The Media And You - PART 1 by John "Kerbie" Kerr COMING SOON: 1. The Media and You - PART 2 2. How to create a killer sponsorhip proposal

I often receive emails by budding parkour enthusiasts asking me how to get recognised, sponsored and representation by the media.

With this becoming a bit of a recurring question I have decided to write a guide in how to get recognition by the media. I have basically broken down my process, into the media world, into a step by step guide.

Here it goes:

Stage one - Get good
I'm not sure how many free runners will skip past this section. But if you are wise you wont. Whilst this is the most obvious pointer, many people who have contacted me have forgotten all about this one. I receive countless emails saying: 'Hey I've been doing parkour for a month now, I can back flip, how do I get sponsored? lol.

Well there are a few pointers I would give to a person that sends me this sort of email:

Train for 6 months and look back at how bad you were five months ago. In six months time, you will feel exactly the same. I would say that you should train for at least a year before you are fit to represent in the media.

You need to understand your body, what parkour means to you, and have a decent arsenal of movements at your disposal.

Forget the whole flips aren't parkour debate. It does not matter whether you can back flip, wall flip, gainer, if you cannot talk to reporter sensibly or only have 5 minutes of stamina, you wont get very far (no pun intended).

Pick up on your email writing skills. If I was an agent and someone typed 'lol' in an email to me I would question the maturity of the person writing to me.

Try to train as regularly as possible, the more you train, the better you get. The better you get, the more likely you are to pick up a sponsor. Commit yourself to parkour. Its no use just sitting around and waiting to get good, really go for it. Seek a dietician for advice on a healthy diet for you, take gymnastic lessons, exercise regularly and try to stay away from drugs and alcohol.



Stage Two- Be original
You are less likely to get sponsored if your show reel looks similar to the show reel of the person they watched before you. Before you film, seek out locations and take notes, train there for a few days before you film there.

When inspired you may think of some real diamonds. For instance, the wall flip over a wall flip on www.3run.co.uk has shocked and amazed many people.

The reason that David Belle and co are so popular is because when they started, it was original. New people coming into the sport already have to face the facts that the media has been heavily exposed to free running and are not looking to show the same old thing. Always ask yourself how you could improve your techniques to make them look polished and how to make movements aesthetically pleasing.

It is important to the media that what you do looks clean and crisp.

Stage Three - Exploit the net
The internet is the most powerful and influential tool to all free runners.

The parkour scene is a living breathing organism that habitats in cyberspace. With a huge amount of interest related sites, as well as free running ones your second step is very easy:

Try to get hold of a digital camera and a video camera. You need to be able to show companies from all around the world that you are the pick for them. Your show reels will be the deciding factor as to whether you get a job or not.

Make a website about yourself. Not a freewebs or geocities one, but one that offers a domain name, hosting space and reasonable bandwidth.

You'll need those to share your pictures and videos. The website will be your online portfolio. Whack pictures and videos up there. Let people know when you have events coming up and when you get a sponsor, set aside a space to advertise your sponsor.

Promote your website but do not spam it. Send your friends the link, find forums dedicated to similar interests or even arrange affiliations of your site with other related sites. This will help build a reputation.

In order the make sure that these steps are not cheated and read past, I'll be putting the next stages in a separate issue. It is imperative that these first three steps are taken seriously, these need to be your foundations. And if your foundations aren't strong, your career will fall.