Training parkour solo has its benefits. When training on your own, you are entirely focused on yourself and the challenges set in front of you. It’s a really good way to test your mental game when it comes to training.

With that being said, like most sports, parkour sessions with a community or with your friends are always more entertaining than training on your own.

Like most lifestyle sports (skateboarding, rollerblading, scooter, etc) parkour has a huge focus on its community aspect. The sport of parkour is approaching an age of around the mid-thirties. On top of that, it is also one of the first sports that has grown in conjunction with the internet and social media.

Because of this, parkour has become a very tight nit sport. It isn’t uncommon for practitioners to be best friends or know other practitioners up and down the country, or even the world.

When starting parkour, however, this information is not necessarily common knowledge. Today, we are going to give you some tips for finding a parkour community in your area, or, if you are looking to travel somewhere for parkour, how to find local guides or spots within that area.

Google & YouTube Searches

Google is the world’s largest search engine, but not many people know that YouTube, despite being a video-sharing platform, is actually also the second largest search engine.

You can utilise these tools to easily help you find classes, communities, groups, or spots in your local area.

A load of parkour communities loves the idea of people visiting their area to train parkour, and because of this, ‘spot maps’ have been created by these local communities.

A spot map is a Google Map that has a selection of ‘pins’ dropped onto it. These pins will be the locations of spots in that area. It’s perfect if you’re going to visit somewhere and don’t quite know where the good spots for training are.

Spot maps are definitely more common in big cities. seeing as these areas spread far and wide to the smaller towns on the outskirts too.

Parkour brand ‘Norml Brand’ recently featured a post of a London Parkour Spot Map. It’s huge. We’ve attached it below as an example.
It looks daunting at first, but after you nail down a particular area you would like to go to, it’s not as scary.

Let me give you an example of video searching. I started parkour in May 2012. When I started, I knew my town center had some spots, but I hadn’t quite developed that eye for training just yet. I visited the same three spots each training session.

I went onto YouTube and searched “My Location” followed by “Parkour.” In my case, Horsham Parkour. I stumbled across a tonne of videos from a small parkour group called Horsham Movement (who eventually became Storror… that’s crazy.) But these videos gave me a reference point of spots that were in the local town center.

I also stumbled across a second group, called Parkour Sundays. This was back in the day when you could send messages on YouTube, so I reached out and sent them a message and was out training with them, later on, that week.

Sadly, YouTube has since removed the option to message your favorite channels personally, but fear not, there is a solution to all of this.

Social Networks

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, are all called social networks for a reason. A social network enables a connection in both the real and digital world. As mentioned above, parkour’s growth has more or less mirrored those of social networks.

You can see this on Google Trends over time. When comparing ‘Parkour’ next to ‘Social Network’, with the red representing ‘social network’ and the blue representing ‘parkour’ you can see the two follow a similar search pattern (There is a spike in 2010, due to the release of the David Fincher film ‘The Social Network’)

In 2016, a lot of parkour practitioners took to Instagram after they started allowing video content to be published on the platform. This is covered in more detail in a video from ‘JimmyTheGiant’, which you can watch below.

The title of the video aside, the video goes into detail about parkour’s transition to social media.

Back to the topic at hand, many groups have social network accounts and are extremely active on them. If you have found a YouTube video or channel from practitioners in your area, have a look at the top right-hand section of their YouTube channel, or alternatively in the description of their videos. They should have a link to their social media accounts. Here, you can drop them a message and ask about meeting up and training.

Facebook also has a forum-like feature, where people can set up ‘groups’ for parkour in their local area. It’s always worth using Facebook a little bit like a search engine, and seeing what pops up concerning parkour in your local area.

We also have a ‘Get Involved section on our website. Here you can search for your location, and it will bring up parkour parks, indoor facilities, and coaches and organisations that are in or close to your area. You can find that here.

Parkour Classes

A great way to meet like-minded people is to attend parkour classes and sessions.

All over the country, there are parkour classes for all ages and abilities, with some facilities even hosting weekly ‘open jam’ sessions. This replicates outside training in a safe environment, where you can meet new people.

The coaches teaching parkour classes have years of experience within the parkour community, and the likelihood of some of these coaches being in a similar position to you is high. This could help you with spots in your local area, or let you know who the best person to contact is to arrange an outdoor session.

Some parkour coaching organisations even get involved in this themselves, making an effort to train outside with their students in order to help them start their parkour journey outside of the gyms. Team Reality, from Grimsby, does this almost on a weekly basis, where they upload videos to their YouTube channel following the session.

Jams and Events

Without trying to go all business-like on you, networking is key. A load of practitioners within the community hold jam sessions, more so in the summer, and because of this, loads of the community share it around and show up. Making an effort to go to these events to meet other people who train in the sport helps blossom friendships that last for years.

