Learning to learn

Learning to learn, what does this mean? When a new discipline or activity catches our attention, to the point that we decide to devote a tremendous amount of our time and energy to it, instead of focusing entirely on the content do we actually question ourselves enough, if at all, about learning (i.e. the process of absorbing and making ours new skills and knowledge)? What if learning was not just a question of time and effort, but a matter of clarity and vision as well? What if learning was a skill in itself? Wouldn’t there then be a way to optimise every ounce of effort we put in the aquirement of a new technique, and therefore acheive results faster without extra effort?

In any discipline or activity, there are always those who train hard for years only to acquire mediocre results, and those who seem to fly over every difficulties in their way, is it human nature, or just a different kind of perception that one could unlock ?

This is an attempt to explore these questions...


Being in the moment: the right here right now equilibrium.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote : “May one examine their own thoughts, and they will find them all focused on the past or the future. We almost never think in the present, and when we do, it is only to shed light on what to do with the future”.

We live in the present, it is our only field of action, and it is only then that we can interconnect entirely body, mind, and environment to create a sense of pure awareness; but how often do we actually do this? What Pascal wrote has never been so true: most of us have grown up and are still immersed in a world of distractions: television, cell phones, advertising, work, social activities, internet, games... the list is endless.
From birth we become accustomed to the habit of being constantly distracted, it is for most of us a normal thing that we accept and agree with entirely, our rare moments of boredom are those that we find awkward and that we will strive to fill with more mind-absorbing activities.
How is this related to learning? I had a student who was a very slow learner and had grown to accept it as part of his nature: he would make the same mistakes many times before understanding the lesson, and he would sometimes learn only to drop back into those old mistakes again. I didn’t really know how to help him until I realised something essential: that even when training his mind was constantly drifting away in thought, absorbed in the past or future, inconspicuously slipping out of the “right here right now equilibrium”.

I understood that one’s learning is clearly improved by being in constant connection with one’s present sensations.

Sensations are feedback, they tell us if what we do is right or not, they show us what we should improve on and how to do it at the condition that we pay attention to them. Repetition alone is pointless if there isn’t constant attention to what is being done, just as it is being done. Learn in real-time, be awake and aware, feel and analyse what you are doing. Trying again doesn’t mean doing again; every attempt is a new opportunity to do better, based on the knowledge and experience of past tries.

So avoid any type of distraction when you are training, let your entire self be directed towards what you are doing and all your energy, all your qualities, all that you are made of will cease to be dispersed and wasted but, instead, will work for you towards one clear goal that you have chosen, like a whole army marching in unison towards one unique target.

I took the time to explain these things to the student, letting them slowly soak in over time, and he has since then made tremendous progress and is now one of the quickest learners I have ever taught to!


Constructive criticism: the positive vision

Collecting feedback and endlessly integrating it in what you do is a major element of learning to learn, but doing so with absolute positiveness is the key principle that will create the alchemy. When we try and fail, we try harder, but if we fail again, most of us will tend to get upset or irritated, and our emotions conquer us and corrupt the positive learning mindset we were in. It is then very easy to slip into negative criticism and to start asking ouselves the wrong questions, such as “why am I so bad at this?”, or even “why can’t I ever get things right?”

The mind, in these cases, is bluntly stupid in the way it works, as it searches for a direct answer to these questions; for instance: “you’re bad at this because it’s not your thing”, or “you can never get things right because you’re not meant to be talented at this”. The answers it gives us are often conveyed on a subconscious level, and thus we unknowingly hypnotise ourselves into failure.

Therefore, one must ask themselves the right questions if one wishes to find the right answers: “How can I improve on this?”, “How can I avoid doing these mistakes?”, “What is holding me back from complete mastery?”

Condition your mind for positivity and you will get positive results. A positive vision is one that can picture a clear objective and a list of ways to reach it, regardless of what stands in the way. And any resistance in your progress, instead of being a source of frustration, will become a call for a new accomplishment, a treat of self-exploration. You won’t need to ignore your frustration, it won’t be there anymore, transformed into a new exciting feeling of challenge!

Training, as intense as it may get, is never but a game so don’t take it too seriously, even if you’re at it every day for hours, be relaxed about it, inner tension will cause outer stiffness, let it flow inside and it will flow outside. Lightness is key.


Discovering rather than manufacturing: the blossoming flower concept

“When I and my students think of strokes as being discovered rather than manufactured, they seem to learn the game much faster and without frustration.” Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis

I will humbly paraphrase this great book here.

