Yeah it's that time again. When I get on my soap box and spew forth a highly confusing, often random, scatter-brained train of thoughts. Good luck making any sense of it...
This is also the part where everyone starts to think i've completely gone off the deep end and joined some kind of freaky parkour cult or something. Call me weird, but I guess I just happen to enjoy finding deeper meaning in what I do than most people.
The other day, I found myself wondering why I was so dismayed when I read that UFF was announcing their hosting of a "World Freerun Championship" on September 3rd. I don't know why this would bother me, because first off, why in the world do I see competitiveness as such a bad thing?
Secondly, I know that the discipline which I seek to adhere to is not freerunning, but parkour, therefore I should not be bothered by the actions taken by those in a playing field that is not mine. But the line between parkour and freerunning will always be a little sketchy... I guess that only now have I begun to realize some of the more subtle, philosophical differentiations between the two schools of thought.
The first one which I'm dealing with here, being that of competition...
In the most widely accepted definition of freerunning it is defined as having an emphasis on aesthetics. This in itself implies that it's about flashiness, about looks, and to summon a phrase that I normally so despise... It's about showing off. The focus seems to be less internal and more on what other people think. I'm saying this not to detract from or demean all of the highly skilled athletes out there who rally under the freerun banner, but simply to make my point. The fact is, freerunning is by definition, a competitive sport. When the drive of the art is, at least partially, centered around performance, the focus in this case is generally outdoing the next guy.
This is also known as "healthy competition." I'd call it a great thing in most cases. However I see parkour as an exception to this rule.
For me, it's very easy to allow parkour to become a competitive sport in my mind. But that's something that I have to train myself not to do. I take parkour as very much of a personal thing. I'm not striving to beat everyone else.
However it is easy to get frustrated when someone else can pull off a particular move that I cannot. Taken in moderation, this can help inspire me to train harder, but to allow the fact that someone else is more advanced than I am to bother me, goes against the very meaning of true parkour: freedom.
Not simply freedom of movement, but freedom of idea. Freedom to view and experience the world through my eyes. Not someone else's. To allow myself to become frustrated and envious of another traceur's abilities, would imprison my mind and limit my creativity.
But this is MY path.
One of the greatest joys of parkour to me, is the aspect of exploration. The chance to forge my own path in a world where everyone else seems to be following the person in front of them.
I will not fall into this trap.
My mind is the enemy. The city is the battlefield. My body is my weapon of choice. (when it's not malfunctioning on me that is...:-P)
Fear, weakness, doubt, pride, laziness... I would include Competitiveness in that list as well... All the things that hinder and prevent me from reaching my full potential, these are the things which I strive against. Not against my fellow traceur. I am not running against him. To allow myself to do so would ground me.
I refuse to walk in the footsteps of another.
I wrote all this and let it sit for a couple days not knowing quite how to end it. Then I was watching I Robot and at the end, Will Smith's character put it more simply than I could've.
He said: "I think you'll have to find your way like the rest of us... ...That's what it means to be free."
That's what it means to parkour.
