Of all the movement practices I have trained parkour or locomotion expressed over obstacles holds the deepest place in my heart, the interaction between the body and the environment offers the greatest potential for movement complexity in locomotion while getting us out into the world around us.
Movement is big part of being a healthy deeply developed human being but so is connection to the land around us parkour and similar practices create a bridge the practice of movement and interaction with the environments around us.
One of the important things this does is encourage us to explore and see new places. Every time I travel I treasure the opportunity to explore new environments, the movements called forth by the cedars at volunteer park or the creek at whatcom are distinctly different from those brought out by california oaks, or pennsylvania beach trees. It is deep education in movement when we can see more environments and a chance to experience joy in the beauty of the world.
Recently one of the big parkour groups over in the UK got to live my dream of travelling to a bunch of the most amazing spots in the states to practice movement, unlike many in the parkour community the hit up the natural spots too and produced some truly inspirational footage.
Check it out.
The longest natural sequence starts here and runs to the end of the video.
Another great short one featuring snow and mountains runs from here to 12:49
