Today’s kids are literally flipping out.

Parkour is a sport started by David Belle and his brother, who hail from France.  The concept is based off of  military obstacle courses and is defined as a method of getting from point A to point B by using your body to overcome physical obstacles in your path in a fast motion.   This French invasion officially hit its peak popularity in 2005.

A sect of parkour, called free-running, includes the basic essentials of parkour but with additional tricks and unique movements and is the most commonly performed.  Parkour has taken to the web as well as the streets, with videos of up and coming stars filling YouTube. In fact, it gains most of its growing popularity from the popular video sharing website.  Watching these videos then encourages others to go out and give it a try.

The official term for those who involve themselves in parkour is “Traceur”, derived from the French language.

Cade Hansen, Cotter sophomore and a frequent practitioner of the sport, first discovered his interest watching the popular TV show American Ninja Warrior, and has been doing parkour for three years now. Cade practices mainly free-running and really enjoys trying out new and different ways to jump, run, glide, etc. over and around things. He continues to make new discoveries within it as he uses the city of Winona as his “playground” so to speak.

Another Cotter student, 7th grader Joseph Costello, has also discovered a love for parkour. He found out about it from some kids that lived near him. He was intrigued, and ended up really enjoying it. While learning, he took lessons at Fight or Flight academy in Edina, Minnesota.

Five years later he continues to try creative new things. Joseph likes to practice at the school across the street from his house and loves the fact that you can do parkour “pretty much anywhere”. One inspiring person for him is Ronnie Street Stunts, whose youtube channel houses tutorials for various parkour-esque things.  This is a hobby that Joseph hopes to continue throughout his life.

There have been many individuals to come out into the light of fame through parkour, whether it is from the internet or from other popular media sources such as American Ninja Warrior. This video presence has increased the activities popularity.

According to professional Jason Paul, the best part about free-running for him is all of the new friends he has made through participating in this activity. He crashes at people’s houses for awhile and they show him their city. He and his friends like seeing cities from the tops of buildings because it is so much neater.

Jason says the most important skill he has learned from free-running is how to overcome his fear.

“The strategies I found for myself when doing a scary jump work one to one in everyday situations. Whether it’s overcoming fear of speaking in public, a scary career decision or simply talking to the cute girl on the bus. I feel like most people are caged by their fears and if they’d learn this one skill, conquering and breaking down fears, they could become who they want to be,or at least give it their best shot!”

He is part of a group called Team Farang.  He met a fellow enthusiast who invited him to Thailand where they met and assembled the rest of the team and since then it has become a regular group. He states that parkour is like a community of individuals, spread out all across the world. Jason says that he tried all kinds of sports in his teens, however, none of them stuck, so he spent most of his time playing the Prince of Persia video game.  He was not athletic at all, and then he came across free-running.

The advice he would give to kids wanting to start this: “Free-running is not about being reckless and you can get injured easily if you approach it carelessly. I suggest starting slow and progressing step by step. And most important: Have fun!”

Learn to Play Again –