Hello people of the Steems! My name is Max, I'm 22 years old, live in the Netherlands and LOVE parkour, traveling, adventure and… computers! In this article I’m going to try to explain why I do the things I do.

Photo by Sandra Peerenboom

Parkour

This is the ‘sport’ I do. You probably have seen it in movies, people jumping over stuff, it’s my favourite thing to do. These are the things in parkour I like:

Progression

Progression is something everybody likes, the better you get at something, the more fun it becomes. In parkour, progression is becoming more ‘able’. Able to overcome any obstacle in any situation. Able to precisely know what distance you can jump. Able to overcome mental blocks by being confident and being sure you CAN make it. Able to know which surfaces have grip and which ones are slippery.
Parkour progression for me is becoming completely free in movement. Being able to do anything you can think of. Also mental progression has a good part in parkour, thinking rationally and trying to keep all emotions out when you need to do something really difficult. That has made me a much more confident person.

Photo by Robin van Spijk

Creativity

In parkour you’re always thinking of new stuff to do. There are many ways to overcome obstacles, the fun part is that you can make it really easy or difficult for yourself. The easy way is when you run at full speed, try to maintain your speed and overcome the obstacle in the most efficient way. The hard way is when you make movements that are illogical and inefficient, you do this to master every kind of awkward situation.
Don’t get me wrong: the easy and the hard way take the same amount of effort to master. You’ll have to perfect every little piece of movement to be as fluent as possible and that takes loads of time.
I love to keep coming up with new things to do, you need to be quite creative when you train a lot, because by doing new stuff you’ll progress much faster.

This is me doing jumps :-)

Health

Parkour is a great way for me to clear my mind and an awesome way to stay fit. Being outside makes me feel good, and training makes me feel strong! Feeling good is healthy!

Understanding movement

I love to solve problems. By understanding your movement you’ll be able to easily come up with ways to reach the ability you’re going for. When you can’t make a jump, there’s always little pieces of technique to look back on. I think of what I want to accomplish and in what way it should be done. After that I compare this ideal to what my body is actually doing, and try to think of what holds me back from accomplishing it.

Example: With big jumps, you sometimes only focus on your speed because you HAVE to make it. You try and try, but you can’t do it. When you think about what you’re actually doing, and compare it to perfect technique, you’ll notice that you forgot that you have to jump in the right angle. You try it another time and just by thinking about the angle of the jump while jumping, you made it!

Community

The community is one of the best things! Everyone is soooo nice! When you travel to a place to train, there’s always people who want to show you around and train with you. They offer you their house if you need a place to sleep, even though you’ve never met the person before. By having the same passion and mindset you know you can trust each other. I’ve trained with many people, and with meeting someone new you’re best friends within half an hour. Then you won’t see each other because you live far away, but when you meet again, you’re on the same level of friendship instantly. I think it’s beautiful how open everyone is to each other!

Jams

A jam is a big meetup. All freerunners and traceurs come together to train with each other. This is a photo of Gravity 2016, held in Amsterdam, organized by Back2Basics Parkour. Traceurs from all over the country came to Amsterdam for that day!

Photo by Back2Basics Parkour
I try to attend as many jams as possible. Since I travel through the country a lot to train with different people, I know so many of these monkeys. On a jam you get to train with all the friends you’ve missed, all together as a big family!

Adventure

Most of the good memories I have are from adventures and travels. While exploring new places I’m always very excited! New places == new experiences. When I’m on adventure, I feel completely free and just looking around makes me happy. I can’t really explain what adventure is to me, you should get out and go yourself, even if it’s only for the weekends.

Photo by Robin van Spijk

Computers

When I’m at home, I always sit behind that big calculator. The internet is awesome! There’s so much knowledge to find, and so much to learn! When I was around 12 my father gave me a book about HTML, I tried it out and I really liked it. After learning that, I moved on to learning CSS. I loved creating things on that beasty old white-yellowish machine, and the only tool you need is a computer! I remember downloading all kinds of crap, just to try it out. I remember the countless amount of trojans and viruses I’ve downloaded, just to figure out what they do and clean it up afterwards.
Now I’m 22 years old, and still not bored behind the Personal College. My knowledge is broad, and always expanding whenever I’m connected to the information highway.
I love problem solving, and that’s the thing you do most when programming.
I don’t know what else to say about this mighty invention, for me it’s the best way to learn new stuff. School is overrated, everyone should have a computer.... Oh wait…
Never mind

But why do you do the things you do?

Because I think that having fun is important! And these are the things that bring me the most!

Me when I was a young, I love Photoshop!

Thanks for reading <3