As explained earlier, a major part of the process of learning is directly linked to how we visualise things. Manufacturing skills would imply that there is you + all that you’ve learned. Like costumes worn over each other, your skills are not connected to who you are, they are merely added to you in a very impersonal way. Progress, in this mindset, appears as having no end and worse, as being perishable...

Now, let’s talk about flowers... flowers don’t grow, they blossom: from the instant they exist as a tiny seed, they are already the future flower that they will turn into, just like a new-born baby is already in essence the future adult it will become.

They constantly express themselves as flowers and day by day, instant by instant, they become a little bit more their blossomed selves, what they were right from the start is now fully expressed and they are purely themselves.

If you visualise all your skills as being within you right from the start, on standby, waiting to be discovered and released, you will get rid of a lot of the pressure that athletes face with intense training because it means that you are simply learning to express yourself, zeroing in ever more on your true self. One could almost call it a process of enlightenment. In this case, nothing is really learnt, everything is simply revealed and therefore it is an undisociable part of you.

Progress is not an addition of bits of knowledge and skill like Lego pieces stacked on top of each other, it is only the elimination of what is keeping you from expressing your true self.


Conclusion: expanding the horizon

Throughout this article, I’ve never once mentioned parkour: the reason is that “learning to learn”, once acquired, is a skill that transcends any activity it may be applied to. One who understands it may use it in any field equally.

As a matter of fact, in order to explore a single discipline one is required to branch off continuously into other fields, as no knowledge is ever completely isolated.

A samurai once wrote about his art: “The practice cannot be confined to swordsmanship, if one limits it to that, they will not even know swordsmanship“. The same warrior added: “I have applied the lessons of my art to every other discipline I have encountered, therefore in any discipline I am my own master”. The road that leads to the mastery of one discipline will lead to the mastery of others; following one is close to following them all because, more than just the discipline, it is ourselves that we learn to explore and know through our practice. The discipline itself is never the end, but the means to a more noble, meaningful and everlasting end: our blossomed self.

What's up ?

Well, it’s been a while since i posted anything, so what happened ? A lot and nothing ! The second leg of the Eurasia trip was a lot shorter than expected, I flew back to Turkey with a new passport, bought yet another shitty bicycle in Istanbul and set off towards Ankara, the capital. I needed at least that to bring back to mind my Tibetan experience, and the conclusions I had drawn for future trips : “you like challenges and travels, but you hate cycling, so stop travelling the world on shitty bicycles !”.

I kept on remembering the cool 2cv trip to Italy I had done with Blane and Kiell and, as I was being dangerously overtaken by numbers of noisy vehicles on the busy Istanbul – Ankara road, I decided I was done with my “challenge through cycling” era, that I had reassured myself enough to be satisfied about it (isn’t self-reassurance the most common reason for challenges ?) and that I was ready for a more comfortable means of transportation, the motorcycle, in order to explore different aspects of travelling. Yes, in a way, it’s not as honourable as the bicycle, but if it allows me to go to places I wouldn’t have visited otherwise, and to spend more time training and experiencing rather than just peddling all day, then without a doubt it’s a step forward that I’m eager to make (and motorcycles are really cool too !)…

So I still covered the 500km to Ankara (had my share of interesting experiences, as usual) and spent some lovely days there before returning to London to teach with Parkour Generations, back to square one. After 5 months of learning the piano (under the supervision of my good friend Tracey), training magic (under the supervision of my good friend the mirror ), having my hair cut short in exchange for a really neat headcam, and also teaching a bit of Parkour, I came back to France (made a stop in Mexico for an event, on the way, kind of…), and bought my motorcycle : a little second-hand Yamaha 125cc, perfect for big travels, as my searches indicated.

So what’s the new goal ? To have no goal, for as long as it feels right… All I know is that I’ll be heading South very soon, and perhaps East as well later on, I still have some travel-visions on hold for Iran and Pakistan and it’s been waiting for too long…

Not sure how much I’ll be writing about my progress, if at all, but I’ll soon have a new article up for reading as well as a written interview (maybe) I did for a mag a little while ago.

