Respek...

In my humble opinion, respect is the single most important characteristic a competent traceur should strive to set upon himself. Respecting others is critical to our survival not only as a practitioner of parkour, but as a person. We must respect our fellow man, not necessarily agree with him, or even understand him, but at least have compassion for him and be able to empathize with who he is and what he stands for.

Respecting your law and your law enforcement..

Majority of us, myself included, have trespassed from time to time in order to train, and while I am absolutely not condoning this type of behavior (personally, I believe trespassers are miscreants that deserve to be punished with the full extent of the law, i.e. with bear tazers), but if you happen to be training under these terrible conditions, and you happen to be caught in the act, please, for the sake of all that is parkour, do not run. You are not doing yourself, or the parkour community, any good if you flee the scene.

-You will most likely be pursued.

-You will most likely be caught. No matter how fast you think you are, you are not faster than a police radio. And once you have been caught, the repercussions will be exponentially fiercer than if you were to stay and at least attempt to talk yourself out of the predicament.

Basically you will be tarnishing the good name of parkour many of us have fought tooth and nail to preserve. We’re relatively new here, and we don’t need to be associated with vandals and “runners”. Our discipline may be heavily influenced by the thrill of the chase, but not at the expense of our reputation. First impressions are hard to break, especially bad ones. So if you just respect the law and the men and women in blue who enforce those laws you will be doing yourself and the parkour community a big favor.

Also note that I am using the term trespassing as training somewhere we may not be wanted. Most times common sense could be exercised to avoid potential problems.

Respect your fellow traceur.

The second we stop to examine ourselves and come to the conclusion that as a human being we are “good enough”, then we will cease to progress, we will cease to grow. I believe that everyone in this world has something they can learn from everyone regardless of experience, age, or gender. So don’t let your ego stand in the way of the opportunity to be nourished with the knowledge of those around you and to be inspired by their experiences.

Respect your environment.

I like to think that we are allowed to train by our community. The park benches, stairs, and railings we handle on a regular basis are not designed to be jumped from, crawled upon, or shimmied across- especially under the repetitive stress our discipline may call for. I can understand the community looking down on our practice, so that means the 90% of the time when passersby do not scold us for hopping to and fro, thay should be allotted our utmost respect by leaving our places of play cleaner than when we found them or even just a simple "hello" and a smile when a parkour muggle meanders by.

Respect yourself.

One of the biggest incivilities I have seen many wayward traceurs commit to their person is falling under the influence of peer pressure. The desire to impress those around us can set us off of our path. When we show off, we do not have our body's best interest in mind, instead we feel that we must please the crowd with death-defying leaps that can be traumatic for our anatomy.

Before we can respect others, we must come to terms with our own person. If we can’t understand our innermost feelings and motivations, and we can’t have concern for our own well being, then how can we expect to empathize with our fellow man’s feelings, motivations, and well being? This intrapersonal respect needs to encompass both our physical and mental self.

I hope you can be enlightened by my thoughts about the quality of respect and the importance it could, and should play in our roles as a traceur and as a person.