Archive |
News from January 2010
Spiked Parkour Magazine: UPDATE We are please to announce, the SPIKED Parkour Magazine is still on schedule for release in February. We have now set the print date of Feb 17th and the magazine will be due for distribution on the 24th Feb, fulfilling orders around the globe. Everything is going really well, we are in the midst of pre production and the articles are absolutely cracking, providing information on history, health, physical and psychological benefits, top locations around the globe and much more. The magazine aims to reflect the essence of the discipline and how it is helping communities in all corners of the world, and there has already been some incredible input from the global community and we are really excited about you all seeing it. Don't forget to order online HERE or via the SPIKED website. Sunday 31st of January 2010 
Sunday class : Elephant & Castle Since this Sunday is the fifth one of the month, Andy and Blane will be running the regular outdoor class at the same location as the Off-the-Wall Jam. Elephant and Castle. We will be meeting outside the Shopping Center exit of the tube station (Northern / Bakerloo line) from 11am until 1pm where you can then join in the monthly Jam with Traceurs and Traceuses from around the country. Any inquiries about the class, please email either andyp@parkourgenerations.com or blane@parkourgenerations.com. Alternatively, you can visit the classes page HERE Friday 29th of January 2010 
London Jam Approaching - 31 Jan A timely reminder that January's Off The Wall, the free London gatherings, will occur this month on the last Sunday as always - 31st January - and will be held at the Elephant and Castle training area. The jam kicks off outside Elephant and Castle tube station, meeting outside the Shopping Centre exit before heading down to the location. All are welcome, to train, hang out or share training tips and advice or simply to meet other like-minded practitioners. Some of the PKGen team are always on hand to lend a hand if required, and the jams are always fun, easy-going and good training. Come on down! For more information, email Brian on brian(at)parkourgenerations.com Monday 25th of January 2010 
Today saw us running an outdoor workshop for 30 poledance instructors interested in trying out parkour as a conclusion to their Annual General Meeting - the ladies all came from Polestars, which offers quality instruction in poledance and other dance disciplines, and we were very impressed by their level of enthusiasm, commitment and willingness to try anything. Congratulations to all the participants, and we look forward to seeing you in class soon! Sunday 24th of January 2010 
afPE Statement Supports Parkour A huge step has recently been taken for the development of the discipline in the UK, with the Association for Physical Education releasing an official statement of support for our new National Governing Body and the delivery of the ADAPT Instructor Qualifications. afPE is the UK representative organisation of choice for people and agencies delivering or supporting the delivery of physical education in schools and in the wider community, and its support puts our discipline firmly on the UK map as a recognised and valid activity for schoolchildren and everyone in physical education to practice. This has been the result of years of work, and we are very happy to see it come to pass! You can see the statement on the NGB's website HERE. Saturday 23rd of January 2010 
At the recent ADAPT Qualification Course in London the NGB launched it's new mobile training facility, exclusively designed by Parkour Generations. The mobile facility flat-packs away to fit in the back of a van or trailer, and can be set up in a variety of configurations in under 30 minutes from scratch. We will be using the facility this year at a number of events and training camps, and the facility is also available for retail very soon. The participants on the ADAPT course gave it a thorough testing and had great fun on the structure, demonstrating the huge range of movement one can practise using the facility. More details to follow soon. Friday 22nd of January 2010 
The first of the new ADAPT Instructor Qualification courses administered by Parkour UK has just been completed, and it was a resounding success. The course was at maximum capacity with 16 participants, ranging from one of the founders of the art Sebastien Foucan to veteran practitioners such as Sticky to next generation practitioners and coaches all aiming for the first step on the ADAPT ladder. Stephane, Dan, Johann and Forrest ran the course and were very pleased with the progress made by all participants and by the general level of coaching knowledge and experience. Various UK press and TV bodies were in attendance to cover this historic launch, so you should be seeing imagery and footage turning up here and there. For more information about the official ADAPT Qualifications, click here. And well done to everyone who attended! Thursday 21st of January 2010 
New Children's Book: 'Free Run' Hot off the press, we have just helped Ransom Publishing release a new book for young reluctant or struggling readers called FREE RUN, part of their popular 123GO! series. All images in the book were provided by Parkour Generations and Andy 'Kiell' Day, so you can be sure it's quite an eye-catcher! The 123GO! series is carefully designed to intrigue and inspire reluctant readers aged 8-14, yet the simple texts and low word counts cater for a reading age of 6-7 years. Great to see parkour being used in this kind of project to help thousands of young people develop both reading skills and an interest in healthy activity. Thursday 21st of January 2010 
Spiked Parkour on the Shelves: February Te forthcoming edition of Spiked Extreme Sports Magazine, featuring a massive 25-page special on parkour in conjunction with Parkour Generations, will be on the shelves in February at over 400 retail outlets across the country - deliverable anywhere in the world, you can also pre-order a copy via our homepage just by clicking on the buttons on the bottom left of the page. Visit the SPIKED website for more details. Tuesday 19th of January 2010 
