callun.l

Parkour UK Monthly Update – April 2023

9th May 2023 by callun.l

The year is flying by! The first quarter of the year is done, and we have some exciting updates to bring you following some of the work we did in April.

Our Visit to Member Organisations:

In April, Callun spent some time visiting Powerhouse Parkour, one of our member organisations, in Epsom.

Callun was there to sign off some of their Level 1 coaching hours, whilst also engaging in conversations with the Powerhouse team to learn a little bit more about their parkour coaching.

A full article will be up on the website soon.

Over the next few months, Callun will be focusing on trying to get to as many of our member organisations as he can, in order to highlight the amazing work that members of our community are doing.

Callun will be in touch with our members soon, but if you have an immediate story you would like us to share, do not hesitate to reach out to us!

Competition Season!

The competition season has kicked off!

With summer approaching, we’ve already seen street competitions starting to take place as the weather gets warmer!

In April, we saw the Liverpool Takeover (Read More Here) and Manchester Takeover competitions, both looked incredibly fun and successful.

MORE EVENTS!

Other events in May include:

Women / ENBY Jam (By the time this article is published, this event has happened!)
Street Media Social V1 – 20th/21st May
Coventry Jam – 27th May
Women’s International Parkour Weekend – 13th/14th May

We’re always looking for new events to attend and share with the parkour community.

With our team expanding, Parkour UK will try to attend as many parkour events as possible. If you have an event coming up and would like us to attend, don’t hesitate to send us a message!

Women’s Engagement Project

In last month’s update, we spoke about Lynn taking a trip to Glasgow to shoot our first women’s engagement project piece.

We’ve seen the first draft, and it’s incredible! It will be the first of many women’s engagement pieces to come.

The project will be released soon.

REMINDER FOR LEARNERS – PAST AND PRESENT

We would like to remind all learners who have taken their Level 1 and Level 2 Parkour Coaching Qualifications to please get their hours signed off as soon as possible!

If you have any questions, please get in touch with our workforce team.

Simon: simon.vardy@parkour.uk

Caroline: caroline.ness@parkour.uk

Level 2 Parkour UK Coaching Qualification

There isn’t long left to book the summer assessment day for our Level 2 Parkour Coaching Qualification.

Bookings close in just under two weeks’ time, make sure you book quickly!

Book The Assessment Day Here

UK Coaching Week 2023

Towards the end of April and the beginning of May, UK Coaching announced their daily themes for UK Coaching Week 2023.

You may remember Parkour UK attended the UK Coaching Awards in Leeds in December after three parkour coaches that we nominated became finalists in their categories.

It’s important to use these events to truly showcase and highlight all the work that parkour coaches are doing.

This year, UK Coaching Week runs from 5th June – 11th June, with the theme being “Duty of Care”.

The mission of UK Coaching Week 2023 is to educate people about the critical role of Duty to Care in coaching and its impact on the nation’s health and well-being.

Parkour UK aims to highlight as many parkour coaches as possible who fit the following criteria for the week.

Monday 5th June: Duty of Care – The foundation of great coaching.

Tuesday 6th June: Physical Wellbeing – Encouraging physical activity, healthy habits, and recovery to prevent illness and injury.

Wednesday 7th June: Inclusion – Tailoring delivery to a wide range of audiences and how you engage and empower people to keep them involved.

Thursday 8th June: Diversity – Providing equality of opportunity without discrimination.

Friday 9th June: Safeguarding – Protecting people from harmful practices in sport and physical activity.

Saturday 10th June: Mental Health and Wellbeing – Supporting psychological and emotional well-being.

Sunday 12th June: Safe to Practice – Ensuring participant safety and working within the scope of practice.

If you know a parkour coach/coaches or a coaching organisation that fit one or more of the categories listed above, please get in touch with us so we can highlight all the amazing work done by coaches within the parkour community.

You can find out more about UK Coaching Week by following the link here.

