To start this all off, I have to tell how I started thing about these thoughts. For several months I’ve been having issues with my knee. A dull pain located to the side of my knee and wrapping around the interior of my knee cap. One day it popped very loudly, which was my patella shifting back into place. At this, I decided to 6 weeks off from Parkour. I am wrapping up on my 4th week. With this time I have had plenty of time to think. No more being distracted by constantly shuffling around.
Thought number one is very melancholy, so if you do not want your vibes darkened I suggest skipping down to the next paragraph. I, as a practitioner of Parkour, will never gain a massive following. My YouTube account only has 10 subscribers. My Instagram has about 100 followers, which are mostly just friends and other practitioners. That, I have met during my years of training. I’m not going to become the next Jason Paul, Alex Shauer, or Storror. I am slowly but surely coming to terms with this. I’m still in love with Parkour and nothing will change that.
I started training because it was enjoyable. It’s still enjoyable!
Which brings me straight into thought number two. Parkour is fun, and I should be having fun doing it still. When I pile on toting around my tripod, camera, phone and the thoughts of how am, I am going to edit this together. All that takes the fun out of Parkour for me. I need to get away from going out to post a clip on Instagram and go back to training because I want to train. I all ready work one job twenty-six to thirty hours per week. I don’t want my movement to become another job on top of that.
Finally, my last thought for this post. Which is out there from the previous ones, but you know the mind works in strange ways. I live in Parkour no man’s land. I’m smack dab in the middle from Parkour Horizons down in Columbus, and Akron Movement Family (Which is a dumb name if you ask me.) up in Akron. Here I am Mount Vernon, Ohio solo, alone, and stag. Not to even to mention Ohio in general. I have always lived in spare Parkour populists, from Marietta, GA to Loveland, CO and now Mount Vernon, OH. Sometimes I like this because, for the most part, I don’t get harassed by anyone when I’m out jumping around. I do hear, “Do a backflip.” quite a bit. The Parkour, equivalent to, “Do a kickflip.” for skateboarders. On the other hand, training with people is hard. Either way, I have to drive at least 45 minutes to the closest practitioner.
I’m still 50-50 about being in the Parkour no man’s land. So here I am. I’ve tried to get people interested around me, but to no avail.
Side note: Socially, I don’t like bringing up Parkour. Not because I don’t like talking about it, but because I don’t like explaining over and over what it is all about.
Mark Flips Writings 