My name is Ilaria Luisi, I am a 26 years old a gymnastics coach from Rome, Italy.

I am a former gymnast. At age 10 I was selected in the technical centre of the Olympic preparation where I met great coaches, Mikhail and Natalia Klimenko. This beautiful experience lasted three years it gave me great satisfaction and introduced me to the world of gymnastics.

At age 15 I left the gym and I practiced other sports , hip hop and karate , but it is only recently at the age of 24 years I’ve discovered a new passion, parkour! I was immediately struck by the overall philosophy of parkour, which develops a strong spirit and inner strength through movement.

In gymnastics there are competitions and judges, and so there is a lot of competitiveness, anxiety and psychological stress. While in parkour all this does not exist because there is no score to beat and no one to compete against but yourself. For me, this method is very interesting because we are the coaches ourselves, we decide what to do and we are not judged by anyone. What I like is that it is more than a discipline is the freedom of movement and creativity. This is the reason I fell in love with parkour.

I have been a tracuese now for four years and every day I learn something new. Both from myself and from the help of others. Because your training is a school of life. By training you learn altruism and useful force, humility, longevity, self-improvement and self-understanding.

Overcoming obstacles in parkour can also to overcome obstacles in life.
So, this has helped me to open up my mind, to learn more about myself and to know my flaws and my strengths.

I understand that I must work to perseverance and courage. I understand that I must insist to achieve my goals.  The fear of making mistakes is the mental block and way of the weak. Only thanks to the strength of will and determination anything is possible, because the limits exist only in our minds.