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Arvind: Hi, I'm Arvind, 21 years old, and that's all. Google me mate.
Dawid: Hi, my name is Dawid, I'm 23 years old and I'm just doing everything: work, study and AFA Parkour.
How long has there been Parkour in Warsaw?
Dawid: The first group had four persons: me, Fabian, Daniel and Piast and we started training in 2001, so this was six years ago. I think we were the first group doing parkour in Poland.
And how many people do train here in Warsaw regularly right now?
Arvind: I'm not sure but I think 've got about 60 people attending our academy classes. We have two intern boards so I think there are at least 10.000 people training, (laughs) well at least in the internet and I guess that there is more and more of us every single day.
What do you think how new trends in Parkour get into Warsaw?
Arvind: I think we mainly get things from movies but also from the other people. You see obstacles and think: "What can I do, what is possible with my body?". But Parkour is not about how many technics you know, it's just about how good you are on a specific technic so you can use it while running. It's important to be efficient, not to know many freaky moves.
Do you think there is an active exchange inside Europe?
Arvind: There are some gatherings where people from Poland meet. Some of us are going to France, too, to train in Lisses.
What are the special conditions for Parkour in Warsaw?
Arvind: We have the AFA and this one "school" (place called "szolc"), with many brick obstacles where people meet regularly. But Warsaw is different than Paris, it's difficult to find places like the ones which you see in David Belle movies, good thing is that longer you train, more things you see.
Dawid: The multikino metro station also offers places and the whole Ursynow (Red: Concrete-style neighbourhood in Warsaw) offers something. But we don't look for specific places to train, we just train everywhere.
Arvind: I think that when thinking about differences you have to consider possibilites you have in specific place. For example, if you've got a lot of rails you will possibily train there. But we are always trying to find different places. If our city offers us rails and roofs, we will use both.
Dawid: People in Warsaw are a lot better informed about Parkour, they can just go to France and talk to the people there. Important people are also coming here and give us instructions. As for us, we thought that what we were tranining for four years is parkour but it turned out when French guys came that we were wrong and we started to see parkour in a very different way.
Arvind: Of course there are other cities where there is good Parkour but Warsaw is the centre. And, of course, we have Adidas Flow Academy. There is a lot of great tracers/freerunners in Lodz, Krakow, Minsk, Sosnowiec etc. These are cities from witch you can find a lot of movies on youtube. Check it!
Please explain what AFA is.
Arvind: That is something new in Poland.
Dawid: We have one place where you can train from the beginning onto an advanced level.
Arvind: The obstacles were specially made for this training.
Dawid: They were designed by us with Adidas and Polska creative. The most important is that people don't have to pay.
Arvind: And we are not getting paid either.
So why do you do Parkour, what does it give to you?
Dawid: Freedom.
Arvind: It just changes everything you see. When I go to work in my suit, I see possibilites and I just think: "I want to jump...". Once you start training you will never look at the city the same way you did before. For example over there some people can see roofs, we see steps. And when you see stunts in movies people think "Wow, he must have had a lot of ropes" and you just think "I could do that, let's try it". Also, it gives me a lot of self-discipline. You know that you can get better, like in every other part of the life.
Dawid: The most important thing in Parkour is that you get better than yourself, not better than others.
Arvind: It's you against you. There is no possibiliy to compete with other people, it wouldn't be fair. It's not like in Olympics, you don't have to be the first. That is also great for young people. When they are small they don't think about selfdevelopement and future stuff but Parkour makes them open their eyes and see that it's good to get better and they start to work on themselves… that's just great man..It makes people want to be a better person.
Arvind: As we said there is no competition and also Parkour is not totally physical, it is also a mental thing. You have to understand why you can't do something that you honestly know - you could do. It is a difference if you jump on our soft boxes or if you do it five meters above.
Dawid: So you have to pass your mental barrier, not just the physical one. Many people come to AFA, have the body skills but just aren't able to do some obstacles because they are blocked. They don't know why, they just can't.
Oh well, I think I experienced that when you trained me.
Arvind: Yeah (laughs). And in Parkour you have to focus to the goal. You never know where and when you'll have to jump. You can't just use all the energy on every move, you have to safe backup energy in case something happens like if you run together and your friend is hurt, you'll need strength to take him to a hospital.
Where do you see problems for Parkour?
Arvind: There is a big problem with people who don't think and don't know their limits, so they hurt themselves
And what about competition?
Arvind: Once there was a big company that wanted to do competition but fortunately we did not allow them to do that. We got them to organize a training. Another problem we had was with people confusing Parkour with Free Running. There was a guy who died doing tricks some weeks ago, he didn't do Parkour but as he said he did everybody blamed Parkour.
Arvind: Well, people don't have to pay and we don't get paid. So they don't tell us what to do and then give us any money. They are not paying us for things we don't want to do.
Dawid: And it's not bad, AFA is giving new people the first and only opportunity to train professionally. They can try, break the mental barrier and lear Parkour from the basics. It's great.
Arvind: We aren't selling ourselves. It's just advertisement for them.
How do you see the future of Parkour in Warsaw?
Arvind: There will be more and more people doing Parkour.
Dawid: Society will be informed better about Parkour, there will be more understanding. People won't think we are breaking something. If you don't know
something you will be afraid of it.
So that's all, anything to add?
Arvind: Yeah, you should train more, man.
You are definitely right... Thank you!
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