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Your Town, Your Playground A new trend is getting people moving by utilizing public spaces 
If you've ever paused a moment to reminisce at the playground in the park, there's hope for the child inside you. From Berkeley to New York, practicioners of Parkour turn the city into their playground - climbing, crawling and leaping over obstacles on campuses, parks and buildings. It's not tricks or recklessness. It's the art of movement. And it's a movement that is growing. "Parkour is a training method to develop your body and mind using obstacle coursing as the medium," says Mark Toorock, who runs the Web site, www.AmericanParkour.com. "The obstacle course is the world. It could be a wall, it could be a railing, it could be a box. It's how you approach it that's the important part." Known as traceurs, people who practice Parkour come in all ages, sizes and skill sets. Parkour clubs nationwide boast thousands of members from Los Angeles to Miami. Toorock's Web site features some of the best videos of traceurs at all skill levels on college campuses, parks and buildings - climbing and jumping over stairways, ramps, cars and small, not tall, buildings. Such feats take intense practice, Toorock says. And safety comes first. "People should work at their own level," Toorock says. "If you're only training for a day, you should be jumping off a curb. If you've been doing it for a couple years, you could be jumping off a three or four foot wall. The more training, the more options you get for going over obstacles." Of course, no sport is completely safe. "Cuts and bruises are common, but we have a pretty good track record as far as injuries go," says Albert Kong, a spokesperson for SFParkour, a club in the San Francisco Bay area. "I think traceurs don't get hurt too much in general because they recognize that there's risk involved, and there's no safety equipment, so we train to our abilities and don't push it too far. We advocate progression toward training goals rather than shutting our eyes and hoping for the best." As for fitness, Parkour increases agility, coordination and stamina even as it strengthens muscle groups. Jumping can strengthen your glutes, calves and abs. Even crawling strengthens the back and shoulders. Parkour is not done for trophies, traceurs say. There is no competition. It's all about fun. "Back when I started doing Parkour I hadn't yet given up on the childish dreams of being a stealthy ninja or something like that," says Kong, who first discovered the sport in San Diego. "I didn't have any background in other sports like gymnastics or martial arts, though; all I knew was the freedom of climbing all over the playgrounds. I think a lot of traceurs are similar in that regard, that although we saw some allure in certain activities, we found our passion in Parkour." Unlike some sports that are known for defacing the environment or public property, traceurs follow a "leave no trace" philosophy. While they may run up and down handicapped ramps, stairs and walls, they leave them as they find them. Sometimes they even spot a loose stairway railing and report it before someone is hurt. "We often go out with a trash bag and pick up after other people," Toorock says. "We're very much in touch with our surroundings. It's a very community kind of effort." And it's a community that will continue to grow. Toorock has opened two gyms, in Miami and Washington, D.C., that feature Parkour workouts and is on the verge of opening a third in Denver, all called Primal Fitness. Local Parkour clubs can be found at www.parkournorthamerica.com. And no matter your age or fitness level, you are welcome to join. But perhaps the most inviting elements of Parkour is how it invites new ways to look at the obstacles you face in life, not just on the playground. "We don't just try to strengthen our confidence to push our boundaries and try new techniques in parkour, but also in school, in jobs, in our relationships with other people," Kong says. "Part if it lies in the idea that the obstacles we encounter while we're training parkour - the rails, the walls - are metaphors for the obstacles we'll encounter in daily life." |
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