I'm not the only one then that watches but doesn't train. I stumbled across a Storror video and now actively watch them, Phat, Hazel, Dom Tomato and Jimmy. It's so easy to enjoy and appreciate the talent that goes into it, it shouldn't have an issue gaining audience.
I suppose it might have been easier for me to find cause I’m very active in another action sport (mountain biking), so theres that, but yeah. Parkour is widening, slowly, but it does appeal to other people.
@@carsonpearce5980 I used to train for about a year but after that I kinda dropped it.. and focused on BMX and MTB....still I enjoy watching parcour....and loada of other action sports
I'm honestly now much older than I'd like to admit and have 2 kids, but used to skateboard a bit back in the day and over the past couple years have steadily watched more and more parkour content. I mean maybe easier for me to get in to considering the background, but I still for sure ain't training it myself, though it does kind of motivate me to get back on a board every now and then. I think it also needs to be able to target a slightly more mature audience though which is also something a lot of these other sports manage to do and I don't see much of in parkour.
@@a9ag yeah, i see that a lot. Theres a guy in his late 50s maybe 60s I’ve seen in my town and he still cruises around on his board from time to time. I do think targeting older audiences is important for any sport (look at skiing, thats where the money is), but with such a impact heavy discipline of parkour that we see these days, I can see why it’s difficult. I think that parkour will find a way though, its just a matter of time.
Same. I've got arthritis(autoimmune joint inflammation) since childhood, so parkour would likely cause irreversible damage to my joint. I still love watching people reaching and overcoming the absolute limits of human ability
I find your videos very interesting, Your narrative, your knowledge and content overall. I dont do PK, but i simply enjoy watching stunts. Keep up the good work!
I have always felt like parkour and hip hop fits good together. The reason for this could be similarities between the body control and the importance of style In every part of hip hop, style is essential to stand out from the crowd and it’s kinda the same thing as parkour
I think you need to emphasize the split between parkour and freerunning. People see parkour as flips, where that is more freerunning and parkour is the art of movement. The idea of finding a new and quicker route from A to B, moving freely through the obstacles of your surroundings.
In terms of accesability I think parkour-maps are a big thing in showing people they can do Parkour themselves. In the Netherlands our map is decent but not nearly there yet. And I can imagine other countries not really having one in the first place.
You're so right about Monkey Style making parkour more accessible! While I fancy myself jumping massive gaps between roofs, I know that's not gonna happen. But practicing some monkey style stuff... Why not? Plus, it could be assimilated to some hip hop dance moves, somehow. Some time ago you did a parkour song with Storror. Why not making a music parkour video? One line, one shot, an athlete (or a relay team) performing parkour moves on the beat of some rad music... I wonder if it could be achieved and how it would look like. I can picture monkey style as a transition to some creative hybrid branch of parkour. Running and dancing... How come runcing isn't a thing yet? Love your videos, keep up with the good stuff!
Jimmy, the issue is... people see "Parkour" as... big heavy dudes flopping on the ground. It's a bit of a joke if you know what I mean. I remember years ago my friend and I kind of making fun of parkour by just jumping off a curb and whispering... "parkour". Or rolling in the grass and whispering "parkour". Not sure where this came from, but I know I've seen videos' of guys trying to do Parkour that think they look cool, but... but no, they don't. Contrast that to people skateboarding.... Just GETTING on a skateboard for most folks is considered a dangerous thing, much less trying to ollie or do tricks. So folks can at least see you are trying to do something dangerous while getting started. I watch Storror... (I don't parkour) I watch Phat (I don't parkour) I recognize the athleticism it takes to be at that high end of the game, but even if I saw some kids flopping about on the ground trying some basic Parkour I'm not sure I'd still be impressed as I am with the pros. My point is... on a basic level, skateboarding can seem cool to most folks. On a basic level Parkour just seems like folks rolling on the grass or jumping on a curb or something.
