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JUMPING THAT GAP Parkour Generations BY DONNIE RUST

Parkour Generations

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Page 1: Parkour Generations

JUMPING THAT GAPParkour Generations

BY DONNIE RUST

Page 2: Parkour Generations

72 | Endeavour Magazine

Parkour is a philosophy and a training discipline based on learning to move effectively and well over any terrain and this mentality is directly applicable to overcoming any obstacle one encounters in life.”

Parkour, a movement about movement that has humans

transversing the concrete jungle as speedily and as

gracefully as monkeys through trees. Represented in

numerous films, this lifestyle/sport/art brings with it a high level

of intensity and energy as the contours and details of ordinary

buildings become a jungle gym landscape.

As people’s hunger to see parkour taken to the next level

grows and with television and the internet competing to make

this happen, the real development can be seen within the

operations and the people who are fighting not only for parkour’s

legitimacy but for the safety of its participants. I caught up with

the founder of Parkour Generations Dan Edwardes who, since

2006, has injected his unique vision and passion into creating a

school for parkour and free runners.

“Our focus has always been to integrate natural, functional

movement into people’s lives and to open their eyes to

the opportunities for movement and health in their own

environment,” Dan says, “Parkour is a philosophy and a training

discipline based on learning to move effectively and well over any

terrain and this mentality is directly applicable to overcoming

any obstacle one encounters in life.”

Starting off with teaching and performance work through

stunt work, movies and TV commercials, Dan and his team

have brought parkour into a whole range of new markets

including training facility design, coaching certifications,

clothing, theatrical work and recently applying the benefits of

urban acrobatics to tactical personnel within the military and

emergency services.

The founder of Parkour Generations, Dan has been training

in parkour since 2002 and has been lucky enough to train with

the French Founders and pioneers since 2004, “I began Parkour

Generations with two of these same individuals and we have

partnered with other founders to create a truly global collective.”

Dan’s journey began at the age of eight when he began training

in the martial arts and fighting disciplines, an obsession that took

him to Japan where he lived for five years following graduation

from Cambridge. There he studied ancient Japanese warrior arts

that could only be studied in Japan and has intensively studied

Aikido, Karate, MMA, Jujutsu, Boxing and Katori Shinto Ryu.

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Endeavour Magazine | 73

“I’ve delved deeply into a range of movement disciplines

and physical arts, with the aim of achieving overall physical and

mental capability,” he adds.

Parkour GenerationsParkour Generations have become the go-to resource for

parkour / freerunning related activities (freerunning being a non-

literal translation of the French word parkour, itself a renaming

of the original term art du deplacement), and Dan and his team

are certified to consult, display and teach the art anywhere in the

world.

“We offer coaching workshops, classes and international

training events; education with coaching, teaching and fitness

qualifications; performance training for the provision of

stuntwork for film and television and live action performances,”

he relates, “Facility design is also a major part and includes the

creation of bespoke parkour training structures, facilities and

portable equipment that is safe and applicable.”

Dan’s TeamSince the global explosion of parkour there has been a lot

of development and to raise the standards even higher Dan

surrounds himself with the

very best he can find and

internationally works with

a team of sixty professional

parkour coaches.

“Each of our coaches

has to pass the rigorous

ADAPT parkour coaching

certifications,” he mandates,

“As well as demonstrating

great personal skills, the

ability to gel well in a team

and the highest level of

professionalism.”

Ongoing coaching is

provided to keep all of the

coaches up to date with

the latest information and

methods, including regular

Team Training sessions where

everyone can meet, train and

share information, “We also

have a Developing Athlete

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74 | Endeavour Magazine

Programme for under twenty ones looking to gain experience in

the field and a develop a professional career with us.”

Standards mean everything and to make sure that everyone is

leading from the front the individual development of each Dan’s

staff is measured thoroughly via constant peer appraisal, “We

also insist that all our coaches repeat the ADAPT Level 2 physical

components every year to make sure they are still operating at

the highest level and can thus be role models for the rest of the

community.”

Dan is very firm about the quality of his coaches because he

knows that as a team they are responsible for the quality of the

next generation of athletes. With this in mind the coaching is

approached in a systematic method:

“We always begin with giving them a good grounding in the

fundamental aspects of functional movement,” he explains,

“Reinforcing those healthy patterns and developing applicable

strength before progressing onto more complex movement

patterns. “

He goes on to explain that there is a very broad and deep

syllabus which the coaching team can draw on, but as movement

is very individual a good coach of parkour has to look at the

individual learner and identify exactly what he or she needs to

improve on.

“Parkour is a principally non-competitive discipline,

focussing on self-improvement and self-mastery,” he reveals,

“So we encourage competition in the original meaning of the

word, that is to work or seek together (Con-Petire in the Latin) to

achieve excellence and overcome any challenge.”

With the growing interest in parkour not only as an enjoyable

pastime, and esoteric movement, but also has a legitimate

fitness model more and more schools and academies have

been established in recent years and for the most part Parkour

Generations can be credited for their coaching groups and their

ADAPT Certification Programme which ensures that coaches

are qualified, “It is our Coaching Development Programme

that keeps our team ahead of the game, plus our commitment

to excellence, hard work and staying true to the original, core

principles and values of parkour.”

Reaching New Heights Parkour Generations have just opened the UK’s first

dedicated parkour and functional fitness centre, The Chainstore,

in London.

“It’s one of a kind,” Dan says proudly, “Bringing the outdoor

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Endeavour Magazine | 75

experience indoors and it’s made a huge noise in the UK and

international media already. It’s a special place and we’re

looking to make it the first of many across the country and

eventually expand the centres internationally as well.”

They’ve also recently launched a new groundbreaking

certification programme for personal trainers and fitness

professionals, called Parkour Fitness Specialist, which is

fully accredited by bodies such as ACE, CYQ and FIT. This

takes the incredible functional mobility, strength and fitness

elements of parkour and introduces them to a fitness training

paradigm, enabling everyone to benefit from the amazing

discoveries made by the parkour community. It restores

natural movement to any practitioner, enabling him or her

to access previously unknown levels of physical and mental

capability. This certification has been launched in the USA,

Asia and the UK and has been phenomenally well received.

“Thirdly, we are expanding to several new countries this

year to build on operations we have in the UK, USA, Korea,

Thailand, Taiwan, Brasil and Spain,” Dan tells us, “We’re very

keen to see parkour in its proper form made accessible to

every community that wants it and opening new regional

branches is a huge step in that direction. “

These steps, and some other big projects that are

being initiated this year, will hugely expand the Parkour

Generations reach and community, bringing the benefits of

parkour to tens of thousands of new practitioners.

For Dan and his team it’s all about the movement and

about making this knowledge accessible to all and they

believe that it is unethical to charge huge amounts of money

for knowledge that could and should be available to everyone

and they always look for ways to make that happen while

maintaining the highest quality and standards in everything

they do.

For an example, the making of the Chainstore: a building

that went from scratch to a fully-equipped parkour academy

in just nine weeks was a result of a team of about ten to

twelve committed individuals using their skills, experience

and ingenuity.

The primary investment into these crucial developments

has been a combination of blood, sweat and passion from

their international team, “We don’t have deep pockets,” Dan

relates, “And are always looking for good partners to assist

the growth of these concepts, but with a dedicated group

of individuals focussed on a task you can change the world.

That’s what we aim to do.”