Is Parkour as crazy as it looks?

"Is that the crazy thing when people jump from buildings?" is the usual response I get from people when I tell them I do parkour! It's no surprise as the extreme end of the sport really pushes the boundaries of what human beings can do, and many of the feats that some parkour athletes are able to achieve are amazing to see, and usually make for viral social media posts. This unfortunately prevents many people from trying because they think - "How on earth am I supposed to start that?" or "That looks far too dangerous and stressful for me"

This unfortunately masks what is ultimately a very rich movement practice that is available to anyone of any age, body shape or ability. Everyone starts somewhere and there are endless challenges that are accessible to everyone that can be progressed from the very simplest of moves.

What is Parkour? It's always evolving since David Belle founded and popularised it in the 1990s but its basically a form of obstacle course training where the goal is to get from one point to another in an increasingly fast, fluid and efficient way. This can also be done with acrobatics in more advanced levels to give some flare to the movement, but it doesn't have to involve rooftops! It can be any obstacle in any environment from a bench, fence, walls, railings, stairs or anything that comes under the definition of an obstacle! There is also no single way of achieving this. In fact there are hundreds and even thousands of possible moves that could be made. This means that it never gets boring. There is always something new to learn at any level and each little breakthrough always brings a very fulfilling sense of achievement.

So, how does one start? There are many tuition videos on YouTube, but if you've never done any movement practice at all, even those might seem a little intimidating. There are many very accessible ways to start, but if you have low wall somewhere, maybe a metre high, you can start thinking of different ways you can get on and then over the wall. In Parkour, we often start with learning how to do a step vault which involves putting one leg and the opposite hand on the wall, and then threading the other leg through the middle to get over to the other side, but if that's too difficult, no problem! Use both hands and just see if you get get one leg up onto the wall and come back down on the same side. Doing this, you've already started doing parkour without a single rooftop in sight!