Dan
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It was a real pleasure to be interviewed by the hugely knowledgeable and downright likeable Dr Perry Nickelston of StopChasingPain.com about the natural movement principles embedded in parkour. I met Perry at the world’s first Barefoot Training Summit, held in Delhi, India, where we were both presenting and teaching. I spent a great few days…
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Talking to Jack Butler for his fantastic ‘Agents of Conscious Change’ website was special not only because of the great work Jack does in inspiring, motivating and generally raising the consciousness of the planet, but also because I’ve actually known him from his school days in Norwich where he was mentored by a very good…
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One of my favourite chats so far has been with the team behind the phenomenon that is the Spartan Race, and their Spartanup! Podcast. Joe De Sena, founder of Spartan Race, has built an incredible community around the world of people of all shapes, sizes, builds, athletic backgrounds and experience who take part in these…
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Parkour – that explosive visual spectacle of superhuman movement feats you now see in every Hollywood action movie and TV commercial around the world. At least, that’s how the majority of people think of it, their exposure being limited to YouTube videos and those very same movies that idolise the big jumps and acrobatic manoeuvres…
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The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art – Leonardo Da Vinci I recently had the distinct honour and pleasure of being invited to teach at the world’s first Barefoot Training Summit, held in Delhi, India, by the fantastic Dr Emily Splichal of Evidence Based Fitness Academy, alongside some truly brilliant…
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When the manager of our still-new London training facility, the Chainstore, asked me to write a retrospective piece for the one-year anniversary of the building opening I of course agreed instantly and, being busy with jumping off stuff and all, left it at that. A few days later when I came to begin the cat-herding…
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Athletes call it ‘the zone’; Maslow named it ‘peak experience’; the martial arts of Japan dubbed it mushin or ‘no-mind’; most recently it has been dubbed simply ‘flow’. Whatever you choose to call it, this elusive state of heightened, focused awareness and immersion in a given activity is without doubt when we are at our…
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Having confidence in our skills and abilities is vital in the practice of parkour, and yet this is certainly one of the most difficult attributes to develop and maintain. When questioned, most professional or elite athletes will attest to the fact that mastery of their particular discipline – whatever it may be – is 10%…
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I made that jump to find out who I was. And in that process of self-discovery there is growth, there is improvement, there is transformation. I know now that the person who landed was different – subtly, but significantly – from the person who took off. I had gained something, understood something about myself on…
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Occasionally we get asked why the ADAPT Qualifications are so physically demanding, when in principle they are only coaching qualifications? It’s a fair question, I suppose, and one the creators of ADAPT thought about long and hard when the system was developed around 5 years ago now. And while a small part of me does think…
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1. States Parties recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and arts. 2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic…
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For the last two months the PKGen UK team has been ensconced in East London at a mysterious location, hammering, painting, designing, heaving, dragging, assembling, redesigning and generally working like never before – all to create the UK’s first dedicated Parkour Academy centre. It’s known as The Chainstore, after the official name of the building…
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Have you noticed how more and more of your life is managed, and managed by someone or something else? Managed spaces, managed social networks, managed fun, ‘risk-free’ work and play environments; organised, standardised experiences of every kind. Massive over-precautions are taken in almost every walk of life now, usually as a result of a mass…
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We live in a strange world. If you want to be a doctor, or a lawyer, or a shaper of people’s minds in a school, there are considerable and rigorous processes to go through to qualify to do those things – and rightly so, as such individuals are putting themselves in a position of responsibility…
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Coaching is a hard thing to do well. That’s something we’ve learned over the last decade or so of passing on the principles, methods and concepts of parkour to tens of thousands of people across every continent on the planet. It’s something very close to our hearts and as we’ve seen the global network of…
Dan Edwardes 