Competitions in parkour and freerunning

While commonly parkour and freerunning is seen as a self-taught and non-competitive discipline in the last few years there is a growing number of competitions and tournaments. Most of the events are only for the experts and leaders of the discipline like for example the Red Bull Art of Motion or the North American Parkour Championships. But competitions can also have a positive effect on lower level and local practitioners. They are a place for comparison of talent and exchange of ideas. They are big meetings where parkour and freerunning is the only thing that matters. In a way these events connect people with the same passion and attitudes. Sports clubs are the perfect platform to make tournaments like that more regularly and easier accessible for all skill levels. To give a small insight into the structure of competitions here are explanations of the main categories…

SPEED

The Speed category consists of a course which is marked by flags or tapes. They stand for the start and finish and as well for some checkpoints. The athletes are free to choose the fastest and efficient way along these checkpoints and at the end the fastest run wins. Take a look on this video example.

SKILL

The skill challenge proposes a dictated route or single movement and the athletes are awarded points for the number of steps, the connectivity and the movement quality. In the following video the task was a precision jump on a bar.

FREESTYLE

This category emphasises the development of a freestyle movement or combination and is judged on creativity, difficulty and execution. The athletes can whether move completely free or there are some key elements which have to be used. There should be two or maybe three attempts and only the best score counts.