Criticism
Despite having over a million registered users on its website, Urban Freeflow has polarised opinion within the parkour and free-running communities for its self-appointed leadership of the movement and its commercialisation of what many consider to be a grass-roots movement. Due to its position as the largest UK based group, it is the popular choice for new traceurs, thus guaranteeing it a constant stream of new customers. However, many become disillusioned over time, and migrate towards other groups which better represent their ideals. It has been criticized over the years more than any other free running or parkour group. It stems from the fact that they claim to be the "Official Worldwide Freerun/Parkour Network", while the website is neither multilingual nor affiliated with David Belle, the founder of parkour. UF does however have some affiliation with Sébastien Foucan, the founder and lead ambassador of freerunning. Worldwide Jam may have also contributed to some of the criticism of Urban Freeflow because of an ongoing feud between UF and Worldwide Jam.
Many people in the worldwide parkour community also accused UF of distorting the image of parkour, associating it with the flips and artistic movements of freerunning and tricking. Because of this, in 2006 many UF team members walked out. Some critics have even gone as far as making public demonstrations against Urban Freeflow, such as burning UF memorabilia. Furthermore, Urban Freeflow was criticized for organizing freerunning competitions sponsored by Barclaycard. The critics believed that freerunning, like parkour, should be a non-competitive activity. There are also complaints of the corporate nature of the event, many freerunning sites saying that the introduction of merchandising and sponsorships would compromise the true nature of the sport. To this one of the founders of Urban Freeflow, Ez has replied "The people who are saying this are the ones who don't have any sponsorship,". However many people practicing parkour and freerunning believe that they are "free" disciplines and they don't belong to corporations, sponsors and medias. Sébastien Foucan has since commented on the matter, that free running is about following your 'own way,' and though he himself does not personally believe in competition, others might believe that to be their 'way.'
Read more about this topic: Urban Freeflow
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