Would an increase in popularity of Parkour be beneficial or detrimental to the philosophy and fundamentals of Parkour?

I think the major question isn’t whether an increase in popularity will help or hurt but rather how that increase in popularity happens. If Parkour started to become very popular based on the classes we’re running and how amazing Parkour is for engaging today’s youth and getting people to go outside and play then I think that would be fantastic But if Parkour keeps getting more popular based on crazy stunts in movies and bad YouTube videos then yes it could very well be detrimental to the discipline.

It’s really something that Parkour has struggled with ever since it came out of France with David Belle’s videos and the Jump documentaries. High level Parkour looks absolutely amazing to most people mostly because of how dangerous it seems. An outsider to the sport rarely gets to see what the beginner level learning process is like, and if they do it’s usually a bail video from some kids trying to imitate and learn from the crazy high level YouTube videos!

It’s my opinion that in the long term Parkour is going to become very popular and will enter the mainstream in some major way. How it’s represented and understood is going to depend mainly how it’s being taught and how well those teachers work with the communities and government agencies around them. In the long run those two things are going to be what matters, not how many movies, video games, or commercials have someone jumping around in them.

The greatest example of this I’ve seen comes from the Jump Westminster program in the UK where the city government is funding parkour classes for kids through Parkour Generations in order to lower the crime rate and engage inner city youth. The program has been a great success and has driven the adoption of Parkour to become an officially recognized sport in the UK which is expected to happen early this year.  Reverberations from Parkour Generations’ efforts have already hit France and helped Majestic Force get their government approved Art du Déplacement Academy in Evry. Reverberations here are part of why the Parkour Visions exists.

Exciting times.