To begin, I would like to apologize for the complete lack of communication this past summer. I told many students and families I would keep everyone updated and that I would plan outdoor classes this summer, and I failed. Emails came in, phone messages were left, and I didn’t respond to nearly anything. I never knew what to say. I couldn’t make any promises because it was all completely out of my hands. Not a single week was the same. Between the irregular schedule of camp work and children, the summer of 2022 was busier than I could have ever imagined. My wife and I ended up working a combined 60 to 80 hours most weeks. We were busy with horsemanship, farming hay, fixing boats, driving tractors, building fires, leading hayrides, and fixing an innumerable amount of sinks and toilets!
Parkour classes at the Mukwonago YMCA and East Troy Bible Church started up again in early September and as strange of a transition away from parkour at the beginning of summer it was equally strange jumping back into it in September. I have always maintained a strong level of authenticity with parkour, and to return to classes after having spent the summer as a maintenance worker felt disingenuous. To put on the baggy sweats and barefoot shoes made me feel a bit like an imposter. To have had so much enjoyment from a summer doing something other than parkour caused me to feel like a traitor. I always knew there would be an end to my parkour career, but I’m not ready to give it up yet. Not having the gym where students can advance makes the current classes seem like they are going nowhere. Innumerable students over so many years looked to me for so much, and now I hate the feeling that I have just disappeared. “You don’t know how much of an impact you have on these kids,” was what a parent said to me recently. I know it, and I love it, and I hate that it’s been in a state of abandonment.
At the time of this blog post, I am very uncertain about the future of parkour classes as Axiom Parkour. Because of the company and website I continue to be contacted with questions of birthday parties, future classes, expanding locations, and familiar stories of sports that have failed children and that parkour is their last resort. It breaks my heart and I have no acceptable response. The times that used to be filled with hope and excitement for new students are now lost to disappointment as I can’t offer what I once did.
In the last days of the parkour gym, Etre Fort (a clothing company) announced they were no longer going to make their baggy sweatpants anymore, so as a little celebration of the times at the gym I bought some as a way to reassure myself that it was not the end. Recently, the company announced that they will be closing down completely and now I question if it really is the end.
In order for there to be an end to this rambling, we’ll finish with the facts.
1) God has given me an incredible ability to practice parkour and share it with others.
2) I have an entire gym’s worth of parkour equipment sitting in storage.
3) My parkour shoes still have lots of tread and my new pants have yet to be stained and torn.
4) I strive to submit to God’s will in all that I do, and so while I am prepared to continue with parkour, I am also prepared to be finished.
5) As long as I am able, I will jump, climb, and balance wherever I go.