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Fear, to me, means absolutely nothing anymore.
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Fear played such a big piece of my life, and it controlled me to not do what was best for me.
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So, fear to me now is nothing but an imagination.
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My name is Flip Rodriguez.
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I'm a Hollywood stuntman, and on "American Ninja Warrior."
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In the ages of 9 to 15, I was sexually abused by my father.
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Like, how do I live my life after that?
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Like, I can't trust anybody.
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I got into parkour and freerunning when I was at the age of 19.
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Parkour and freerunning are two different definitions that are very similar.
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Parkour is just straightforward: vaulting, jumping over walls, over any obstacle in your way.
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Freerunning is your own style, your own flipping, flow of it;
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make it nice and pretty as possible, and you take your time.
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When I first got started, I had never been upside down.
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So my body's like, wait, whoa, we don't do that.
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And then the fear aspect kicks in.
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So, it's like, let's stop and think about this.
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Is this really worth getting hurt?
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Fear is what stopped me from trying to stop my sexual abuse.
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Parkour and freerunning has been a stepping stone for me to heal and be okay with my sexual abuse.
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Because fear is a big part of parkour and freerunning.
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So, every day I trained, I was always encountering a new fear.
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I started in "American Ninja Warrior" Season 3.
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[Announcer] And look at him go!
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Using momentum from each jump to get to the next one!
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And then on Season 7, I actually explained my story.
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I was sexually abused.
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After my interview came out, I've had kids write to me.
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One of the parents reached out to me.
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Turns out that the daughter and the son were being sexually abused by a family friend.
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The child just started breaking down crying.
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She was like, " What Flip is talking about is also happening to me. "
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And they brought up charges.
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The gentleman got convicted of that, and that right there blew my mind away.
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Because not only did I heal myself, but I also saved somebody from further abuse.
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And that was incredible.
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I like to give back to the community with using my story.
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I coach parkour and freerunning.
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I'm not teaching them just about parkour and freerunning.
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I try to teach them tools of life.
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You guys just saw, he kind of fell a little bit.
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What do you got to say?
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OK, I don't give up, and I'm gonna try this right now again because Flippy taught us to never give up.
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Every single person can relate to fear.
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Yeah!
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So if I can teach these kids, from a young age, to separate fear from danger, that is a life tool.
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Yeah, Sasha, nice!
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My negative piece of my life. I can now turn it around and put a spotlight on it in the sense of this is who I am.
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This is what happened to me, and look at me, I'm still shining.