Ethics of Training

This is intended to be a rough guide to training in Cambridge, and for that matter, anywhere else you decide to train:

1) Respect people:
Parkour is a fairly misunderstood activity, and by the very nature of it, people can misinterpret it in certain negative ways. Try and be very calm and straightforward with people, try not to argue with anyone. It is for the most part best not to train in front of many members of the public, and training in quieter areaas means that you can practice how you want. Remember the parkour is not for show, so there is no reason that you should train in front of others.
If a security guard or someone who owns the property you are training on asks you to leave, just be very polite and say of course. Do NOT get into arguments with these people as it can ruin it for any other practicioners who were not involved, be as favourable as you can be with the company or person there, this way you have more chance of training again there in the future. There are many security guards or people who will have a really bad attitude and swear at you to leave etc, but just ignore what they say, pick up your things and leave quietly, dont let them remember you as a hooligan who shouted back. If you also injure yourself on someone elses property, drag yourself off and dont get them involved, they dont owe you anything, so make sure you are careful and dont try to sue or cast blames. You are the one who is on their property, and you are using it for something it was not meant for.

2) Respect the environment
When moving, a traceur should go unnoticed. Leave the places you train at in the same condition you arrived at. Do NOT litter or break anything, and even if you arrive at a spot with litter, make an effort to put some away. As a tracuer, you need to look after the places where you train, so be proactive in making sure you do not tarnish anywhere, especially if you are training in nature. Be respectful towards the environment, do your part for it as in around 50-100 years, its really going to be a much worse place to live thanks to the mark the human race is leaving with its pollution and resource expenditure.

3) Train for yourself
When training, you should be doing it for yourself. Parkour is not about competition or comparing yourself to others, the only competition is against yourself. Don't compare yourself to what others can do, and don't think you ought to try something that you maybe saw someone else do unless you have the training and experience to back it. Each person has their own path, follow yours and develop for yourself. Learn what you want to learn, and train what you want to train. Maybe you have painful knees one day and eveyone else you are with is practicing things with impact such as jumps. Think of yourself and say, "maybe i will do stretching or conditioning today" and set yourself some targets. Train for yourself.

4) Be helpful
Remember that as someone who trains parkour, you are priviliged. More than 2/3rds of the world will be struggling for another day to live, many people are unable to practice for many reasons, so remember and appreciate that we are extremely lucky to be able to practice this. As such, be helpful to those that need it. Teach a little that you know to someone who is interested or help someone to carry something if they are struggling, just be aware of other people around you. "Etre fort pour etre utile", "be strong to be useful".

5) Train hard and quiet
Train hard each session, and train quietly. Do not shout, do not be loud, do not be a disturbance. Try and do something new with each session, even if it is one more pullup repetition. Try to feel your progression, so train hard. Make sure you train the basics very, very, very hard and often. Work on small jumps, strength, balance to reinforce your co-ordination, awareness, and your physical condition so that you can do bigger things without injury. Do not constantly put demands on your joints by doing big jumps and drops, train the small things much and often so that your body becomes strong to do the bigger things. Train your techniques over, over, and over. Lay your foundations then build up from there, with bad foundations you can easily injure yourself or worse. So repeat multiplied by 100000000000000000000000.

TCT - The Cambridge Traceurs