Parkour Is NOT a competition
Dear MTV, Your plans to air "The Ultimate Challenge" which attempts to redefine Parkour as a competitive discipline are harmful to the tens of thousands of Parkour community members who train the art as it was intended, non-competitively.  Those who choose to abuse the name of Parkour for profit or personal gain make up less than 1% of the active community.  A true representation of the Parkour movement is a healthy community full of caring people who would never dream of competing with their friends, but rather help them advance in their training. You have aligned yourself with a company (World Freerun Parkour Federation) that has no representation among the active communities.  This company ordained themselves as representatives of a discipline and movement which they plan to take advantage of.  The WFPF does not represent Parkour or the Parkour communities.  Their actions and yours are harmful to our art and our l...
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Parkour Is NOT a competition
traceur207
 traceur207  created this thread 8 months ago

Dear MTV,

Your plans to air "The Ultimate Challenge" which attempts to redefine Parkour as a competitive discipline are harmful to the tens of thousands of Parkour community members who train the art as it was intended, non-competitively.  Those who choose to abuse the name of Parkour for profit or personal gain make up less than 1% of the active community.  A true representation of the Parkour movement is a healthy community full of caring people who would never dream of competing with their friends, but rather help them advance in their training.

You have aligned yourself with a company (World Freerun Parkour Federation) that has no representation among the active communities.  This company ordained themselves as representatives of a discipline and movement which they plan to take advantage of.  The WFPF does not represent Parkour or the Parkour communities.  Their actions and yours are harmful to our art and our local communities.  Please make the socially conscious decision and end your partnership with the WFPF.  Parkour was founded as a non-competitive discipline.  Thousands across the globe enjoy Parkour for that reason.  Please do not attempt to redefine Parkour as a competition.

To understand why we do not believe in Parkour competition please refer to this global statement agreed upon by thousands in 2006.

http://parkournorthamerica.com/plugins/content/content.php?content.21

 
 
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Jakeseazee
Jakeseazee Jakeseazee commented | 27 days ago
 
Parkour participants, however, could benefit from competing against each other by making themselves learn more moves and train harder. and why not try to make some money while doing so?
 
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Only4commenting
Only4commenting Only4commenting commented | 30 days ago
 
Parkour is non-competitive. The parkour community not only provides safety but is instrumental in a traceur's growth. Parkour crews hit the city together and participate in what they call "jams" or "sessions," which consist of different drills or games like follow the leader where each traceur does the same move as the one before. Community learning is vital to parkour because it provides an appropriate context for the ability of non-professional traceurs. This takes away the pressure to perform movements outside of one's abilities and minimizes the possibility of injury.
 
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thejoe
thejoe thejoe commented | 1 month ago
 
this is a great show for MTV right now and is bringing a new hobby to people who woiuld other wise never have ran into it. I have never heard of this ****, but ran into the show last night and was amazed. besdies nitro, and fantasy this is the best show on MTV right now. i could not do anything any of these guys do and anyone who is b*tching about that this isnt a competitive sport is just someone who does it but sucks. everything you do in life should be competititive. who wants to have someone better than them?
 
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DirgeOfPunk
DirgeOfPunk DirgeOfPunk commented | 1 month ago
 
I wish it would have been presented as a constructive concept rather than a competitive one. They did put some of those features into it, but I know what you mean.

Parkour wasn't meant to be a competition against one another.

Atleast they didn't name it Ultimate Parkour Competition. Challenge seems less like you're put up against other people, and more of a challenge pitting the competitors against themselves instead of one another.
 
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griff
griff griff commented | 1 month ago
 
you guys are idiots...yes, this is going to ruin our sport?! its finally getting publicity and you *****... these are some of the best in the world, and you nobodies are saying its killing your sport.. they are the world champions, they can compete against each other if they damn well please! quit acting like you have some sacred underground BS. advance their trainin for what? if your not goin to compete?
 
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Tern Stile Studios
Tern Stile Studios Tern Stile Studios commented | 1 month ago
 
hai elite parkou n00b

id own you and you're crew any dai of the weak.
why dont you step off

punk toy-a** b!**h
 
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frankthebunny333
frankthebunny333 frankthebunny333 commented | 1 month ago
 
In the words of Erwan (Hebertiste):

Competition pushes people to fight against others for the satisfaction of a crowd and/or the benefits of a few business people by changing its mindset. Parkour is unique and cannot be a competitive sport unless it ignores its altruistic core of self development. If parkour becomes a sport, it will be hard to seriously teach and spread parkour as a non-competitive activity. And a new sport will be spread that may be called parkour, but that won't hold its philosophical essence anymore.
 
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ParkourDad
ParkourDad ParkourDad commented | 8 months ago
 
I've been watching MTV since 1984 (..."like a virgin"...that's 25 years ago!), and I have always liked your balance between promoting social and environmental activism in young people, while entertaining them (back then 'us') with an eye to political correctness...
The WFPF (which is not 'federating' anything, but simply employing athletes around the world) will set up a poor show for the eye of what is and has been a life-changing experience for so many kids and older teens around the world, basically exploiting the discipline.
Aside flopping (which is likely), I would not want as MTV to be associated with their endeavor as it is, because of negative publicity...
 
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jamesolgethorpe
jamesolgethorpe jamesolgethorpe commented | 8 months ago
 
Making parkour competitive will not only hurt the pk community, but also the philosophy behind which true parkour stands for. Please reconsider.
 
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Fyrel
Fyrel Fyrel commented | 8 months ago
 
Thank you! The WFPF is not in any way representing the interests of the parkour/freerunning community; it was merely born out of a few people's desires to take pk/fr to where THEY thought it should go, which is the opposite direction that most of us would like it to go. They have only consulted our communities after already establishing their plan, and have only given grand, promising speeches about protecting the spirit of parkour, which heavily contradicts what they plan to portray parkour as. This will be a sad moment in parkour's history, regardless if they make it big or not.
 
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