In the meantime, bon vent to all and happy doing-what-ever-you-like-to-do :)

Eurasia 2009, Part 1

France : 16 to 18th of February

Around 4pm, my mother drops me off at a petrol station along the highway that goes through Tours. I want to go all the way to Asia using all kinds of modes of transportation. I leave with 7kg on my back for the first leg of the trip.
I know i have a 1 out of 10 chance of being picked up by someone if i ask him/her directly, instead of waiting on the side of the road with a sign. My technique is now greatly perfected from all the trial and error : i come up to the person with a map in my hand, letting them think i'm going to ask them for directions and, with a somewhat pityful look in my eye, i say : "Excuse me, but if it's in your direction, would you be kind enough to take me closer to ... (i name a nearby big town)". If they refuse, i still smile and thank them for their time (sometimes they change their mind afterwards).
However, i don't get very far on this first half-day of hitchhiking and i sleep behind a pile of wood near a petrol station.

My second day is much more productive and actually brings me right behind the Italian border, in the Alps. A cold night, but nothing compared to the -20 of the Himalayas. The next morning, i arrive in Milan.




Italy : 18th of February to 14th of March

I stroll around in this city that i already know quite well and enjoy a hot chocolate and delicious ice cream. I then head to my aunt's who lives just north of Milan in Seregno. I enjoy life here, so i spend 3 weeks in Milan, training with Italian traceurs and meeting up at an event with some of the Parkour Generations guys. I enjoy speaking in Italian with random beautiful girls.
At first i want to continue with the hitchhiking, but as i set off, i realise i don't want that anymore, i feel very lost and i can't figure out what i want in my life precisely... I don't want to hitchhike nor to go home, so i think about other possibilities, from cycling to asia to taking a plane for Mongolia, all sorts of ideas rush through my confused mind... In this climate of doubt, i take a train to Trani in the south of Italy and hook up with more traceurs.
I marvel at the generosity of Traceurs all over the world and i know that wherever i go, i will find someone to welcome me. The Parkour community is beautiful !
My italian friends drop me off in front of the ferry that will take me to Igoumenitsa in Greece.



Greece, 15th of March to 2nd of April :


The crossing from Italy to Greece takes 13 hours, and i bought the cheapest possible ticket, so i don't have a cabin and sleeping inside the ferry is impossible because of the lights and noise. So i go out on the deck and find the highest point of the ship to set camp. It's very windy but i'm all tucked in my sleeping bag, under the stars that i try to identify.
In the morning, i stroll around the ferry until i find a nice greek guy who accepts to take me with him in his car towards Athens. He drops me off at the Meteora, a unique and spectacular rock formation on top of which a few monasteries boldly stand. I feel so excited by the place that i spend hours hiking, climbing, exploring, losing myself in the cliffs and caves of the site. When the night comes, i camp at the top of one of the rock formations, not far from a "no camping" sign. The stars are again beautiful, so i lay down my shortened sleeping mat, tuck myself in my sleeping bag and spend an eternity looking up at my heavenly guardians, wondering how humanity can have lost this beautiful habit of sleeping outdoors...
I wake up to a breathtaking panorama, overlooking the nearby cliffs and perched monasteries. After a few more happy hours of exploration, i have a refreshing "shower" in a little stream before getting back in hitchiking mode.

At some point a nice guy picks me up on what is supposed to be a short trip : he is going to the city of Larissa, only 60 km from where he found me. However, i discover very quickly the natural sense of hospitality of greek people, as he invites me to have dinner at his mother's and later on offers to host me for the night. I have a great evening in the company of him and his friends !
I finally arrive in Athens where i am greeted by Aggelos, a greek traceur. Him and his family are so welcoming that i stay ages at their home ! I train with him and his friends and they take me to the famous Acropolis. The site is closed but i want to visit anyway, so i sneak in past the guards and stroll among the temples. As i come out, i realise that someone has posted dogs inside the site and one of them sees me precisely when i see it. It runs after me and i have to use Parkour among the ruins to dodge it. Using it's aggressive stupidity to my advantage, i lure it into a dead end as i climb down a wall on the other side. I make it out unharmed.

I have something in mind, i want to kayak towards the greek islands, so i buy a kayak and set off, only to discover, as soon as i have taken place inside the kayak, that again i have no clue of what i really want to do... In fact, i feel even worse than i had in Italy, and one thing is sure, i don't have enough kayaking experience to set off on such an adventure. I could spend some time building up that experience, but i don't have the energy to do it. I feel bad for a while, as i sit on the shore, telling myself that i am being weak, until it strikes me : this isn't about being weak or strong, it's just about motivation, and i don't have it. I have enough experience to know that i am capable of overcoming difficulties if i really set my mind to it, but in this situation, i just don't want to kayak like this. So why am i there, sitting alone on this beach with a brand new kayak ? I am learning the hard way that a mind is powerful only when it's in peace with its objectives, and mine isn't. There is a time for everything, and one must be in agreement with his own self if he wants to be succesful. But i still can't figure out what my objectives are, why i am even travelling, i feel like a locomotive with no fuel to burn, and no tracks to ride on...

