Competition and Freestyle Parkour: Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

It is fair to say that ‘competition’ has almost become a four-letter word in parkour circles. An unmentionable, a taboo, a name-thou-shall-not-utter. Most freerunners seem to identify the birth of organised competition with the death of the art; as if the idea of competing is poison to the very spirit of Parkour. In many minds, it is associated with the worst aspects of commercialism, with the encroachment of Big Business, and with the rise of egoism. It is the antithesis of ‘attitude free’, that quintessential factor that drew so many to the discipline when it first appeared and keeps so many involved beyond the brief lifespan of just-another-fad.

But are we being unfair to Old Competition? Are we damning it without trial, righteously declaring ‘guilty!’ beyond any proof of innocence? Shouldn’t we give it a fair hearing before discarding the notion of the role of competition altogether? Surely ‘attitude free’ would suspend judgement until all the facts are on the table?

Just for a moment, let’s pretend it would. Let’s look at those facts.

What does ‘competition’ mean exactly? In truth, it is heavily misunderstood. Commonly it is viewed as representing any win/lose paradigm – but this is a terrible oversimplification. The word itself derives from the Latin roots con and petire which combine to give the meaning ‘to seek together’; in other words competition refers to the unified efforts of all involved, working with and against each other to seek new heights for everyone’s mutual benefit. There is a huge difference between the two perspectives, and it is critical to realise this if we are to judge the merits of competition accurately and objectively.

Take a simple foot-race. The common understanding is that the athlete competes against the opponents in an effort to prove he or she is the fastest. A more complete understanding is that the athlete competes with the opponent, and they compete together against failure. The essence of competition is to create the most challenging environment possible (within the parameters of the exercise, drill, game or event) for you and your opponent(s) to recover from and to resist failure. It is no secret that competition in physical endeavour has driven the physical development and achievements of our race. We feed off our rivals, we improve because of the challenge our opponents present: this is the key behind the ancient and perennial warrior maxim that one should ‘be thankful for strong enemies’.
 

This then, surely, is the ultimate goal of athletic competition – not for any one individual to be better than all others, but for all individuals to benefit from the mutually-fuelled struggle against failure. ‘Good sportsmanship’ is based upon this understanding, which is why a ‘good sport’ appreciates his ‘losses’ as much as his ‘victories’ because the goal was about something more visceral, something deeper - the struggle against the universal inner enemy of mediocrity and laziness; it was about striving to become a better, more sophisticated human being.

Much of what is admirable in life can be found in the development of any healthy athletic lifestyle, and no less in the practice of Parkour: the raw effort to challenge one’s attributes, the diligent attention to refine one’s skills, and the sheer persistence to resist failure. Understanding this, and being a ‘good’ athlete in this way can carry over directly into every other undertaking we embark upon.

And we can seek these virtues both alone and together by giving our utmost on the field of competition. Though it may not be a popular idea in the current sport industry that promotes a fixation upon winning at all costs above the lifestyle and ideals of physical culture, a true competitor holds winning and losing as secondary to creating the most challenging environment possible so that all participants may have the opportunity to grow, improve and develop.

Competition already exists on many levels within the freerunning community: friends challenge each other to improve upon their most recent efforts; training partners push each other during sessions, even involuntarily; members of the same crew feed off each other’s energy and achievements as they seek new boundaries to break. This is competition, even though it happens  within a loose and perfectly amicable framework. And it benefits all.

There is no question that organised competition in sport has been the catalyst for the continuous, upward-progressing improvement and refinement of human capability. This is due not only to the athletes’ actual physical act of striving to better themselves, but also owes much to the huge investment of time and resources into researching and developing optimal training methodology and ever more efficient practices. Competition inevitably brings a broader interest from the non-practising community, which translates into the input of money and energy which, if handled correctly, can then drive the sport on and fuel its evolution. Is it not possible that this might serve Parkour in the same way? In fact, is it not likely?

Once again let us take running as a paradigm. A sport, an art, and a discipline, running is used by all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons: Some run for pleasure, others run for fitness and health reasons, while yet others run to feel good about themselves or even as a spiritual, transformative practice. And some run competitively. Has competitive running – such as marathons, Olympic events, world championships – destroyed the ‘spirit’ of the discipline? No. The fact is that ‘running’ is an objective practice that is coloured only by the approach of the practitioner. Those who run for fun are in no way adversely affected by the existence of large-scale international competition, and to claim so would be absurd. The running industry is one of the largest in the sporting world, and the enormous commercial interest has lead to the development of advanced footwear technology and a myriad of running aids, as well as to great insight into our physiology and the science of the very action of running. Still, it is always down to you to decide why you run and what running means to you as an individual.
 

So it is with Parkour. Even were there to be regular global competitions, drawing thousands of freerunners and massive commercial  sponsorship, there would still be those who had no interest in competing and maintained their practice as a personal, transformative discipline. There will be those who see it as a way of life, and those who view it as a means to earn fame and money, and there will also be people who combine the two and cover every shade of grey in-between. And this diversity, this variety of practitioner, can only increase the overall health and vigour of the art-form and the community.

Of course, victory is the goal of competition – but most are competing against the wrong opponent. The meaningful victory is not gained over each other; there will always be someone faster, more fluid, ‘better’ than yourself, and who wins on any given day is the result of countless factors, many of them completely beyond the control of the competitors. No, the real victory is to be gained over failure and personal stagnation. The real victory is to be found in growth.

Organised competitive freerunning will come about: it is a matter of when, not if. How the existing community receives it will have a huge impact on how beneficial this development will be. We could greet it as the inevitable and valuable appeal of our dynamic and vibrant discipline, and use it to the advantage of all freerunners. We could see it as the merging of training, practice and competition that will bring about increased sophistication and incremental progression, creating a new understanding about the role of Parkour in personal development. We could even choose to utilise this potential tool to gain a deeper appreciation for the lifestyle of physical culture and human kinetics.

Or we could simply judge the notion of competition before ever giving it a chance, and gain nothing at all. The choice, as always, is ours.

by D.Edwardes
 

Copyright © the urban freeflow network. All rights reserved.