Facility

Classes are held at 1855 Crossfit studio. 1523 Laperriere Ave, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7T1

Crashmats, foam-block platforms, a bouncy air-track, a modular climbing wall (not rock climbing, think warped wall but not warped), and practice railings. The goal is to master our skills with safety as the priority.

Class Types:

Standard Class
  A 12 or 13 week semester on the foundational techniques. Students will learn vaulting, climbing, flips and rolls. This session is intended to be repeated by students several times: Your foundations can never be too strong, and advanced modifications are taught for students who have completed basic versions of the moves. These are offered in two age groups, kids (7-12), and teen+ (13+).

Advanced Class

For students who have mastered the material in the standard classes, (this takes somewhere between 2 to 6 sessions, usually, so don't be discouraged if a single pass doesn't result in mastery) the advanced class offers a completely different 13-week session on Advanced techniques. While some attention is still payed to the functional chase-moves of Parkour, the advanced classes focus mostly on exotic flips and off-axis twists. Practitioners must have completed one session of standard classes, and be able to front flip, and back flip (off a  block or with the aid of an air track), as well as double-kong before enrolling in this class.

ADV:L2

This is for my tippy-top students who have burned through the advanced material and need to be given even greater challenges. These classes will focus on linking advanced-class moves together, doing new even crazier moves, and getting our moves ready for outdoor surfaces. You know if you’re ready for this class, but if there’s any uncertainty, just ask me.

Open Training

This is unstructured training time. No lesson, just the coach and the equipment. I can spot flips and I’ll give everyone my coaching on how to improve the moves they’re working on, but I wont tell you what to work on or when to switch. You can drop into this class, but it’s 10 students max, so if it’s full you’re out of luck. To avoid this, sign up in advance using the register link at the top of the site.

What is Freerunning? Is it Parkour? 

Parkour is the martial art of the chase. It was originally developed by a former member of the french military, and then codified and further developed by his son, David Belle. Practitioners learn the fastest, safest, and most energy efficient movess to traverse obstacles, as well as learning to spot the opportunities to use those techniques to escape danger. Not "just" a critical self defense skill for escaping attackers that may outnumber you or be armed, parkour also allows a practitioner to escape other emergency situations, like fires.

Parkour is often confused with freerunning, which is a sport combining movements from multiple disciplines (gymnastics, parkour, martial-arts, and break-dancing) with the goal of expression and enjoyment through the art of motion. Parkour, technically, is exclusively those movements which are functional. Over the years, however, the two terms have become interchangable for the general public and the majority of practitioners. OttawaParkour is technically a freerunning school then, since acrobatic flips and other artistic maneuvers are are taught as a supplementation on a strong foundation of parkour.