Things are not better on my way to the North East of Greece, by train this time. I am even considering heading back home to give myself some time to think. I decide that once in Istanbul, i will make a choice. So i hitchhike once more and, as i arrive in Turkey, as if i had stepped in a powerful energy field, everything changes in my mind, my motivation comes back and i know i don't want to stop here. Is it the "asian vibe" there that arouses my adventurous mind ? Or the simpleness of the local countryside life that appeals to the "Tom Sawyer" inside me ? Maybe it's a bit of both, and something else i can't identify. Nevertheless, i feel back on tracks and ready to explore the world !



Turkey, 2nd to 8th April :


I'm dropped off in the night close to Istanbul, but i must walk over 2 hours to reach the nearest metro station that takes me to the center.
The next day, like a complete beginner, i loose my passport and credit card... Did they fall out of my pocket, or were they taken ? It's not very clear, but anyway it's my fault, i should have been more careful. I hate myself for a little while as this means that i am going to have to go back home to get new ones, but having faced other delicate situations in the past, i put a stop to my unconstructive self-insulting reflexe and calmly reorganise my plans for the following days, and promise myself i will be back in Istanbul as soon as possible to continue the trip.
I strongly believe that there is always something positive to see, even in negative situations, it's just a question of perception.
I go to the french consulate to ask what the procedure is, and as i expect, they tell me i need a declaration of loss from the police. However, as i quickly understand, the turkish police force is not the most hard-working in the world, and they simply refuse to take 5 minutes to write the document, saying they need a proof from the french consulate, that i am a french citizen. So i go back to the consulate only to be told that they can only give me such a document if they have the damn police declaration, so what am i supposed to do ??

The guy at the consulate tells me that if i can find someone to help translate, perhaps the police will be more helpful, so i leave the place not really knowing where i can find someone like this who would be willing to take some time to help me.
As i step out of the consulate, i randomly turn my head to the left and see a smile, like a flash in my eye. I turn again, and it's still there. It belongs to a very nice and friendly turkish girl (Ozum is her name) who speaks perfect english and very kindly agrees to help out. Together we go to the police station but they still refuse to help, asking again for a proof of my nationality. The guy at the consulate is astonished to see me in such charming company only minutes after he advised me to find a translator.

I'm tired and Ozum has to meet up with friends, so she invites me to join them all and we have a great evening. One of them, Serkan, invites me to stay at his home for as long as i need, i feel moved by this spontaneus mark of generosity towards the total stranger that i am. I want to pay some drinks to everyone, but i only have a little bit of cash left and i must keep it for my own expenses, i speak to Ozum about it but she tells me to forget the european politeness, we're in Turkey...
I spend the following days struggling with bureaucracy nonsense to the point that i consider passing the borders illegally back to France. A visit to the consulate gives me a flash of hope : someone there tells me they found a passport belonging to a "Thomas something" ! Ideas rush through my mind, if i get my passport back i can get on with the trip, with almost no money, sure, but that's quite exciting ! Turns out it's another Thomas, nevermind, on with the paper work...
Takes a few more days but the situation finally clears up. Meanwhile i meet up and stay at Selmin's place, whom i met through the Couchsurfing website. I have a great time in her company and she offers to host me again when i'll come back.
I spend my last night at the airport in order to catch my 5:30AM flight back to France. Part 1 of the trip is finished, part 2 is just around the corner...


More photos HERE.


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Interview for Urban Runners

I was recently asked by Ixek from the Urban Runners team in Mexico to do a written interview for their website, so i thought i'd post it here too, here it is :



Introduce yourself (name, age and how long have you been practising Parkour).
My name is Thomas Couetdic, i'm 24 and i'm from France. I've been into Parkour for about 8 years.


How did you find Parkour?
At the time when Yamaksi was coming out in the cinemas, i saw by chance a short documentary about Parkour on television (stade 2) and was hooked by it ! I new from that moment on that Parkour would play a major role in my life. In those days, Parkour was nonexistant on the internet and it took me a few months to find more information about it. I managed to get in contact with some of the guys training in Lisses (the only experienced practicioners at that time) and they invited me to come over and train with them. They told me in advance that it would be hard, and it was, but that's exactly what i was expecting. I would have been very disappointed if they had been just a bunch of guys randomly jumping around, with no discipline and no objectives, but it wasn't that and my motivation to get stronger grew as i discovered their incredible abilities.

