Find the Traceur

I am at a loss in my parkour training, and have been for the past year. It has been truly hard to admit this to myself for a couple reasons. First, due to the responsibility I have to my community. I am extremely proud to be the co-founder and co-leader of Panther Parkour, The University of Pittsburgh's parkour club. Starting as just a way to reach out and unite unknown traceurs in the college scene, the club quickly grew into something unexpected: A microcosm for incoming freshman - trying to find their niche in the macrocosm of college. Aidan Gallagher (co-founder) and I - sophomores at the time - realized this after our first meeting of the new academic year, when 50 kids showed up, 90% of them being freshman and with no prior experience, let alone knowledge, of parkour. We also realized we were going to need structure. I've had prior experience running jams in my hometown of Philly, so the numbers weren't daunting. We decided to put everyone through an hour worth of QM to weed out the kids who joined the club thinking it was going to teach them to "backflip off shit." The true traceurs returned after that. The significance of this club was that it pushed an unforeseen teaching role onto me (being a leader of the club and one of the few prior members with credible experience). Thus the club became more than just the weekly jam sessions we initially intended. It soon became our responsibility to run conditioning sessions and skill workshops, and overall teach the philosophy and movements of parkour (something that a lot of traceurs actually get paid to do). This did not phase me since I truly love to teach, but recently it has become increasingly hard to show my commitment.


The other reason I have had trouble admitting hitting this wall in my training is a little more complicated. It comes to having to admit to myself that I am no longer in love with something that has undoubtedly had the biggest influence in my life - making me the person I am today. The reasons for this I am still trying to identify, but simplistically, the motivation to train is gone. The philosophies that have matured over the past 6 years of my training no longer get me outside. I am not disregarding the influence these philosophies, which I will delve into later, have had on my life. I still whole-heartedly believe in the ideas behind them. I honestly feel they have just matured beyond parkour training and into other aspects of my life, and thus no longer have effect on my drive to train.


Thus the point of this blog. I am not ready to admit the end of my training, but I am ready to admit that there must have been a change in my view of parkour. A change I believe I have recently discovered and hope to nurture. This blog will in effect be and open personal journal of my new training and philosophies as they mature throughout the next episode of my life, however long it may be. My hopes of this blog are to help myself track, identify, and discover my own views of parkour training as I attempt to "find the traceur" that motivates me to train. I hope this to be a positive influence on any traceur who reads this...


Next blog title Stripping Down to the Basics: a look at my past philosophies, and my newly discovered ones.