Free running, or parkour, is the practice of jumping obstacles in the surrounding environment, such as walls, buildings and rocks.
The activity is growing in popularity but is not officially recognised by Sport England and currently has no national governing body, which means youth groups setting up parkour projects are struggling to get help or guidance.
Neil Ramshaw, sports development officer at Newcastle City Council, said he wanted to set up a parkour club because of its growing popularity but a lack of guidelines was getting in the way.
"The problem is that there's no national governing body for parkour," he said. "We have bodies for football and rugby and there are networks for qualifications that you can go through in order to be able to lead an activity. But there isn't one for parkour because it's such a new concept."
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