"First, I've learnt to look more carefully around me, and to pay attention to details, to such little border, to such iron piece that comes out of the wall, to such missing brick, well to anything I could use to train and play with. The landscapes usually appear to us in their globality, and we first see their most evidents contours and elements. We see walls and rails.
We do not necessarily see the missing brick, the door handle, the fissure, or the thin border which, though, are also parts of the landscape. Just as any new parkour practitioner sharpens the way he looks at his surroundings as soon as he starts practicing, and sees elements of the landscape that before that didn't appear to him (little walls, rails, etc), we should then make sure to keep sharpening the look we have at our surroundings instead of contenting ourselves with this first step.
The walls and rails that from now on appear to us don't stimulate anymore our imagination, as they don't require any effort from us, neither in the fact to see them nor in the use that the vast majority of traceurs will make of them. It's this tranquil habituation that we have to worry about. We should keep being in constant research, and keep looking with new eyes everytime to our environment -even if it's the same environment-. Parkour isn't a dogma, but a quest, that's why it takes constant research process, and perpetual movement -not only outside of us, but also inside-. Now, a lot of traceurs, so proud not to be anymore "normal people" -as they often say it themselves- to whom the architectural wealth of the city would escape, content themselves with this first step of the process as it's enough to flatter their ego.
Secondly, the surroundings always appear to us according the point to view we look at them from. In this way, if we look at them through the prism of the "basic techniques" of parkour, then we will see there catpasses to precision, armjumps, wallruns, and running precisions. While the difficulty resides, for the non-practitioners, in the action of detaching themselves from the utilitarian and normative use of the public space to which the socio-cultural learning leaded them, it resides for the practitioners to see the surroundings as they are, with everything they have that make them unique and distinguishes them from any other place, and to make sure not to see it as a random place where we will reproduce again and again these same techniques we use at any time in any place. In order to see what more we can do with what we have, we have to be able to approach the places with a mind free from the usual expectations of the practitioner (catpass to precision, armjump, etc). It is certainly not an easy thing to do, at least as hard as it is, for the non-practitioner, to see the city as a playground. But this is what it takes for those who would like to place themselves in a long term research process, and not cease to surprise themselves every time they train. It takes an intellectual effort, and an increased attention we pay to our sensory perceptions. In order to make it possible, we have to "pay attention to pay attention"..." -L'1consolable
The full story can be found on the "Parkour, literally." blog.
We do not necessarily see the missing brick, the door handle, the fissure, or the thin border which, though, are also parts of the landscape. Just as any new parkour practitioner sharpens the way he looks at his surroundings as soon as he starts practicing, and sees elements of the landscape that before that didn't appear to him (little walls, rails, etc), we should then make sure to keep sharpening the look we have at our surroundings instead of contenting ourselves with this first step.
The walls and rails that from now on appear to us don't stimulate anymore our imagination, as they don't require any effort from us, neither in the fact to see them nor in the use that the vast majority of traceurs will make of them. It's this tranquil habituation that we have to worry about. We should keep being in constant research, and keep looking with new eyes everytime to our environment -even if it's the same environment-. Parkour isn't a dogma, but a quest, that's why it takes constant research process, and perpetual movement -not only outside of us, but also inside-. Now, a lot of traceurs, so proud not to be anymore "normal people" -as they often say it themselves- to whom the architectural wealth of the city would escape, content themselves with this first step of the process as it's enough to flatter their ego.
Secondly, the surroundings always appear to us according the point to view we look at them from. In this way, if we look at them through the prism of the "basic techniques" of parkour, then we will see there catpasses to precision, armjumps, wallruns, and running precisions. While the difficulty resides, for the non-practitioners, in the action of detaching themselves from the utilitarian and normative use of the public space to which the socio-cultural learning leaded them, it resides for the practitioners to see the surroundings as they are, with everything they have that make them unique and distinguishes them from any other place, and to make sure not to see it as a random place where we will reproduce again and again these same techniques we use at any time in any place. In order to see what more we can do with what we have, we have to be able to approach the places with a mind free from the usual expectations of the practitioner (catpass to precision, armjump, etc). It is certainly not an easy thing to do, at least as hard as it is, for the non-practitioner, to see the city as a playground. But this is what it takes for those who would like to place themselves in a long term research process, and not cease to surprise themselves every time they train. It takes an intellectual effort, and an increased attention we pay to our sensory perceptions. In order to make it possible, we have to "pay attention to pay attention"..." -L'1consolable
The full story can be found on the "Parkour, literally." blog.