Jordan Lejuwaan • • 2 min read
Parkour: The Art of Movement
Parkour is by far one of the most amazing sports and/or art forms out there. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s probably because it originated in Europe and hasn’t gotten that big in the US quite yet. Essentially, parkour is the moving from one point to another in the quickest, smoothest and most efficient way possible. Wall in the way? Jump over it. On the second story of a building? Back-flip off, roll, and keep moving. Parkour runners, or traceurs often utilize highly gymnastic maneuvers to get around obstacles, many of which look impossible to the common onlooker. Another aspect is that parkour can be done literally anywhere from urban to uber-rural environments. Check out this video (press the HQ button for high quality) first to get a feel before delving into the specificsAwesome, right? Yes, a lot of these guys have a history with gymnastics obviously, but there are also a lot of moves that you don’t need flipping experience to do. Here are a couple of tutorials on the basic moves of parkour that still look really cool and can allow you to move closer to doing more intricate maneuvers: 1. The Roll – great breaking your legs and/or back when you land from a high jump, the roll is an essential part to parkour and to safety. This tutorial video was made by what look like to be 12-year old kids but they know their stuff. Check it out2. The Kong Vault – A really difficult looking move that is used to clear large objects like walls and tables. The guy in the video walks you threw it step by step and makes it look really easy. It’s definitely something you could learn in one day3. The Backflip – pretty much the coolest thing you can just bust out anywhere, the backflip is also a really big part of flip tricks in parkour. This tutorial is long, pretty entertaining, and extremely thorough so again, you can learn this in a day. No joke.If you are interested in learn other type of gymnastic and parkour moves, the TheBackYardNinjas channel on youtube has some very good videos as long as you don’t get annoyed with the blonde kid. Good luck and don’t break you neck.