Nice explanation, Trae. I'm one of the "old heads" Jimmy talks about, and I've seen a few changes over the years. Jimmy talks about sponsorships, well, K-Swiss changed their entire logo just for parkour. Sony Playstation funded huge training camps around Germany for many years. (The list goes on....) The amount of money thrown at us (relative to that time) for a few years was insane. We had the momentum, the culture, spectators and then it all just faded away. The culture for a bit lost, plenty key players were no longer keen to do things just for fun and for free, everything has a dollar sign. So Media found something else to focus on. And now, it has started slowly building momentum again, but this time will take longer. Because the media have already been down this road. So they will be more cautious this time around. Big brands will do a lot more homework before jumping on board. Channels like this will be helping a lot too. And yes, parkour will need to be shown more than just some flips off the curb.
I thinking what helps skateboarding is the board. In a film you can, without explanation clearly see people on a rolling thing and think 'thats cool, i want that too'. Oppose to freerun where you see someone do a flip or vault and you have to dig a little deeper to know where the skills came from.
Skateboarding for about a decade. I think you guys needs a good ambassador for the sport and an easy way to accessibility. Badass hobby though. No doubt this will blow up in 5-10 years
Ever since the Bag em up video I have firmly believed the acceptance of parkour by the hip hop community is the key to mainstream acceptance of the sport 😁🤘 always ahead of the curve bro
As an older guy, I can assure you that skating was a huge thing before Tony Hawk became popular. I was a skater in the 1980s, and my oldest brother skated in the 1970s. in fact there were movies being made featuring or about skateboarding in the late 60s and early 70s. I appreciate that your perspective is based on your own life-span, and that's fine. But, skating and Parkour have been around for a very long time. Parkour wasn't really a sport, so much as a kinesiological exercise/study. Military and clandestine services have trained elite operators in the types of movement trained by Traceurs long before the inception of the Parkour/Freerunning paradigm existed. It would be a very interesting video for you to look into the history of kinetic movement as far back as World War I. There's a lot more there that you might like to know. Love your work, your videos are important documentation for a generation of people who most assuredly want to know about Parkour's history. Your documentary style and research are going to be used as reference for decades to come.
Thanks vor this video once again it was a pleasure to watch! Non the less i have some critical thoughts on becoming mainstream as a culture. Parkour is more than a sport, its a mentality, a philosophie, and for me even a form of art (due to the creative freedom it can provide). And this is so far nothing different from skating, but i believe there is a difference in the menality and philosophie of those sports witch is offten overloocked whenn comparing them. In the way i know parkour a big and important part is about things like, awareness of your body, a strong but calm mind, respect and modesty. And those are not things that atract the masses. Skating on the other hand has a very atractive Image (I dont know if this was different before it blew up) it comunicates the mentalety of being yung wild and free (simplified, Im not a skater). This mentalety is able to reach far more people. My concern is that if parkour gets mainsream in a comparable way skating did, those seemingly "lame" Philosophie and mentalety things about parkour could become something only the old school freerunners remember, until its compleetly forgotten. The mentalety and Philosophy of parkour is something `I´ would never traid for comercial growth. If you see it differently please replie to this comment i would love to hear a different opinion on this.
This is just a personal opinion of mine with my observations for many years in the parkour community and should not be taken as a fact; however, I feel like there are two behaviors that hinder the progression of the sport. One of those behaviors (not shared unanimously, but nonetheless) is the perspective that the average athlete is only trying to develop themselves. It is almost as if they are tackling so many of the personal obstacles that they face in parkour that they forget there is an obstacle that the entire community is facing. And the second behavior is the unconventional “weird” or “different” social behavior that only traceurs are capable of reciprocating. While athletes may see it as normal behavior, it is not entirely inviting to the average Joe who barely knows anything about the sport but wants to get involved. I’m not saying for athletes to change who they are for the approval of another person, but it should allow for newcomers to feel comfortable enough to keep training and build up affinity with the community. Feel free to share your opinions if you have any! Look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts!
