#71Parkour, a Journey
By Johann Vigroux | posted on 18 February 2010 | 15 comments
2010, Parkour is known all over the world ! One of my dreams came true... We can see practitioners every where, people are more and more used to see people "jumping around". The discipline is growing quickly, so quickly, and what I am trying to do is to help passing on this art to the future generations...
In contrary to the time when I met parkour, we now have tons of different techniques, moves and jumps. We have dictionaries and tutorials for every move. We are told where to put our feet in order to do a specific move, in order to clear a specific obstacle.
I can see that sometimes the first things we teach to beginners are basic vaults, or combinations. I feel that we miss something by teaching techniques at the very beginning.
Why?
Because I believe that parkour is an invitation to meet our environment and to have some reflection. When I met it, and what moved me the most, is that parkour was a big and long journey. Our daily goal at the beginning was to discover our environment, having a new way of looking at the space. We had to go from a wall, to a lampost, trough 2 fences and over a staircase, etc... Every time we were facing new obstacles, and we had to use or find some techniques to overcome it.
Today, I feel like most of the time we show parkour techniques, moves and combinations to the beginners who wanted to learn parkour.We are telling them how to pass an obstacle, we show them where to do it. I feel that we are giving all the keys and solutions before that the practitioner even knows the obstacle. Maybe if we hadn't tell them to do a speed vault onto this wall, they would have never seen this wall as an obstacle.
And in the other way, you could ask somebody to reach some place, knowing that he will have to get over a wall, then the person will have to think about how to overcome the wall, and he may find it by himself, without you, or may need your help, but at least he would know he has to learn this or that technique... And the solution will be much more meaningful.
We are not letting them finding themselves face to face with an obstacle, looking for solutions, trying some moves, falling, missing, and then maybe succeed, or asking us for help.
My point here is to remind practitioners and teachers, that parkour is basically a long journey. In this journey we may find difficulties, obstacles that we will have to overcome. You will all have the time to learn parkour techniques anyway, so it's better for you to learn it when you know why and when you will have to use it ...Thank you for reading,
Johann
Labels: Behind the Scenes, Challenges, Experiences
About the Author : Johann Vigroux15 Comments:
Very excellent post.
One of the things that I think was most important in this article was the fact that we are teaching the 'correct' method, before a traceur even has to contemplate the obstacle.
This in turn limits our own creativity. By pre-planning movements, we are holding back on learning or possibly creating a more efficient one.
nice one Yo :)
By 
, at
10:50 am, February 19, 2010
tres bien!
Je me souviens quand vous nous avez dit quelque chose comme ça, sur l'enseignement sans bloquer la créativité des étudiants.
that's the mindset that will keep parkour evolving and growing for a long time in the future!
bravo!
Your words are very true. I teach a couple of kids here where I live some basics, in the art of movement. And I do just what you talk about. I let them try to face and overcome the obstacles on their own, and in their own way. I dont even use the names for the techniques very often. I just say, go over there, under there, and past that etc..
Keep up the good work spreading the good word. Looking forward to train with you, and the rest of pk-gen this summer. Be well!
By , at
1:06 pm, February 19, 2010
thats realy nice man this article helped us why we doing parkour, strong words from johhan
Abdul
By , at
3:21 pm, February 19, 2010
Everything Luiz Gustavo just said.
lol.
great on, Johann.
Cheers from Brazil.
I was thinking about the exact same things lately.
I also have the feeling new parkour practicioners don't have the option to move in their own way, like you said, "we" make them move freely in a controlled way.
I sometimes hear people talk about 'parkour having no rules', well it used to be like this. But sadly I think there are rules developing about 'having no rules'
did that make any sense?
By 
Tim, at
6:54 pm, February 19, 2010
It is good to flip it around like that! I have planned many lessons, using no names, giving no guidance other than how the movements should feel and how many percent of speed to put in. I even tell people with some experience that might be in the same class to stay in the back, so they do not set the beginners minds on "good solutions" too soon.
Great reading Johann! - Keep it coming.
By , at
7:47 pm, February 19, 2010
great post Johann, keep inspiring, we learn a lot with this blogs.
its funny how you can know people through movement, even though we havent met them yet.
keep aligning :D
greets from Parkour Indonesia.
Willy
Ps : do you mind if i translate your article to Bahasa and share it to our community here?
By , at
1:29 am, February 20, 2010
Great post Johann! Always good to be reminded about the core principle of Parkour. I really like the idea of letting the practitioners meet, discover the obtacles by themselves. As you said giving them the solutions (techniques) before even meeting the problem (obstacle) limits the benefits of the practicing.
Thank you and hope your blog will help many teachers and practitioners.
Peace bro ;)
Stephane Vigroux
By , at
5:07 pm, February 20, 2010
Parkour changes everyday, for every practitioner. When ones journey changes direction, one can never be seen as wrong, sometimes people say of others that they are not 'training well or properly' but whatever that person is doing is part of their journey, therefore it will always be right in that time and place.
Everyday and every experience changes us... and our practice.
Take the road less travelled...
By , at
11:03 pm, February 20, 2010
It's obviously a problem or a question that have to face all the people who are helping/training people in their growth into parkour.
Thanks you to remember it. When we have this knowledge about the environment, we use to forget that beginners need to learn it, by themselves.
It’s great! These thoughts can be very useful for everybody and for me especially
Hey,
Willy Irawan-Indonesia, yes of course, if you can translate it, I don't mind at all.
Thank you everybody for your comment,
Johann
Teaching techniques will not limit creativity if the individual is that way inclined.
Having a good foundation of strength/mobility and proficiency in basic moves will allow a person more freedom than if they spend all their time and effort trying to find out what works, and without such a high risk of injury.
If your goal as a teacher is to help people achieve their aims of being physically creative, then give them a strong and fully mobile body, the rest they can do themselves, because you cannot teach creativity.
The element of trial and error can never be removed, regardless of how structured teaching becomes. You may teach something, but it's down to the individual whether they choose to take on board and use what you have taught.
I'm sure that most people attend lessons in order to learn techniques and possibly how to structure effective training sessions, not to be taught how to be creative!
Besides, the most useful parkour techniques come naturally, and none of them are new.
It is perhaps the most difficult thing, to be simultaneously 'good at Parkour' and ever creative, as they appear to be two separate and conflicting goals.
By , at
10:20 pm, March 16, 2010
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