Recently I’ve been asked for a few times if I knew why no girls / only a small number of girls do Parkour. Seems like people are concerned about the imbalance of girls and boys in the Parkour Community.
But the latest workshop I attended proved that people don’t have to worry at all!
Here we go, a little report on the ParkourONE workshops at the fair “muba” in Swiss:
From February 12th-13th, 2011 ParkourONE (http://www.parkourone.net/) organized in cooperation with "PET-recycling Swiss" (www.petrecycling.ch) an international meeting with several workshops, where ParkourONE and well known Traceurs from all over the world coached.
Packed in one car, three friends and I headed for Switzerland.
When we finally found the fair however I didn’t expect that it wasn’t Daniel Ilabaca who grabbed my attention mainly.
In fact I was positively surprised by the amount of girls and women moving smoothly and fast through the obstacle park erected in the fair. The first workshop had already started, so Ayla – the second girl joining on my trip – and I sat down and watched.
During the next 2,5 hours the participants had to solve exercises given by their instructors, showing and teaching them different facets of training Parkour: technique, balance, flow including teamwork and conditioning, requiring strength and endurance of all of them.
Teamwork: These girls have to trust each other, when balancing in 2 metres height.
Photo by Céline Moos, ParkourONE
In every aspect the girls kept up with the boys. Easily they climbed the walls of 2-3 metres height, did arm jumps to the surrounding boxes, a muscle up and straight ahead from move to move. They balanced on the bars – hand in hand, only stabilized by their partners – just as relaxed as the others. When playing tag through the obstacle park the boys had to hurry up to outrun their female catcher.
What do kids and Traceurs have in common? They love playing tag...
Photo by Silvana Werren, ParkourONE
After the workshop finished I got the chance to talk to the girls to find out more about them:
Most of them were from Swiss. Twice a week ParkourONE holds regular workshops where up to 22 (TWENTYTWO!!!) girls and women show up regularly. Besides of these sessions they catch up to train more often during the week. They are of all ages and some of them already train since several years, others just have started. Yet all of them have one thing in common: their passion for movement.
Even in the break during the first and the second workshop the Swiss girls couldn’t stop moving. They started playing “I'm going on a trip and I'm taking ____ with me" in order to combine moves or they redid techniques they’ve just learnt and taught each other new things, supported by everyone’s help.
Overwhelmed and inspired by their strengths and power Ayla and I couldn’t await the beginning of the next workshop – the one we were registered for. And of course the unbreakish Swiss-girls took part again, as well.
Push ups? No problem for these girls...
Photo by Céline Moos, ParkourONE
Well, why am I telling you this?
First, it was an epic weekend ;-)
Second, I thought this was just another good example to prove that girls exist in the Parkour scene – skilled and passionate Traceuses. Not only in Swiss, but in every country of the world. That’s probably the perfect moment to switch to the latest Parkour videos of our Parkour ladies. Enjoy!
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