We aim to update the parkour community on the work that we are doing each month. If you liked this post, or want to reach out to us with anything you would like us to talk about, then you can do so by following any of the social links below!

The Liverpool Takeover – Reflections from Generic Parkour

24th April 2023 by callun.l

In the middle of April, a relatively small group of parkour practitioners from Liverpool ran the Liverpool Takeover event, a parkour street competition with a number of challenges based around their city.

Generic Parkour, from Liverpool, hosted a 2-day street training competition, the type that has grown increasingly popular over the last few years.

Takeover events are when an individual or group from the parkour community spends some time compiling a list of challenges in their city. Parkour practitioners will then descend onto the city, trying to complete as many challenges as possible in a set time frame (Typically a day or two.)

We’ve seen these styles of competitions grow over the last few years, with the competitions happening also in Sheffield, Manchester, and York.

I jumped on a call with Matthew from Generic Parkour to ask him some questions about the Liverpool takeover. What went well, and what could be improved for next time?

How Did It Go? How was the Liverpool Takeover?

“It went far better than we could have ever expected to be honest. For our first event, having 11 people competing was more than we could ever wish for really.”

Generic Parkour had developed their own website for the Liverpool takeover, with the aim of updating the scores in real-time, as well as having a comprehensive map of all the challenges.

“With it being a two-day event, Instagram stories are deleted after 24 hours. If you miss a video, someone’s clip isn’t getting marked. People might forget to upload, or the uploads fail. The website aimed to make it easier for people to upload clips, keep track of what they uploaded, and know what challenges they may need to go back and do again.

We had a tracking feature on the website that worked similarly to Google Maps. This showed you where you were in correlation to the challenges. On the day of the takeover, this sadly stopped working. We’ve got that working now.”

Was that a traffic problem?

“No, it was a bug. When it went public, a piece of the code got deleted. We’ve sorted it now, thankfully, but that was frustrating.

Sean’s dad does website development, Martin works in a game design company, and I am a graphic designer, so we just tried to build it. Martin has a server at his house, which we hosted it on. We’ve now upgraded that server to a nicer one so that alleviates the issues of running it.”

Why Liverpool?

“Generic Parkour is me (Matthew), Martin, Keira, and Sean. Liverpool used to be booming a few years ago, but it’s slowly started dying off… It used to be really big. A takeover was the best way to try and bring parkour back to the area.”

What could you of done better?

“We missed out on the spectator feature. Instagram was great for that sort of thing because people who follow you can track your progress.

What we’re working on right now is putting a spectator page in. It will have the athlete’s name and the challenges they’ve completed. You’ll be able to click the athlete’s name and see what challenges they have completed. It will tell you how many are left, and how many are done.

With Sean and I being the front runners, being in the parkour community for years, we aren’t really known. I don’t post anything. We don’t have a huge social presence.”

What went well?

“The designs we did for the posts helped establish us a bit more. A lot of people saw the graphics, and they thought we were a much bigger brand than we were. It got a lot of people interested.”

What about the event being a two-day takeover? Was that a benefit or a hindrance?

“The main issue was, it’s Liverpool. It’s quite far for the Southern athletes to come up to Liverpool. My thought has always been, if you’re travelling somewhere to do parkour that isn’t local to you, one day doesn’t cut it. You’ll spend £100 on a train ticket, 3 hours to get there, 3 hours to get back. You’ll be there for 6 hours for training tops. With it being a 2-day event, you can go and enjoy yourself a bit more. It makes it a little more worth the money.

We had planned accommodation at the Airborn Academy, but insurance-wise, we weren’t able to do it this time around. Hopefully, next time.”

Were you happy with the turnout? Would you like to of seen more people?

“For our first event, the number was amazing. It was the first event we tried to organise, and it went considerably well. We started this towards the end of last year. I would have loved to of seen more people (Like the Sheffield or York takeovers) because it means there is more money in the prize pot, which entices more people to compete.