I get it. A lot of parkour is about self development so it's easy to ignore challenges that involve the whole community and beyond. And about parkour people being innately weird. I think we are all more comfortable with ourselves because of our movement with makes us more expressive. So, I don't think we're weird, I just think we're more genuine. But yeah, whenever we are introducing pk to anyone we have to keep in mind that they have no idea about our culture. Thanks for sharing dude!
i didint even try to land a stick in my life, i only hit friends with sticks when i was younger. Came here from just random watching storror videos lately. Keep doing those kind of videos, they r interesting to watch !
I must say, that i see a lot of potential in parkour gyms or trampoline parks, im working in one of them in big city in Poland And i must say it gets more And more popular, not only in my city, but in whole country, our groups of newcomers are huger And huger And i see a lot of this kids starts interesting in parkour culture And past, (personally it is what i want to teach them most importantly). In few years they will bring new friends into sport And start pushing sport more And more far in skill And mainstream ofc. Loved ur video, like every of them( also they starded to watch ur channel And doing climb ups more often so u are doing really amazing job not only in uk but also in europe, i didnt told them bout u, i should really start doing it haha)
Once again another top insight, I don't train or do parkour/freerunning as my body won't allow me but I love everything about it, the culture, the clothes and the sense of the community 💯💙😎🤘👊
Have hope! I am the type of person you are talking about in a lot of this. I don’t do parkour but I consume every bit of media about it. I have no interest in training it but am super interested in the culture of the sport and enjoy everything PK the same as I enjoy everything skateboarding. I also don’t skate... I grew up wearing skate brands and skating a tiny bit but I don’t skate. I just enjoy the culture. Not to say I’m some poser trying to look cool or anything it’s just skating wasn’t my thing. I have spent the last 13years living in ski resorts around the world snowboarding at least 6 months a year and the “action sports “ culture is very much based off of the skate culture. Most of the biggest skateboard apparel brands are also the biggest snowboarding brands. The image of a snowboarder is based of that of a skateboarder. I have also witnessed the massive growth of the Downhill MTB scene grow 100 fold in the last decade. It has started to create its own culture and started to get more mainstream. If a prohibitively expensive sport like DH MTB can take off the PK has to be able to.
You should make a video called 'your parkour misconceptions'. You have a wide audience of people who listen to your stories on the culture of parkour and don't train it. A video like that could show people that parkour isn't as dangerous as people think and that free runners aren't just adrenaline junkies. I'm sure you could think of more to say on it too.
whats up guys welcome back to vite ramen i mean jimmy neutron... wait that s not the right one no hate just thought it was kinda funny love your videos
Let's get shinjury also earlier at school it was ptm (parents teachers meeting) I got a shinjury just by trying to step into something probably Lower than waist height
Same, been training for 1 year, my parent are to afraid of me doing parkour, butbi keep training it 😂. Btw i just started a smoll parkour channel, yall mind to check it for a couple minutes, its a short flowy parkour video btw
@@roddran5989 keep it up man !! I am much older and I grew up when parkour was ''mainstream'' watching the younger generation training like this really makes me smile, barefoot too. As long as you guys are safe and dont get injured too often, your parents should start worrying less ^^ Just dont be reckless and train slowly, but surely, that little video was a prime exemple of proper training, keep doing this and at 25 you will do great things in a safe way.
Honestly, filming it and talking about it to them might help ease their minds. I used to show my parents stuff all the time and they came round. Still send my dad storror videos
@@eytanjunusov it's the easiest way to gain popularity but it's bad popularity, any famous tik tokker can just do a 2 inch jump and say they're a pro and parkour would die. and i really really really don't want tik tok parkour edits, would rather die
I think the biggest thing driving the parkour hype at the moment is the strong individual personalities with the like of Dom, Storror, Phat, and a load of other people at the moment. I think more people just need to absolutely show themselves as they are and create content that is always unique to them!
