Free running stars Ryan Doyle and Tim Shieff dropped in to Red Bull's London office ahead of the Red Bull Art of Motion event which comes to the British capital for the first time next month. We took the opportunity to have a chat with two of the world's foremost exponents of the art of moving through a city in an interesting way.
Ryan is a former winner of Red Bull Art of Motion, while Tim is world free running champion, so who better to talk to about the burgeoning UK parkour scene?
What’s the free running scene like in the UK?
Tim: Probably the strongest anywhere in the world I would say.
Ryan: The UK is the parkour capital of the world. Maybe France comes close, but they kind of kept it to themselves in France, whereas there are schools and classes here in the UK, so it’s spread here much quicker.
The most recent Red Bull Art of Motion event was in the USA and both of you have spent time over there. How is the scene in the US compared to here?
T: They’re a few years behind in America. The mindset isn’t there. It’s more of an immature scene at the moment.
R: It’s spreading there quickly, but they're probably 10 years behind the UK.
T: The UK’s the Mecca of the free running scene. Everyone wants to come here to train. If you could choose anywhere, you’d choose London.
'The UK is the parkour capital of the world' – Ryan Doyle
And now Red Bull Art of Motion is coming to London.
T: The time is right now to bring the event to London I think.
R: Yes, it was held in Vienna, Austria initially and now it’s ready to come to the UK, which is great for parkour.
Is there any competitiveness between the event participants?
T: No, not at all. I’m not in it to win.
R: You should see the atmosphere between all the guys. They’re made up to be around each other. Everyone has the same attitude and energy levels and it’s just…fun. They don’t really care who wins in the end.
T: I just do what I do on the course and if the judges feel that it’s worth more than others then that’s their opinion, but at the end of the day, it won’t affect my training or confidence levels even if I come last.
R: We don’t see it as a competition. We see it as an exhibition of different styles – everyone brings their own style to the table. There has to be a winner, but the way that the judges select that winner is down to whose style is best suited to that particular course. You change the course, you get a different winner. That’s why free running is an art, not a sport. If everyone had the same style it would be pretty boring.
What are the main differences between your styles?
R: I come from a martial arts background and Tim’s from a breakdancing background.
T: One of the things I do is a one handed handstand and that all stemmed from the breakdancing training. It’s something that separates me from other people, but it doesn’t dictate who I am. I don’t prefer that style, it’s just an ability that I have.
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What else, apart from Art of Motion, have you got planned for 2011?
T: I’m currently doing a YouTube series that features other athletes from the UK, which we’ve done one episode of so far. I’ve had over nine million hits on YouTube in total. What are you on Ryan? Three? [laughs]
R: Three, yeah. I’m doing a project called Back in Time which involves me going to the ancient pyramids, plus Mexico and Turkey. We both went to America and did a TV series out there last summer for MTV – The Ultimate Parkour Challenge. It hasn’t come to the UK yet for some reason.
T: I’ve been told it’s definitely coming.
R: I also did Free Running The Movie in America, which is coming out in April in cinemas apparently. It’s interesting to see what the Americans are capable of doing in terms of taking the sport to that level.
T: The other issue with that is that as soon as money starts getting involved, some people will say ‘wait, I’m not in it for the money’.
R: Yeah, the community splits and it becomes the people that are trained to do it because they love to do it and those that start to train for the money reason only.
T: You can still be involved in stuff. The only way to keep it legit is if you just walk away from it and say ‘no I’m not involved in this’, then you’re only going to get negative people wanting to compete in it. If we said ‘we’re not going to do this show and that show’, then you’d breed a culture where people in it purely for the money end up on TV sending the wrong message out there.
R: We get criticised for doing TV sometimes, but every chance we get, we try and send the right message out via the media. You can tell by our attitude in the show that we’re not bothered about the winner. We’re just there to have fun. It’s like music in a way. You can’t say ‘what’s the best song in the world’ because it’s subjective and that’s what parkour is as well.
'There is no difference between parkour and free running' – Tim Shieff
Many people seem to get confused about the difference between parkour and free running. Can you guys clear it up once and for all?
T: There is no difference. At the end of the day, we all train in the same environments and with the same movements. It doesn’t matter what you call it.
R: People say that parkour is efficient movements and free running is creative movements. But I say that both are the same thing. Free running is just a part of parkour training. You can’t be efficient if you haven’t explored what the body is capable of and that exploring process is what free running is – trying things and being creative. And when it comes to it that you need to be efficient, you can choose which moves work for you. Not because somebody told you this was the most efficient way, but because you’ve explored how your body works.
How big do you think free running can get?
T: When I was about 11 or 12 skateboarding was the thing and I got all the gear, but nowadays the kids are seeing skateboarding then they’re seeing free running and thinking ‘I don’t have to buy a skateboard and spend any money when I can do free running'. They’ve got trainers already and so for the next five years you’ve got lots of kids that would have gone into skateboarding or BMX, who are now coming into free running, so it can only get bigger.
R: As far as I’m concerned, the movements that I do are still not that advanced. You see monkeys swinging from tree to tree and they just do it all on instinct. So what can the human body do if it hasn’t been suppressed by society?
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