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UK Coaching Week 2023

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This year, UK Coaching Week is from the 5th-11th of June this year, with the theme being on “Duty of Care”

We think it’s crucially important to highlight the positive work that parkour coaches are doing to support individuals within their communities, and UK Coaching Week is a brilliant way for us to do this.

We asked our community on Facebook and Instagram to highlight some of the amazing coaches and coaching organisations that embody ANY of the following:

– Duty of Care
– Physical Well-being
– Inclusion
– Diversity
– Safeguarding
– Mental Health
– Participant Safety

And in today’s post, we want to highlight as many people and organisations as we can, so let’s get into it!

Spiral Freerun C.I.C.

Without a doubt, our Instagram comment section was full of comments tagging Spiral Freerun C.I.C., as well as their coaches Luke, Jesse, and Omar.

Spiral Freerun C.I.C. use their coached parkour sessions to promote the benefits that moving has on physical and mental health.

Luke and Jesse both attended a mental health first aid course with Parkour UK last year and have also helped Contendunt (A mental health-focused parkour project) in some of their suicide awareness workshops.

Spiral Freerun also have a diverse coaching team, and their “I’m Scayered” podcast discusses their experiences within parkour, including all the highs and lows of training.

Their podcast adds an extra layer of depth to the team, they detail their previous experiences with injuries, as well as a range of other topics. This is an amazing toolkit for their students, as they are able to learn more about how to be safe in parkour away from the Spiral Freerun sessions.

Spiral Freerun’s sessions run in Bedford, and if you’re looking to attend one of their sessions, you can check their website for more information here.

Follow Spiral Freerun C.I.C.

Spiral Freerun C.I.C. – Image from their Facebook Page

Team Reality

Team Reality, based out of Grimsby, was also another coaching organisation that was tagged in our Instagram comments section.

Team Reality has a real focus on the physical well-being of its students. With an in-house squat rack, their older participants can be seen lifting weights, prepping their bodies for general parkour training, or for the competition seasons over the summer.

Team Reality also takes some of their advanced students to parkour events, jams, and gatherings, helping them learn parkour training etiquette, and giving them a helping hand with integrating into the parkour community.

Team Reality have also recently launched their own podcast, “The Reality of Podcast” – in the first two episodes, they sit down with two of their students, who openly discuss competition preparation, once again adding an extra layer of depth and information available to their students away from their coached sessions.

Team Reality also host the “Grim Jam” each year, which is a two day event in their hometown. They’ve been progressing the event over the last few years, providing equal opportunities for both men and women within the sport.

You can find out more about Team Reality by visiting their website here.

Follow Team Reality

The Team Reality Team – Photo from their Facebook Page

Free Your Instinct

Free Your Instinct is a young and dynamic charity that helps people with mental health support needs through the delivery of specialist Parkour classes by qualified and experienced coaches.

Their aims and objectives include:

  • To use Parkour to promote mental and physical well-being to those who have recognised a mental health need
  • To physically and mentally enrich the lives of users through parkour
  • To offer development opportunities and coaching
  • To promote the Charity within the Mental Health community
  • To ensure a duty of care to all members of the club

Free Your Instinct operates in London, Somerset, and Bristol, and has been one of the leading providers of mental health parkour sessions since 2015.

Follow FreeYourInstinct

Queer Parkour & Fluidity Freerun Academy

Queer Parkour is a community-focused group, fronted by 4 members of the parkour, art du deplacement, and freerunning community who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Their four leads are dotted across the UK (and the world!), and they’re working to build a community, give a voice, and improve accessibility and experience for the LGBTQIA+ community in Parkour, Art du Deplacement, and Freerunning.

The four individuals who started Queer Parkour are Jia Wei @officialjiawei (he/she/they, Cardiff and team TOFU Parkour, Malaysia), Louiseanne @louiseannewong (she/they, team Esprit Concrete, London), Amy @dallex_ (she/her, Manchester) and Kel @kelglaister (she/her, Melbourne in Motion, Australia).

They have been collaborating with Fluidity and now we have a bespoke membership with them. They have also been invited to join Sports Network Wales.

Otis, from Fluidity Freerun, then curated a membership for them that includes 8 hours of either open sessions, “Funky Fridays” which is a creative movement class, and soon – bespoke LGBT+ sessions specialised for the group.

You can choose to join any session you want, and it’s affordable for all members. It’s an inclusive way for those who might want to join Parkour, but it might be too expensive for them, so it allows them to come and experience parkour and find community there.