With there being 11 people, we all branched off into little groups and really got to know the people who were there. We were there with Ed, Tay, the Sheffield lot, and more. It was essentially a mini session, everyone was pushing everyone, which was great to see.”

How many challenges did you have? Were they all done? Or are there some outstanding ones?

“There were 100, with 20/30 challenges that weren’t hit. Ed Scott (The Winner) was pushing so hard but didn’t get them all done. A good bit of feedback we received was to diversify some of the challenges a little more too. That’s why events like this are great. They bring a fresh set of eyes to the spots. As the organisers, we have a similar training style. With everyone coming down, it allows us to gain some feedback to make the next event even better.

There’s scope to develop in the future. There are probably around 400 challenges that we could realistically put in now. It will add diversification, so everyone who trains can have something to do. People see different things at the spot. Having two sets of eyes VS twenty sets of eyes makes all the difference. “

Straight after the event, you asked for feedback. That’s awesome to see. You’re really trying to make this competition stand out, and gaining feedback to make it better for the next time around straight away shows that you’re willing to really work on this to keep it developing in the future.

“Most of the people who came had never trained Liverpool at all. 10 years ago, it was a hot spot. There have been these staple cities before that used to be hubs for parkour, over the last few years, these cities that were huge 10 years ago have slowly dropped off the map.”

When’s the next one? What are the next steps?

“We thought about doing one over the summer, but we’re now going to be doing something different, with another takeover next year.

This summer, we have something unique coming. We’ve had our takeover, and now we want to build on that.

Something we are working on adding to the website is the option to organise and host your own takeover in your city. You can input your information (photos, locations, categories, etc) and our website will generate the takeover map for you.

We also want to add a sponsorship page. Brands can click on a takeover, and enter their details and what they’re wanting to donate to these takeover competitions. It makes a central hub for all takeovers. It breaks down the process easier for people to organise a takeover, as these kinds of events are super stressful to organise.”

Following the conversation with Matthew, we took to Instagram to ask the community for their thoughts on the new wave of takeover competitions that seem to be popping up more frequently in cities across the UK.

There was a general community consensus that visiting places you’ve never trained before, and seeing well-known cities get levelled up was a huge positive for these takeover events (The vast majority of them have happened in well-known cities for parkour, like Sheffield & Manchester).

In the UK, a lot of the competitions happen indoors at parkour gyms and facilities, so having a street-styled competition in the UK, similar to what you see in countries like the Netherlands is a real positive step for the sport in the UK.

Tay, who competed in the Liverpool Takeover, said;

“I love the city element. You get to travel to multiple spots, and it has a real feeling, unlike gym training. It’s a truer representation of how I train. I never had gyms. I learned all my flips and jumps on grass or concrete.”
Tay

With the summer approaching, we can expect to see many more takeover events popping up. The Manchester takeover took place a few weeks ago, and the Sheffield one is fast approaching this summer.

We would love to get to some of these events. Let us know if you are hosting a takeover event, and we will be sure to get a member of our team there. You can get in touch with us through any of the links below!

The Do’s and Don’ts of Outdoor Training! – Getting Started With Parkour

24th April 2023 by callun.l

Parkour has been growing over the years, attracting an increasing number of practitioners from all walks of life.

But as with any sport or discipline, it comes with its own set of rules and etiquette that should be followed to ensure safety, respect, and success.

In this “Getting Started with Parkour” article, we’ll discuss parkour training etiquette, and how to be responsible and safe when training outdoors, as well as being a great ambassador for the sport!

Before we get started, it’s worth discussing where parkour is typically practiced.

Parkour is primarily practiced outdoors, as well as in parkour facilities (gyms), or gymnastic halls.

This article is going to mainly focus on training outdoors, however, these rules can (and should!) be applied to indoor facilities (like parkour gyms and gymnastic halls!).

When selecting an outdoor training location there are a variety of factors that will not only enhance your experience and keep you safe but will also help grow Parkour/Freerunning as a community, sport, and activity that can be enjoyed and understood by everyone.

