Parkour: An anti ego boosting discipline (Stephane Vigroux)

[TOM 4.366]

Internet, Facebook, Instagram...great tools to communicate and share ideas. Powerful mediums, working either way, whether the message is positive or not.

A big part of my work today is about educating people who want to try and experience parkour as a holistic discipline, promoting growth both physically and mentally. Pretty hard task when a BIG part of the communication around parkour/freerunning on social media revolves around the very limited, extreme and superficial layers of the discipline.

 

‪#‎NOFEAR‬. I came across of one those silly IG account recently using this hashtag as a tagline. The content of that account? A young man, clearly obsessed with fashion and the way he dresses more than actually training a real discipline for life, hanging on one arm on top of cranes, standing at the top of buildings, fooling and messing around trying to impress the audience. After a bit of research, I came to realise there are many of those accounts where all you can see are poorly trained kids, hanging on top of buildings or cranes with a Go Pro stuck on their head or at the end of a selfie stick, pretending to be brave, when the reality is they are just unconscious people who don’t realise how precious life is and that a tiny mistake up there and the game ends instantly.

 

Do not get me wrong, I did climb buildings or did jumps with potential death risks. But there is an enormous difference of approach and mentality with what I have been taught from David Belle, Williams Belle or any of the founders that I trained with. First of all, putting our lives at risk on a jump was not something that we would do every day. It was something that happened occasionally and was ALWAYS the fruit of some work, reflection and intense preparation. Also, the whole point of that experience was very personal. An inner battle, an ultimate test to confront the method of training and the reality. It was done with a sensible approach often following a logical process and progression. Ultimately, a way to remain humble and improve as a person.

 

In no way it was about showing and exposing to the world a spectacular performance. Quite the opposite actually. Some of the most dangerous things that I have done are not on camera. These moments should remain authentic and spontaneous. They should be lived fully from the inside. Alone with yourself.

Why? Quiet and internal work is the way. This is what you need to make real progress in parkour and as a person. What is it with those new generations who have implanted Go Pro in their forehead even when they sleep?! Those very superficial stunts are only performed with the goal of building huge social media accounts. Everything is prepared and staged so that the action looks spectacular and cool in order to generate more likes and followers and probably more stunt work. It could not be more contradictory to parkour. At least to the origin of parkour that I was exposed to.

 

#NOFEAR. If you have no fear my friend, firstly you are lying and two you will die very young from one of your silly stunts. Fear is a good friend that should be treated with respect and that is where the method of parkour resides. Getting familiar with your fear, slowly, regularly, with respect and humility. #NOFEAR is a masquerade hiding what is really happening behind the likes of the account: Ego feeding. Ego growing. The perfect opposite of parkour from my point of view.

 

Of course the planet is big enough to receive of all our differences. Anyone is entitled to hang on a crane and laugh of course. But please do not mistake that with parkour. In many ways it is NOT.

 

Move smart - Move long

https://www.facebook.com/vigrouxstephane/posts/787167708055787:0

[TOM 4.366]

Nicht so einfach das Thema.

Ich hab mir selbst schwer damit getan, dafür die richtigen Worte zu finden und ich kann Stephane hier fast nur zustimmen

Mir kommt es auch so vor, als wenn die meisten "freedom seeker" mit Ihren Kran-/Dächer-/sonstigen Klettereien, dies nicht für sich selbst sondern für die Kamera und (social) Medien machen

Andererseits fände ich es auch interessant, ob es Stephane, David, Sebastien, etc. nicht genauso online gestellt hätten, wenn sie als Jugendliche damals die Möglichkeiten dazu gehabt hätten.

Mit #NOFEAR und #YOLO kann ich nichts anfangen, das halte ich für respektlos.

Grenzen austesten und erweitern ist gut und wichtig.... aber in den richtigen Steps und mit der richtigen Motivation.

 

Das ganze hat nämlich Vorbildwirkung und es folgen immer weniger geübte Nachahmer... und irgendwann kommt dann noch ein bisschen Pech dazu.

[Alexx 400]

thx 4 sharing!