My first training sessions in Lisses opened my eyes and gave me some guidance for my training. I would then go back home (in Tours) and apply what i had learned, so most of my training was done alone, which was hard at times but well worth it in the long run. And just every now and then, i went back to Lisses to boost my progress a little bit. If i didn't have money to pay for the travel, i would cycle the 250 km to there, Parkour was my biggest priority in those years and nothing would stop me from training.


What does Parkour mean to you?
My definition of Parkour is "utilitarian displacement" : efficient techniques of movement. My training with the guys from Lisses and the hours of conversation with each of them has made me realise the purpose of Parkour, and i've seen how it was created, the state of mind that triggered this whole discipline. I think that many traceurs nowadays forget to think about all this, they discover the visual aspect of Parkour and want to be able to do the same things, but that's only one dimension of Parkour, they don't try to grasp the original meaning of it, and i feel they miss out on the whole essence of Parkour.
I believe strongly in the idea that intention affects action : knowing why you do something determines how you will do it.
It's been said before, but practitioners should think deeply about why they train, what they search for in the end.

For my part, i've always been interested in outdoor life and adventure, which demand pure efficiency... You can't adventure yourself in remote areas or face critical situations if you're not efficient. You can't be strong, in the broad sense of the word, if you're not efficient. This is why i entirely agree with and follow the original spirit of Parkour, it has a depth that many young traceurs/freerunners completely miss out on.


What do you think about Parkour being related to the medias?
In the eyes of the modern world, Parkour is very stylish and fun, just what the media and advertising companies love, but that is not what Parkour was ever intended to be. Parkour is intended to be trained, not to be shown. Even though i personally take part in such things, because it's a good way to make a living using something i love doing, i'm very aware that it does not take me anywhere as a human being and therefore i never take it too seriously, my life is not there...


In which point do you think Parkour is and where do you think it will go?
The Parkour i've been describing, the one i practice, is not the one that most people train. It's like this now and i think it will always remain like that. It's not necessarily a bad thing as long as the original form of Parkour stays alive so that those who seek it may find it. That's the whole point of Parkour Generations (the people i work with), keeping it alive and accessible. On a personal level, i'd like to see Parkour applied in the field, by people who face critical situations on a regular basis, like firefighters for example. This would also be a good way to maintain the practice of efficient Parkour.



Which advice would you give to people who want to start practicing parkour?
Take your time and never give up. No fortress is impregnable, it all depends on the tenacity of the assailant. No matter where you start from, you'll always reach your goal if you keep trying. Some times are harder than others, but "is lost only he who gives himself up for lost", so never give up.


What do you think about separating parkour from free running or art du deplacement?
I've never really worried about how to call something. I use the word Parkour but it's just for the purpose of conversation. But if we can't even figure out the precise definition of a simple random object such as a chair or a car, then i think we can forget about defining Parkour ! This is because words will never grasp the pure essence of the very things they define. So Parkour, Freerunning, Art du Deplacement etc... these 3 things are different to eachother but the name you give them is irrelevant. Gandhi said : "In reality, there's as many religions as there are individuals" and in the same way, there's as many Parkours as there are traceurs, not two people in the world practice exactly the same thing. Names are only symbolic.
As long as people express themselves in what they do and find peace in it, that's all that matters.



What do you think about body and mind balance?
I think that both work in conjunction with eachother, but i would still give priority to the mind. The reason is simple, the state of the body fluctuates over time, one can be physicaly strong now and weak in one month or less, performance is a very temporary feat, but a strong mind lives on, even in a weakened body. What we learn through experience (and i make a distinction here with knowledge, which is merely the memorisation of information), we keep to the end and perhaps even after, and it affects us in a much deeper and durable way than what is only physical.
Over the years, i've come to focus more and more on the mind, adapting my training to it's development. For example, i try not to keep for later a jump i feel i can do now, because most of the time, keeping for later means waiting for the jump to be easier, and the easier it gets, the less the mind is solicited. This also explains why i never train in gyms : having obstacles that adapt to you only offers training for your body, not your mind, which is close to pointless in my opinion.



