We’re 1 year old!

4 August 2022

“If you build it, they will come”. Yes it’s a mis-quote from a scene from the 1989 classic Costner film Field of Dreams, but it’s a statement often used at PKGen London in reference to The Chainstore Gym and passed over to the new space we opened in May 2021 for our younger generation – The London Parkour School.

Now a year on from when we first opened our doors to the public, we’re taking a look back over the development and progress that has occurred here. 

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IMAGINATION TO CREATION

Casting ourselves back to 2020 when Galliard first approached us about creating a space within their development, James Sutton (Head of Parkour Designs) was the man to imagine what this space could become and bring it to life from a blank concrete box and some sketches on paper, to a lively and dynamic training facility.

“The task was to create a space that wasn’t intimidating but still offered challenge. Difficult, but with comfortable options to scale. I played with the space, it’s flow, how it could feel when entering from different sides; from the perspective of a complete newbie to an experienced practitioner.”

And as one of the only child-specific parkour spaces in the capital, Parkour Generations Founder and CEO Dan Edwardes was optimistic about the potential of a space like this where the next generation of traceurs could flourish.

“Parkour facilities in the UK, and especially London, are few and far between. It’s an incredibly expensive city in which to open quite unusual facilities like this, so we’re always very happy when one of our dream venues becomes a reality and is sustainable. The London Parkour School sits on the border of Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs so it holds an amazing location and helps makes parkour accessible to whole new communities of kids and adults in that part of the city. We’ve always wanted to have separate facilities for kids and adults, so the London Parkour School was the first time we were able to create a space with young people as the priority.”

But visualising a building and it’s uses to seeing it in action; with various activities from classes for both kids and adults to different movement styles like acrobatics and calisthenics, to parties, events and even commercial photographic/video shoots in the gym is a different matter all together. James reflects now,

“It was a dream come true to see it open last year, with an energised kids class taking place, the excitement and joy comes through in the photos from the launch event. It really drives home the value of what we do. Creating spaces for people to grow, to express, explore and have fun. Whilst quite different from its original purpose of unsupervised children’s space, the space has matured with harder raw materials, providing even more of an experience for its users. I’m proud that it has been improved to suit its needs. It continues to be the best it can be. Growing alongside our students and will continue to evolve no doubt.”

As Manager of The Parkour School, Natalie Anson-Wright explains just how important a child-specific space has been for our youth community…

“We cater for children from 0-16 years old, so having a purpose built children’s facility means everyone from babies to teens can train safely and explore their movement in a more forgiving environment. Whilst parkour was born in the concrete jungle of our city streets, it’s useful to have a soft-play starting point that allows both children and their parents to feel comfortable and confident about the training. The kids can develop without disturbance from onlookers, in a clean, fully supervised space which is fit for all weathers; meaning their progress isn’t paused during the winter months.”

And with our ‘non-spectators’ policy, the young people accessing our space can develop autonomy, self-reliance and the confidence to conduct themselves appropriately without parents watching over their shoulder.

ANIMAL PATHS

But this site doesn’t just offer our young movers with a new place to play. Our team have created an exciting program of structured learning, led by creator of the ADAPT Qualifications – Dan Edwardes.

“Our movement curriculum for young people – the Animal Paths – is unique not only due to the sheer variety of movement skills it encourages them to develop but also for the fact that it has core virtues and values, such as teamwork, problem-solving, risk management, leadership and more, actually built-in to the progression paths. So right from the start the kids learn that it’s not enough to be physically competent; they also have to demonstrate interpersonal and prosocial skills if they want to progress and be recognised. Most kids respond positively to a clearly-defined set of targets and goals as they engage with an activity, so we have found it to be of great use in terms of focusing their minds and bodies. 

The Animal Paths concept was a natural development for us over time, as parkour has often emulated the movement attributes of incredibly agile and coordinated animals such as monkeys, cats, squirrels, etc. Our Head Youth Coach, Dayne Nembhard, and I began to play with the idea of using different animals to represent ‘skill trees’ of development within parkour, and it worked so well we decided to build an entire kids curriculum around that. It has gone on to be utilised by schools in countries as far apart as China, Brasil, the USA and India, as well as at our own academies worldwide.”

As a young traceur who is now well on his way towards becoming a qualified parkour coach, Assistant Coach Ewan McLean tells us,

“I started parkour when I was 10 and it’s played an important role in my social life, my health and wellbeing and now my career goals. It feels great to be assisting at the company I was taught at, because I feel comfortable with my colleagues as they were my first movement mentors.”

A GROWING COMMUNITY

15 months on, these walls have housed 3 kids parkour events (Trickour Treat in October 2021, Jingle Jumps at Xmas 2021 and Beaster 2022), the Women’s International Parkour Weekend in May 2022, two years of Summer Youth Camps which are currently ongoing, plus a huge number of classes and birthday parties. Our growing youth parkour community has just under 100 full-time members, with tons more little traceurs accessing the space on a pay-as-you-play basis. But what do the kids and their parents think of it all?

Anna Chard told us, “We held my daughter’s seventh birthday party at Parkour Generations – the children loved it, the parents thought it was great too. The session was well organised and managed. It was pitched well for the age group.“

Michelle said “Charlie is a bit of a loner usually but he’s blossomed in his parkour classes! It’s great to see good friendships being formed through parkour!”

Another parent said “Our party was a huge success! The coaches were brilliant and I was so impressed at how they engaged and organised such a big group of rowdy ten-year olds! The children really enjoyed themselves, and I know that a lot of the parents were interested in the skills the children were learning and the enthusiasm they all showed.”

As one of our most experienced youth parkour coaches, Arturo Vigil has noticed the positive outcome of having the Parkour School as a permanent kids-only space that our developing athletes can call their own,

“I believe young people want to move and challenge themselves. Providing a safe space for them to explore their body which offers both challenge but also the chance for them to be uniquely creative, is exactly what they need to be healthy not only physically but mentally. I’ve had the pleasure to coach some of these children from adolescence to young adults and it’s a very rewarding experience to see them improve their skills, become super passionate about parkour and migrate over to the adult academy. It can be hard to see them leave after creating a bond with them for many years, but it’s an honour to witness their development and ambition.”

Whilst it’s been a busy year we still have ambitions for how to grow and adapt The Parkour School further. Our coaching team there continues to increase in number to meet the demands of new classes such as Kids Acrobatics and more Summer Youth Camps.

It goes without saying that the success of this venue is based on their energy and passion for parkour; bringing vast skills to the table and rocking up each day ready not just to teach movement, but to inspire and positively shape our next generation. We are hugely grateful to them.