations themselves…

ADAPT UK Begins! January 18-21

Next week will see the first ADAPT (Art du Deplacement and Parkour Teaching) Level 1 Qualification Course being offered by the UK’s National Governing Body – Parkour UK. 1st4Sports has now come on board as the awarding body for the qualification, with the UK version being valid across Europe. The 4-day course is for the Level 1 Assistant Instructor qualification, a necessary step on the way to the Level 2 Full Instructor qualification courses soon to follow. The UK ADAPT qualification is part of the ADAPT scheme created by the Yamakasi founders at Majestic Force and the Parkour Generations collective, including Chau Belle, Stephane Vigroux, Seb Goudot, Yann Hnautra, Thomas Couetdic, Forrest, Williams Belle, Dan Edwardes, Laurent Piemontesi and Johann Vigroux. This historic course marks the official launch of the recognised coaching qualification in Europe, and we will have a full report of how it went next week. For more information on ADAPT, click here.

> Parkour UK proudly confirms Sebastien Foucan will be attending the L1 1st4Sport Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Frerunning (ADAPT) next week.

> Parkour UK will launch open courses in the Level 1 Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (ADAPT) from Feb 2010 e: info@parkouruk.org

> City of Westminster will host the first ever 1st4Sport Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Frerunning (ADAPT) next week 18th – 21st January 2010

> Parkour UK formally announces the 1st4Sport Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (ADAPT) will launch on the 18th January 2010

http://www.parkourgenerations.com/news.php
http://www.parkouruk.org/#News

And also, I finally received a reply from Dave Sedgley, chairman of the British Parkour Coaching Association. Here’s a copy of the questions I asked and what he had to say…

I would like to know any information you can give me about the BPCA’s certification. I have a lot of info from reading through the sections of your website explaining the program, but I was hoping you could tell me some things not listed there. Things such as pricing, who can take the certification, who will give it, where exactly it can be taken, the official release date, etc.

The cost of our courses depends on the cost of the venue and the
number attending the course. In the past our Coach Training Courses
(CTC) have usually cost attendees around £35 and Assessments around
£75, both run as a single day. With the updated assessment criteria
we are in the process of finishing off we’re expecting to move
towards 2-day courses but we’ve not worked out the costs for those
yet. I expect the cost will have to increase though.

The certification is open to anyone who wishes to help people learn
parkour, and we’ve had a wide range of people attend our training
courses. The Assessment that coaches need to pass in order to gain
the certificate and join the Association is quite demanding though,
so it takes a dedicated practitioner to successfully qualify.

Both the CTCs and the Assessments are run by our team of Assessors,
who have undergone a more thorough assessment themselves and in most
cases are people who had a hand in setting the standards themselves.
At the moment the vast majority of courses are run by Assessors who
are also Committee Members, as they are the people most able to
devote the necessary time.

Courses are run wherever is most convenient for all involved, to keep
costs down. We’ve do tend to re-use venues though, so as yet we have
only run courses in London, Liverpool, Crawley, Canterbury, Lincoln,
Hull and possibly other places that have escaped my memory

The courses and qualification scheme launched in March 2008 at the
BPCA’s annual meeting. The first CTC was held later that month, and
the first Assessment that July. Since then somewhere between 50 and
60 coaches have started the process, with 15 of them currently having
passed the assessment.

As for the future, well I’ve already mentioned that the certification
process is being updated as I speak and the new version is due for
release this March (2-year revision cycle). We won’t be running any
more courses until then, so as to avoid training people to pass a
test that won’t exist by the time they come to take it. Coaches are
re-assessed every 2 years, so existing coaches will be re-assessed on
the new standards when their time comes.

 

Santa Runs Again and Accidents Guaranteed

Two quick updates everyone!

First, the Finnish practitioners kept tradition alive and released another “Santa Dash” video this year, right on Christmas. Enjoy!