How is Thomas (appart from parkour what do you do, hobbies, what do you like doing, etc)?
He says he's fine haha ! I do a lot of travels at the moment (and as i speak, i am in the middle of one). I still love Parkour very much and i train it very often, but i think i've learned what it had to teach me spiritually. I've grown so much thanks to it and i am completely transformed compared to when i started, so now i broaden my horizons, i search for the next step in my growth, and i think i've found it in travels. I also try to share what i've learned with others who may find my experience of use, and i think i'll be doing this more and more in the future, i realise more and more the importance of sharing and giving.
On another level, i've also found a big interest in magic with coins and i spend many hours training it. It feels funny to start from zero again in a new discipline, but it allows me to measure the tremendous effects Parkour has had on me. I was saying earlier that what the mind has learned, it keeps, and this is a perfect example of it. I don't feel overwhelmed by the enormous difficulty of learning coin magic, instead i take it slowly and patiently, through trial and error until i manage to do things properly. It takes a very long time to learn but i know i'll get there in the end if i don't give up, smooth sailing on a big ocean i suppose...


Do you have any specific training routine?
No, i don't believe in routines though i did spend my first training years doing some. There's something reassuring about routines, because you can visualise precisely what you're doing and in which amounts, and everyone enjoys that kind of classification, it's very "academic", the brain likes it, but the human body is not meant to follow a schedule.
So instead i try to ask myself what my body and mind want to do and i go for it. I also often change my plans during the training itself, i really stay away from strict training programmes, it's much better in terms of motivation.
I do have a few exercises that i like to do every now and then, but that's about it, the rest is all spontaneous.


Anything, comments, ideas or advice you would like to share.
Nothing really, i just want to say thank you to you (Ixek) and your group for giving me this opportunity to express my vision of Parkour. Good luck to you and all the traceurs in Mexico !

Erwan Le Corre's Movnat

My good friend Erwan aka "Hebertiste" on the internet, is just being featured in the current Men's Health magazine in the USA, in a lengthy article regarding his new/ancestral method of training called Movnat (short for "mouvement naturel").
Many of you might have discovered it in this video :




For those like me unable to catch a copy of the whole article, a short version can be found on the magazine's website here .

Be sure not to miss it as it's absolutely brilliant !

The woman's way

I recently wrote an article for www.girlparkour.com about my experience teaching women during the 6 months i spent in London.
In order to share it with as many people as possible, i'm posting it here too.

This is it :

Parkour has been spreading like the wind to all the corners of the world - in a worryingly uncontrolled way some would say - but bringing together nonetheless more and more practitioners. Among them, a community has started to emerge, rapidly growing in numbers and talent to the point that it must now be seriously taken into account if mentioning the global community, I speak of course about the female Parkour scene.

I've spent several months in London and have taught at nearly every Parkour Generations Women's Jam and Class, thus getting a good idea of what the ladies are up to. I've also trained with very dedicated women from England but also different parts of the world such as Canada, Brasil and other places, and I hope to train with a lot more in the future. In many regards, I found out that my evolution through Parkour has been very similar to that of many women I've encountered : I started out with a huge motivation, but also a great lack of confidence that I had to fight through. I've seen this in beginners as well as more experienced traceuses but I can say from my own experience that self-doubt is no more than a phase in one's progress, with practice and dedication, one's mind becomes clearer. As Antoine de-St Exupery would have put it : "He who confronts himself to the obstacle discovers himself", and who more than Parkour practitioners confront themselves to obstacles? Just in the same way that where there is light there can be no darkness, where there is awareness there can be no doubt, therefore there will be confidence.

Absolutely everyone has a potential waiting to be unleashed. Male or female, tall or small, weak or strong, etc... all this is irrelevant. What matters is not where you start from but how far you want to go.

I understand that many women still feel ill-at-ease in an environment that was exclusively populated by males just a few years ago, and that although several traceuses have started to show the path by expressing the women's potential through Parkour, the female "way" remains a big mystery: traceuses have bodies built in different ways than those of their male counterparts, therefore they must move differently.

Some inspiration could be drawn from the women practicing rock climbing, by adapting to their morphology they've developed their own way of climbing, which is less powerful but extremely technical, and they can now rival with men in what was a seemingly "male-reserved" discipline...

It has happened many times while I was climbing in Fontainebleau (a bouldering heaven in France) that I was completely outleveled by women, though I had the big advantage of superior physical power, and I'm not a total beginner in terms of technique either...

In the same way, I know that there will be a women's way of doing Parkour and it will be develloped in the upcoming years. It must be very exciting to be a traceuse in this particular time, drawing a path that so many will follow after them!

If, based on my observations, I had to list the main things that traceuses have a hard time dealing with (in general of course, these are not universal laws), it would go like this (in no particular order):

• They think too much and too rationnally, and forget to trust their sensations.

