Spider-Man has got to be the ultimate parkour superhero, right? He’s forever running up walls, leaping and swinging between buildings, seeing his city from angles that no-one else does. He’s maybe closer to the police than a lot of us, but still finds himself in plenty of scuffles with law enforcement and grumpy passersby who don’t appreciate what he’s trying to do.  And unlike a lot of people with power in the real world, Spidey gets taught early on that his power comes with great responsibility and does his best to use it for good. He works with and for the little guy to make the scales ..read more

On Mental Health Week (10-16 May 2021), Ukemi Project got the global parkour community to come together to balance to equivalent of the Nullarbor Straight – one of the longest straight roads in the world that stretches 146.6km (91 miles).  The aim of the challenge was to raise awareness of mental health and to raise funds for two mental health charities – Free Your Instinct and Parkour Visions. You can find out more about Ukemi and their other work at the following link: https://ukemi.ninja Needless to say – the 146.6km had been absolutely smashed by the global parkour community. The tota ..read more

Community is such an important aspect of Parkour, so why on earth would you opt to train on your own? Personally I have found it very helpful in quite a number of ways. The first is when I am getting back into movement after an enforced break, as I’ve written about in another post. However that’s not the only time. For many years before the pandemic stopped classes and jams I’d been travelling extensively for work, preventing me from training regularly.  Business travel sounds glamorous, but it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of early mornings, long days in enclosed offices, late r ..read more

Restarting Parkour after a break I was going to write this anyway, but the First Minister’s announcements earlier this week allowing outdoor classes to proceed in Scotland makes restarting Parkour practice immediately relevant. It’s also worth noting that I am not a trained coach, but this is what I have found works when getting moving again.     There are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to keep training Parkour. Injury is the most obvious, but heavy work schedules, academic deadlines, travel, mental health challenges and even really bad weather are all good reasons. Obv ..read more

Often hailed as a community of action, the parkour circle has once again proven to itself that a number of physical feats can be achieved through a perfectly optimistic view on the nature of challenge. Collectively, the parkour community tends to thrive when faced with a social cause and an opportunity to be useful. In a recent instance, I was fortunate enough to be able to volunteer my time and willpower to 1 mile of balancing on a railing. An impressive act in itself though far more astounding when over 28 other people were performing the same mile globally.   I first heard word of Davi ..read more

    On 21 April 2020, over 28 people across the world walked a mile on a rail in order to raise funds for two mental health charities - Free Your Instinct (UK) and Soul Parkour (Germany). If you’re interested in supporting the fundraiser, you can find out more and donate on the GoFundMe page. The original challenge was for David Banks to walk 26.2 miles on a rail, hence the Rail Balance Marathon. However, due to an injury, David adapted the challenge: rather than one individual completing the full 26.2 miles, 27 people would each complete a mile. David ended up with people across th ..read more

What do parkour classes mean to students and coaches? That was the question Edinburgh artist and parkour practitioner Ariella wanted to ask participants at Coach Europe 2019. We thought an in-depth questionnaire on parkour classes and community was a great idea for an international event, and so Ariella surveyed 34 people in total over the weekend. She asked questions about everything from coaching motivations to the effect students can have on one another in a class. Those who responded as community members or students, rather than coaches, were mostly from the Edinburgh community, with a few ..read more