Second, please stay tuned for an in-depth article I’m writing about Parkour, accepting danger, and realizing that accidents aren’t just likely, they are guaranteed. How? Well check back in a few days and find out. In the mean time, here’s a link to a scientific theory that’s going to play a big part in my article…

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/accident/accident.pdf”>Normal Accident Theory

 

Christmas Parkour!

Someone should tell Santa that rooftops aren't Parkour...

It’s that time again! Christmas is nearly upon us here in the USA and you know what that means…

SANTA PARKOUR!

The tradition of dressing up like Santa Claus and shooting a Parkour video started in 2003 when Suomen Parkour Ry, a group of practitioners from Finland,  made a video called “Joulupukki 2003″. (Joulupukki is the Finnish name for Santa Claus) It later became known as “Santa Claus Dash”. They released a video every year for a number of years after that and the tradition has stuck ever since.

There hasn’t been news of a 2009 edition yet but here’s a quick round-up of the previous videos and a few other ones featuring St. Nick himself! 

Poster’s Note – It was a little tough to verify which Finnish video was which year. For instance, I think 2006′s video should feature a chase with the Easter Bunny, but the link on their website no longer works. Here is the link to their main website. This is the best I could do. If I’ve mixed any up, forgotten one, or a link doesn’t work, please let me know!)

Santa Dash 2003

Santa Dash 2004

Santa Dash 2005

An Interview with Santa (Santa Dash 2006)

Santa Dash 2007 (part 1)
Santa Dash 2007 (part 2)

Santa Dash 2008 (part 1)
Santa Dash 2008 (part 2)

Santa in Japan 2009

Santa Jam 2006

Mikolaj’s Freerunners Special Edition

 

Can’t Keep A Good Man Down – Naoki Returns

Image courtesy of Parkour Generations

Earlier this year, a young Japanese man named Naoki Ishiyama broke his back while training in London, England. He was injured when a tree branch he was standing on snapped underneath him. Thanks to the efforts of Parkour Generations and hundreds of other practitioners and organizations around the world, Naoki was able to return to Japan and undergo surgery to repair his spine.

Now, PKGen reports that Naoki is not only recovering, he’s training! Okay, so it’s only walking up steps and a few tiny precisions and half-push-ups, but it’s still great news! Take a look!

Naoki Walks!

Also, after I broke the news on APK, Zac Cohn was good enough to scour the Internet and find another, much more in-depth article about Cambridge and the Parkour damage complaints. Read the article here.

 

Parkour: Damaging Property?

Image courtesy of BBC News and http://bbc.co.uk

Parkour ‘Damage’ Complaints Rise

The bad news? BBC News reports that “Parkour-related” damage complaints are on the rise in Cambridge, UK.

The good news? Police officers and city council members are working with practitioners, notably Owen Covill, to find some kind of middle ground.

Who’s Owen Covill? Well, he’s a respected, long time traceur from the UK and a member of TraceHQ, a UK group with a huge number of notable practitioners in its ranks like Phil Doyle, Teige “Teghead” Mathews-Palmer, Daniel Ilabaca, David Sedgley, and Olivia Rowlands. I think if anyone has the Parkour community’s wants at heart it’s Owen and company. Hopefully a happy medium can be found quickly.

A video of Owen training, from way back in ’05-’06.

 

Here’s Looking At You Kid…

Wait wait wait, that ain’t right! I hate the OC!

But I am saying goodbye…sort of. It’s officially the end of my college fall semester and thus ends the class and the reason I originally made this blog. Fear not loyal readers! I do not have plans to abandon this blog yet. Though buildings may crumble, storms may rage, and Parkour be outlawed, I shall continue posting. It may just be a little more sporadic than it is now.

So stay tuned folks! We’ve gone too far and too fast to stop any time soon!

Now here’s the video I REALLY wanted to show!

 

Dancing With Walls

Long time Parkour practitioner Naim released a new video the other day. Though it isn’t spectacular (and there’s not a flip to be seen) you should watch it. Now.

