Ultimate Parkour Challange, Ultimate Parkour Challange

[chaos5150]

Anybody watch the show last nite on MTV...they had some great tracers, but was wondering where was Team Tempest..talk about a having a contest in their own backyard..although MTV used team tempest's videos for the opening of the show. There were some huge superman flips and transitions that looked sick..but i could be wrong since i am total noob to the Parkour world

[Nissle]

There was some ridiculous moves on that show! I have three complaints though.

1. They made it a competition.. That is not what parkour is about.

2. The main points for the competition were earned by freerunning moves, except for stage two where that was parkour at it's purest!

3. How many people got injured. Not a good representation on the sport itself. I realize people get hurt, but they carried away at least two people on stretchers and into ambulances, just to have them come back an hour later completely ok. I am sure this is just being extra careful on the part of the lawyers for MTV. But it still misrepresents parkour in itself by painting the picture as it is an activity that only superhuman, suicidal, or crazy persons should participate in.

Otherwise...Incredible!

PS: Team ones videos should have won because the "Banana Idea" was pure genius! =)

Nissle

[Francesco Caban]

yes they are in competition. I kind of think it's a good thing in a certain way. those that want to compete will compete those that do not won't. It gives a place for that kind of traceur to do what they enjoy doing. Also considering this is hollywood we are talking about there is no way they would make a reality show based on how parkour is really done, why? because who's going to watch someone do a hundred precision jumps to the same spot over and over again or watch them do their conditioning. I mean to us that's awesome but they got to make the money to give them the prize some how.

I myself do not wish to compete but if you choose to compete you should do everything you can within a moralistic approach to win.

Francesco

[Nissle]

I am with you Francesco. I you are going to do it, "Do it because you want to" (What the winner of the competition wrote on the back of his hand in stage two), and do it with everything you have.

[Jterry92]

i thought that that one guy they called the dark horse was wearing a tempest shirt the guy that hit his head during the final challenge. I knew Danial Illabaca would win from the start!!! haha.

Can we finally stop this whole parkour isnt about competition. Besides the competition wasnt parkour at all. It was a freerun competition, celebrating movement.

I did think that it was pretty ridiculous how many people got hurt. I dont think any of them had any experience in competition besides illabaca, doyle, and livewire.... the nerves must have got em I watched a thing on youtube from livewire about mtv possibly making a series out of it

[Francesco Caban]

parkour, freerunning, l'art du deplacement: they are all one and the same. I have mett many that call themselves freerunners who only do stereotypical parkour and vice versa. If you go to the UK the terms are used freely as in one means the other. there is no parkour/freerunning move all of the moves you see in parkour have been gathered from many disciplines and over many years just like break dance it is movement that has been manifested at a different time. the only thing that matters now is strong body strong mind and string discipline, what matters is that you train wisely and that you learn a few things about life along the way.

Francesco

[DaveGrimes]

Call me a purist, but I still consider parkour to exclude flashy moves, it is simple A-B there is no point in claiming that the "purpose" of a discipline is to be efficient and useful when you include aspects like tricking.

It doesn't add up.

I don't think that there should be such an issue with what they are called however, as Murg has said. They are used freely, one means another.

In my opinion, the point of merging the titles was to get the emphasis off so much the definition, and more on the philosophy. Which it did quite successfully.

The way I see it is comparable to the fighting contact sport: MMA

athletes take aspects from a myriad of disciplines and incorporate them into a well rounded and useful base from which they engage in a contact sport which benefits from the aspects of each.

Freerunning takes aspects from both "tricking" and "parkour" and incorporates them into a comfortable medium in which the contemporary freerunner/traceur can nestle their training base.

In retrospect:

Kung Fu + Judo is to to MMA

as

Parkour + Tricking is to Freerunning

The point isn't to distinguish, but to recognize that the aspects of our daily routines, do indeed come from different backgrounds.

[A.J.]

To me movement is movement and whatever it's called in my head it's still a movement.

[Nissle]

These are all varying opinions on "movement", whether it be parkour, freerunning, tricking, etc. What is important is to take each viewpoint into consideration and realize that your movement is ultimately how you define it, and what you make of it. It is YOUR journey, and no one elses. All that matters is that you move, and take that step in the right direction.

Run Without Doubt,
Nissle

[DaveGrimes]

Then call yourselves movement artists, not traceurs. I am a traceur.

[3RunAz]

To me all of these methods of movement are merely ways to help us express ourselves clearly. Regardless of style choice or title, you will always be satisfying YOUR urge to move.

[DaveGrimes]

touche. well said.

[Francesco Caban]

ha ha ha, quite a discussion we got going here about what it is and what it is not. in any case a great way for someone to see where they stand is to write it down on paper about what they really feel so they can re read it and see if that is really what they think. I do this all the time in fact recently I have been really into writing about "what defines me" and trust me the list is quite long and over whelming even to me. As far as movement categories go I have "Bboy, Krump, acrobat, traceur, free styler, Beast" I discipline my self in each category understanding the underlying meaning behind each movement and then I let all that go and just let it take me places real or imaginative.


Sometimes people come to a forum because they identify more with one category then another. I identify with parkour due to it's training philosophy so that is why I feel more at home here.

Francesco

[DaveGrimes]

Again, well said.