Affiliates

Engaging The Community & Challenging Public Perception – Team Reality (Member Highlight)

TEAM REALITY LTD are Parkour UK Afilliate+ members based in Grimsby.

Team Reality is a parkour team first formed in 2007 originating from the Grimsby/Cleethorpes area, founded by the duo of Jake Harris and Neil Huston. Since 2010, Team Reality have been coaching their own parkour sessions to a range of individuals of all ages within their community.

Fast forward 12 years and Team Reality is thriving. They have a new partnership with Sidney Sussex Park, a group that is based within a local park who have been putting on events, functions, and activity days for the local community. 

I spoke to Jake Harris at Team Reality about the partnership, asking him about the partnership, who approached whom, and what the steps moving forward were.

Jake states:

They reached out to us. We’ve worked within the local community for many years. I think there were some mutual friends and connections, and we were recommended.  

Throughout the summer, we had the opportunity to join them for some fun in the park and give the local area around the park the chance to try parkour or just explore movement in a way they may not have before. 

This partnership wasn’t just for the summer holidays. Team Reality runs its own indoor facility, where they teach over 100 participants a week. Because of the access to this space, Team Reality has continued the partnership into the winter months.

No alt text provided for this image

As the weather has started to turn, we have been fortunate enough to bring the local community to our own facility to progress on the introduction to parkour and give them a greater experience in the sport. It also brings the community together, keeping warm and dry within our academy. 

Jake, and the other Team Reality coaches, have a very clear and passionate drive to want to make a positive change in their community, whilst also tackling the public’s general perception of parkour. Back in September, an article was published on the Grimsby Telegraph website about a group of individuals practicing parkour on the rooftops of the local area. (Read Here.)

A few days later, one of the Team Reality students, who was pictured in the article, approached the Grimsby Telegraph to explain his side of the story. (Read Here.)

The 15-year-old student highlights the positive change the Team Reality guys have made in his life growing up and in others in the community.

I’ve been coached by people with 20 years of experience in the sport and it’s a great way to become involved in a community. Everyone supports one another and we get on really well as a group.

I started at six and only got to where I am with the help of my coach’s constructive criticism. It boosted me in the sport and as a person in the long run.

In a further follow-up to this article, Team Reality took the responsibility of inviting a Grimsby Telegraph reporter down to their indoor facility for a day of parkour training. This was to help individuals outside of the sport gain a deeper understanding of how the sport is practiced at ground level and in a safe environment, before taking things up to height.

Jake states:

There was an article about ‘youths jumping roof gaps’ which happened to be one of our older experienced students. They then did an article with him about parkour and now they are coming to us to have a go

The article highlights Team Reality’s passion for instructing parkour to anyone at any age and tells the story of the reporter trying parkour for the first time. You can read this article here.

Parkour is still an incredibly new sport. It is also the only sport where you don’t need equipment, a facility, or an instructor to really go out and give it a try. It is also one of the first new sports to grow up in tandem with social media. Because of this, videos of people jumping off rooftops are attention-grabbing and tend to go viral, which, in turn, makes experienced parkour practitioners (traceurs – the French term) look like adrenaline junkies with very little prior experience.

The publics view is definitely more positive than its ever been, but we can always do our part to help educate others on the sport. Every sport has dangerous elements and we want to shine a light on the hard work that goes into practicing parkour correctly, and it’s not just about the danger.

It is people like the Team Reality team who are challenging the public’s perception of parkour by offering the local community new, exciting, and engaging ways to challenge the environment around them, promoting a sense of community, self-progression, and exercise.

To finish, I have linked Team Reality’s YouTube channel, where they upload weekly videos of their training, as well as highlight some of the students from their classes.

Coatbridge Parkour Park – Second phase of development

Parkour UK affiliate Coatbridge Parkour & partners Freemove  look to further develop the Coatbridge Parkour Park with a second phase of development.

They’ve just received the plans for the second phase, with the new structures providing additional obstacles & variety to the existing park. The brown sections in the drawing are the existing structures, everything else will be added when building work begins. Once the second phase is complete it will become a similar size to LEAP Parkour Park.

Needless to say that the team at Coatbridge Parkour are excited by the designs. This will be a valued addition to the existing park, but also a significant development for Parkour facilities in Scotland.

GREAT WORK! #ParkourInspiringAGeneration

Roots of Movement Secure £9,480 funding

Lottery funding for next generation of Scottish Parkour Coaches 

Roots of Movement has announced that they has secured £9,480 funding from Awards for All Scotland in order to train the next generation of Parkour Coaches in Scotland!