Respect The Space & Stay Safe!

Parkour is all about movement and exploration, but it’s important to remember that we are guests in the spaces where we train. Whether it’s a public park, a private gym, or any outdoor location, we must always respect the space and the people around us. This means not damaging property, not leaving or dropping litter, and being mindful of noise levels, especially in residential areas.

Parkour, like all other sports, can also be dangerous if not practiced safely and responsibly. Always be aware of your surroundings, and don’t attempt moves that are beyond your skill level or physical abilities.

To keep safe:

Always check the surfaces you are moving on, to ensure they are stable and appropriate for your movements and your level of experience. Check that the structures you are using are weight-bearing and can withstand the impacts you may expose them to.

It is beneficial for everyone if you train in spaces that are welcoming and open to Parkour/Freerunning.

Consider the members of the public who may be affected in some way by your training, for example;

Are there residents nearby who may be disturbed?
Will you be obstructing highly crowded areas?
Are there young children nearby who may be influenced by your actions?

Be aware of the context of where you are training and you are far more likely to have an undisturbed session that will lead to improvements in your ability and a more enjoyable training session overall.

We’ve also outlined some more parkour training tips below!

Start Small, and Progress Gradually!

Parkour is a challenging discipline. It’s important to start small and progress gradually to avoid injuries and frustration. Don’t try to perform advanced moves before mastering the fundamentals, and don’t push yourself beyond your limits. Take your time to learn the fundamentals, and gradually increase the difficulty of your training.

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

This point is one from our community and builds from one of the points above.

When training, it is important to be aware of your surroundings.

As mentioned above, this includes residents nearby who may be disturbed, obstruction of highly crowded areas, and young children who may be influenced by what you’re doing.

You will also need to be aware when it comes to the people you’re training with.

It’s important to take notice of the other people you are out training with, especially at big jams or events. When you’re looking at a jump or a challenge, it’s important to make sure that the run-up or landing point is not in the way of someone else doing a challenge.

This will also keep everyone safe, making sure no one collides with one another, or gets in each other’s way, enabling a more productive and safe training session.

Noise Levels

It can be very tempting and easy to get amped up when trying a challenge. Whether this is listening to music through a speaker, or celebrating yourself or a friend completing a challenge that you/they have been looking at for ages.

Remember, be respectful of other people in the area. Try not to play music too loud in places that are crowded or have a large amount of footfall. Also, if in residential areas, it is important to be respectful of the residents, keeping loud noise to a minimum.

You should totally celebrate your wins, but just remember that there will be other people in the area too!

Embrace the Community

It’s fairly unusual to a lot of people why lifestyle sports use the term “community”.

Lifestyle sports is a term used for sports like parkour, surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding that recognises a commitment to not only the activity itself but also an accompanying lifestyle.

This means that the involvement in the sport stretches far beyond just participating in it!

Parkour is often considered a lifestyle sport because it is more than just a physical activity or sport. It requires a combination of physical and mental training, as well as emphasising personal development and self-improvement.

Beyond the physical aspect, parkour also emphasises mental and emotional development. People who practice parkour are encouraged to push their limits and confront their fears, which can lead to increased self-confidence and a sense of personal achievement. Additionally, parkour has a strong community aspect, with many practitioners forming close-knit groups that support and encourage each other.

It’s also worth checking out our previous articles, “How To Find a Parkour Community” and “What To Expect at Your First Jam”

Parkour is a community, and it’s important to be respectful and supportive of each other. It’s important to be mindful of other practitioners and their training needs. Everyone progresses at a different rate, and your experience could help other people progress!

Offer help and advice to other practitioners, and be willing to learn from them as well, but remember to keep it appropriate. Before offering any help or advice, be sure to engage in a conversation with people and introduce yourself. Although your help and support can be with the best intentions, it can sometimes confuse or overwhelm people who are training, so make sure the situation is appropriate before you offer any help and advice.

