American Parkour

08/21/2026

Alexis, a DCPS PE teacher, had never done parkour before this morning.

By 10:53 she was clearing the box. No hesitation, no stutter, just clean, confident movement.

That's the whole point. Parkour isn't a talent you either have or don't. It's a progression, and when you teach it as a progression, everybody moves.

This was a professional development day at Woodson HS. Teachers assembled the equipment, learned games, activities, and coaching tips, and left confident they can deliver this to their students.

We bring the curriculum, we bring the equipment, we train your staff on both, and you walk away with a unit that's ready to run on Monday.

It maps to SHAPE America National Standards. It fits your gym. It doesn't need anyone on staff to already be an expert.

Want this for your school? Link in bio, or DM us "PD" and we'll lock in a date.

07/13/2026

We are incredibly honored and grateful to receive this grant from RevUp ShenCo. Shenandoah County Economic Development.

We'll be using the grant to provide parkour programs for Shenandoah County Parks & Recreation, Signal K**b Middle School, and a parkour course setup for Woodstock Police Department's National Night out on August 4th.

06/09/2026

SHAPE Maryland featured our founder, Mark Toorock, in this month's board member spotlight.
Mark joined the board to help physical education make more room for movement that is playful, challenging, and worth doing for its own sake. APK has been proving parkour belongs in schools since 2005, and the board seat is one more way to do that work well across Maryland.
Thanks to SHAPE Maryland for the spotlight, and for what they do for PE across the state.

www.shapemd.org

05/26/2026

This is the part of parkour most people never see.

The first climb. The first balance. The first controlled landing. The first time a student looks at an obstacle, chooses a path, and moves through it with awareness.

That is parkour training.

At John Lewis Elementary, American Parkour delivered an hour-long special event for more than 100 DCPS students from PreK3 through 1st grade. Students practiced balance, crawling, climbing, stepping, spatial awareness, and problem-solving.

They built confidence through small, age-appropriate obstacles and movement challenges.

This is why parkour belongs in physical education.

Not stunts. Physical literacy. Taught through a structured movement discipline that is safe, inclusive, portable, and engaging for even the youngest students.

If your child's school or district is looking for PE, after-school, field day, or special event programming that gets students moving with purpose, reach out to us.

05/20/2026

We love Dom Tomato's latest video for Jaguar Racing. Do you think they took any cues from Levi's video for K-SWISS? (video in first comment)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYj69YwJx-2/?hl=en

05/12/2026

APK led a parkour session at Towson University's Spring Fling for graduating Physical Education majors, the people about to walk into their own gyms this fall.

This is something you can book for your students or teachers.

A PE teacher who has actually moved through a parkour progression, balanced on a beam, vaulted a box, watched a peer figure out a challenge they couldn't do five minutes ago, doesn't need a pitch or script on what parkour offers students. They've felt it.

Thanks to the Towson PE faculty- Donal Howley- for the invitation and to the students for the energy.

05/10/2026

The conversation around risky play is shifting — from "as safe as possible" to "as safe as necessary."

Here's where APK has always stood:

You can't learn risk management without "Risk" and "Management."

Risk has to be present, and the participant has to have the agency to navigate it. Add risk without the navigation and you've created a hazard. Remove the risk and you've removed the lesson.

You cannot teach someone to make good decisions by removing the obstacles.

Parkour teaches and enforces reliance on the practitioner, not the environment, for safety. That's a different conversation than the one most playgrounds are designed around.

05/09/2026

We love seeing people of all ages playing, exploring, and increasing their capabilities, and using public park spaces.

Wisconsin has the nation’s highest reported death rate from falls among older adults. But many falls can be prevented through balance drills and classes — from ballroom dancing to parkour — that bu…

04/28/2026

We recently spent time learning from leaders in adapted PE, and we came away with ideas that are already shaping how APK will strengthen future programs.

A few takeaways we’re bringing back:
Active inclusion matters. Adapted students should not be pushed to the sidelines or left in passive roles.
Progress is the win. Growth in understanding, confidence, and competency matters.
Communication support matters. We’re exploring more visual tools and clearer supports to help students express what they need.
Intentional inclusion matters. We want to keep improving how we support every student, including multilingual learners and students who need different pathways into participation.

We’re grateful to Maryland’s Adapted Physical Education Consortium and to the educators and presenters who shared their experience and pushed the conversation forward. Every time we learn more, we get better at creating movement experiences that meet students where they are.

If you work in schools, adapted PE, or youth programs and want to talk about inclusive movement programming, we’d love to connect.

04/21/2026

We had a great time at George Mason University working with future educators through a clear PE teaching lens.

After completing their mid-term prep, students took part in a hands-on parkour session designed not just to get them moving, but to help them think like teachers. Throughout the experience, we asked them to consider how principles like IREA and TPSR were showing up in real time.

That is a big part of why this work matters.

When future PE teachers can see teaching principles operating inside a movement experience, parkour becomes more than an activity. It becomes a practical instructional tool that can support engagement, inclusion, problem-solving, confidence, and physical literacy in school settings.

We also appreciated professor Risto Marttinen’s feedback that these teaching principles are applied well in APK’s curriculum and professional development.

That reinforces what we want schools and university partners to know: parkour can be taught safely, led professionally, and integrated meaningfully into PE and teacher development.

Contact us to book professional development for your teachers or students.