Fledging Ninja Training: Episode One

A friend and classmate of mine is a huge 'parkour' fan, and he has been trying to get a bunch of us to join him. On our first day of class the main professor for our program asked for an interesting fact from each student, and this friend said that he did parkour. The professor had no idea what he was talking about. My friend explained that parkour is a sport where someone gets from one point to another in the most efficient manner possible. If there is a wall in the way, the parkour athlete would know how to jump/climb over it and leap from ledge to ledge. If there is a stairway, then the parkour athlete would be able to jump from the top floor and grab ahold of the bars on the way down in order to land quickly and softly on the bottom floor. Our professor asked, "Wouldn't it be easier to take the elevator?"

For those of you who do not understand what parkour is, click here for a prime example from the James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

From what I've learned about parkour, these athletes have learned new moves that different militaries are now teaching soldiers. For instance, paratroopers used to land with both feet on the ground in order to limit the impact on the knees. Parkour taught these soldiers that landing on one foot and beginning to run with the other foot would better limit the impact since the running motion transfers the motion. The London police can take parkour classes to know how to catch fleeing criminals more effectively (I believe I got these factoids right).

There are a lot of videos on the internet from people who are really good at parkour. They make it look easy when we all know it isn't. Of course, no one starts off as being great at parkour. It takes practice. I finally made it to a few parkour sessions with my friend, and I took a video camera with me to show us practicing. This video shows a bunch of my friends learning the beginning steps of parkour, which isn't as cool-looking as the Casino Royale clip. However, we did feel like fledging ninjas. It is a bit of a workout even though it might look easy. We have to leap from one place to another, which can wear out the legs if done over and over again. It is a full workout that uses different muscle groups, especially since some moves require upper body strength. It does feel kinda cool when I can jump/pull myself over a huge wall.

Though this video may not be as exciting as a professional parkour athletes showing off their stuff, here is a video of beginners learning the basics:

As you might notice from the title of this blog post, I have another parkour video to post at a later date once it is ready. I also have another version of this video in which a Scottish friend of mine talks poorly about people who do parkour. I personally think this version is much more entertaining than the video I have posted, but for his sake I have not posted it on the blog because it could be a wee bit embarrassing to post it on the internet where everyone could see. However, I might be willing to send the video to select friends if they ask kindly. ;-)