What lessons can we learn about personal growth, community building, and training innovation through parkour?

Craig sits down to interview Ville Leppanen, a lifelong learner and member of the Finnish Parkour community. Ville discusses how he uses different tools in his coaching, how to work smarter instead of harder, and how he uses interval training to help him in parkour. Finally, Ville touches on how his coaching has evolved over the years and how his teaching has helped him learn things about himself.

“For me, the process is, ‘okay, I have this idea and… I have no idea…’ Is it any good? Will it work? Will it be interesting? But what the hell, let’s give it a go!” ~ Ville Leppanen (4:00)

The conversation highlights Ville Leppanen’s innovative approach to coaching, focusing on using tools, questions, and unconventional methods to inspire curiosity and adaptability in training. Ville shares his perspective on integrating scientific principles into parkour, aiming to combine rigorous research with the sport’s creative essence. Discussions also touch on interval training strategies for maximizing physical performance while balancing intensity and recovery.

The dialogue explores the Finnish parkour community’s cohesiveness, influenced by cultural tendencies toward collaboration and organization. Ville reflects on how confrontation and cultural differences affect community dynamics. He emphasizes the value of stepping outside the parkour bubble by exploring other disciplines, fostering a holistic movement practice, and gaining new insights to improve coaching and community-building efforts.

Takeaways

Ville’s philosophy on tools — Using simple objects in creative ways enhances learning and training processes.

Interval training — Tailoring work-rest cycles to optimize endurance and intensity in parkour practice.

Finnish parkour community — Unified by collaboration and early organization, reflecting Finnish cultural traits.

Confrontation avoidance — Addressing how cultural norms shape community interactions and growth.

Questions as tools — Facilitating personal and student growth by fostering curiosity rather than providing answers.

Exploring diverse disciplines — Engaging with other activities enriches perspectives and enhances movement skills.

Long-term physical goals — Prioritizing sustainable, playful training to ensure lifelong movement capability.

Family classes in parkour — A Finnish innovation promoting intergenerational bonding through shared movement experiences.

Resources

American Rendezvous — A well-organized parkour event Ville attended, noted for its professionalism.

Supreme Parkour Armageddon — An annual Finnish parkour event known for its evolving, humorous naming tradition.

Parkour Generations — Features coaching and events that Ville mentioned as impactful early in his training.

Sisu — A Finnish concept of perseverance and resilience, central to Ville’s outlook.

(Written with help from Chat-GPT.)

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— Hello👋 I’m Craig Constantine.

In the Movers Mindset podcast, I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it. I’m interested in the nature and philosophy of movement and in exploring themes like independence, self-direction, and human excellence. My interests color each conversation and provide some structure to Movers Mindset. But since I like to take the scenic route, every conversation ends up going somewhere unique.

The purpose of Movers Mindset is to create and share great conversations with movement enthusiasts. Each conversation feeds my insatiable curiosity, but I share them to turn on a light for someone else, to inspire them, or to give them their next question.

I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.

— Thank you!

My personal mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. And Movers Mindset is one of the things I do in service of my mission. Drop by https://craigconstantine.com/ for my weekly email, my other podcasts, writing and more.

The Movers Mindset project grew from conversations I started having as part of my personal journey rediscovering movement. The project started late in 2015, and it was initially simply a web site that shared others’ writing. The project grew, and in 2017 I started the podcast. I’ve worked extremely hard, but none of this would have been possible without so much help from so many people.

Thanks for listening!

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