The art of Parkour: a sport for the city
Multimedia story by Ivana Cheong. Click here to view.
Text by Sam Han
The American Parkour Forums has over 68,000 registered users in their online community.- www.americanparkour.org
“How do you improve? There’s no secret there, you keep practicing. You just keep doing it.”
The essence of Parkour is to move from one point to another and to overcome obstacles in the fastest and most efficient manner possible. This may involve surmounting structures such as buildings, walls, stairs. Parkour, which translates in French to “the art of movement” not only requires physical endurance, but mental alertness as well. These are the aspects that Parkour enthusiasts (known as traceurs) like Orin Langley focuses on when solidifying their skills. Langley, an eighteen-year-old who has been practicing the sport for about five months says that the only way to improve in this sport is through dedication and practice. Traceurs have many skills and techniques to concentrate on from basic jumps to more advance techniques such as cat balancing that involves moving on all fours, maintaining balance along a rail or the edge of an obstacle. Potentially, traceurs are surrounded with many dangerous situations. Jumping across buildings or a simple leap over a bench can create an array of ways to hurt one’s self. That is why it is absolutely essential to practice the proper precautions and to stay safe because as Langley states, “Safety is key.”
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