Editor's Note
Happy New Year! The Freerunner is overflowing with wonderful words this month, so I won't be cluttering it up here. I'll just be taking a moment to thank you all for your input, your feedback, your thoughts, and your dedication throughout the past year. The APK community is an amazing group of people, and I am truly grateful to be a part of it. Thank you all, for inspiring each other (and myself). I can't wait to see what new videos and articles, thoughts, outreach efforts, workshops, and jams will come out of the community in the new year. Happy New Year, and train safe!
Janine Cundy
Editor in Chief
In This Issue
Society, Parkour, and Confidence - Part 1
Although it may seem so sometimes, being a traceur does not magically make you fearless. Parkour training is incredibly mentally taxing and sometimes in order to progress and expand boundaries, you need to come face to face with your fears and insecurities. Charles' article is a personal exploration of fear, its causes, and how he deals with it.
Comic for January
Respect
We've all had that moment: You're training, really in the groove, and a totally unexpected cop car or security officer shows up to tell you to leave. You try to explain what you're doing, that it's beneficial and non-destructive, but to no avail. Sometimes these personnel even understand and support you personally, but still have to ask you to leave. Sometimes they're sassy. Either way, you'll connect with this article as it explains why it is so important that we honor the wishes of an authority figure, even if they sometimes aren't ideal.
Rise: Chapter 10
Gabriel Arnold has taken us through an amazing ride in a futuristic world where Parkour and Freerunning are the most popular disciplines practiced. A young boy, Rusty, begins to train, and in the process finds out more about himself than he ever imagined. At this point in the story, Rusty has been training for half a year, and had just found out what can happen when you throw yourself blindly into something without being honest about your intentions with yourself, or your family and friends. Read more to hear how he is coping with those consequences, and uncover a major twist at the end!
Perspective
This month shouldn’t be about my perspective. This is the New Year: 2010. Traceurs all across the world are thinking to themselves, “This is my year. This is the time where I will break down my walls and get over my obstacles, mentally and physically.” So, this month I will share my feelings on the future and my New Year’s Perspective.
Conversation
How do you explain what parkour is? Not just the "point A to point B" version. I mean, how do you really explain to someone how thousands of people nationwide live their lives imagining themselves jumping off of things? How do you show someone that it means much, much more than just that? How do we all seem to know each other, even if we've never met? Frosti eloquently walks us through a conversation that does this beautifully.
Parkour Games: Groceries
Mark Lewis posted this hilariously fun game on the forums, and I just had to have it in this month's Freerunner. So, he rewrote it for us and even added an extra game for us to try! All you need is a grocery bag and a handful of pennies.
Monkee See, Monkee Say
You're in bed. You can't sleep. Your hands grab phantom railings, and your feet kiss ghosts of concrete. This occupation of your mind, though away from the environment it spawns from, trains us all the same.
