[PkGenerations] PKGen Americas' Blake Evitt Speaks to Learnivore

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PKGen Americas Director and Coach Blake Evitt was recently featured in a very interesting online article at Learnivore, “Blake Evitt: Bringing Parkour to America and Eliminating Misconceptions Along the Way”

Topics covered include Blake’s personal background, how parkour has grown in Boston and the USA, and the biggest misconceptions and misunderstandings of the sport. Here is a brief glance at some of the questions Blake fielded. 

“Do you think there are some misconceptions about parkour? 

Blake: Yes, definitely. Most people view it as an extreme sport where people jump off of buildings and stuff. It’s like viewing the Super Bowl and assuming that American football is always played that way and at that level. They don’t see how adaptive parkour is and all the training and hard work that goes into it. The extreme aspects of it are only one component. Because of that, a lot of people go out and jump off of things and hurt themselves, thinking they are doing parkour when they aren’t.

What do you really want people to know about the sport? 

Blake: I think people see it as a dangerous sport, but if it is practiced responsibly, it is actually safer than a lot of other sports. It’s safer than football, soccer, hockey, and all those sports where you are colliding into other people or where your well-being is directly linked to the competition and the movements of other people. In parkour, everything is dependent on you, so if you don’t feel comfortable doing something you don’t have to. That means you don’t have outside influences pushing you for things you aren’t ready for and there is less of a sense of competition, which is how many people get hurt.”

We're very glad to see parkour beginning to explode across the USA with some fantastic coaches and communities evolving. In 2015 there will be at least 8 ADAPT coaching certification courses running across the country, along with several major events organised by PKGen Americas.

See the full article here.

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