USPK Diversity In Parkour

UNITED STATES PARKOUR ASSOCIATION

USPK’s Year in Review: 2021

2022 FEBRUARY 5 –

In a year that inherited the tragedies of the initial COVID outbreaks, 2021 was destined to be a year of rebuilding for the entire US, not just the parkour community, which suffered its own losses via gym closures, cancellations of events/competitions, and much more. As a result, this past year people looked inward to evaluate their own happiness in their life, their work, and the people they surrounded themselves with.

The same was true for us at USPK. We took a hard look inward during 2021 and realized there were some foundational building blocks that needed prioritization and took efforts to remedy them. It meant some difficult conversations about our own philosophies around parkour and prioritizing what we believe is the future of the sport. It meant taking a hard look at identifying our own shortcomings in order to fix them properly. It meant less outside communication with the parkour community and less time spent on passion projects that initially drew us to USPK.

But we’re proud to say that all of it was worth it and we feel confident in sharing our vision for the future with everyone in 2022. It might be cliche to say, but it really will be a new USPK going into the new year with a full growth mindset.

A good amount of our time was spent hashing out not just plans for 2022, but crystallizing longer term strategies (10 year, 3 year, 1 year, etc.) using a process called the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to align our goals across our board. In addition, we did plenty of in-house cleaning of our own data, systems used, and operating procedures. Other highlights include:

  • Onboarded several new board members (full post coming soon!). 
  • Brought on additional volunteers for our IT staff and Communications branches.
  • Partnered with World Chase Tag (you might’ve seen the USPK logo on the WCT Quad on ESPN during the US 2021 Championships held in Ohio). 
  • Joined the Association for Chief Executives of Sport (ACES), a collective of executive leadership from US sporting national governing bodies, which allowed us to learn from the experience of organizations such as USA Skateboarding, USA Climbing, US Youth Soccer, etc. 
  • Began talks to unite several existing parkour competitive leagues toward forming a US national competition. 
  • Put out a number of public resources designed to provide some basic guidelines for running competitions (Competition Rulebook, COVID competition considerations).

In 2022, you can expect some big changes from us in the form of our website (LOTS of updates to catch up on), our membership options (and the benefits included), and our transparency about our vision. Keep a lookout for a USPK US national parkour championship toward the end of the year. And most importantly, expect to hear more regularly from us! The number one feedback from the parkour community is “USPK sounds like they have good intentions but what are you guys actually doing?” We hear you, and we’ll do a better job of sharing our vision with everyone, because what we do is meaningless if you’re not along for the ride with us!

United We Move,

Adam Kozy
USPK Executive Director