News
2012-05-11 @ 15:53
Brian Scalabrine Commercial!
2012-05-11 @ 01:01
More Classes!
2012-05-07 @ 15:05
Spring Schedule!
2012-04-25 @ 09:27
Slim Jim Video
2012-04-15 @ 14:34
Grant Lechner Photoshoot
2012-04-14 @ 13:53
Parkour For Schools!
2012-04-05 @ 09:17
Closed Easter Weekend
2012-04-03 @ 10:34
04/02/2012 Clip of the Day
2012-04-01 @ 11:17
4/1/2012 Clips of the Day
2012-03-28 @ 22:00
3/28/2012 Clip of the Day
Affiliates
More Classes, Outdoors, and Northwest Indiana!
Great news! Outdoor classes are now being added to the schedule for Chicago AND Northwest Indiana! We're excited to get more classes going and we can't wait to start things up outdoors again! Outdoor classes in Chicago run at $15, and they're just $10 in Northwest Indiana. Keep an eye on our schedule - you should start to see more and more of the outdoor classes popping up for various locations around these areas. Check out the new schedule by clicking here!!
Read More Here
Read More Here
New Pricing Packages!
Along with our new schedule, we're launching a new set of packages for both our classes and open gyms. Check out these great new deals by clicking here!
Spring Schedule!
Check out our new schedule (and some new policies, too) on the classes page! The new schedule starts this Saturday (5/12/2012)!
Slim Jim Video
Last Wednesday we got to spend some time with Scott. He's the Sultan of Snap, the king of the Slim Jim community! We got to tell him what parkour is about and show him a few things. It was a lot of fun, check it out!
New Photos!
Check out these awesome new shots taken by Grant Lechner! There should be more to come soon!
Our Mission
Parkour Ways is an organization working to help people learn the discipline of movement known as parkour (a.k.a. freerunning, or L'art du déplacement). Our instructors have found many physical, mental and spiritual benefits in parkour and we hope to help others discover them as well. We don't just teach a catalog of movements - we provide you with the tools to turn this into a healthy lifestyle.
The aim of Parkour Ways is to show and teach people what parkour really is, helping our students to improve their bodies, minds, spirits, and lives. We also hope to simultaneously trump the misconceptions of the discipline.
What Is Parkour?
Click the video below to see Blaze in action, or click here to view it larger.
"Parkour (also referred to as l'Art du Deplacement or Freerunning) is an art of movement, a discipline that enables the practitioner to travel freely through and over any terrain he or she may encounter.
Parkour focuses on developing the fundamental attributes required for movement, which include balance, strength, dynamism, endurance, precision, spacial awareness and creative vision. It is a way of training one's body and mind in order to be as completely functional and effective as possible in the physical realm, and a way of thinking based on rigorous self-discipline, autonomous action and self-will.
Beyond this simple explanation, however, parkour is a discipline of self-improvement on all levels, an art that reveals to the practitioner his or her own physical and mental limits and simultaneously offers a method to surpass them."
Parkour Ways takes this definition straight from Parkour Generations, one of the world's best-known organizations created to spread parkour, comprised of some of the founders of the art.
As a result of the numerous names it has been given and the early assumptions made by spectators as they watched the founders in action (and more recent assumptions made as people discover videos on YouTube), many misconceptions have arisen about parkour. It is a discipline, a method of self-improvement. It is not an extreme sport, it is not recklessly throwing your body around, it is nothing like skateboarding, and it is not about competition or impressing others. You won't start out throwing flips and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. In fact, neither of those is even a requirement of parkour. It is about impressing yourself; a true practitioner of parkour is constantly trying to improve theirself in every facet of their life. It is about becoming a better person, finding respect for yourself, others, and your environment.
Parkour/Freerunning... What's The Difference?
This is a trick question. All the different names you hear or read for this discipline/art all point to the same thing: movement. No matter what you call it, we are all referring to some type of movement. Everyone will find their own reasons to move the way that they do, and not everyone's reasons for training will be the same. Some may decide not to train flips, others may decide to train mostly or only flips. Parkour, Freerunning, Art Du Déplacement - whatever label you choose to use, just make sure you keep moving, stay respectful, and stay safe!
Who Can Participate?
People of any background or experience can begin training parkour. It is common for many to think "I can't do that!" when they see it in YouTube videos, on TV, or in movies. Parkour is not about trying to do what others are doing, it is about developing yourself and becoming better in any way that you can. The minimum age requirement for our classes is 7 years. Classes are divided up by age on the schedule and can be found on the classes page here. There is no maximum age limit for any of our services.