Parkour Generations An interview with Dan Edwardes By Donnie Rust
Dan Edwardes, founder of Parkour Generations began his training in 2001 and has been active as a professional parkour traceur since 2004. He launched his business in 2007 as a vehicle to transmit, protect and teach the philosophy and multiple benefits of parkour training. To help people fulfil their potential as human beings both physically and psychologically. This goal has not changed in the last thirteen years and is set to continue to shape new members in the future. “We had experienced the incredible power of parkour in our own personal development,” Dan explains, “And we wanted to share this knowledge and method with as many people as possible and to make parkour accessible and more inclusive.” THE DISCIPLINE OF PARKOUR The roots of parkour have been around for a very long time, being that it draws on ancestral, natural human movements, but in its modern form it is a product of multiple influences from military obstacle course training, athletics, martial
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arts, acrobatics, strength practices and everyday play. Those who practise parkour, known as tracers or traceurs, aim to get through complex environments from one point to another, without any equipment and in the fastest and most efficient way possible. Often referred to as “free running” it has made appearances in video games and films to demonstrate acrobatic skill in an urban environment. While today there are parkour academies and training studios with equipment that can be used to train and learn in a safe environment, parkour’s origins lie in urban concrete jungle gyms. One of the notable characteristics of traceurs is that they can navigate an urban environment quickly and determine the fastest way across it. Scaling what seem to be unscalable walls and clearing what should be unjumpable gaps between buildings. They can leap from rooftops and land on solid concrete and carry the force of an impact through a forward roll and just keep on moving.