And world chase tag which he has a part in. He’s not the best at parkour but he knows how to play the game and use his connections to sprees the world. For the sake of publicity he’s the guy currently leading the charge because it his factual videos that would drag people into watching thing like world chase tag or storra even if they had no interest in actual practicing the sport. Because we all love that fact and/or lore video that we can just bing as we work
Jimmy was my intro. I knew about it before he made his shift but I never liked any of the compotitions and the freeruning/parkour lines were always to planed out or short for me to enjoy (while the sub cataforys like trickers are barried deep) so i didn’t watch the athleats unless they did something amazing. It just wasn’t my thing because it wasn’t as free as the name implied in my view. Plus none of their wipes were ever as narly as scatbording because their usually just a fall or crash done by people who know how to recover properly, while the truly big wipes were way to real to down right horrific. But I do love a good lore video and jimmy was that guy and holy shit dos he do good discussion and lore videos about this, and he introduced me to wtc wich is my type of freeruning and parkour.
Regarding the part you were talking about how more people should do parkour on youtube it might be a great idea to upload a video on how to make parkour videos. You could talk about which action camera you could use and how to make a good video with good shots. This would make it easier for us content creators and it might inspire new people to start making videos.
I use my phone camera to shoot videos, edit in video editor app and upload through the YT app. I do it all on my phone and my vids aren't that bad (if u can check 'em out) My only challenge is getting someone to shoot me jump around and that's hard to do since I train solo but I gotta be creative 🤓
@@stanleyezepk I checked it out bro. You are pretty good! I would recommend editing with hitfilm express on pc. It's a free editing software. Fortunately I have a friend to help me record but you seem to be doing pretty well on your own. Keep it going man!
I'm a 28 year old bloke that has never done parkour but watch yours and Storrors videos religiously for the last 3/4 months. I sometimes watch team phat and Dom's videos because I found out about them because of you. I don't plan on ever doing it but I'll be buying the Storror game and keep thinking getting some merch. All because I stumbled on your video... Your doing a good job at making it more mainstream.
@@arthurgarcia7538 Nah I'll never do it. I train Brazilian jiu-jitsu which takes up all my spare time and I've got a 3 week old so my spare time is basically non existent.
This was really interesting. I've never done parkour but I consume a lot of parkour content - yourself, storror, Dom tomato, team phat etc. I'd never thought I was a particularly unusual case, I wonder what the percentages are of people who follow parkour but don't do it
Tony Hawk became so famous from the “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” series that people literally know him now as “Tony Hawks”, be interesting to see if Storror have a similar impact with their game
it's not mainstream partly because nowadays "culture" promotes anything but physical developement/creativity/bravery/athletism/mind-body-connection/etc/etc
JimmytheGiant: "You can train parkour for ten years, and don't have to do roof tops if you don't want to." Me:"ok so I have to start doing roof tops by year eleven, got it."
I dont even jump from my bed. But well, one random World Chase Tag, then a lot of them, then Storror, thwn a loooot of them and then you. And looove it all. Can't wait for the Storror video game to come out!
I think social media like instagram and tiktok is a blessing and a curse for parkour. The sport is getting views, but ultimately people don't try it for themselves, just because they see huge flips, crazy stunts and massive roofgaps. They think, that they can't do it and don't even try and therefore also never see how people actually train with all the culture aroung it. Also when I ask some of my friends if they want to try as well, they always say: "I'm not that good with flips"... Like yeah obviously you won't be amazing at doing flips if you never tried it and parkour isn't just about flips....
I think parkour is kinda seen as a joke by a lot of people not in the community :/ there are too many memes around it of people rolling around on sofas yelling "Parkour!" etc. Or it's seen as unachievable, Assassin's Creed type stuff
My buddy sent me this last night "MG you're in Jimmy the giant's new video!!!" And I'll be, hes right :D I'm in the pic from Beast Coast and I'm one of the WCT referees. Keep up the awesome work Jimmy! Parkour will keep growing and keep evolving and I believe that will be in no small part thanks to you!