  As human beings, we have instincts, and Parkour being based on natural human movements, our instincts are perfectly adapted to Parkour training. This is why it is very important to be aware of the sensations that our body gives us, it's the way it communicates and closing our eyes on it would be (with a little bit of exaggeration) like putting our hand in fire and not realizing it's hurting us! This is a subtle notion and is much easier to explain in the field, but to summarize: our body will tell us if it is ready for a particular move or physical exercise by making these moves/exercises "feel" right or wrong. Too much rational thinking at this stage would just blur that signal and could lead to the traceuse hurting herself, or not trying anything at all.

• They tend to be overwhelmed by their emotions.

  Because of the lack of confidence that i metioned before, many women tend to become very emotional when training Parkour, either when they bail or when they don't manage to overcome a mental barrier. Parkour is bound to be emotional because it makes us face our own fears and weaknesses, it's like this for everyone, from the complete newbie to David Belle or others. Very few people have never shed tears because of Parkour... You could very well stay at home and do something easy and comfortable, but you go outside and deliberately place yourself in challenging situations, it's a very brave thing to do and really not everyone does it, precisely because it is hard. Nothing worth doing is easy, and Parkour, because of the many great things it can bring you, is worth doing. So express your emotions : cry, scream, get angry if you need to, but don't let them conquer you and turn you down, ever... Giving up is never a solution. In the long run, efforts are always rewarded.

• They have trouble trusting themselves and tend to underestimate their capabilities.

  I've already explained this, but i will never insist enough : all human beings have an enormous potential that unfortunately, most don't use to the fullest. I'm sure it has happened during your training or in other areas of your life, that you found yourself facing an obstacle that seemed so imposing that you thought maybe it wasn't for you, and that you ended up overcoming only to find out it wasn't that bad.

  Well that's what happens 99.9% of the time, we build our own demons, we mentally transform the obstacles that we face, the limit is one's imagination! But in the end, it is only an illusion, like those fake facades on buildings in old cowboy films that make a rundown tavern look like the Playboy mansion. Very few people make the effort of seeing things as they actually are.

  So next time you are in such a situation, ask yourself: am I really trying to see what is rather than what my mind wants to see? And am I confronting this obstacle with my most positive state of mind, or have I given up before really trying?

  If you still can't overcome the difficulty, it's fine, take a step down, go for something easier and work your way up step by step. There is no wrong or right, no win or lose, only feedback. Don't think that because you are a woman, you are less capable than men, not only because it's not true, but also because by doing so, you would be subconsciously building a barrier in your mind to your own progress. Don't set yourself limits, because no one (including you) really knows where they are...

These 3 points are linked to each other, so if you experience one of them, there's a good chance you also experience the other two. And the other way around : solving one is not far from solving all of them!

I see some very good spirits and very good energies among the female community which has convinced me since a long time that women can bring to Parkour at least as much as men have. One of my dearest wishes at the moment would be to train a very motivated traceuse on a regular basis, but because of my travelling plans, this is a project that is on standby for now.

Though the real point in parkour is not be able to do incredible things, but rather to explore ourself and conquer our demons on the our way to pure inner peace, I hope to see the female scene express itself and shine ever more among the Parkour world.

To all the traceuses in the world, I give you my best wishes and hopes!

© Parkour Generations Ltd.

Night missions

Since i moved in London, my life has become busier compared to what it was for the past several years. I can't say that i'm buried under endless amounts of work, far from it, but i do have a certain rhythm that i must set myself to. One would say that life can't always be the way we want, but that's the biggest lie lazy people have come up with to avoid facing their deeper aspirations. Life is made of the decisions we take and he who wants to move a mountain has nothing more to do than to move each stone one at a time.
Therefore, my life in London is a chosen one, a new direction on the improvised trail i prolong daily. This doesn't mean that it satisfies all of my needs, indeed my desires for outdoor adventure and life on the move have never been so strong !

As i find myself waiting to hit the road again as soon as possible, there are a few schemes i have come up with in the meantime to deceive my impulses. One of them is the solo nocturnal parkour adventure, or night mission.

Yesterday night i found myself facing the fortress i had been planning on conquering, an old abandoned factory in the vicinity of a busy street. It was in sight of many cctv cameras, but like many others in London, i suspect they are only monitored if a problem is reported. Anyway, i was going around towards a dark stinky alley leading to the first part of the challenge when i noticed 3 police officers standing there, apparently making sure everything was in order. I turned and innocently walked in the opposite direction. But because i was in a hurry to start the mission, and also since i didn't have anything bad to be found guilty of, i came back into their field of vision, sat down, and pretended to write an sms. As expected, they found my behaviour suspicious and came to question me :

_ Evenin' sir, what are you doing here ?
_ Just wanted to take a leak but thought it wouldn't be wise to do it near you.
_ Haha yeah that's an 80 pound fine !
I laughed back and explained that i needed to finish the sms i was writing.

