Parkour is, in my mind, a sort of martial art. Instead of learning how to punch, and kick your opponent, it teaches you how to run away, quickly and fluently. It looks like a ton of show offs, trying to get oos and ahhs, however it is nearly the opposite. It is true that Parkour takes quite a bit of skill, and talent, but you don't start off climbing 11 foot walls. This is where Revolution Parkour comes in - they give you the tools you need to get up that wall (actually they supply the wall too), and they make sure you do it safely. Yes it's a wall. It's a solid wall like I have in my house, however, if you try running at that wall at 10 miles per hour and you don't put your foot high enough, your going to hit your face.

I recently did an internship at Revolution Parkour on February 8th and February 11th. I became interested in Parkour, or more specifically in owning a gym, since last summer. I became interested in Parkour ever since I first heard about it.

I became interested in Parkour when I found out that Scott, who is now my step-dad owned a gym, a Crossfit. Crossfits are all over, but in 2004 there were none in Portland, and none in Oregon. His Crossfit started out in a kung fu martial arts studio. I went there a few times while my mom and Scott were dating, and I eventually did Kung Fu there. My mom told me about Parkour then, and said that many people trained Martial Arts and Parkour. I was immediately interested, but didn't start doing it until late March of lastyear, when I was in the 7th grade.

When I first got to my internship at 4:00 I can imagine I looked like an anime squirrel. Big, bright eyes, hopeful, and a little nervous.Then I heard the words "For your first job, your going to wipe the windows." I then wiped the windows when I finished, I started accounts for people who were going to start there. Then I signed people into the six o'clock class. That was internship number one.

Internship day number two was much more eventful. To start, I watched Brandon Latocki teach a class. It was a footwork/precision course and I watched Brandon teach a class that I had already taken. He started with warming up, then showed them through the course. It looked really fun. Then I was going to video the six o'clock class but a student didn't want to be video taped, so that fell through. I just got to do Parkour Fit, and that was really fun.

After watching Brandon teach I learned that you need to have an idea in your head before you teach. That was my internship at Revolution Parkour, it was incredibly fun, and I would encourage who ever is reading this to try and set up an internship.

By Jobe Miller, for his school updated 6:24 PM PST, Monday May 24, 2013