Follow Queer Parkour

Follow Fluidity Freerun

Queer Parkour Cardiff jam at Fluidity Freerun, April. Photo by Jia Wei Lee.

Contendunt

Contendunt is a mental health-focused community project run by Callun from our digital support team. Callun is also a parkour coach, working in Crawley. Callun fuses his knowledge and experiences with mental health to provide resources and information to the parkour community through his website, where he has listed the helplines of over 100 different countries and regions, meaning anyone in the world can access the support they need.

Follow Contendunt

Parkour Generations London

Parkour Generations London is also taking a stand on mental health. They recently hosted Contendunt for a suicide awareness workshop, which a number of their coaches attended.

Parkour Generations also has a wide customer base, offering classes for all ages, from children all the way through to adults.

Parkour Generations provides parkour sessions to help all individuals get into parkour. For some adults, there is a concern about how the body will take impact. Parkour Generations London recognises this and creates and provides workshops to help adults of all ages get into parkour.

Follow Parkour Generations London

Contendunt’s Suicide Awareness Workshop at Parkour Generations Republic London

Aspire Parkour Academy

Aspire Parkour Academy runs sessions in Peterborough. On their calendar of sessions, they include multiple sensory-friendly classes a week. It only takes a glance at Aspire Parkour Academy’s reviews to see how impactful these sessions truly are.

These classes provide a calmer and quieter atmosphere with fewer distractions. They have designed the session with additional needs in mind, such as ASD, ADHD, and SPD.

The Sensory Friendly class is limited to 12 and they have 6 coaches on hand, giving a coach-to-participant ratio of 1:2.

Aspire Parkour Academy has also recently sent a handful of their coaches on one of Parkour UK’s MHFA courses, taking a stand on mental health and equipping their coaches with the tools they need to deal with those scenarios.

Aspire Parkour also offers DofE volunteering opportunities, as well as working closely with Children’s University Peterborough.

Follow Aspire Parkour

Aspire Parkour Academy and Jump PK coaches on a Mental Health First Aid course

Plymouth Parkour

Plymouth Parkour provides parkour and freerunning classes in the Plymouth area.

Plymouth Parkour runs after-school activities at Secondary schools for age group 11-15. Among participants, they develop a youth crew team providing them guided coaching, opportunities to help around workshops and classes, and providing opportunities for them to perform at festivals and events.

They also work with primary school age groups at special educational education units, which specialise in children needing a break from the mainstream education system with behavioral challenges from various causes. They provide a once-a-week PE activity which has a massive impact on the students.

Plymouth Parkour also offers outreach sessions, involving groups of youth in parks and estates inspiring them to learn some parkour or calisthenics (bodyweight training)

Most of the community work they do is on a voluntary basis, and you can find out more by visiting their website here.

Follow Plymouth Parkour

Project Z Parkour

Project Z Parkour provides parkour coaching sessions in Manchester. Their mission is to create a safe and enjoyable environment for individuals to learn how to interact with their environment and surroundings in new exciting ways.

Project Z Parkour offers a range of services for children and adults in the North-West area, spreading from Manchester to Bury, Bolton, Stockport, and more.

Their reviews say it all! Tom and the team at Project Z Parkour are truly passionate about their work, making a positive impact for young people, and offering opportunities for them to grow and develop.

Follow Project Z Parkour

Amy Harcourt / Dallex

Amy is a leading figure in both the LGBTQIA+ community and parkour community. Amy is a Parkour UK Level 1 qualified coach, and recently assisted Parkour Generations at the Women’s International Parkour Weekend.

When it comes to safeguarding, Amy aims to work with Queer Parkour, Parkour UK, and other organisations to provide valuable knowledges, insight, information and guidance for parkour practitioners in the LGBTQIA+ community. This will include help and support for individuals within the LGBTQIA+ community to safely access support if they are being discriminated against.

Amy strongly believes that no one should be ashamed of who they are, and is always there to support events and individuals who champion her message.

Amy is also a huge advocate for being unapologetically yourself. Amy wants parkour to be a safe and inclusive space for everyone, regardless of age, background, gender, identity or religion.

Follow Amy

Safeguarding

Parkour UK regards the safeguarding and welfare of everyone and specifically children (under the age of 18) and adults at risk to be of paramount importance.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility; please ensure that you report any concerns in order that we can all keep all participants safe from abuse or forbidden conduct. We would ask you to act on your concerns, but it is not your responsibility, or that of volunteers, coaches, or parents to investigate or decide if abuse is occurring, it is the responsibility of safeguarding experts.