Another shout-out for veteran traceur Sticky, who next month will begin his 1000 mile run from the northern tip of the UK down to Paris, birthplace of the art, in aid of combatting motor neurone disease. Sticky is doing his Level One ADAPT instructor qualification this week, but other than that he is training all out for his gargantuan task for this excellent cause - so dig deep, head to his blogsite and DONATE! Tuesday 19th of January 2010 
Pimlico Academy School Classes This week we will also be beginning regular classes for Pimlico Academy School, in South-West London, as the new year continues to see parkour being brought into more and more educational establishments. With the timely launch of the ADAPT Instructor Qualifications this week at the first Level 1 assistant coaching course, we are glad to know that more and more practitioners are stepping up to take on the growing demand for high quality parkour instruction... Tuesday 19th of January 2010 
As of this week we are starting regular weekly classes for three schools in the Epping Borough of East London. The schools join our hugely successful Parkour for Schools Programme, and we look forward to bringing the benefits of good parkour training to the young people in the borough. For more details on the programme, click the link above. Tuesday 19th of January 2010 
We can now confirm that members of Parkour Generations will be providing workshops at the 'Just So Festival' later on in the year. To quote the description from the official website justsofestival.org.uk/ "Take your children on a journey of the imagination, an unforgetable weekend of adventure and enchantment set in sixty-five acres of ancient english woodland 20-22nd August 2010 at Barnswood, nr Leek, Staffordshire." Monday 18th of January 2010 
ADAPT UK Begins! January 18-21 Next week will see the first ADAPT (Art du Deplacement and Parkour Teaching) Level 1 Qualification Course being offered by the UK's National Governing Body - Parkour UK. 1st4Sports has now come on board as the awarding body for the qualification, with the UK version being valid across Europe. The 4-day course is for the Level 1 Assistant Instructor qualification, a necessary step on the way to the Level 2 Full Instructor qualification courses soon to follow. The UK ADAPT qualification is part of the ADAPT scheme created by the Yamakasi founders at Majestic Force and the Parkour Generations collective, including Chau Belle, Stephane Vigroux, Seb Goudot, Yann Hnautra, Thomas Couetdic, Forrest, Williams Belle, Dan Edwardes, Laurent Piemontesi and Johann Vigroux. This historic course marks the official launch of the recognised coaching qualification in Europe, and we will have a full report of how it went next week. For more information on ADAPT, click here. Friday 15th of January 2010 
Parkour Generations would like to formally introduce eight new global community members from all over the planet, including: Colombia, Russia, UK, Kuwait, Ukraine and Mexico. You can check out everyone's website link on our community page HERE, which also details how to get involved yourself. With the earlier announcement of the launch of our brand new international community printed magazine alongside Spiked, now is the perfect time to get your team, group, clan and friends signed up. For now, say hello to our newest members. Eku'Daana, Cegadores, Ars Nova, Parkour Wolves, Ceredigion Parkour, LPA, ParkourSochi and Campus Family! Thursday 14th of January 2010 
Parkour Generations photographer Andy Day - aka Kiell of www.kiell.com - Thursday 14th of January 2010 
London Jam! Off The Wall January The first of the free London jams, known as Off The Wall, will occur this month on the last Sunday as always - 31st January - and will be held at the Elephant and Castle training area. The jam kicks off outside Elephant and Castle tube station, meeting outside the Shopping Centre exit before heading down to the location. All are welcome, to train, hang out or share training tips and advice or simply to meet other like-minded practitioners. Some of the PKGen team are always on hand to lend a hand if required, and the jams are always fun, easy-going and good training. Come on down! For more information, email Brian on brian(at)parkourgenerations.com Wednesday 13th of January 2010 
With the Parkour Magazine now building steam, our aim is to make it a voice for the global community. This means we want YOU to contribute - each issue will include readers' photos, submitted articles and thought-pieces, features on great training locations, reviews of events, interviews with practitioners of all levels from founders to those just starting out... in fact, it can include whatever you, the community, want to see and put in it! Our Forum is now open for anyone to put forward their ideas and suggestions at this early stage - so head on over and let us know what you want, and we'll do our best to make that happen... Wednesday 13th of January 2010 
As part of a wider development within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, we will be starting regular classes at the Cambridge School in Hammersmith. The classes will be held on Friday afternoons, commencing this Friday January 15th. There are also plans to add a Youth Service class for children from the local area to be affixed back-to-back with the school class. Tuesday 12th of January 2010 
Archibishop Tenison School in Oval, south London, has just joined our Parkour for Schools Programme and we will be starting a regular parkour class there on Tuesdays between 3.30-5.00pm from the 19th January onwards. The school has an infectious enthusiasm for trying new things and a great student body, so we are looking forward to getting these sessions going next week. For more info on our Schools Programme, hit the link. Tuesday 12th of January 2010 