The project, titled ‘Parkour Coaching for all’ will train a minimum fourteen new learners to become Parkour UK ADAPT 1st4sport Level 1 Award in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (QCF) qualified coaches. The learners will be from nearly every Parkour community in Scotland. In addition at least five learners will undertake the Parkour UK ADAPT 1st4sport Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (QCF) qualification. These learners are to cover some of Scotland’s bigger communities, to lead and supervise the Level 1 coaches.

This will set up an infrastructure of qualified Parkour coaches placed around Scotland to allow provision for regular Parkour classes, courses and events anywhere in the country, meeting the current demand from young people and community groups and encouraging access to Parkour training, growing the communities.

The Parkour UK ADAPT 1st4sport Level 1 Award in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (QCF) course will run Tuesday 6th – Friday 9th August in Glasgow 

The Parkour UK ADAPT 1st4sport Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Parkour/Freerunning (QCF) course will run Wednesday 21st – Sunday 25th August with the assessments taking place later in the year.

For more information about booking please contact Roots of Movement  

Roots of Movement 4

Roots of Movement 4 

The fourth annual, Scottish Parkour event will take place over the weekend of 28/29 September 2013. This year’s the event will be held in  Coatbridge with a new refreshed format.

Full details will be announced in July but for those of you keen to get tickets, Roots of Movement are currently offering ‘early bird’ rate for tickets booked in June for the weekend.

Weekend Tickets will be the reduced price of £31 for JUNE ONLY before changing to the full price of £40. As always your ticket gains you entry to the event and all of it’s sessions as well as the customary FREE T-SHIRT!

Check out the website for details and to buy tickets.

Affiliate shortlisted for Creative Business of the Year Award

The BIBA Awards is Lancashire’s leading and biggest awards and Parkour UK affiliate, Street Monkeys have been shortlisted in the ‘Creative Business of the Year’ category. They will be judged on their Parkour/Freerunning display, their Parkour Academy which they are due to launch in the near future and also how they have developed these into a business. They will need to show how they will be sustainable in the future and what they aim to achieve in the next 3 years. One of the key reasons they applied was to demonstrate that it isn’t just ‘normal’ and ‘ordinary’ businesses that can win business awards, they want to demonstrate that investing in young people and new emerging activities is the future. If they win they are hoping to show local councils that the future of a positive and active UK depends on investment in things like Parkour.

Street Monkeys Director Sean Delaney, who invested in the Street Monkeys two years ago said:

“At first I saw a lot of media coverage about how the freerunners were  apparently anti social, So I decided to invest a bit of my time and money into them to give them an opportunity to prove the media wrong. Never did I think that 2 years down the line we would have done some of the things we have and to be shortlisted as one of the best business in Lancashire is a credit to all the hard work everyone in the team has put in. The future for the Street Monkeys is looking amazing, we are working closely with a number of organisations and agencies to grow Parkour/Freerunning in the North West, we have recently become an affiliate of Parkour UK, the NGB for Parkour/Freerunning in the UK, who’s advice and guidance has been amazing and we are excited about working with them closely in the future”

The final ceremony takes place in September 2013 and Parkour UK would like to wish our affiliate, Street Monkeys the best of luck!

Shetland Parkour Experience 2!

Shetland Parkour Experience 2 led by affiliate, Northern Focus Parkour is a chance for practitioners old and new to gather in a unique setting for 4 days of training. Bringing together some of Scotland’s top Parkour coaches through affiliate organisation, Roots of Movement as well as coaches from all over the UK.

Shetland offers a host of unique outdoor training environments and extensive indoor facilities, all of which will be used in SPE 2. Participants will be taken through a number of aspects of Parkour training over many different classes such as Creative Movement, Foot Placement and Precision, Breaking Jumps, Wake-Up Class, Night Training and a Final Strength Challenge on the last day.

For 12yrs+:  Participants will be taken through a number of aspects of Parkour training over many different classes such as creative movement, foot placement and precision, breaking jumps, wake-up class, night training and a final strength challenge on the last day.   A ticket entitles you to attend as many of the classes as you would like.   Classes run through the day and evening between 10am and 9pm plus an early morning session and night session over the weekend.

For 8 – 11 yrs:  Participants will be taken through a number of aspects of Parkour training over many different classes such as creative movement, foot placement and precision, breaking jumps, wake-up class, night training and a final strength challenge on the last day. An 8-11s ticket entitles you to attend the juniors sessions which take place on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings of the event.
A free event T-Shirt comes with the ticket.

Class schedule and more info can be found at here

This is shaping up to be an amazing event! Be sure to book early to avoid disappointment, as we expect a lot of interest both locally and nationally. Call Shetland Box Office on 01595 74 5555.