_ Ok sir, but be careful, there's a lot of bad boys around here, not a great place to stay...

Little did they know that one of them was about to climb the building just behind them.
As they left, i traced them a bit just to make sure they wouldn't come back, and proceeded to begin the first climb.

Along the factory runs a thin yellow gas pipe that strangely is held at about half a meter away from the old brick walls instead of being right against them. I jumped to reach the first section, which climbs vertically to a first small roof, about 5 meters off the ground. Once there, the pipe then turns at a 90 degrees angle and strolls along the wall, over the first seriously scary part, a massive 15 meter drop. At that point, my only safety is the pipe itself, as i must walk along it with my hands against the nearby wall, which offers nothing close to a hand hold in case the pipe breaks under my weight. Before risking my life on it, i jumped on the pipe a few times to make sure it would hold me. It wobbled a lot but seemed strong so i braced myself and walked the scariest 10 meters ever, breathing hesitantly in and out, as if the weight of my full lungs was enough to fracture my life line.
With silent calculated moves, i then hanged and traversed across the next portion of the same length, which offered a hold for my feet, and reached a second roof. I could see people in their homes on the opposite side, too busy with their everyday boring house chores to look up and notice me. As i looked back towards where i came from, i realised that the portion of pipe i had walked on had slightly bent under my weight, it wouldn't be safe to use it as an exit route so i had no choice but to continue forward.

I monkey-walked across the roof and ended up traversing along the pipe again, but at a reasonable height this time. At this point, i could have continued like this to find a way to safe ground around the next corner of the building, but i spotted two metallic drain pipes running together all the way to the top of the factory, over 30 meters high. I had set myself to reach the top so after a few moments of mentally studying my climb, i commenced my ascent. Though i had two of them that i could use, drain pipes are nothing close to gas pipes when it comes to strength. They are not, by far, built with the same quality standards and they tend to dislocate if not handled properly. As i moved a hand towards the first hold, a loud noise burst out of a tiny sealed window next to me, it was a little squirrel running off through a small hole which had scared me probably as much as i had frightened it. Fair enough i thought, and continued the climb.

I soon realise that apart from being wobbly, old, and weak, my drain pipes are also lacking many of the screws linking them to the run-down wall they are seemingly attached to ! I make sure to push myself up along them rather than to pull, as it is precisely a horizontal pull that would risk dislocating them, thus abruptly precipitating me to safer ground at free fall speed.
The last section, which is composed of only one pipe not attached to the wall at all, is the trickiest. I think for a second about coming back down, but figure it might not be any safer, so i squeeze my feet around it and stretch out to grab the top of it. That's when a thought comes to my mind : i remember reading about 2 mountain climbers who had fallen off the mountain cliff they were ascending. As they were falling, they passed close to another group of climbers. One of them later said that they had not screamed during their fall, they had silently let gravity pull them down towards their inevitable deaths.
I thought about it and looked down at the far away ground, would i remain silent if i was to fall right now ? Imagining myself suddenly plunge down scared me a lot.
I've found myself in similar situations many times, feeling death's frozen breath along my spine and promising myself each time : "never again". Far from being a fascination with death, i believe it is a love of life that draws me to do such things, for never do i measure better the essence of life than when i come out safe and sound from one of these moments !

I hold my breath and pull carefully on the pipe as one would handle a new born baby, and reach with my hand the top of the wall ! I bring myself up and breathe out with great relief. I know that going down from the other side will not be of any problem, i can finally relax !


I explored the factory's silent rooftops -populated with an infinity of pigeons that would fly off all at the same time when i approached- and spent a moment looking at the view over nocturnal London. I even found a way inside the building, but having no more than a keychain flashlight to illuminate my way, i decided not to venture too far into the rusting entrails of my fortress and made my way back down to the relative safety of the busy streets, in the direction of home.


I wish to conclude this account by specifying that such missions require for one to have a lot of experience and practice before attempting them. For my part, i have been training Parkour for about 8 years now and still seldom find myself in such heights or on such old and dangerous buildings. It is necessary to be highly attentive and in perfect physical condition in order to limit the risks to no more than simple bad luck. So don't do anything stupid...