Why Teach Kids Parkour?
By Rebecca Brightly
Kids love parkour. It's high energy, playful, and creative. But children are no strangers to play. What makes parkour different?
Parkour is a movement art that helps kids refine natural human movements like jumping, crawling, and climbing. Kids use these movements to creatively navigate and play in the spaces around them, giving them a sense of control over themselves and their environment.
Parkour is more than a collection of movements, however—it is a method and philosophy. Parkour teaches kids crucial physical, social, and emotional skills. Here are some of the things children can learn through parkour:
Collaborative, non-competitive play and teamwork
Creative movement and thinking
Risk assessment and safety
Overcoming fears and challenges
Confidence-building, especially important for girls
Proper technique for running, jumping, climbing, and crawling
Play-Based Learning
Our curriculum is called Leap to Lead. It's a play-based curriculum that teaches movement and leadership skills. Younger students learn parkour through games like Red Light Green Light or obstacle course races. Through play, we take the pressure off to achieve. This allows kids to immerse themselves in the experience, learn teamwork, and collaborate on problem-solving.
Older students start to get more curious about technique and creativity. When our students turn nine, they can join the Youth Team. Our Youth Team works harder on their physical and technical skills. But we always maintain the playful, creative element. Play is how we connect across ages and ability levels.
Learning to Fail Safely
We fall a lot in parkour! In fact, sometimes we fail more than we succeed. It's such a normal occurrence that we practice falling safety at every session: bounce backs, breakfalls, rolls. For each move, there are a variety of ways you can fall. We have to practice these in order to be safe.
Learning how to fail safely and get back up is crucial for kids' emotional development. In parkour, failure is not only expected, it's embraced. Kids, like any other human, can be afraid of failure. Parkour helps children grapple with their fears and accomplish physical and mental challenges they never thought possible.
Parkour Everywhere
One of the most unique aspects of parkour is that you don't need special equipment to practice. The world is our playground, we like to say. A few well-placed rocks or a set of railings can keep us entertained for hours. These are features of many local parks!
When your child is educated in parkour, you will see their world open up. Parkour kids become stronger, more confident and creative, and better at assessing risk. And they will use these skills for the rest of their lives.
You can join our programs now for Seattle and Portland. If you're not ready to sign up, please keep in touch so you can learn more about what we're up to!