Our safeguarding policy summary can be found here.

Our full safeguarding policy is available here, which includes greater detail about offenses and ‘Position of Trust’ legislation, responsibilities, Good Practice, Parkour UK processes, safe recruitment, and specific circumstances.

With parkour’s continued growth, there are so many inspiring coaches and coaching organisations who are doing amazing things for their community when it comes to duty of care. We have tried to list as many as possible in the timeframe we had to put this article together, but there is no denying that there are some names and organisations missing from this list.

UK Coaching Week is one of the many fantastic opportunities we can use to highlight the incredible work done within our sport. If a name of a coach or coaching organisation is missing from this list, please let us know by reaching out to us on our social media channels. It helps us develop and grow these highlight articles in the future!

Digital Safety Principles – Parkour UK

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Parkour UK’s social and digital platforms are our main channels of communication with the community. We want our digital spaces to be a safe, inclusive space for discussion and sharing of ideas.

We aim to post on our social media channels almost every day with tips and advice, inspirational stories and the latest events in the community. Additionally we regularly share longer form updates through podcasts, blogs and email.

To ensure everyone has a positive experience, we need your help in keeping our digital spaces safe. These are the behaviours/principles that we would encourage when you engage with our platforms:

Celebrate the diversity of our community

We encourage diversity in our community and welcome all to feel safe and accepted. Consider other’s perspectives and challenges they may face when you are communicating.

Assume positive intent

Be kind and courteous, assume positive intent in others and be respectful of differing opinions. There is a small, dedicated team of people who care deeply about their work at Parkour UK who are happy to support you however they can. All members and executive team should be always respected and treated positively.

Feedback, communicate and criticise

Maintain a professional, polite and constructive manner in communication about Parkour UK on public platforms and in individual communication with the team and board members. Healthy debate, feedback and constructive criticism is encouraged but Parkour UK expects views to be discussed respectfully.

Be helpful

Our goal is to build a community that can share their solutions and work together to grow parkour. If you have an opportunity to support a member or bring something positive to the community please do so – and/or contact Parkour UK so that we can help.

Protective Measures

Parkour UK’s priority is the safety of the staff team and the wider community. Our digital platforms are a workplace and we will have a zero tolerance policy on any behaviour towards our team or our community in the workplace which falls outside of the principles above.

Examples of behaviours that fall outside of the principles would be:

  • Use of derogatory language about or towards any individual(s) or organisation(s).
  • Any action towards Individuals or organisations that could constitute bullying, harassment or intentionally harming another.
  • Attempts to discredit, shame or embarrass members of Parkour UK or the organisation as a whole on our platforms.

Behaving in a way that falls outside the principles above will result in immediate blocking from interaction with any of our social media channels.

  • If the individual(s) responsible for the behaviour are not members, they will not be informed of this action.
  • If they are members they will be informed by email of the action.
  • We will also report the posts using the reporting mechanisms on the relevant social media programme. 

Lifting of any blocking or digital bans is at the discretion of Parkour UK.

Reporting and Contact

If you see something that you think falls outside the principles of this policy you can DM us through any of our social media channels – @parkouruk or email info@parkour.uk

Parkour UK AGM 2022 – Minutes and recording

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The recording and minutes from the 2022 Annual  General Meeting are now available. The annual general meeting provides a summary of the organisations progress throughout the year and is attended by Parkour UK members.

You can read the minutes here and watch the video below:

Parkour UK – AGM 2022 Recording

If you are interested in reading minutes or records from previous meetings please check out our governance page.

Parkour UK partnership with Sport England

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Parkour UK are delighted to announce funding of £1.575 million to help support and grow parkour participation and use the sport to tackle inequalities in England over the next 5 years. Together, we will be able to build resources and capabilities that ensure more people have equal access to sport and physical activity.

The money is part of the recent funding announcement from Sport England, supporting 121 partners with a total of £550 million. This includes other National Governing Bodies, Key Charities, Safeguarding Organisations and Active Partnerships.

Dan Newton, CEO at Parkour UK commented on the announcement 

“This announcement is really exciting and a major step forward. It will allow Parkour UK to build the infrastructure to serve, elevate and add value to the parkour community. It is the result of the combined effort of the staff and board, and the award gives the organisation an unprecedented level of financial security to help deliver our Moving with Purpose strategy.  