Most importantly, be respectful of each other’s differences and backgrounds.

Our community has also come forward to say “Ask questions. We’re a friendly community who are always looking to answer questions, whether you practice parkour or not.”

York Takeover 2022 – Community Organised Event

Leave Every Conversation Better Than How It Started

Parkour is still incredibly new. Some people could still be unaware of what the sport is.

When training parkour, you could potentially be moved on or asked to leave a spot, or have some people approach you asking what you are doing.

In these situations, it’s crucial to never go on the offensive. Not only will this ruin your relationship with the spot, making it more challenging to train there in the future, but it also paints the sport in a negative light.

Open a dialogue with these people, and explain to them what you are doing and what Parkour is.

Parkour UK Members, Team Reality, have worked hard in their community to challenge the public’s perception of Parkour

My Personal Experience

I am going to give you two examples from my own personal experience when training outside.

Please remember, that this is my own experience, and every situation is different.

I live and train in a market town called Horsham. This is a town that has a typically older residential population and is seen as one town where people go to live when they retire.

Horsham has a varying mix of spots, the vast majority of which are in public spaces.

One day, I had an elderly women approach me, saying “You will break your neck one day” – Instead of brushing off the comment, or snapping with a comment back, I climbed down off of the wall and asked, “What makes you think that?”

What ended up happening was we had a fifteen-minute conversation about how she didn’t quite understand what I was doing, or why I was doing it. I explained to her that I haven’t just gone up on the wall to randomly throw myself off and hope for the best, but it was actually the result of years of training and practice. I also explained the benefits I find from training for both my mental and physical health. The conversation ended, and we both went on our way.

The second, again in Horsham, we were getting moved on from a spot by security. It was one of those first encounter situations. The first time we had been moved on, and the first time the security had to deal with something like this.

Although a bit of a tense situation at first, I started speaking to the security guard about it. I wanted to know what caused the tension when he first left the building.

What he explained to me was that there was a bit of an issue with vandalism going on near and around the building, and he thought that was the reason we were there.

Again, this is where we had a conversation regarding the situation. I explained to him what we were actually doing, and he explained what he saw from his point of view.

We still had to leave the spot, we understood he was just doing his job, but he said he would speak to his management, as the space we were in “wasn’t being used for anything.” – We have a pretty good relationship with that spot now.

In summary, if the situation allows you to do so, take the opportunity to speak to people and teach them about what you’re doing. In some situations, it’s the unknown nature that worries people, not the activity itself!

Conclusion

In conclusion, when training outdoors, there is a number of ways that we can be responsible, respectful, and supportive of each other, as well as respecting our environment, and the people around us.

By following these guidelines, we can create safe and positive training environments that encourage growth, exploration, and self-improvement.

Remember to respect the space, start small and progress gradually, practice safety, respect noise levels, and be respectful and supportive of each other.

If you enjoyed this article, why not share it on social media?

Fancy getting in touch? You can follow and reach out to us on any of the social media links below! We would love to hear from you!

Parkour UK Monthly Update – March 2023

12th April 2023 by callun.l

March was a busy month for all of us at Parkour UK. Here is our monthly update for March 2023.

All Hands Meeting – Sheffield

In March, the majority of the Parkour UK team met for our quarterly all-hands meeting in Sheffield.

During our time in Sheffield, our team had the opportunity to deliver a presentation on the various projects that they are working on. This included:

Lynn – Women’s Engagement
Simon – The Level 2 CIMPSA Accreditation
Caroline – Disability in Sports
Kieran – Parkour UK Memberships
Callun – Long form & Written Content

On the Wednesday of our all hands meeting, we also had the pleasure of speaking to Keith Oddy from KO Child Protection Services about safeguarding within parkour. It was an incredibly insightful conversation, and we are incredibly grateful for Keith’s time with us!

Women’s Engagement Project

Earlier in the month, Lynn visited Glasgow to shoot our first piece for our Women’s Engagement Project.