I think a big reason it isn't so mainstream yet is that there is no obvious easy path into the culture as a complete beginner. I'm a climber and if you ask me how do you get started climbing, I say go to an indoor gym and start climbing by yourself. You will find other beginners there doing the same thing and it will be easy to talk to them and make friends. If I wanted to get into parkour, first of all I'd have to convince a friend to go with me (as you said in another video, doing it by yourself is really awkward) or I'd have to be feeling pretty brave to ask whatever group is at a particular spot to let me train with them and give me tips to improve. Parkour has indoor facilities as well where it might feel more welcoming to beginners but they are nowhere near as widespread as climbing gyms.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu might be an interesting sport to study in conjuction with parkour. Maybe one or two steps ahead of parkour in terms of time spent developing a following and a competition culture but still relatively new.
Being mainstream is both a curse and a blessing. I experienced it myself as an aggressive rollerblader that started in the 90's. Rollerblading was everywhere. Rollerblading was in the X-games, huge sponsors poured money into the sport and there were people making big amounts of money from the sport. Then its popularity declined, big time and rollerblading became a sport everyone hated. Sponsors backed out, the sport was dismissed from the X-games and many companies shut down. Aggressive rollerblading became a very small sport that was only really accessible to people that 'know' the scene. Eventually it became so small everyone that mattered in the scene knew each other. Competitions returned but they were different in character. There was no money in rollerblading so everyone that competed was there for the love of the sport. Now when I think back at these times I loved the times where blading wasn't about commerce as it felt the most authentic. However, rollerblading has since failed to attract a lot of newcomers to the sport. There must therefore always be a balance as no sport can remain 'underground' as it would eventually kill opportunities for the sport to thrive and show itself to the world.
I’ve been on and off with parkour a lot in the past few years. I love the sport so much and I want to do it but the thing that stops me personally is that none of my friends want to do it and going out by yourself when you’re so new makes it really hard
Ironically, the Assassins Creed franchise introduced me to Parkour. I lived how and the way the characters moved around, how fluid it was. Searched it up and boom it was a thing. I've now been a freerunner for seven years and despite a couple injuries I'm still going strong.
Early skating was for kids ...then it got taken over by surfers that evolved into skaters. Parkour just needs more professional systems that will take it into schools and show it for what it really is ...the most useful form of free or taught movement which ticks every box required for physical and mental development.
Now Kieren, it is an 18-minute video that felt like 3 minutes, no exaggeration here. You’ve hit the nail on the head saying that people want more content about the very culture of parkour. I myself was a huge fan of it and only this year (with your great contribution) I came to actually practising pk. Anyway, thank you for your great work! Keep it up
Please please please continue to make these videos. They’re not only interesting but inspiring for thousands and thousands of people. You’re a legend Jimmy, keep grinding.
Haven't done parkour in 7 years. I used to be so into it as a kid now i shifted into martial arts and calisthenics. But recently i've been feeling quite nostalgic and my passion for parkour is slowly returning. I should probably start doing a little parkour cause it still seems like fun
Hey Jimmy! We are a group of a few tracers around Cologne in Germany and every time you drop a video we are talking and discussing about all your topics! We love it! Big hugs from Germany! I even show my parents those kind of videos and they like them! :)
I'm a parkour athlete and I've just started posting videos to my channel but I've been told repeatedly youtube is oversaturated and a lost cause for a small name like myself. What's your view on this? Do you think building a following from scratch on youtube is a realistic goal?
Who are you to say what the community needs ? This is your point of view, mine is quite different of yours. Your vision and comparaison with skateboarding all the time, this is your vision. Why should we approach the skateboarding style of way ? Why not another one ? Does anoter one exist ? Why not getting the approach to martial arts ? Because we are an urban discipline, we should try to grow like the skateboarders ? And not on our own unique way ? I appreciate your work, but most of your videos misses some more deeper questions, or more vaste ones. Most of the time i have the feeling that you are talking from your point of view for everyone doing parkour, like we all agreed.
