What is Parkour?
(From Mark Toorock, American Parkour)
Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one’s path by adapting one’s movements to the environment.
• Parkour requires: consistent, disciplined training with an emphasis on functional strength, physical conditioning, balance, creativity, fluidity, control, precision, spatial awareness, and looking beyond the traditional use of objects.
• Parkour movements typically include: running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, balancing, and quadrupedal movement. Movements from other physical disciplines are often incorporated, but acrobatics or tricking alone do not constitute parkour.
• Parkour training focuses on: safety, longevity, personal responsibility, and self-improvement. It discourages reckless behavior, showing off, and dangerous stunts.
• Parkour practitioners value: community, humility, positive collaboration, sharing of knowledge, and the importance of play in human life, while demonstrating respect for all people, places, and spaces.
Parkour Safety
(American Parkour)
Staying safe in parkour is very different from other activities. There are clear threats and little to no safety equipment. The trick to training safely is maintaining control through awareness and good decision making. Know your environment. Know your abilities. Know when to say no.
• A proper warm-up and cool down is critical to sustainability. Neglecting these invites overuse injuries and sudden injuries alike. Start with the APK warm-up
• Check all surfaces and structures for reliability & hazards. Don’t let slippery, wobbly, crumbling structures or glass become an unpleasant surprise.
• Everybody progresses differently. Don’t think that you can or should do something just because someone else did it.
• Break any intimidating move into intermediate steps that you can perform comfortably to work toward that move.
• ALWAYS remember that YOU decide whether to try something. Others can give you encouragement, but the choice to move is yours.
Running…jumping…climbing…rolling – over, under and through.
It’s not a chase scene from an action-packed thriller, it’s parkour.
“Parkour is a training method, a way of training your body and mind using physical obstacles,” said Mark Toorock, founder of American Parkour. “By jumping, climbing and crawling, you not only become physically stronger but creatively stronger.
“One of the great benefits of parkour is that you will see how it creeps into your daily life when you no longer see obstacles as roadblocks because of your problem-solving ability.”
For those who practice parkour – sometimes referred to as free running – a park bench and a handrail are more than a place to sit or a safety device. They can be jumped over or balanced on. The same is true of fire hydrants, picnic tables and fences.
“So many people I talk to want to make it complicated but, essentially, every child does parkour until someone tells them ‘get down from there, you’ll get hurt,’” Toorock said. “The truth is, with the prevalence of childhood obesity, our kids are getting hurt because they don’t move around enough any more.”
Parkour Dayton
Aaron Vaughn was far from a sedentary child. The Centerville resident was involved in martial arts from the time he was 7.
He saw the “Jump London” documentary about parkour in 2003 and was hooked. He practiced parkour in his backyard until he met a friend with similar interests at Centerville High School. Now a student at Ohio State University, Vaughn, 19, is a founding member of Parkour Dayton, a group that practices free running in places like the University of Dayton campus, the Fraze Pavilion as well parks, playgrounds and urban landscapes from Dayton to Franklin.
“We get some comments and definitely get some strange looks,” Vaughn said.
But he and his fellow parkour enthusiasts remain focused on their workout.
“I like the challenge of overcoming obstacles,” he said. “I like to see what my body can handle and push the limits safely. It really expands your view of the whole world.”
Getting started
Dayton Parkour, which can best be found via Facebook, welcomes new members and has the following guidelines to ensure a fun and safe experience.
Wear sweatpants to protect your legs and wear shoes that you can run in that have good grip. Skate shoes and basketball shoes are not advisable.
Previously sedentary people might want to work up to parkour by jogging or enrolling in a fitness class for a period of time. But if you are in shape and looking for a new challenge, parkour might be for you.
Parkour Horizons, in Columbus, (http://parkourhorizons.org/) offers both indoor and outdoor classes four days a week. Cincinnati Movement (www.cincinnatiparkour.org/) has classes for those as young as 5 as well as adults and offers both outdoor training sessions as well as indoor open gym sessions.
American Parkour Academy has tutorials, exercises and articles available on their website (www.americanparkour.com/) and posts a workout of the day.
And while the sport was born in an urban outdoor environment, indoor parkour gyms are beginning to spring up across the country.
Fun fitness
While the largest percentage of parkour practitioners are in their late teens and 20s, Toorock recently was thrilled to train a 73-year-old grandmother and her 4-year-old granddaughter.
Now in his 40s Toorock advocates for all ages to give parkour a try.
“I’m three weeks away from 43 and yes, I am crazy,” he said with a smile. “Because sane means doing what everyone else wants you to do.”
And while they may leap over and onto objects, the parkour principles revolve around respect – respect for themselves, respect for others and for the environment.
“We have a leave-no-trace philosophy so we clean the parks and spaces we use,” Toorock said. “And we respect ourselves and each other as far as safety – we always start from the standpoint of safety.”
So, the next time your child is balancing on top of a retaining wall, hanging from a tree branch or climbing under the table, remember — they might just have a future in parkour.
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