With our projects, we want to try and support the parkour community. This includes working with film makers and photographers. In this case, we worked with Johnston Macpherson-Stewart, who shot the video at Movement Park, Glasgow.

The full video will be released soon!

Isla and Johnstone shooting the Women’s Engagement Project

Parkour UK Brand Membership

Our Membership lead, Kieran, has been in contact with a number of parkour clothing brands recently, as he works on building out our membership offerings for the parkour participants and the community.

We’re looking to get as many parkour brands involved as possible to offer benefits to our individual members and member organisations.

If you haven’t received an email from Kieran and would like your parkour clothing brand to be involved, make sure you reach out by sending him an email to the following address, kieran.wylde@parkour.uk.

Level 2 Qualification CIMPSA Accreditation

Recently, our Workforce team has been in the process of submitting our recently redeveloped Level 2 coaching qualification for CIMPSA accreditation.

CIMPSA is the professional development body for the UK’s sport and physical activity sector, committed to supporting, developing, and enabling professionals and organisations to succeed and, as a result, inspire our nation to become more active.

“Currently, we are finalising the CIMSPA mapping, which means that we are working to ensure that our course can align with all the CIMSPA Professional Standards for the role of a coach (there are around 265 standards to map to). “
Simon – Our Workforce Lead

Simon will be submitting a copy of this mapping to 1st4sport this week who will double check, feedback and, once checked, we’ll submit it to CIMSPA for assessment by the end of the month.

Barring any adjustments we have to make this will then mean that our summer intake will then also be CIMSPA accredited as well as 1st4sport.

Level 1 – Cardiff

Our next Parkour UK Level 1 Assistant Coaching Course is taking place at the Fluidity Freerun Academy in Cardiff.

The course costs £375.00, and if you have any questions or inquiries, make sure you reach out to us by emailing info@parkour.uk

Click the button below to book your slot!

Book Here

Level 2 Summer Intake

Our Level 2 summer intake starts on June 5th! Bookings are still open, and we recommend booking on as soon as you can!

**REMEMBER** Payment plans are available for our Level 2 coaching qualification. You can find out more about our payment plans by following the link here.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read our monthly update. If you have an upcoming event, competition, or jam, or have anything you would like featured in a future Parkour UK post, make sure you reach out to us on our social platforms, @parkouruk.

5 Ways Parkour Positively Impacts Your Mental Health

23rd March 2023 by callun.l

While parkour is often thought of as just a physical activity, it also offers a number of mental health benefits that are worth exploring.

In today’s “Getting Started with Parkour” article, we are going to be diving into some of the ways that parkour can benefit your mental health in a positive way, and how it can also benefit other areas of your life.

We’ve also included some mental health resources at the bottom of this article, as well as some of our member organisations that have a focus on the positive impact parkour has on mental health.

1 – It boosts confidence and self-esteem

Parkour involves taking on challenging physical obstacles and pushing yourself to new limits. As you develop new skills and abilities, you’ll start to feel more confident in your abilities, which can translate to other areas of your life. A lot of parkour practitioners always state how what they have learned in parkour has helped them in their day-to-day lives outside of the sport.

This can lead to a greater sense of self-esteem and self-worth.

Parkour helps boost confidence and self-esteem.

2 – It helps manage stress

Engaging in physical activity, like parkour, can be an excellent way to manage stress. Exercise releases endorphins, which are natural mood-boosting chemicals in the brain. As you engage in parkour, you’ll feel a sense of excitement and exhilaration, which can help alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety.

Parkour helps manage stress – Photo by Joanna Markiewicz

3 – It improves focus and concentration

Parkour requires a high level of focus and concentration. As you navigate obstacles and plan your movements, you’ll be training your brain to focus more effectively. This can translate to other areas of your life, such as work or school, where you need to concentrate for extended periods of time.

4 – It promotes resilience and perseverance

Parkour involves taking on challenging physical obstacles and learning to persevere in the face of adversity and fear. As you develop resilience and persistence through parkour, you’ll be better equipped to handle challenges and setbacks in other areas of your life.