We will make an impact across the whole spectrum of the parkour community; this includes both the ‘structured’ and ‘informal’. The structured community is where people access ‘formal’ parkour classes indoors and outdoors and are influenced by workforce of coaches, venue managers and coaching companies. The informal community is where people learn by sharing their practice with friends without structure. They are influenced by athletes, practitioners and content creators and online content for engagement.

The investment will provide the capacity and resources to act on what we know about the structured community immediately and continue the discovery phase with the informal community. Our plans align closely with the ‘5 Big Issues’ set out in Sport England’s ‘Uniting the Movement Strategy’ and the ambition to tackle inequalities.”

Dr Tracy Rea, Chair of Parkour UK believes:

“Parkour is a true lifestyle sport, and we believe that accessibility of sports like these are a key driver of lifelong participation in physical activity, tackling inequality, and in the attitudes people have to staying healthy. 

Parkour UK has a robust strategy for the next four years that moves our organisation from justification to amplification as we aspire to serve the parkour community, help grow our membership, and offer more innovative products. 

The funding from Sport England will enable us to realise our ambitions and will make a positive contribution to people from all demographics being able to take part. This investment will go a long way to progressing the sport in the UK.”

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO at Sport England, said:

“At the heart of our strategy ‘Uniting the Movement’ is a relentless focus on tackling inequalities to help everyone get active – no matter who they are, where they live, or what their background is. We cannot do this alone, and that’s why we are building a movement of partners that share our goal to level up access to sport and physical activity.”

Parkour UK are currently advertising some part time vacancies to join the team, we are looking for forward thinking and curious individuals who want to help engage the community and inspire more people to participate. Further details can be found at http://www.parkour.uk/work-with-us

Train Hard Parkour sees increase in women in Parkour after funding support from local council

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Train Hard Parkour based in Poole have seen a strong increase in women attending their parkour classes after running a series of women’s courses over the last 6 months. In September 2021 Train Hard received a significant grant from BCP council via the Bounce Back Challenge with support from Parkour UK through application process. This funding was aimed at bringing those participating less in physical activity into sport.

Train Hard saw this as a great opportunity to engage with women – who are under-represented in Parkour – and introduced 165 new women and girls into Parkour over a series of ‘Intro to Parkour’ sessions for various age groups ranging from 6 years old up to adults.

Viv Jackson, Phoebe Harley and the team at Train Hard created a positive, welcoming environment for a variety of women who were introduced to parkour in The Parkour Project – Train Hard’s venue. 

With a focus on creating an entry point suitable for beginners, the team worked with many women who were completely new to parkour – preparing the women for the sessions and ensuring they felt comfortable:

“I was super nervous…..but everyone has been really kind and friendly and you don’t have to be super fit or super mobile to do it. It [the class] comes with warm ups and all the drills that we do before we do any Parkour. “

Said one participant

The sessions have really helped set a precedent of more women attending the classes at the Parkour Project more regularly with a proportion of the women moving from their ‘Intro to Parkour’ block into the main regular classes. 

The BBC have covered the success of Train Hard’s work in this piece below.

Initiatives like Train Hard’s help to tackle a wider challenge across the UK of engaging women in sport and physical activities. Parkour can be used as a key tool to tackle inequalities in regards to access and attitudes towards taking part in sport. 

“Unfortunately women are less likely to be active now than they were before the pandemic. Women struggle to be active for many reasons, not least because of fear of judgement and feeling unwelcome in sport and physical activity settings. Initiatives like Train Hard’s encourage more women to get active by providing a great atmosphere for them to experience a sense of freedom and fun in a non-judgemental setting. We need more initiatives like this across sport to help women return to activity post-pandemic.” 

Said Liz Prinz of Women in Sport. 

If you are interested in taking part in Parkour at The Parkour Project you can find out more here and if you want to find classes in other areas you can check out Parkour UK’s class finder here. 

Movement Park in Glasgow Job Roles

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Movement Park in Glasgow currently has two roles advertised which incorporate Parkour into their wider development – Community Officer and Pathways Officer.

These roles may be suited to a person who has experience of Parkour, but also of working in youth or community development.

You can see the Ads and Role Descriptions Below:

  • Community Officer Ad
  • Community Officer Role Description
  • Pathways Officer Ad
  • Pathways Officer Role Description

    • For more information visit movementpark.org.uk

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