What I Learned Through Parkour

I didn’t expect myself to learn the unorthodox discipline of Parkour and even less so to exercise its creativity. Yet, through my own body, Parkour soon proved creativity to be a mindset more than an ability, one that transcends domains.

I didn’t truly understand creativity until Parkour finally filled in the missing piece: instead of expertise, creativity begins with introspection. Like many other sports, Parkour has standard techniques, whether for getting over railings or climbing onto walls. However, there never are standard strategies for applying my specific athletic abilities to these movements or for finding my physical limits. Instead, each Parkour scenario is a unique puzzle of self-awareness. Obstacles are inherently different, and between two points, their combinations are even more numerous. Furthermore, amidst each environment’s myriad of possibilities, the ones accessible to me change with time. Thus, before I spring into motion, I immerse my mind within immense, sustained quietude, so my bodily sensations and physical demands come into sharp focus. My eventual choice of movement always remains singular to my world’s snapshot at that particular moment. My revelation dispelled the illusion that creativity is about skill. Rather, since my initiation in Parkour, creativity thrives from the perpetually authentic concurrence of skill and challenge.

Therefore, the mere mixture of a discipline’s elements is fractional to creativity’s significance. As Parkour demonstrates, creativity is a universal language, because the discipline-dependent technicalities matter far less than their synthesis with my identity. My motivation for Parkour isn’t to impress but to impartially engage with myself. Maybe I subconsciously knew that creativity demanded just a healthy initiative to cherish the present? Creativity encourages me to practice identical Parkour moves with different obstacles, to revisit the same location with a clear mind, and to commit to carefully calculated leaps of faith. Beyond Parkour, perhaps the same unifying creativity once convinced me to read, to code, to do research, and will keep informing my academic career.

Nevertheless, I will always adore Parkour’s wisdom. Its flair and fancies nevertheless taught me to be keen.

- James Jin

James is a passionate mover and a mainstay in our adult community.