 For young people especially, trying Parkour is an attractive prospect because there is no wrong or right way of doing a movement. It is fun because they are free to use their imagination and be as creative about the ways that they challenge themselves as they like. It is also looked at by peers as a cool activity which requires a lot of skill.
People in their late teens and beyond tend to look at Parkour in more of a practical way. Still, the key reason for them starting is to have fun, but they are also attracted to it because they are aware of the wider benefits. More often than not they want to start to have fun, lose weight, keep fit and get stronger.
There are so many short and long term benefits to practicing Parkour, our 2011 research revealed:
• More than half of the UK’s young people have heard of Parkour/ Freerunning.
• Parkour is most commonly practiced by young men aged 13-17 however the numbers of female practitioners and over 25’s
are growing steadily.
• The UK and USA lead the world with a 19% female participation rate and steady growth.
• People now watch more YouTube videos of Parkour/ Freerunning than Skateboarding and BMX combined.
• An average of one in six boys have tried Parkour.
• Within their first month of training 100% of people felt a significant improvement in their fitness, balance and strength.
• 82% of Traceurs said that Parkour was the best thing they had ever done.
Besides the obvious physical benefits to practicing Parkour, our research revealed the strong social and mental advantages:
• All Traceurs commented on making many friends through Parkour and the social element was voted the 3rd favourite
thing about Parkour, behind having fun 1, and learning new techniques 2.
• 100% of people said that they felt a big improvement in their self confidence within their first three months of practice.
• 90% of Traceurs said that Parkour helps them relieve anger, stress and upset, and that they feel more relaxed after training.
• 75% of Traceurs said that they became more focused when they started practicing Parkour.
• Many parents of younger practitioners said that they attributed a great improvement in their children’s happiness and
learning in school to Parkour.
• People with learning difficulties and disabilities said that they felt their academic learning improve after practicing Parkour
for three months and that they felt move confident about themselves in school the more they practiced Parkour.
• Regardless of how old people are when they start or what level of ability they start with, as time goes on and they gain
enough experience in Parkour they begin to use the problem solving methods they are learning through movement to improve their quality of life overall.
• Metropolitan police figures for 2005 show that when Westminster City Council Introduced Parkour to the summer holiday sports courses, youth crime fell by 30% (Source BBC news here)
With growing numbers of organised Parkour groups across the country, public acceptance of the activity and the way that Tracuers view and use their environment is fast expanding.
“If Ten Downing Street can open its doors to something as adventurous as free running I hope it will inspire other people to see what their building could be used for.”
David Cameron, Prime Minister, The Times (October 2011)
More authorities in fields such as education, health and fitness, policing and community development are recognising the potential of Parkour.
The sport is progressively being used to combat prominent issues like obesity, anti social behaviour and social decline. As well as being implemented in the education system to help teach people with learning disabilities and those more respondent to hands on learning.
(Information sourcedfrom YouTube Insight 2011, BBC, The Times, Google Analytics 2010-2011 and Freemove research conducted in the UK 2011).
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