Parkour in a club: an example

As mentioned in the first two entries parkour and freerunning is a growing discipline and a popular trend. Several parkour teams and communities already started their own training program and help beginners to become familiar with the discipline. The next step could be that existing sports clubs which usually offer football, handball and other popular sports get interested. To show how this construction could look like I want to introduce my own club: Hellerhofer Sportverein…

INTRODUCTION TO THE CLUB AND ITS CONSTRUCTION

The Hellerhofer Sportverein is located in Düsseldorf, Germany and was found in 1982. At its 30^th anniversary in 2012 it had approximately 600 members out of every age. The club offers a wide range of 17 different disciplines including for example hockey, volleyball and tennis. There are also some more specific disciplines like archery, dog sport and parkour which are the club’s special features. Parkour counts in this case as an indoor discipline because the groups practice once a week in a hall. That means a fee of 12,5 € per month is necessary to be a club member and join the parkour groups. The fee consists of the basic charge for the club and the specific costs of the parkour hall and coaches. The training is weekly and right now there are three different groups for children and young persons.

STRUCTURED WEEKLY TRAINING UNITS

The training units consist out of three major parts: the warm up, the main part and the cool down or strength training. The warm up is done by the whole group together. It starts with a small game like catching each other or imagine the floor would be lava. Then a really important thing is stretching the joints and ligaments. In the main body basic moves and techniques are taught and different runs are shown. With time and more experiences, the members are practicing more and more on their own and trying their own moves. So it’s a free and independent training. At the end there is whether a strength training or a cool down within a circle. So the members benefit from the structured group elements but still have their freedom to practice what they want.

Check out this video of the weekly parkour training at the club...