There are some general unwritten rules to follow at a jam, which we will cover in a later post, but these events help you meet practitioners of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds, and friendships are spawned, meaning that if you would like to train with other people, you now have those connections dotted around the country to do so.

Parkour for Women

At Parkour UK, we promote the participation of all ages, genders, identities, orientations, and backgrounds.

We understand that currently, the sport is male-dominated. We also understand the hesitation that individuals may face when wanting to enter or participate in the sport.

We are incredibly proud and grateful that the parkour community has taken the step to eliminate the barriers to entry with classes and events for women, transgender & non-binary becoming a focus for individuals and organisations within our sport.

Below, we have listed some classes, courses, or jams that occur to help promote the inclusion and practice of parkour for those groups.

Nova City – On August 1st of this year, at their venue, Nova City ran a jam to allow Women of all ages from around the UK to train together in a safe environment.

During the day we had  Workshops from professional athletes Rachel Gough and Elise Bickley. This event was also featured on ITV news.

On their website, Nova City state;

When we return to normality we will be hosting some girls only introductory sessions, workshops with some of the country’s top female athletes and creating  loads of media aimed at inspiring the next generation of young women to start their Parkour journey.

Train Hard – The Parkour Project – Dorset-based parkour coaching organisation Train hard run The Parkour Project in Poole. On a Saturday morning, they run a youth & adult women-only parkour session. This is for ages 16+ and is coached by Viv Jackson and her husband, Scott.

We posted an article earlier this year, which you can read here, which highlights the impact of Viv & Scott’s women’s parkour sessions.

One participant of these classes has said;

“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. “

The BBC also featured a piece covering and highlighting the success of Train Hard’s female-centered classes.

This Girl Jam – Hosted by Rachel Gough, an athlete who is sponsored by ‘The Motus Projects and has competed in numerous competitions.

Rachel hosts the ‘This Girl Jam’, which is a jam for women and non-binary parkour participants. This allows women to have a safe space to train or try the sport without the fear of judgment.

The jam is hosted annually, but Rachel has plans to try and host the jam on a more frequent basis.

Do you have any more tips for finding a community? Let us know your thoughts down below, and share this post with someone who might be trying to start parkour.

Parkour UK has supported the development and completion of 3 new Movement Cards for England, Wales and Northern Ireland to aid making practitioners and the public aware of the laws regarding the use of public and private space.  

The Movement Card – created by Ukemi and Parkour Outreach – aims to educate and inform all who have interactions with people moving in the public domain. The card is part resource, part research and part response – created to promote freedom of movement. 

The project was part of our Development Associates programme and Hugo Knowles, Sam Strickson and Matt Hinchley played a key role in this programme.  The aim of the project was to develop the movement card product based on the already existing Scotland card for the rest of UK adhering to the differing laws between the countries. 

To achieve this our DAs spoke with Gordon Tsang to get an understanding of what the movement card was and why it was important to practitioners. They were also provided expertise and documentation from Alex May – of Serious Play Parkour – containing information about parkour, training outdoors and the legality of parkour in public spaces. 

This led the team to share a survey with the community where they listened to views on “What the law says vs what the culture says?” and compared the lawful rights to space with the experiences that practitioners have had out while training.

The surveys gave them some valuable insight into practitioners’ experiences with the law and found that although roughly 75% of the practitioners trained either daily or weekly, almost half of practitioners didn’t know their legal rights when training in public spaces.

The research from the survey highlighted commonly known issues and reinforced the good work already carried out by Ukemi and Parkour Outreach which led to the creation of the original Scottish Movement Card. This mean that the work to adapt the card for the other UK nations could be carried out but still create a consistent message and aesthetic for the cards. 

The information on the law that Alex provided helped to form the England, Wales and Northern Ireland adjustments while keeping consistent with the overall principle and messaging in regards to educating movers about their rights to space.

In April the new cards digital assets were published at Movement Card – Right to the City (mvmnt-card.com) and physical cards will available to print.

Parkour UK intends to print the movement cards in future to be included with memberships and to reach the UK community in a number of ways over the coming year.  

We would like to thank Hugo, Sam and Matt for keeping the project moving forwards. We are also grateful to Alex May for his expertise in regards to the law and his contributions allowed us to develop the cards with confidence. Thanks to David Banks from Ukemi and Gordon Tsang from Parkour Outreach for their support, guidance and feedback they given to the project.

Whats next for the Movement Card?

 “We want to create a global database for the Movement Card to empower practitioners with knowledge about their rights to move in the public domain. This will allow us to draw comparisons between countries and understand the best examples of freedom to move so that we can advocate greater rights for all” said Gordon Tsang.

If you are interested in developing a Movement Card for your country – please contact the Movement Card team at hello@mvmnt-card.com

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:

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 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. 

Following the announcement by Red Bull regarding the athletes that will be competing at Art of Motion 2022, Parkour UK would like to share our continued support for gender equality and equal opportunities.

