The Effect of a Parkour Jam
“Jams have always been about connection. With friends new and old, with greater influences outside of your normal routines/training and with places you’d never have the context to visit on your own.” David Ehrlich, one of the founding fathers of The Commons, summed up what it means to be at a jam. It doesn’t revolve around your training and the clips you get; it’s about exploring the community and what parkour can be.
After Texas Winter Jam 15 I put out a survey asking a few questions about how the jam affected the people who attended. The questions ask about how having the community around affects people’s ideas of parkour as well as how their training compares to before and after the jam. There were 23 responses and almost all of them expressed that there are pros and cons of attending jams, but overall said that jams were beneficial to their progression.
Jams can be overwhelming. There are a lot of people condensed at one spot so it can be nerve wracking to join in with everyone else. In reference to that nervousness fellow Sneknek member Daniel Oishi said, “At first, I feel super scared because there’s so many good people that are doing stuff way cooler than my stuff, but then I get more confident the more I talk to them. Just gotta realize they’re all people and they aren’t gonna laugh at you if you aren’t at their skill level.” It takes a second to realize that everyone is there to see parkour grow as a community. They want to see people training. They want to see people progressing. Nobody wants another person to feel left out. Spark a conversation with someone and see. Odds are you will find a new acquaintance and they may teach you something about parkour you had never even thought before.
This is the beauty of a parkour jam. Anywhere at the spot there’s someone trying something different. This opens the door for inspiration and friendships. Joining a sesh with someone is the best way to create conversation and a new friend. Parkour is a universal language. You can mention a plethora of little pieces of parkour and spark hour-long conversations; and within these conversations you can learn a lot about how other people navigate training. This in turn can evolve your own training. When asked how having the community immediately at hand affected his ideas of parkour, Beans member Spencer Hovel said “It’s the best. Sharing ideas with others and listening to other athletes/artists perspectives/experiences helps me learn more about our weird and silly sport/art and also learn more about myself.” Jams are a melting pot of ideas that create a beautiful mold for your training.
These new found perspectives/experiences create potential for a great deal of improvement. A question on the survey read “After a jam, how does your training compare to before the jam?” Over half the responses mentioned having increased motivation. I spoke with one of the local organizers of Texas Winter Jam 15, D’Andre, about the Austin community’s motivation post jam. He mentioned scheduling being a large issue with people’s ability to get out and train, but he said, “I did [see] a difference in the morale of the community after the jam, very optimistic and light hearted with a touch of wanting to improve.” Jams build connection with the community and strengthens people’s love for parkour. If you can make it to a jam, do it.
Although parkour Jams can be intimidating and training can be harder, the experience of being in the presence of many other parkour athletes is a must. Nothing can compare to breaking a challenge that a bunch of people have been working on together. Nothing can compare to seshing a ditch or a rock with 15 other parkour people. Nothing can compare to those three days of parkour and togetherness.
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