Parkour promotes resilience and perseverance – Photo by Scott Bass

5 – It provides a sense of community and social support

Parkour is often practiced in groups or communities, which can provide a sense of social support and connection. Engaging with others who share your passion for parkour can be a great way to build relationships and feel more connected to others.

Parkour provides a sense of community and social support.

Overall, parkour is a challenging and rewarding sport that offers a number of benefits for your mental health. Whether you’re looking to boost your confidence, manage stress, improve focus, develop resilience, or build social connections, parkour is a great way to achieve these goals while having fun and staying active. So why not give it a try?

Parkour UK Courses for Mental Health

Throughout the year, Parkour UK looks to add more options for coaches and individuals within the parkour community to enhance their learning.

Since 2022, we have been running Mental Health First Aid courses.

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a training course that teaches people how to identify, understand and help someone who may be experiencing a mental health issue.

MHFA won’t teach you to be a therapist, but it will teach you to listen, reassure and respond, even in a crisis – and even potentially stop a crisis from happening.

You’ll learn to recognise warning signs of mental ill health and develop the skills and confidence to approach and support someone while keeping yourself safe.

Keep an eye on our socials (@parkouruk) for updates on our next Mental Health First Aid course, or check out our events calendar here .

If you are in a position where you need urgent mental health support, please take a look at any of the following links below:

Parkour UK Mental Health Advice

CALM ZONE Service Directory

Contendunt – Mental Health Helplines (Worldwide)

Parkour Classes with a focus on mental health:

Spiral Freerun C.I.C, Bedford UK – PKUK Affiliate Members
Spiral Freerun Website

Free Your Instinct – PKUK Affiliate Members
Parkour to help people with mental health support needs, operating in London, Somerset, and Bristol
Free Your Instinct Website

Aspire Parkour Academy – PKUK Affiliate Members
Parkour sessions in Peterborough, UK. Coaches have undergone mental health first aid training.
Aspire Parkour Academy Website

Parkour UK Statement Addressing Women’s Engagement Podcast & Social Media Posts

9th March 2023 by callun.l

We have reviewed and considered posts that have emerged since the release of our latest podcast episode on women’s engagement, commenting on Parkour UK, our employees, and our work.

Considering the content, we would like to make the following statement.

Parkour UK acknowledge that the post caused concern for some members of our community, this was unintended, and we apologise for any distress caused.

As the national governing body for parkour, we always encourage respectful and considered debate to the posts that we share. When engagement is professional, and solution driven we will be pleased to work with our community on the matters raised to an appropriate conclusion.

We understand that frustrations exist about historical matters. These are matters that we have listened to, taken seriously, and based on independent decision making, we have taken a clear strategic direction which we stand by and believe are in the best interests of the sport.

Since Monday we have been engaging with the authors of the posts and where agreed we have made arrangements to speak on the matters raised.

The women’s engagement project has been designed with positive intent. We would like to encourage more women into parkour, not just by being physically active but also in decision making roles to have their voices heard. The project is in its very early stages and being driven by Lynn Jung from our digital team, who is finding women that are active in the sport and want to tell their stories.

Parkour UK’s social and digital platforms are our main channels of communication with the community. In addition to the ‘communication’ tool, the platforms are a fundamental part of our workplace, so we feel that it is important to identify and challenge confrontational behaviour so that our staff feel safe to undertake their roles.

So that our digital spaces can be a safe, inclusive space for discussion and sharing of ideas and to ensure everyone has a positive experience, we would encourage everyone to maintain the behaviours / principles outlined on our website. You can find this by following the link below.

Read Our Digital Principles

Parkour UK do not plan to make any further comments on the matter. Through our continued work to serve, elevate and add value to the parkour community we will engage through our staff and board and welcome respectful and considered contributions.

Further details on our engagement strategy and opportunities to contribute will be shared.

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