about USPK
Our Mission & Vision
The United States Parkour Association (USPK) is the National Governing Body for Parkour, Freerunning and L’Art du Deplacement. Our mission is to represent parkour in the United States by serving YOU: the parkour practitioners, professional athletes, business owners, organization leaders, and enthusiasts. We are here to elevate your training, hear your voice, strengthen your community and keep you safe. We aim to raise awareness to the general public, protect the integrity of the sport and represent the US parkour community at large. As a non-profit organization formed by members of the parkour community, we are committed to running on principles of good governance with full transparency driven by accountability to the community.
View our Strategic Plan for more information.
What is Parkour?
- USPK defines parkour as ‘a physical movement discipline in which practitioners train their bodies to overcome both physical and mental obstacles in a variety of environments either in general for recreation or in competitive sport parkour. Practitioners train to develop adaptability, creativity, and grit while responsibly assessing risks and striving to complete challenges.’
2. Parkour at its root is traditionally practiced outdoors in a variety of environments. In the U.S. this has led to unique challenges because of a relatively litigious society and U.S. laws around private property, trespassing, and public space. This means insurance plays an outsized role in the parkour community in the US compared to our international counterparts. In response, the US parkour community has more gyms than any other nation to avoid suit over injury, trespassing, etc. This has also had a unique impact on how parkour athletes train in the US, allowing for modular possibilities and shaping the competition space, which has mostly been conducted in indoor gyms to date. Parkour, like surfing, skateboarding, and many other action sports is primarily recreational, but has and is developing avenues for competition. However, in its original philosophy parkour is a competition with one’s self, aiming to expand personal limitations.
What is USPK?
The United States Parkour Association (USPK) is the National Governing Body for Parkour, Freerunning and L’Art du Deplacement in the USA. It is a non-profit organization formed by members of the parkour community, committed to growing and protecting the discipline of parkour through events, education, and outreach. Learn more about governance.
A 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2018, USPK works to bring together all of those involved in our practice: practitioners, students, parents of students, professional athletes, business owners, community leaders,and general enthusiasts.