Pat’s Point of View

I was watching a documentary on SBS the other night (no, not one of those ones) about “Yamaksai”, the group of French guys who brought Parkour to the world’s attention.

Parkour (aka “free running” in the UK and US) is the nouveau sport where you basically run around, jumping on, over, through and across stuff. This description doesn’t adequately convey the elegance and athleticism of the manouveures, you have to see it to get the gist. I think it’s pretty cool, like a combination between martial arts and gymnastics. The best thing is that it was essentially born out of ghetto kids with bugger all else to do (or aspire to) who put their minds and bodies to creating something positive and enriching, rather than letting their circumstances get them down.

It’s now taken off around the world, striking an accord with youths in similar (and probably an increasing amount from disimilar) backgrounds. It also helps when major film makers and sporting goods brands jump on the band wagon and feature Parkour in movies and ads in and effort to look cool. Despite this commercialisation I think it’s kept quite grounded because of the heavy emphasis on the discipline and mental, almost spiritual, focus the founders placed on their sport. How French!

I think this will become even more popular, it fits in really well with the extreme-sport/skater sub-cultures. It’s also pretty cheap as there’s no special equipment, although I reckon you’d go through trainers like they grow on trees. And band-aids. Oh and probably a good idea to have private medical insurance. I’d take it up myself, it’d be brilliant for fitness and agility, but I’d be falling all over the place…not a pretty sight. Not to mention the heights, couldn’t do the whole high up thing.

Check out this video for a taste of Parkour, or see Urban Freeflow for some information on one of the biggest Parkour movements, based in the UK.

P

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