I hate this to be my first blog post, but I just saw a video that rubbed me the wrong way. Here's the video (after all the movement is the part that bothered me):
So many people are giving parkour a bad name in this country. I am not blaming these guys specifically, although they don't seem to have any respect for the authorities in this video. Since when did parkour become about defying authority and "we do what we want"?
People are worried about their property because they don't know what parkour is, what it's about, or what it involves. To be honest, the more parkour spreads, the more we seem to lose respect because more and more practitioners are treating it like a rebellion against the norms of society. Parkour is not about rebellion. Just because we see our environments differently doesn't mean we have the right to jump around anywhere we wish.
We, as traceurs, are expected to show respect for the properties on which we train and for the owners and authorities that run them. I would love it if I were allowed to train anywhere I please without any trouble. But the fact of the matter is, not all of us train in the same way.
Some practitioners are more dangerous, some throw themselves recklessly into their movements and attempt to progress when they're not ready to. Some treat this discipline as anything BUT a discipline, showing a complete lack of understanding when it comes to these types of confrontations with police/owners. They somehow feel entitled to be using the environments. If you do not own it, they don't need to let you train there. It's as simple as that. I know I wouldn't want strangers walking into my yard or house and start flipping all over and jumping all over everything.
I'm off to work now, running super late. But keep this in mind when you're training - you are not entitled to anything.
