The Takeoff | A Parkour Podcast

This week, we are catching up with Lynn Jung ( @LynnJungAthlete ) - one of the most influential female athletes in the history of our sport and a lovely human being/friend. Lynn has recently stepped away from the athlete lifestyle to take on new challenges in athlete management and marketing, and I wanted to chat with her about her professional experiences - both in front of and behind the camera - and how she's seen the community grow over the past 15ish years, particularly in the realm of female competition and overall involvement. It was honestly so fun to just catch up with Lynn, so this one may feel a bit more casual than some other episodes, but I think we also dig into some very interesting shifts and new directions the sport appears to be going in that coaches and content creators may find particularly interesting. As always, thanks so much for watching and I hope you enjoy this episode! Lynn's Recommendations: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge

On this week's episode, I have Ihab Yassin (@little.parkour.hulk) on to chat about accessibility in parkour and his mission to help raise visibility for athletes with disabilities in the parkour community.Ihab has been training parkour in Germany for over a decade and achieved an incredibly high level. He also has dwarfism - and has used his platform to advocate for more education, accessibility, and understanding when it comes to disability within parkour.In this episode, we dive into how parkour has affected his life, concrete ways that the parkour community can continue to make the sport's narrative and education/competitive structures more welcoming for people with disabilities, and why visibility is so important in parkour - not just for athletes with disabilities but for everyone.As always thanks for watching and drop some love for Ihab in the comments! - Max

Today, we've got Denali Siruno ( @denali.siruno ) on to chat about style, aesthetics, expression, and how we define novelty and creativity in parkour. Denali has an insanely technical style that draws heavily from tricking and has competed in most major style comps, including SPL and KOTC. He is also known for being willing to share some good-natured hot takes online regarding style in parkour and how the concept of style in our sport is constantly being reassessed and pushed by the next generation. In this episode, I wanted to give him space to share his thoughts on what "style" in parkour even means - if anything - and how we can constructively judge, compare, and talk about it from his perspective. I definitely came away from this episode with some fresh thoughts on style comps, judging, and general expression in the parkour scene. Curious to hear if y'all do as well! - Max

After a short hiatus, we’re back with a big one - a brief (ish) dive into parkour’s history with Callum Powell, nerd supreme of all things parkour. Callum just released his first book, “What is Parkour?” which covers parkour’s culture, history, and practice through hilarious anecdotes from his own training and adventures alongside STORROR. I had the privilege to proof-read quite a decent chunk of it over the past few months and I have to say…I didn’t think I’d ever laugh out loud at parkour non-fiction but here we are. In this episode, we cover the development of parkour - from the founding Yamakasi group to the modern day - in broad strokes, and try to leave references for an interested listener to dive deeper into anything we skip over. Hope you enjoy it and check out the links below for some of the key reference points we make throughout the episode! Callum Powell, “What is Parkour?”: https://www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk/products/what-is-parkour-the-sport-with-an-identity-crisis?_pos=1&_sid=5a6f0b197&_ss=r&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnREnSf2HlzEHcHlfxq1nOFWLVexrvtMHRTEPjU1OIAoPADks2yrDrn3CmODU_aem_94H_DUiBXAGopJKACLm51A Julie Angel’s “Breaking the Jump”: https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Jump-secret-Parkours-rebellion/dp/178131554X Jump Britain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TJurAP9l-Q&t=1234s Jason Paul’s Russian Parkour video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2flqoWkVM0&t=1294s Matthias Mayer’s Eastern Parkour video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSziShdcEmY&t=5286s New Year’s Eve Eve Jam Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpA61Cty6fI

In this episode, Marcio Filipe ( @hgmrtgiv ) walks us through both his terrifying bail in Portugal and how handling the recovery has helped him answer some of the toughest questions parkour athletes ask themselves during their training. It was amazing having Marcio on to share both his story and his absolute love of parkour. He's a true parkour nerd, and we dive into some of the content that helped him become the best precision parkour athlete our sport has seen so far. I hope you find this episode insightful. In some ways, it raised as many questions for me as it answered, but I think that is often the mark of a good conversation. Be sure to follow Marcio on both YouTube and his socials (@marcio.filipee) keep up with his training and recovery. Thank you as always for listening and I'll see you next week! - Max

Alec Blenis is one of the biggest voices in the hybrid training space right now. In addition to holding the record time for Murph and boasting a 2:40 marathon time alongside some really impressive strength numbers, Alec Blenis is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the current state of evidence-based training. It was a blast getting Alec on to chat about the fundamentals of running faster, training harder, and getting nutrition right when it comes to parkour - and how parkour athletes can get a ton out of an extra hour or two of strategic cardio work each week. If you aren't already, follow ‪@alecblenis‬ both here on YouTube and on the 'gram (his posts are equal parts hilarious and educational) and check out his programming via the links on his socials! Couldn't recommend it enough to anyone in the parkour space looking to build a better training engine without sacrificing power. As always, thanks for listening and I'll see you next week! Max

Giles Campbell Longley has been behind the scenes for many of parkour's most iconic moments - from capturing some of parkour's early days in the UK to filming Roof Culture Asia and starting The Motus Projects. These days, Giles is helping refine what has become parkour's biggest and most successful brand - Storror - from your experience buying merch to the emails you get over the holidays. We jump into some of the lessons he's learned from his biggest successes (and failures) over the past 20 years in the sport and where he sees parkour industry and culture going in the future...don't worry, it's surprisingly optimistic. If you'd like to see guests on future episodes of the podcast, drop them in the comments below and be sure to follow @thetakeoff.pod on IG for more shorts and BTS! Max

Welcome to 2026! After a short break for the holidays, we're back with episode 6 of The Takeoff...this time featuring Ruby Romero of The Movement Creative. I've known Ruby for a long time and seen how pivotal she has been in helping shape The Movement Creative as a community-first parkour organization. In this episode, we dig into that development and the lessons she's learned working with Brown Girls Climb. Thanks as always for tuning in and I'm looking forward to bringing you more weekly goodness for as long as I can this year! Max

Darryl Stingley (@iamwavezilla) is known for his impressive competitive parkour record, viral short form content, and insightful parkour films like Trials Morales. In this episode, we dig into how his history as a comic book nerd and childhood in the Bay Area helped shape not only his creative voice but his incredibly physical style of movement. We also get pretty deep into the technical weeds breaking down doubletaps (a new variation of tic tacs/180s that Darryl has been pioneering) for all the fellow parkour nerds out there trying to progress. Enjoy this one and we'll see you next week!

Wenxin Yang (‪@wenxinyangg‬ on YouTube and @wenxinyang on IG) is a parkour athlete and digital creative making some of the most interesting content in parkour. His media profile is a balance between short form content for some of the world's biggest brands and touching, grounded pieces about his journey in parkour. In this conversation, we dig into what he's learned about conveying ideas through video in his branded work and how he's started to translate that into his parkour content. We also touch on what it means for "everyone" to do parkour, how to find your most authentic self, and how to start creating art from that place - with plenty of nerdy parkour history moments along the way. I hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, don't forget to share it around and tag Wenxin when you do. His content is always a treat and deserves even more recognition inside the parkour community. Until next week!