Parkour / Freerunning is not Gymnastics

Lately on social media, there is an ongoing dispute about FIG’s (International Federation of Gymnastics) claim on Parkour / Freerunning. All the Traceurs and Traceuses across the globe are standing against FIG and don’t want them to take over Parkour / Freerunning.  

A lot of my friends and non practitioners ask me why we (Traceurs / Traceuses) are against the FIG when this art could get a lot of exposure through the FIG, why we don’t want Parkour / Freerunning to become an Olympic sport. 

Even a few practitioners have no idea what's actually going on. So I want to explain to my friends and fellow practitioners about this issue.

Why are we against the FIG?

The FIG is the governing body of competitive Gymnastics. They have the authority and control over the format of the sport (Gymnastics), governing rules and regulations etc. They now want to create a sport using the essence of Parkour / Freerunning and bring in the values of Gymnastics.  This will remove the very nature of Parkour / Freerunning - facing the real world obstacles, and it will make it an indoor only sport, by replacing the obstacles with simple structures and by defining rules and regulations and by standardizing it.

So, why are we against this?

Before answering this question, I want to explain the difference between Parkour and Freerunning. Even though they look the same, they are completely different and have their own unique techniques.

Parkour is a discipline of training to overcome any obstacles in your path / life, using your body and mind - Whether it's a physical obstacle that is in your way or a mental obstacle that is not allowing you to achieve what you want and is preventing you from moving forward. Parkour is all about moving efficiently.

Freerunning is the addition of creative movements to Parkour. It is about moving in style and exercising one's freedom of expression through movement. So, Freerunning can include many arts like Gymnastics, Martial arts, Dancing, Tumbling etc...

I’ve been training both Parkour and Freerunning for 7 years now. I enjoy doing both. Both these forms of art don't have any set of rules, they can be practiced anywhere and by anyone. Age, weight, height and gender don't matter at all and that's what makes them special and that, in my opinion, is the main reason why people fall in love with these arts.

Whatever it is that I train, call it Parkour or Freerunning or anything else, I do it only because it allows me to move freely as I want. I personally feel that there shouldn't be any standardization or rules on how to perform a movement in order to get as many points as possible. We (Parkour / Freerunning practitioners) never wanted to be better than someone else. Our goal is always to be better than who we were yesterday. That is the spirit of this art and that's what holds us together.

The main reason why we don't want Parkour / Freerunning to be standardized is the variety within it. It's not a strictly set discipline. We can do various sorts of things as we want. Sometimes it’s strength, sometimes it’s speed and there's always the creativity aspect, which means that we can always come up with a new and different movement.

Whenever I train my students, I keep telling them that there's no such thing as the right or wrong way to do a movement.  You can move in your own, comfortable way and with a little creativity, the possibilities of overcoming an obstacle are endless. This is what training is all about. Finding your own limit and training to overcome it and be better than you were yesterday, not to get better than someone else.

I'm really worried that kids and adults in the future will start training Parkour / Freerunning just to compete with each other, win a Gold medal and to be the World Champions. I'm also worried that it will completely kill the friendliness of this art if it turns into a competitive sport. Parkour / Freerunning is a relatively new art and it has only just started growing slowly and getting exposure through social media. Practitioners come up with new movements and modified versions of existing movements everyday and encourage the entire community to learn them. Parkour is a friendly sport where we encourage, share ideas and help each other do something that we are afraid to even try.

There is no such thing as losing in this art. Everybody is a winner and a champion and that's because we compete with ourselves and not with others. We progress everyday, we get better everyday, we win against our own selves and we become champions that way. So there is absolutely zero possibility of giving up in this art. We learn new things, we fail and we learn from our mistakes and try it again. We take our own time, progress slowly and keep trying again and again, till we master a movement. There is no pressure in learning the movement before someone else does or before the date of a competition.

When it becomes a competitive sport, the true essence of this art will be completely lost. People will start comparing themselves with others, competing with others, and they will start giving up when they don't win despite several attempts. I know a lot of people who were into athletics once but have quit because they hadn't been able to win and become champions. Parkour is not meant to be competitive. Parkour is meant to be friendly and encouraging. Parkour is meant to be motivational. It is meant to help you figure yourself out, figure out the best way to approach something, the best way around an obstacle, how to overcome your fears. Let us not allow it to be torn apart. Let us not allow it to be stripped of its spirit. Let us keep Parkour safe.

Nevertheless, no matter what happens, no one can stop me from doing what I love to do and sharing the wonderful things I have learned from this art.

#WEARENOTGYMNASTICS

- Parkourpaiyan