What is Parkour?

An Interview with Jimmy Davidson, the Founder of Murrieta's Freedom in Motion Parkour Gym

I had a chance to conduct a live interview with the CEO and founder of Freedom in Motion Parkour Gym. It was great to hear how his gym all started and why parkour is something he is passionate about. He also has a great way of explaining what parkour is for those of us who aren't quite sure. Check out these clips from our interview as he answers some of the questions I felt the readers in our area might have for him. The full interview has been uploaded to Macaroni KID's new Youtube channel below! Make sure to check it out!

Arielle: "What is Parkour (in your own words)?".

Arielle: "What makes you passionate about parkour? Why is this an interest of yours?"

Jimmy: "It started with a video game that my friends and I played the summer between 8th grade and 9th grades, where the characters did parkour moves." "It was cool to see what we were trying to do based on the game. We just tried it a couple times and eventually did it. And this was a really fun, self guided, 'I can do it' feeling especially when we were just at a school at this park. Realizing that you can do this anywhere was fun".

"That was the first part of it and as we looked up videos and learned what the actual word, 'parkour' is since the video game didn't say, 'parkour', we eventually found it on Youtube. We found all these different movements and kinda nobody knew what they were doing since this was back in 2006. So, you got to kinda make up your own stuff and share your progress on Youtube since Facebook was barely popular at that point. It was just fun going out and learning this new stuff and constantly having these challenges that were scary and technically difficult at first but then, with just a little bit of practice, all of the sudden you have the confidence and skill to do it safely. I haven't ever really experienced that in a sport before and I've played lots and lots of sports. That was the first time where I felt ownership over the sport and ownership over my progress in it and genuinely had a great time and continue to do so to this day."

How Jimmy's Parkour Journey Started Taking Shape
I had read that Jimmy was part of a parkour club at his local high school right here in Temecula and asked Jimmy if he had a part in starting this club. He told me he wasn't and it was actually a coincidence that someone in his school decided to start the parkour club which he and his friends joined. It became a very large club at his high school with at least 100 students being a part of it. Jimmy and his friends were able to learn more about parkour from others they met through this club which helped them to continue to develop their skills and love for the sport. Parkour clubs also started popping up at other local high schools in both Temecula and Murrieta. Once Jimmy left high school, he tried to mentor students that came after him to continue to run the club but unfortunately, due to school district rules, it was unable to continue to be a club allowed to run under the school district. This actually made Jimmy realize there was a need for a place in the area for kids to go to be able to practice their parkour skills safely and with someone who can coach and mentor them.

After attempts to put together an outdoor parkour park within the city were unsuccessful, he decided to open his own gym in the area. The Murrieta Freedom in Motion Parkour gym is the first gym Jimmy Davidson opened and he now has one in Loma Linda and another that will be opening soon in Riverside.

Did you know that there are parkour competitions? Freedom in Motion was actually one of the first parkour gyms in California to offer parkour competitions so the competition season actually starts with their Murrieta location. Competitions start in January and run until around June.