What I really like about this video is that, when I imagine “Parkour”, this is a lot like what I picture in my head. Even though you aren’t taking the most “efficient” path in terms of speed and economy of energy or movement, you’re still cutting a forward path through the obstacles, constantly moving.

I don’t make much distinction between “Freerunning” and “Parkour” but, in my eyes, this video highlights the fundamental difference. When using your movement to “Free Run” you’d probably be backtracking, switching, adding extra motions to make the most of the environment itself. When moving for “Parkour” you’re using the environment to lay down a new path, looking for skill, power, speed, and fluidity; if the motion requires extra spin so be it but you don’t go out of your way to make it happen. It happens as part of the overall whole.

 

Conditioning: To Do or Not To Do

It’s become one of the most heated hot button issues in the PKFR world, right up there with “Are Parkour and Freerunning the same?” The debate, of course, is whether physical conditioning, outside of the activity generated in day to day training, is needed or even necessary to excelling in PKFR. I’m going to buck traditional writing and give you my answer right off the bat.

Physical conditioning is NOT needed to train in PKFR. It’s NOT even needed to get good at it or to excel either. But it is STILL NEEDED ANYWAY.

Why?

 

Feature Story: Teaching Certifications

Rafe Kelley teaching in Seattle. Image courtesy of Parkour Horizons. (EDIT: Parkour Visions)

When it comes to teaching Parkour and Freerunning to beginners, it seems there are a few standard pieces of advice that all practitioners give out. Things such as “Always start small, always train safe,” and “Don’t do something if you’re not 100% comfortable with it,” or “Try to be polite and don’t start fights with cops and authority.” These are great bits of wisdom, but, there is one phrase that can’t always be counted on. And that phrase is, “Try to find a good, experienced practitioner to learn from.” The problem with this advice is that it’s incredibly objective. What makes practitioners “good”? How long must they have been training to be considered experienced? What makes them good teachers to begin with?

PKFR is young, still relatively unknown, and can be likened to the American Wild West. There is no governing body, no set rules, and little structure. There are only the founders, a few “experienced” people, and things agreed on by the majority of practitioners, most of it done online and with little to no record of the event. If someone wanted to start a class teaching Parkour there is nothing to stop them from doing so. They could be complete novices with no idea of the history or ideas behind the discipline. They don’t even have to be certified in any kind of physical activity, not even as a personal trainer. All they have to do is walk into a gym, present the class idea, and if it gets approved, they’re set.

But now three organizations are trying to change that. American Parkour, Parkour Generations, and the British Parkour Coaching Association are all working separately to come up with their own version of a Teaching Certification for Parkour and Freerunning. They are in varying stages of development, from planning to almost completion, but they all have the same idea in mind: ensure and protect the safety of new practitioners in a discipline that, in the wrong hands, can easily lead to frustration, injury, and possibly even death.

 

Back to Nature

A few posts back I mentioned Erwan Le Corre and his newly developed MovNat system of fitness. Essentially, the idea of MovNat is to get back in touch with nature and our “wild side” by training in natural environments - like forests, rivers, and beaches - using nothing but our bodies (not even shoes) and the elements around us. Sound familiar?

Erwan training. With his ability to move effortlessly MovNat even looks similar to Parkour at times…

Parkour and MovNat share many similar ideas and methods. In fact Erwan used to rotuinely post on the online forums for Urban Freeflow (where he went by the name Artful Dodger) and also at parkour.net. (parkour.net has since been closed off but the old posts are still visible to the public.)

Since Movnat shares so much with Parkour, and the discipline emphasizes freedom of movement in any environment, it only makes sense that at least some of our training should take place in the wilderness. The city may offer the best grounds for spectacular moves and structured training, but there’s nothing that can replace the need for pure precision and power that the irregular grounds of nature provide.

So here are some videos, new and old, of practitioners escaping the concrete jungles and entering the real ones. Hopefully they will inspire you to journey into the wild and maybe help you look at your own urban training in a different way.