World's First Parkour Magazine... We are very pleased to announce a new partnership with SPIKED Magazine that will see the extreme sports publication develop over the coming issues into a full-blown parkour magazine, the first in-print parkour mag in the world! The SPIKED ethos is to promote the principal that sport is available to anyone, at any age, at any level, and to encourage confidence and self-reliance through physical activity - an ethos that fits perfectly with our own. With the new partnership, SPIKED and Parkour Generations will be working together to promote a healthy lifestyle through participation in Parkour, providing in-depth interviews with some of the founders and leading practitioners, plus articles on the Parkour spirit, the way of life and how to get involved. Packed with features that involves the global parkour community, we will be regularly requesting submissions of articles, photos and the like from you all to put into the magazine. The next edition of SPIKED will be on sale at the end of February, which will include a 25-page official dedicated section on Parkour as a lead-up to the launch of the full magazine in due course. You can pre-order it here and SPIKED is delivered to anywhere in the world. Make sure you get a copy of this historic first issue..! Tuesday 12th of January 2010 
A new blog post by Blane has just gone up, detailing a night mission with a difference... A cracking read as always, well worth jumping over to our Team Blog to have a read. Monday 11th of January 2010 
We'd like to take this opportunity to shine the spotlight on veteran traceur Johnny 'Sticky' Budden as he prepares for his 1000 mile run from the northern tip of the UK all the way to Paris - all in aid of raising money for and awareness of Motor Neurone Disease. Parkour Generations is very happy to lend its full support to Sticky as he undertakes this momentous task and will be assisting him with his training for the event.. which will see him run, crawl, roll and jump his way from city to city as he heads for the birthplace of parkour in Paris, France. Leap over to his blog now and hit the Just Giving button now! Friday 08th of January 2010 
The third part of the Q&A that was held at the international Rendezvous IV gathering in London over the summer is now online from Julie Angel and can be seen here. Featuring Yann and Williams of the Yamakasi Founders and Parkour Generations members Stephane, Kazuma, Thomas and Johann, along with Francois of Majestic Force, the questions drew out some great answers from some of the most experienced practitioners in the world and anyone new to the discipline would do well to watch all four parts of this rare event ;) Thursday 07th of January 2010 
At the end of last year Stephane and Dan were invited to visit the burgeoning parkour community in Russia and run some introductory seminars, including at a live event and for some inmates of a youth prison near St Petersburg. The guys at PKCity who arranged the event have just released this video of the trip, so check it out - it comes in three parts so click the links to view: Part One, Part Two, Part Three. Big thanks again to all the St Petersburg community for making it such a fun few days and we look forward to seeing you guys again soon! Wednesday 06th of January 2010 
Starting this friday 8th January, our regular friday outdoor class will now be a beginner outdoor academy class. The Friday session starts at 7pm until 8.30pm in various locations around London. It is designed to cater for beginners and is suitable for anyone looking to master the basic principles of parkour in an outdoor environment. For more information and booking details please go to the classes page on the main menu or click HERE. Wednesday 06th of January 2010 
Team member Annty recently completed some stunt doubling for the lead actress of childrens hit TV show 'M.I.High'. The BBC episode has now aired and is available on their iPlayer here. The parkour clips are at 17mins and 19.20mins into the show. Please note that the BBC iPlayer is only available to UK viewers. Wednesday 06th of January 2010 
This Sunday sees the first Women's Jam of the year kicking off at Vauxhall at 12pm and meeting beside the Royal Vauxhall Tavern pub across the road from Vauxhall train station - these gatherings are open to women of all levels of ability and experience, from beginner to veteran, and are totally free. A few of the PKGen team are always on hand to help out if needed, and the jams offer a great place to meet like-minded people, share training tips and mthods, and generally have a fun day's training in a relaxed atmosphere. For more information, contact Tracey(at)parkourgenerations.com Tuesday 05th of January 2010 
RDV4 Q&A Video Part 2 Now Online! The second half of the in-depth Q&A session held at the summer international gathering Rendezvous 4, involving many of Parkour Generations and some of the Yamakasi Founders and Majestic Force, is now online and available to watch here. Big thanks to Julie Angel for capturing the whole thing, there are some real gems in here and it's well worth the watch..! Tuesday 05th of January 2010 
Documentary: Parkour in America Over the last couple of years we have seen the parkour community of Ohio State in America grow and thrive, becoming a tight-knit and dedicated unit known as Parkour Horizons. Their film-maker, Craig Pentak, recently released a short documentary looking at the development of this scene and the film blitzed the festival circuit ending up with a Best Editing Award, and Nominations for Best Director, Best Foreign Film, and Best Screenplay at the 2009 Palermo International Sport Film Festival. The film is now on Youtube for the first time and can be seen in two parts here: Part One and Part Two. Craig has done a great job and we think it is well worth a look ;) Sunday 03rd of January 2010 
James has just posted up a new blog article about the new year and some thoughts on his resolutions. Jump over to the Blog HERE to read more... Sunday 03rd of January 2010 
First class of 2010 this Sunday! If you, like us, have had enough festive food over the christmas holidays to last another twelve months, then here is some good news for you... Our first class of 2010 starts tomorrow (Sunday 3rd Jan) with the weekend wakeup class taught by Blane and Andy. This week will be at Vauxhall from 11am (meeting outside the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Goding street) and is a perfect kick-start to the oncoming week. Saturday 02nd of January 2010 |
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