Long post. Let me start by saying I support this channel on Patreon. What Jimmy is doing is vital. 100% support from me. But I want to present a type of supportive rebuttal. Back before most of you were born, I was working in Palo Alto, just down the hill from Stanford University a richy top end school. This was the punk era, the dirty crazy wild stuff was fading away, but I knew the death knell had happened when I saw two Stanford chicks walking the streets of Palo Alto sporting their designer punk -- not homemade or found in some alley -- this was high end fashion plate punk. This is a big issue for parkour, too. Nike, Reebok, and all the others don't want thrift store punk held together with safety pins stolen from Walgreens -- they don't want kids messing around and knocking over trashcans. Skateboarding boomed when it stopped being kids skating in empty swimming pools and went to arenas wearing nice clothes. Yes, the money is important. Yes, exporting the sport is cool. Yes, the "culture" is a thing -- but what is that culture? If it's not what happened 10 years ago, is it what's happening now? Or is it what happens when RedBull or BlackDiamond tells us what it is? Be careful what you wish for. Right now Tag t.v. and gyms are pushing the parkour trend, along with clips on Instagram and elsewhere -- far too many think this is parkour. The roof jumps are mind-blowing eye candy. Roof jumps are the 2% of parkour. Jimmy is historian, cheering section, and goad. 100% support, dude.
I'm a gymnastics coach in a relatively large gym (~1000 members). Parkour -Previously Freestyle gymnastics- is our fastest growing gymsport, with us coaching kids from 4 to 17
I have to disagree with the fact that skill comps will attract more people than speed comps tbh. Skill comps are very interesting for us parkour athletes because we understand how hard and technical some jumps or combination of jumps might be. But that is not the case of a mainstream audience and I don't think that they would really cheer for such comps. Whereas speed comps really has a big potential but not in the indoor gyms format. I believe they best way to organise them is the way the FIG has done it the past few years and that is by creating a field of play with two identical courses side by side. The goal being to see athletes really race against each other like you would see Usain Bolt do. I've been to some of these comps and i can asure you that, even though the crowd knew nothing about our sport they were cheering like mads and it was awesome to see parkour getting recognition. In addition, the fact that these courses are made to be ran back and forth ads tension and hype because it is so easy to misstep or miscalculate a jump in the rush of the action meaning that there is more room for upsets to happen. Btw these course are completely paid by the gymnastic and allow us to get more exposure thus making our chances to becoming mainstream higher. Let me know what u think, I'll gladly debate as long as it's constructive :)
I jumped from a window to a rooftop... Does that count? It was about 2m long jump with height advantage... About 1m drop... so... Not really that hard... It was fun tho...
At my school in Gerrmany we can choose between 3 different sport courses one of which includes Parkour, so I realy think that the acceptance for the sport is slowly growing.
One of the issues is that parkour is not rebellious and the community demands considerate behaviour. There is a strong focus on accuracy, responsibility and perfection towards movement and preparing for it. Back in the day people advocated for the mindset to become a life philosophy. How many 15 year olds like this kind of message? They want to enjoy movement, their friends and themselves, which is perfectly fine. You cannot do anything "cool" like skating around the parc, doing a little hop or kickflip. Everyone is able to jump small gaps and run around in circles. The amount of effort necessary to get positive reinforcement when picking up Parkour seems to be higher. High level skateboarding requires similar amount of work, but getting statted seems to be a lot more relaxed.
I practiced parkour back in the mid 00s but stopped for some reason. And now at the age of 38 I’m getting back into it after rediscovering my love for movement via dance and soft-acrobatics.
agree with what you said about wct. its the most practical form of competition that actually forces a constant level of improvisation.. which is normally what happens in traditional sports. people are having to react to dynamically changing situations throughout the games and thats what makes them exciting for the competitors and the viewers.. speed and style comps are too specific and require a good understanding of parkour/freerunning to really appreciate and understand what you are even watching.. with tag everyone understands whats going on
You've just made me realise I'm a parkour spectator. I used to do a little bit of it as a kid (after watching District 13 when it came out) and I might even jump down the staircase or over a rail when walking around city, but I never actually practice these days. I do other sports. But I do watch parkour on YT.
i enjoy parkour content and don't train myself. About a year ago i really got into this content because i was/am writing a character that does parkour. I started looking up terminology, looked at specific moves like vaults or arm jumps, ended up at the storror channel, and now i'm really invested in all things parkour. U guys have my respect and support 🙏