Art of Motion is an international parkour competition, for 2022 the decision has been taken to select 13 athletes for invitation and offer two online qualifying places. The 13 athletes that have been selected include 2 women and 11 men. This is in direct contrast with 2021 where the qualification procedure was the three podium-finishers from Red Bull Art of Motion 2019, the 12 winners (six men and six women) of the Online Qualifier and, finally, three more contestants who qualified through the Onsite Qualifier. Parkour UK have approached Red Bull to understand the approach they took to deciding which athletes would be selected to compete in 2022, we await a response from Red-Bull.

As an NGB, we are committed to parkour being an inclusive practice and we support the comments made by women from the community, which challenge the imbalance of genders invited to compete at Art of Motion 2022. As well as an awareness of the opinions across social media around Red Bull Art of Motion, Parkour UK spoke directly to Rachel Gough. Rachel competes and runs women, girl and non-binary jams / events. This includes the upcoming This Girl Jam on July 2 & 3^rd with workshops, speed and style competitions which are accessible for everyone. 
Rachel shared her views:

“Women deserve a place in this sport, we do not need to prove ourselves, we already have. There is a huge selection of highly talented women who are incredibly interesting to watch, yet Red Bull ignores this. Under representation is a huge issue for any growing sport, how are women supposed to enter and grow in the sport if they’re already being shown that they clearly aren’t as important or valued in the sport? We should not have to constantly compare ourselves to men, to keep up with men to be allowed a place, we deserve a place, we aren’t men, we are women.”

Parkour UK believe that equitable treatment is important, particularly with regards to visibility. Women’s visibility in sport is pivotal. Women athletes serve an inspirational role model for girls. They show girls what is possible. If girls mostly see men competing, they’re less likely to think this is an activity they can take part in or belong in. It is something supported by Women in Sport who highlight eight principles for success which set the challenge to ‘Hold the door open for everyone’.

Women in Sport also talk about the importance of role models close to home and further afield in their report ‘What sways women to play sport?’. The report references six identified spheres of influence or sway factors, with one being ‘possibilities; opening her eyes to what she can do’.

We can see there is brilliant work going on in the community which drives opportunities for women and girls, which include:

• We believe that the women’s parkour courses run by Train Hard / The Parkour Project support making parkour more accessible to women and girls in their area – they include women only sessions and are free to access.
• We support ‘The Women’s International Parkour Weekend’ run by Parkour Generations for offering women and non-binary people a non-competitive, supportive and welcoming space to explore movement.
• We support the approach that NovaCity have taken within Project Underground 9 and other jams / events, where they have included separate women’s competition with equal prizes in the programme.

Further information on the examples given can be found at the bottom of this statement.

The Future 

In the short term…

We are making an active effort to amplify opportunities and successes of women in the community. You can help us by sharing the details of opportunities and jams that you would like us to promote, or by making suggestions for what we can be doing? Please contact us here.

In the long term…

We believe that representation from a wider cross section of society will encourage more people to believe that they belong and can participate and engage fully and equally in parkour. Our plans to improve diversity and inclusion in the sport will be set out through a subcommittee and a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan. Through this work we will publish clear ambitions to ensure our work represents and reflects the diversity of the parkour community. 

Our Independent Director Natasha Preville, who is the board lead for diversity and inclusion, stands by the written piece in 2020. Natasha believes “Parkour is, by its very nature, inclusive and rights focussed, and we believe everyone is entitled to equitable opportunity to access. Therefore, we will never tire to challenge negative stereotypes and experiences as a progressive and forward thinking NGB”

Examples of good practice in the parkour community

Train Hard Women’s parkour courses – Between September 2021 and April 2022, Train Hard Parkour & Freerunning successfully delivered ‘Introduction to Parkour’ courses for less well-represented demographics in parkour made possible through a grant from Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council via the Bounce Back Challenge fund. The programme included parkour courses for girls and women aged 6-9, 10-14, 14-17 and 18+ and attracted 165 women participants, many of whom have continued to attend regular classes after these courses. Check out this video from BBC South Today.  

Parkour Generations Women’s International Parkour Weekend – We are pleased to see this event returning and encouraging more women and non-binary people into Parkour and movement. Providing an entirely non-competitive, supportive and welcoming space where we can explore both our general environment and our inner landscape is important for personal growth and development as a movement community.⁠ Whether you’re a woman or non-binary traceuse, climber, crossfitter, runner, weightlifter, gymnast or general mover. This event is a celebration of YOUR movement.⁠

NovaCity – Through their Project Underground 9 event NovaCity brought together practitioners from across the world, helping to grow parkour practice across the country. The event was conducted over 3 days and designed to be attractive to all parkour practitioners as it offers the chance to train, compete or spectate. The competition itself was split into 3 discipline categories and 3 age categories, and a separate women’s competition, all with equal prizes.