About
Sessions North.

I was four years old when my dad and I watched a documentary about parkour. Afterward, I told him, “That's what I want to do. I want to become the best.”

My name is Ryan Abiang. When I think about how I ended up here, bringing Sessions to Folsom, I come back to that moment with my dad. Before any of this had a name or a place, there was a kid who had seen something he wanted to be part of.

At four, the dream was simple. I wanted to do parkour, and I wanted to be the best. There was so much inside that sentence that I couldn't have put into words yet. The excitement of finding something that mattered to me. The possibility of becoming someone I could only imagine.

Parkour became part of my life, and along the way, it changed my life.

I say that because the experience reached so much further than being an athlete. The movement was what drew me in. What I took from it went with me into the rest of my life. That's the part I want people to understand when they ask why I care so much about bringing it here.

When you watch parkour, you can see the jump. You can see someone climb, balance, or find a way through an obstacle. The part that's harder to see is what that experience can mean to the person doing it. What it can feel like to face something unfamiliar, spend time learning it, and begin to trust yourself a little more.

Those are the possibilities I care about as a coach. A child might come to class because jumping and climbing look fun. That's a good place to start. They don't need to have a big dream or know what they want to become. They can arrive curious, excited, unsure, or a little of everything.

I want to give them room to begin.

Room to learn something without needing to be good at it already. Time to ask questions, work through a movement, and try again. Someone beside them who takes their effort seriously. My hope is that, little by little, what they learn about movement becomes part of what they believe they can do.

That's why I wanted to bring Sessions to Folsom. Parkour gave me an experience that shaped my life, and I wanted to share it with families here. I wanted to take something that had meant so much to me and give other people a place to discover what it could mean to them.

When I think about the future of Sessions North, I think about those families. I hope a child carries a little more confidence home. I hope a parent gets to see their child discover an ability they hadn't seen in themselves before. I hope the time they spend with us becomes something they remember because of how it made them feel about themselves.

That's the change I want to be part of. It's personal to me because I know what it is to have your life changed by this sport.

My story started with my dad and a documentary when I was four. I wanted to become the best. Today, that ambition has grown to include something else: sharing what parkour gave me, and helping it make a difference in the lives of other families.

That's why I'm here. That's why Sessions North matters to me.

Ryan Abiang